{"id":508935,"date":"2025-10-18T08:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T08:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/508935\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T08:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T08:08:11","slug":"energy-clubs-offer-chance-to-reduce-electricity-bills-by-up-to-30-energy-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/508935\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy clubs offer chance to reduce electricity bills by up to 30% | Energy bills"},"content":{"rendered":"

With autumn now in full swing, shorter days and lower temperatures spell higher energy costs. However, an innovative social enterprise is doing its bit to help by offering people the chance to reduce their electricity bills by as much as 30%.<\/p>\n

Energy Local<\/a> is a non-profit organisation that has created a way for people to benefit from local clean energy by teaming up with a renewable energy project in their area \u2013 it might be a wind turbine, solar farm or hydroelectric scheme \u2013 to get a better deal.<\/p>\n

It enables participating residents to buy renewable electricity at a discounted price.<\/p>\n

They form a club, which their local renewable project also joins, and it works by matching up the residents\u2019 energy usage to the locally generated electricity. The club agrees a price residents will pay for the electricity they use when the local renewable energy is being generated.<\/p>\n

In Bridport in Dorset, the installation of a wind turbine by the local farmer Peter Bailey in one of his fields allowed an energy club to be set up in 2021. Almost 60 people are signed up to the club, and the connection between local energy generation and usage is already having an impact on how members behave.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeter believes wind power of about 11mph produces sufficient power for it to generate. You know on a windy day that it\u2019s generating power,\u201d says Malcolm Drew, a semi-retired engineer and energy club member.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe website we can access tells us what the turbine is doing \u2013 it picks up on wind speed and tells you how windy it is and if it\u2019s a good time to use electricity,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

Richard Toft, who helped to found the club, says: \u201cWe\u2019re all saving. Depending on your personal habits, people save a different proportion \u2013 anywhere between a 10% and 25% reduction on your bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are many more people interested in joining the Bridport club than available spaces but there are hopes that it can set up a solar farm based on a cooperative investment model to expand the project and allow more members to join.<\/p>\n

The club agrees a price residents will pay for the electricity they use when the local renewable energy is being generated. Photograph: Simon Dack\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Energy Local was set up by Dr Mary Gillie in 2016 after she witnessed a surprising frustration among people living in Ashton Hayes, Cheshire, who wanted their small village to become carbon neutral.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said: \u2018Can we all just put solar power on our roofs? How do we then say that we\u2019ve used that power?\u2019\u201d Gillie says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the time, we couldn\u2019t show when they were using it. It was when smart meters began to be developed that I realised we could do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are now 36 energy clubs across Great Britain that Energy Local is involved with, stretching from Scotland down to Devon and Dorset. The idea behind them is simple. Thanks to smart meter technology, it is now possible to show how much electricity a household uses every half an hour. Energy Local has developed software that compares that usage with the electricity generated by a local renewable energy scheme such as a wind turbine, hydro project or solar farm.<\/p>\n

Gillie and her team have worked with energy companies to negotiate a special tariff arrangement, thereby creating a \u201chyper-local\u201d market that acknowledges the renewable power being generated in that area.<\/p>\n

The price the club members pay for the electricity they use when the local clean energy is being generated is higher than the amount the renewable energy projects would normally get from selling their power to suppliers but lower than the price residents would usually pay via a regular tariff. \u201cIt\u2019s a win-win,\u201d Gillie says.<\/p>\n

In Brixton, south London, Energy Local has helped unlock the potential of an existing solar project on the roof of a social housing block called Roupell Park. The photovoltaic panels on the building\u2019s roof were installed in 2013 thanks to a community investment initiative organised by the not-for-profit organisation Repowering London<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone, as investor members, owns a piece of that kit on the roof [in Roupell Park],\u201d says Afsheen Kabir Rashid, the co-founder and chief executive of Repowering London.<\/p>\n

Solar panels were installed on the roof of the Roupell Park in Brixton, south London, in 2013. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really empowering for local people. But we kept coming back to this point: how can we supply this energy locally? Energy Local has been one of the models that has allowed us to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a small trial in Brixton \u2013 18 households or so \u2013 but they have seen benefits on their energy bills already.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the aim of Energy Local is to encourage people to shift their consumption habits<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Repowering London raises money for the solar panels through community shares. It believes that democratising the energy system is the fastest route to decarbonising the sector and making it fairer. \u201cWe still have huge fuel poverty in the UK,\u201d Kabir Rashid says. \u201cPeople are scared about the bills that arrive. People are disconnected from where the energy is coming from. The benefits of the extractive fossil fuel economy do not stay local in people\u2019s pockets. But through community energy, we can bring people closer, make it visible.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the sun is weak or there is no wind, the energy club members have to pay a higher tariff \u2013 however, part of the aim of Energy Local is to encourage people to change their consumption habits.<\/p>\n

Gillie says that as well as trying to support local renewable energy and reduce people\u2019s bills, \u201cwe want to manage the electricity network as efficiently as we can \u2026 If we can get people to use more power when local generation is running or when fewer people are using it, we can solve both problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Electricity demand is typically greatest between 4pm and 8pm but Energy Local encourages participants to set timers for washing machines and similar devices, and to try to move energy-intensive tasks to the times of day when local clean power generation is running at maximum levels and electricity is at its cheapest.<\/p>\n

Repowering London\u2019s Afsheen Kabir Rashid says people involved in the Roupell Park trial \u2018have seen benefits on their energy bills already\u2019. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

While the idea of hyper-local energy markets and cooperative renewable power generation may sound like a perfect solution to the energy crisis, Gillie is clear that community energy schemes cannot replace the national grid entirely.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a robust overarching system to ensure the power keeps flowing,\u201d she says. \u201cWe do as much as we can locally, but after a point [infrastructure costs] can become too expensive, and that\u2019s where you need things to be handled at a national level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those infrastructure costs, such as repairing and upgrading the cables and equipment that electrify our homes and businesses, are one reason why bills, including standing charges, have just gone up. On 1 October, the average energy price cap for households in Great Britain paying by direct debit increased by \u00a335 to \u00a31,755<\/a> for a typical annual dual-fuel bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur network is changing \u2013 we need to invest in it. We should have done this 15 years ago, and we\u2019re playing catchup on a massive scale,\u201d Gillie says.<\/p>\n

Given the desire within the industry to wean the grid off gas turbine power stations and lower consumer prices by bringing more renewable power into play, well-integrated local energy generation sites offer a glimpse of what a more efficient, carbon neutral network may look like in the future.<\/p>\n

How do Energy Local clubs work, and how do I join one?<\/p>\n