SMART-UP and take control of your energy

1. SMART-UP and take control of your energy Jamie-Leigh Ruse Senior Research and Policy Officer National Energy Action

2. Project Introduction

3. Resources and Tools

4. Recruitment

5. Pilot

6. Barriers to recruitment • Delay to roll out of smart meters in UK • Non-regional basis of roll-out • Lack of appetite amongst suppliers to incorporate SMART-UP into delivery • Limited pool of vulnerable consumers • Existing training programmes in line with SMiCOP (Smart Metering Code of Practice) • Data protection challenges

7. Sample characteristics • 89% lived in housing in the social rented sector • 46% had at least one child living with them • 31% had at least person aged 65 or older • 75% were living on incomes of less than £16,000 per year • 89.5% were receipt of means-tested benefits • 51% had at least one household member of working age that was unemployed or unable to work • Only 14% had at least one household member in paid full or part-time work • 73% had at least one person in the household with a long-standing physical or mental health condition or disability • 23% had no formal qualifications, and only 11% had a higher education or undergraduate qualification • 52% of households had someone at home all the time every day

8. Enhanced Advice

9. Information pamphlet

10. Energy Diary

11. Telephone aftercare service

12. Most effective advice format The most effective format of advice delivered through SMART-UP was the combination of enhanced face-to-face advice, the provision of written information resources, and the telephone aftercare service. Offering advice in multiple formats meant participants with varying needs and vulnerabilities could find the best way of accessing information to suit them.

13. Impact on smart metering behaviours • Check how much electricity they are using right now more often • Use the traffic light system to monitor their electricity use • Check how much an appliance costs to run • Check how much electricity they had used in the previous day, week or month • Set a budget or target for how much electricity they want to spend in a day, week or month • Feel that they understood how to use their IHD • Find the IHD useful to help monitor and manage electricity use in their home • Feel that they were getting the most out of their IHD to help monitor and manage electricity use in the home

14. Managing energy in the home (post)

15. Energy vulnerability

16. Concluding remarks • Households that were engaged by SMART-UP were likely to be vulnerable to energy poverty, digital exclusion, and to require additional support in being able to use, understand and make the most of their smart meter and IHD. • The project was able to encourage participating households to engage in more (and more positive) energy efficient behaviours • The project highlighted the need to combine behaviour change advice alongside other measures (such as the provision energy efficiency measures, income maximisation advice and fuel debt alleviation) • Advice delivered through SMART-UP was successful in enabling vulnerable households to understand and engage with their smart meter and IHD, increasing the range of purposes for which they used them, as well as the frequencies with which such tasks were carried out. • The positive impact of SMART-UP advice on smart metering behaviours of households revealed that providing tailored and enhanced advice in a variety of formats can enable and empower vulnerable households to take control of their energy use.

17. Thank You Jamie.ruse@nea.org.uk