The Advancing Communities Towards Low-Carbon Energy Smart Systems (ACCESS) project
The electricity supply sector is changing, with an increase in the proportion of electricity coming from renewable technologies such as wind 
No single organisation has the expertise or experience to understand and adapt to all the financial, technical and governance challenges that will arise from implementing smart decentralised technologies, so several European partner organisations are working together to share knowledge.
| Municipality and local authority partners | Knowledge and project management |
|---|---|
| Amersfoort - Netherlands City of Malmo - Sweden City of Mechelen - Belgium West Suffolk Council - United Kingdom |
Aarhus University - Denmark BAX - Spain Energievan.nu - Netherlands IfM Education and Consultancy Services University of Cambridge - United Kingdom Johanneberg Science Park - Sweden VITO - Belgium (project co-ordinator) |
The council's contribution - energy efficiency and peer-to-peer trading in Mildenhall
West Suffolk Council’s contribution to the programme is a peer-to-peer trading scheme working with businesses on the Mildenhall Industrial Estate. Peer-to-peer trading is where a business generating surplus electricity, for example from solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, can trade their surplus with neighbouring businesses who benefit from lower prices.
The existing energy supply diagram below shows the unidirectional movement of energy from a power station to local businesses. In comparison, the future distributed energy supply diagram shows how peer to peer trading adds renewable technologies, battery storage and flows of energy and payments between peers within the system. The peer-to-peer trading is facilitated by an intelligent platform which measures the flows of energy and then calculates payments between businesses.
Existing energy supply |
Future distributed energy supply |
The benefits of peer-to-peer trading are that the generator can be paid for the electricity, it can be purchased at a more competitive rate than from a traditional energy supplier, and the money stays in the local economy.
Businesses on the industrial estate are also being helped to make energy savings through the installation of energy monitoring equipment. This enables real-time viewing of energy consumption for each piece of machinery through an online dashboard.
Funding
- West Suffolk Council estimated project budget: £350,000
- European contribution: £175,000
For more information from all partners visit Interreg North Sea Region - Latest project news