uSmart:ZERO

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ISCF
ISCF
ISCF
ISCF
ISCF

£2,249,855

Aug. 31, 2021

Aug. 31, 2022

Our homes account for nearly 20% of CO2 emissions and must decarbonise to meet UK Net Zero Targets. Retrofitting the UK's 29 million housing stock is critical and will help to reduce fuel poverty for 2.4m households. The Green Homes Grant announced in the Chancellor's 2020 Summer Economic Update is a £2bn programme and a key component in the Government's strategy to support Net Zero delivery and reduce fuel poverty.

We have assembled a unique multidisciplinary team of energy and data experts with world leading capability and a remit to deliver. This includes Data Communications Company (DCC) and Connected Place Catapult (CPC) and their extensive research on using smart meter system data to support Net Zero targets and tackle fuel poverty. University College London (UCL) Smart Energy Research Lab (SERL) combines smart meter data and household data for research and innovation. The Greater South East Energy Hub (GSEEH) provides services to deliver Green Homes Grants and energy efficiency programmes with Local Authorities. UrbanTide's provide state-of-the-art AI solutions built for complex data challenges. Leveraging experience gained in providing their data innovation platform (uSmart) to the Energy Systems Catapult for the £14.6m (BEIS) Electrification of Heat Demonstration Project.

This Phase 2 MEDApps Project builds on our significant success in Phase 1 and for the very first time will combine UK-wide smart meter system metadata with multiple cross-sector data sources to:

* identify households which would benefit from Energy Efficiency Programmes
* identify households in fuel poverty in a completely novel way and
* propose an intervention approach which can maximise energy reduction toward Net Zero whilst reducing fuel poverty.
* support BEIS recent report - _Better use of data and advanced statistics / machine learning in delivering benefits to the fuel poor_

Within Phase 1 we delivered outstanding results which include but are not limited to:

* The first-ever sharing of 18 months of synthetic/ anonymised DCC smart meter metadata from 11 million meters.
* Approval from Ofgem and DCC for this external use case
* Extensive analysis uncovered patterns of behaviour that reveal novel insight on fuel poverty. This proved feasibility and theoretically illustrated better outputs than the status quo approaches for fuel poverty identification
* The confirmation of demand for the uSmart:ZERO service through engagement with key stakeholders and prospective customers
* New ethics and Data Governance approvals obtained for SERL data to be accessed by Accredited Researchers (UCL) for fuel poverty research.