Public Funding for Power My Hub Limited

SMEs often lack the time, skills and knowledge to achieve their climate ambitions. For SMEs struggling with rising costs today, moving towards net zero looks capital intensive and risky. There are a variety of carbon accounting tools that help smaller businesses avoid suppliers with higher carbon emissions in their supply chains. A business that can act to reduce their own emissions can expect to improve their value proposition and would be more likely to win business as supply chains change. Yet there are currently very few options for smaller businesses looking to understand and reduce the carbon emissions from their own vehicles, operations and buildings. The Go for Zero tool is an online dashboard with automated but individual recommendations on everything from EV fleets and charging to installing solar, all at the click of a button. It uses mobility and energy data to provide SMEs with tailored payback calculations on these capital intensive technologies. According to behaviour change experts, organisations can reduce their energy use by around 25% through technical fixes and new technologies, but the actions of people can double this impact. The project will, in particular, look at how energy data can be harnessed to empower SME leaders, engage employees and communicate progress on Net Zero goals. Project Dashboard for Net-Zero Action (DNA) will seek to improve the way data and recommendations are communicated to users, using behavioural insights and by adding granular open energy data that can put the right information in an SME's hands so that they can take action and demonstrate progress. The aim is to design a data-rich but human-centred tool that helps find the best combination of net zero technologies for a business and engages a whole organisation in the roadmap to Net Zero. Project DNA's findings on SME behaviour, attitudes to flexibility, cleantech choices and optimised financial return could assist wider understandings of how SMEs will interact best with Net Zero. The improved Go for Zero tool has the potential to help not only SMEs, but also to reduce barriers for utilities, banks and other bodies looking to accelerate their customers towards net zero. These organisations have a key role in delivering Net Zero for businesses and the Go for Zero dashboard can help with data and analysis to accelerate the financing of net zero action.

This project will deliver the first free, finance-ready, EV/energy investment assessment tool for small businesses empowering businesses to explore the total life cost benefit of EVs and renewable energy. Many larger UK businesses have already committed to switching their vehicles to fully electric. It's not just that their customers want them to switch, but dedicated fleet managers are aware of the cost savings of electric fleets, particularly when they can be charged with off-peak energy or rooftop solar. Smaller businesses and sole traders can also benefit from a switch to an electric vehicle, but they often lack the expertise and time to check what a leap to electric mobility would entail. What range would work? How much 'stoppage' time would they need for charging using the public network? How much charging could be done in 'downtime' on-site and off-peak? This project aims to cut through the complexity for SME owners who want to explore going electric. The project will deliver a free-to-use digital service that provides SMEs with answers based on their own journey patterns. The service consists of an app to track journey patterns, which will provide data that will aid business owners to better understand the cost benefits, as well as highlighting the practicalities around charging for their everyday journeys. By offering a free-to-use service, we reduce the risk of businesses making the wrong decision. The cost per mile of a petrol or diesel depends largely on the price at the pump. In contrast, the cost per mile of an EV depends on when and where it is charged. Rapid public charging is the most expensive charging option, but off-peak charging or charging with rooftop solar makes every mile driven significantly cheaper and lower carbon. This is why our illustrations of a switch to electric need to examine the charging patterns and also the energy profiles of the businesses themselves and the potential for clean energy generation and use.

Our relationship with energy is about to change. We are moving from being simply users of energy to becoming a nation of generators, avoiders and storers of power. Electricity on its own won't be sold on a simple flat 'price per kWh' basis but based on 'time of use', to encourage us to avoid peaks in demand. This is good news for the consumer, who will be able to reduce their costs and in doing so lower the carbon-intensity of their power. As Electric Vehicles (EVs) become more common, and the majority are charged at home, the rewards for flexible energy use amongst consumers will grow fastest amongst EV households. These greater rewards are what makes switching to an EV such a key positive moment to engage with consumers to increase understanding of the energy transition. The electric car has a central role to play in the formation of net-zero local energy systems. Energy and mobility will increasingly be bundled together. We are already seeing that utilities are starting to offer home charge points with tariffs and car manufacturers like Tesla producing home energy solutions. With a proliferation of deals on the market and the bundling of products and services, consumers may need help to compare a large number of offers quickly and easily. The increased complexity increases the need for high-quality communication and engagement to ensure that flexible energy benefits all. Our free to use consumer comparison tool already sets out to highlight to the consumer the benefit of thinking about mobility and home energy together and begins to demonstrate the practicality of both an EV and home generation. The solution is tailored to the individual and is based upon factors like car requirements, expected journey types, home energy profiles and how suitable the individual and home are for solar generation and storage. To simplify and improve our assessment of 'going electric' for the consumer, Power My EV will integrate more diverse sets of data (energy, mobility, GIS) which will simplify and shorten the comparison process for a user. We will be able to show how easily an individual can shift their use and become a flexible energy household. Our improved tool will allow this new energy landscape to be explored accurately by the user in a simple and intuitive way, allowing the savings from going electric to be discovered in full.