by tresoc | Jan 16, 2025 | Events
On the evening of January 10th, 2025, Energy Local Totnes (ELT) marked a significant milestone: its first Annual General Meeting. Held at The Mansion, this event brought together members, directors, and supporters to celebrate achievements, reflect on challenges, and chart the course for an even brighter future.
A Dream Realised
Sally Murrall-Smith, founder director of ELT and Managing Director of TRESOC, opened the meeting with a warm welcome. She shared her excitement about how far ELT has come since its inception. “Providing locally generated renewable electricity to local people” is not just an idea anymore – it’s a reality that is saving members money, reducing carbon footprints, and reinvesting in the local economy.
As the 10th Energy Local club – and the first to partner with 100Green – ELT is breaking new ground. Its innovative approach allows multiple local generators and even small businesses to participate, creating a more inclusive and sustainable energy model.
Looking Back: A Year of Progress
While ELT officially registered as a cooperative in June 2023, its journey to full operation wasn’t without hurdles. An initial generator withdrawal and technical issues delayed the start, but by October 2024, local hydro power from Totnes Weir Hydro began supplying the club. Despite the learning curve, ELT is already making an impact:
- 99.9% Local Hydro Usage: In December, members used almost entirely local hydroelectricity (charged at 15p per kWh), keeping costs low and carbon emissions minimal.
- Significant Savings: Members are already saving up to 30% on electricity bills.
Ambitious Plans for 2025
The future of ELT is as inspiring as its beginnings. Key goals for the year include:
- Growing Membership: Signing up 200 households and 400kW of renewable energy generators.
- Maximising Savings: Helping members reduce energy bills by 10-30% while cutting carbon emissions by 30%.
- Education and Engagement: Hosting workshops to teach members how to optimise energy use and developing renewable energy education programs for children.
- Expanding the Model: Establishing two new Energy Local clubs in Moretonhampstead and Ashburton, training new advisors, and promoting opportunities for low-income households.
These ambitions reflect ELT’s commitment to creating a fairer, greener energy system that benefits everyone.
Why Join Energy Local Totnes?
For Totnes residents not yet part of ELT, the benefits are clear:
- Save Money: Access cheaper, locally generated renewable electricity.
- Support Sustainability: Reduce your carbon footprint and contribute to a greener future.
- Strengthen the Local Economy: Keep money within the community by supporting local renewable energy projects.
Be Part of the Change
As Sally aptly put it during the AGM, ELT’s success in Totnes could catalyse systemic change, proving that communities can take control of their energy and build a more equitable system. Why not be part of this transformative journey?
Visit our Energy Local Totnes page to learn more and sign up today. Together, we can create a cleaner, fairer energy future for Totnes and beyond.
by tresoc | Mar 20, 2024 | Latest TRESOC News
TRESOC had an excellent time last week with Year 5s and 6s from Harbertonford Primary School. On Monday we spent the day visiting local renewable energy sites, including Marley Wind Turbine, Dartington Solar Farm, Dartington Wood Chip Boiler and Totnes Weir Hydro. The next day we returned to the classroom to explore the science behind these technologies, through a series of interactive workshops. The students were really engaged and asked some fantastic questions that got everybody thinking!
Many thanks to Harbertonford Primary for taking part in our REEL (Renewable Energy Experiential Learning) programme, funded by the Energy Redress Scheme Grant for the Energy Local Totnes Project. Energy Local Totnes is a club for buying and selling locally generated renewable electricity at a fair price, saving local people money off their bills and paying local generators a better price. For more information: https://energylocal.org.uk/totnes
by Catherine Munro | Oct 10, 2023 | Latest TRESOC News
Totnes Renewable Energy Society (TRESOC) are delighted to have been awarded an Energy REDRESS grant from the Energy Saving Trust (EST), to develop Energy Local Totnes (ELT) over the next two years. EST recognised the Energy Local Plus project as highly innovative and able to demonstrate a new business model for buying and selling locally generated renewable energy for the benefit of communities; a first in the UK.
TRESOC will continue to work with Energy Local CIC to grow the size of ELT by connecting 400kW of local renewable energy electricity into the club, (including 100 kW of new generation), and signing up 200 local households as new customer members. Small businesses can also join as customer members.
TRESOC’s modelling suggests that the average household – a 2-3 bedroom house with average electricity consumption – will save 10% off their bill. But if they are able to shift the times of their demand and use the electricity when it is generated, they could save up to 30%.
We anticipate that domestic generators with excess electricity from their solar PV will be able to sell it into ELT from 2024 onwards. This is intended to drive the development of domestic solar, as well as provide an additional income stream for householders.
A key aim of the project is to keep the economic benefits of renewable energy within the local economy and provide residents and small-scale generators with some protection from fluctuating external markets. However, the long-term aim is to lift local people out of fuel poverty by providing low-cost electricity. The first year of the project will be a trial to ensure the reduction of people’s bills. Once that is established people on low incomes will be invited to take part. ELT will also invite low income households that have had solar PV installed as part of the ECO grant schemes.
The club will go live in October 2023, when 8 households will be switched onto the Energy Local Totnes tariff with 100Green. It takes about 3 weeks for the full switch to take place. The next round of switching is due to take place in Spring 2024. Anyone who wants to buy their electricity from ELT needs first to sign up or register their interest through the Energy Local website. To join the ELT club, households will need to be within the Totnes Substation and have – or be happy to have – a smart meter fitted.
The University of Plymouth (UoP) will evaluate the financial, environmental and social viability of a local renewable energy market, using ELT as a case study. The University will investigate direct economic savings and carbon emissions of the households in the ELT club based on their use over the course of a year and their previous tariff and supply company. This research and evaluation will be directed by Professor Ian Bailey, and carried out by a master’s student on the Sustainable Environmental Management MSc.
The results of the UoP evaluation will be disseminated GB wide to community energy organisations, using the web, events and workshops.
The EST grant will also provide training for 10 more Energy Local advisors and establish, to operation and including incorporation, 2 new EL clubs (in addition to ELT). Other potential substations include South Brent, Ashburton and Buckfastleigh areas.
In addition, the grant will support and grow the Renewables Energy Experiential Learning (REEL) programme, educating 120 school and pre-school children about community energy. TRESOC are already in discussions with Park School and S John’s to take part in the project.
The EST grant recognises the significant potential of this project, it is highly replicable, and once we have demonstrated it here in Totnes, it will spread to other places and has the potential to start some real systemic change, making the energy system more equitable as we transition to a green economy.
Initially the club will start small, as the number of customers must be balanced by the amount of generation, but it will continue to grow as new generators join. Harrison’s Garage on the Totnes Industrial Estate will be the next generator to join the club, selling the excess electricity from their newly installed 30kW solar array. TRESOC have a planned pipeline of community-owned rooftop solar PV projects, that once installed will sell their electricity into the club. In March 2024, it is hoped that Totnes Weir Hydro will join the club: this will increase the potential size of the club – and the savings to be made – exponentially.
ELT member households will be invited to take part in coffee mornings, which will provide demand reduction and demand shifting education activities to maximise the use of the cheaper local renewables. They will also receive smart plugs to help them manage when they use their appliances.
Energy Local Plus model
Energy Local have established several similar projects across England and Wales. This will the first that will continue to grow, as new generators and customers join, continuing to support the growth of community renewable energy, while reducing peoples bills and greening the local economy. This new business model is called Energy Local Plus or EL+.
Once this new business model has been demonstrated in Totnes, it will spread to other places and has the potential to catalyse some real systemic change, making the energy system more equitable as we transition to a green economy.
Benefits of Selling Energy Locally
Buying and selling renewable energy locally has many economic, social, and environmental benefits:
· The community benefits from buying energy more affordably, helping to reduce fuel poverty
· Small local generators receive a decent export rate for their excess energy and more control over pricing
· Profits are retained by the local community, supporting the local economy
· Fairer export prices mean more local renewable energy projects become commercially viable for households, communities, and businesses, which acts as an economic driver for more renewable energy development and a gradual greening of the local economy
· Local renewable energy resources make the community more energy secure, self-reliant, and resilient, as energy prices are decoupled from volatile international markets
· The environment benefits as consumers reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and reduce carbon emissions
· Buying renewable energy from local places make consumers feel more connected to energy supplies and fosters energy responsibility
· Balancing local supply with demand helps the national grid reduce the need for costly network upgrades
· Less electricity is wasted through transmission losses, as the distance from supplier to customer is shorter
by tresoc | Mar 16, 2023 | Latest TRESOC News, News
On the 24th March TRESOC will proudly launch the South West’s first Smart Local Energy System, Energy Local Totnes (ELT), a new economic driver for the development of local renewable energy.
Energy Local CIC has been setting up clubs around the country that help create local markets for power. They designed technology that uses smart meter data to allow households to club together to show they are using local, clean power when it is generated. The households then agree a price with local generators that’s better for the generators as well as reducing their own bills. For more information on how Energy Local clubs work click here.
Green Energy (GE) UK are acting as the partner energy supplier who will ensure there is enough power for the households in the club when there is not enough local electricity generated.
Totnes Town Council have officially signed a GE UK contract to supply the excess from the 15kW solar PV array on the Civic Hall, into the club. GE UK are now doing the technical work that it takes to become their energy supply company. 35 people have already registered an interest in becoming part of the club, and these will be the first customers. GE UK will start to sign these customers over at the beginning of April.
The number of customers in the club needs to balance the amount of generation. Jem Friar, the Totnes Energy Local advisor will be responsible for this matching. To start with, we will be able to sign up 10-15 people, to use the power from the Civic. Soon after the club is in operation, Harrison’s Garage intend to join the club, as they have installed a new 30kW system on the roof of their garage. This should mean roughly another 15-20 people can join, depending on the modelling. As more generation joins the club, balanced by more customers, the club can grow. This is real innovation at work. It will be the first Energy Local Club in the country to be able to grow in this way.
Energy Local Totnes will be its own co-operative, and totally independent of TRESOC, although TRESOC will be a generator member. It will have its own board, made up of generator and consumer members, who will annually set the match price for the club. The match price is the price that the generator and consumer gets, when a consumer matches their energy demand to local generation.
This is a pilot scheme, so we are looking to test the Energy Local concept locally to make sure it really will save people money before we can roll it out on a larger scale. For the first year, only solar PV will be selling into the club. With the increased rate that generators receive for their electricity many new local renewable energy projects will become economically viable. This is something that TRESOC is working hard to explore and make the most of.
To read more about the prices that the club has set for energy use, and to find out more about registering your interest head to the Energy Local Totnes page.
by tresoc | Jul 6, 2022 | Latest TRESOC News, News
We have now appointed an Energy Local Advisor/co-ordinator, Jem Friar, who will be responsible for establishing the Energy Local Totnes Co-operative. If people want to register their interest, they can go onto the Energy Local Totnes page on the Energy Local website: Totnes | Energy Local.
Jem will be working on the project for approximately 6 months. The project has been made possible thanks to grant funding received by TRESOC from Devon County Council to establish an Energy Local Club to buy locally generated renewable energy, which will then be sold through the club at a discounted rate. Local people and businesses will be invited to join the club to benefit from reduced cost electricity and Jem will be working alongside Energy Local CIC to support the club.
