Domestic Energy Efficiency

Improving energy efficiency in UK households as a way to tackle climate change and reduce fuel poverty is one of the key aims of UK Government policy.

There are two mandatory ongoing energy saving programmes that require energy suppliers and energy generators, such as npower, to achieve ambitious carbon saving targets. These schemes are the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and the Community Energy Savings Programme (CESP). In 2012, these obligations will be replaced by the Energy Company Obligation, part of the Government’s new Green Deal programme.

In 2011, our energy services business delivered 537,811 energy efficient measures to our customers, vastly exceeding our target of 216,000 measures. Combined, these energy efficient products, insulation and installations will save over 325,000 tonnes of CO₂ every year and will reduce carbon emissions by around 5.7 million tonnes of CO₂ over their lifetime.

In 2012, our target is to deliver 117,531 energy efficiency measures to our customers, to save 73.5 ktonnes of CO₂ every year and lifetime savings of 2.94 million tonnes of CO₂.

CERT

The Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) requires energy suppliers to help reduce CO₂ emissions from households in England, Scotland and Wales. Each energy supplier is set energy-savings targets based on the number of customers it has.

We help our customers to reduce their CO₂ emissions and improve their energy efficiency through measures such as loft and cavity wall insulation and energy-saving appliances – which is a considerable undertaking.

In 2010, the CERT scheme was extended until December 2012, which means that each energy supplier has been given additional lifetime carbon savings targets to achieve.

CESP

The Community Energy Savings Programme (CESP) began in October 2009. It is an additional obligation placed on energy suppliers and electricity generators that focusses on community-based energy efficiency solutions.

CESP targets households across specific, low-income areas of the UK on a ‘whole house’ approach, improving energy-efficiency standards and permanently reducing fuel bills, helping to take families out of fuel poverty. To achieve our CESP targets, energy suppliers like npower need to work in community-based partnerships involving local authorities, suppliers and generators. These partnerships allow CESP to be tailored to individual areas and integrated with existing initiatives.

CESP is a challenging obligation to deliver. It has proved difficult to create partnerships with public sector organisations to deliver projects when spending cuts are being implemented across the sector; however we're working hard to create new and innovative projects to deliver measures under this obligation.

In 2011, npower continued to work with Flintshire County Council on a CESP project offering energy efficiency measures from new gas central heating systems, replacement of inefficient boilers and solar thermal hot water systems to eligible residents. The project, which is due to be completed in 2012, will have reached over 1,300 homes. The energy efficiency measures installed will save up to £130,000 annually and reduce carbon emissions by 40,000 tonnes.

Given the challenges that energy suppliers have faced in delivering the CESP scheme, and the length of time that certain measures under CESP can take, such as solid wall insulation, we are hopeful that measures which are planned, but yet to be delivered, will be implemented after the October 2012 scheme deadline. This will also help to ensure a smooth transition from CERT and CESP to ECO, without any impact on the supply chain, energy supplier costs and, importantly, consumers.