"One of a number of strategic investment projects within the £875 million City Leap Programme, the BESST (Bristol Energy Smart System Transformation) project will design a customer focused way to deploy smart energy (heat and power) and digital technology at scale, to reduce energy system costs and deliver a radically new customer experience for local energy consumers and businesses.

Building on the Bristol's track record as green energy pioneer as well as the UK's most creative city, the BESST project aims to create a cluster of smart homes and businesses across four wards in west Bristol including the Avonmouth and Severnside Enterprise area.

Putting the consumer at the heart of the project, the BESST project will adopt Bristol's unique approach to engage with local residents, businesses and communities, to develop new customer/community solutions to deliver energy saving and reduced requirements on the network.

Digitally integrated within developing flexibility and Smart City Platforms, these energy consumers will then be empowered to take advantage of a number of new and innovative energy service propositions including, for example, new smart and local generation tariffs, ""Energy as a Service"" models, energy management and optimisation, sustainable community transport and, in the future, energy peer-to-peer trading and local energy markets.

Linking energy demand to local generation, and incorporating new demand for electricity for heat and transport, within an overall energy flexibility platform, Bristol consumers will also be able to trade their demand flexibility to provide energy system services and to help balance the local energy network. Thereby demonstrating how integrated local energy systems can further reduce energy system costs and provide network services at both a local and national level.

The scale and ambition of the project is intended to demonstrate how public private investment in replicable local solutions, using smart and digital technology, could transform the UK's energy system delivering customer centric solutions at lower cost. In the process showcasing Bristol and the UK's technology innovation and smart energy system capability to international markets."