As GB warms due to climate change, uptake of Space Cooling (SC) is expected to increase significantly, leading to increased summer peak demands and greater network load for building comfort alongside the electrification of heat. However, SC demand is currently poorly accounted for in distribution network planning using limited modelling. Additionally, SC's potential to provide flexibility has not been considered. CoolDown will produce tools to enable network operators to understand the impact of SC at a local level. Trials of SC-tailored flexibility products will enable networks to mitigate adverse impacts, reduce network reinforcement requirements and optimise value for customers.

As Britain warms due to climate change, electrification of heat will mean increasing customer access to Space Cooling (SC) leading to increased summer peak demands. In current distribution network planning cooling demand is currently poorly accounted for and based on limited, high-level modelling. Additionally, cooling's potential to provide flexibility during periods of network stress has not been considered. CoolDown will explore the impact of cooling on network capacity by producing improved uptake and demand projections as well as developing novel commercial arrangements to incentivise and unlock SC flexibility, reducing network reinforcement requirements and optimising value for customers.

The LENDERS is led by Nationwide Building Society, administered by BRE, and with partners Principality Building Society, UK Green Building Council, Energy Saving Trust, Zero Carbon Hub, Constructing Excellence Wales, University College London Energy Institute and Arup, and is supported by Innovate UK. The project will evidence the capacity to use a residential property's Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) and other factors to predict to a reasonable degree of accuracy the homeowners' actual fuel bill. The project will go on to develop from this new methodology for estimating homeowners' fuel costs using only inputs normally available at the point of agreeing a mortgage. This methodology is intended to be suitably robust to enable it to replace the existing allowances typically used in mortgage institutions' own mortgage "Affordability Calculations", and the project will make the method freely available to mortgage institutions. The project will therefore enable mortgage providers to better take into account the energy performance, and hopes to encourage borrowers to place more value on energy efficiency as a result of this.