Looking Forward

Green Deal

The Government’s Green Deal programme is due to launch in October 2012, as the next step in improving energy efficiency in houses across the UK. The Green Deal is central to the Government’s Low Carbon transition plans; it includes a new Energy Company Obligation which will replace CERT and CESP. It will be set in legislation over the next year and the first measures will appear by the end of 2012, as the CERT and CESP programmes come to a close.

The Green Deal is a way of financing energy efficiency measures through a new ‘pay as you save’ model, removing the barrier of financing these measures upfront.

It will enable households across the UK to have energy efficiency measures installed at no upfront cost and then pay the cost back through their energy bills over a period of time. The savings made from the energy efficient measures should be the same, if not more, than the cost of the repayments.

Measures installed under the Green Deal could range from basic energy efficiency measures like insulation, through to microgeneration for households and businesses across the UK. The Green Deal could incentivise thousands of consumers to take up these energy efficiency measures.

We have been working with the Government as they develop the detail of the programme and continue proactively to engage with them through consultation and other industry meetings to ensure that the final design of the Green Deal provides the best possible solution for consumers and businesses, that it supports a broad range of measures and that it makes a significant contribution to UK carbon reduction targets. The most important objective for the Green Deal must be that it is able to offer measures to as many consumers as possible, at the lowest possible cost to consumers.

It will be important for there to be a smooth transition from CERT and CESP, partly to ensure that the established supply chain and the industry and jobs it has created to deliver energy efficiency measures are maintained.

Smart meters

By 2020, every household in the UK will have a smart meter for their electricity and gas. The Government published its decision on the approach and timings for the introduction of smart meters in March 2011. Following a period of testing and trialling during 2013, the mass installation of smart meters is planned to start from early 2014.

Smart meters will transform demand management, allowing consumers to see their electricity consumption in near real-time and get up-to-date information every half-hour on their gas usage to help them control their energy use. Smart meters will enable suppliers to send accurate bills to their customers, ending estimated bills in most instances. The advent of smart technology will also mean energy suppliers will be able to offer innovative products, such as smart tariffs - where consumers are able to tailor their energy tariffs, for example a tariff that charged less for using electricity outside peak demand hours - and tailored energy efficiency advice to customers. In the future, smart meters will enable a smarter energy infrastructure (the ‘smart grid’), which will deliver greater efficiency in supply and demand optimisation, and help to bring more sustainable and renewable generation sources online.

In 2011, we continued to explore different smart meter products and services through trials across the UK. We are continuing to work with Government to finalise effective and efficient industry processes and to ensure that suppliers are able to provide consumers with the maximum benefits that smart metering technology will provide.

Electric vehicles

The electrification of transport will have an important role to play in meeting the UK’s climate change targets. In Germany, our parent company RWE is a market leader in the development of electric vehicle charging and in 2011, npower launched tariffs and offered charging points for electric vehicles (EVs) for homes and businesses across the UK.

For residential customers, we were the first energy supplier to offer a green energy tariff for homes wishing to charge electric vehicles. The tariff, ‘juice-e’, offers a cheaper unit rate for off-peak usage, to reduce the cost of charging an electric car over this time period.

Research has shown that up to 80% of EV charging will take place at home or in the workplace. In 2011, we launched an EV charger, the npower ‘juice point’, for use in homes and businesses. We have begun the roll out of installing ‘juice points’ at key npower office sites for use by both staff and visitors to the site.

For business customers, we have also launched a range of EV charging infrastructure solutions, which includes the back office system and contract and infrastructure control. In 2011, npower was selected as an official supplier to the Midlands arm of ‘Plugged-in Places’, a scheme aimed at rolling out EV infrastructure and the electrification of road transport.