"The UK government wants to encourage local energy projects, recognising the benefits of wider community engagement. Many UK energy users, including the collaborators in this project, want better access to the energy market. These include organisations such as community energy groups, industrial and commercial energy consumers, distributed generators, local investors in energy assets and prosumer households. The current centralised UK energy system and the single energy supplier model is not providing the engagement opportunities that many of these organisations and individuals desire.

We propose that a Local Energy Market (LEM) approach based on peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading would provide greater opportunities for local engagement and better use of local energy assets. This approach also has potential to deliver a fairer and more scalable approach for network and system management. Swanbarton has already developed a technology platform for this purpose and run some encouraging technology trials.

Better management of distributed energy assets, using a LEM approach, will help to reduce greenhouse gases below the 5th carbon budget.

The LEMDEx project will study the commercial requirements for deploying a Local Energy Market, including any dependencies on regulatory change, and design a solution. The project will also design appropriate supporting systems, such as billing integration, and the overall business model.

Swanbarton Limited will lead the LEMDEx project and work in collaboration with Devon County Council, Exeter City Council, the University of Exeter and Exeter Community Energy.

The objective of the LEMDEx project is to design a system that would allow Local Energy Markets to be piloted in Exeter and Devon in 2020\."