The University of Southampton’s Sustainable Energy Research Group (SERG) is the academic partner in the £10.2m research programme to address energy use reductions in the home and its impact of the network operator infrastructure. The programme ‘Solent Achieving Value from Efficiency’ (SAVE) was awarded in 2014 and is led by Scottish and Southern Electric Power Distribution (SSPD) with funding received from Ofgem’s Low Carbon Network Fund.
SAVE is examining whether energy efficiency measures can be considered as a cost effective, predictable and sustainable tool for managing peak demand as an alternative to reinforcing distribution networks infrastructure. Researchers are assessing how different types of SSPD customers view a range energy efficiency measures and how they respond to these. Energy use of domestic customers will also be monitored over three winter trial periods.
Professor AbuBakr Bahaj, Professor of Sustainable Energy and Head of the Energy and Climate Change Division at the University of Southampton is the academic lead for SAVE. Other investigators involved from SERG are Dr Ben Anderson and Professor Patrick James.
SAVE is just one of many high profile programmes undertaken by the Group over the last 15 years. The SERG team undertakes fundamental and applied research related to the efficient use of energy in the built environment, building user behaviour, and the development of renewable energy technologies such as solar photovoltaics, microgeneration technologies and marine energy (wave and tidal).