The Autumn 2023 round of the Energy Saving Trust’s Energy Redress Scheme has a total of £14 million available to distribute to charities and community energy groups that support households most at risk from cold homes and high energy bills, or that work on the development of innovative products and services related to domestic energy use and carbon emissions reduction projects across England, Scotland and Wales. The priorities of the scheme are to:
1. Empower consumers to reduce their carbon emissions, and
2. Support energy consumers in vulnerable situations.
In addition to these priorities, up to 15% of Energy Redress funds can support the development of innovative products and services related to energy. Innovation projects must:
1. Have a realistic prospect of delivering benefits to existing and/or future energy consumers, and
2. Help to reduce the environmental impact of energy use and be efficiently managed and provide good value for money.
Charities can apply for grants through 4 different funding streams, which will help them deliver energy related projects. Funding is also open to community energy groups – including Community Interest Companies, Co-operative Societies and Community Benefit Societies – who can apply to either the Carbon Emissions Reduction Fund or the Innovation Fund. Click on each of the heading for further information about the 4 funding streams.
For the Autumn 2023 round, there is a total of £14 million to fund new projects across the following funding streams:
1. Small Project Fund contains £500,000 and offers grants of between £20,000 and £49,999 for projects that will support energy consumers in vulnerable situations.
2. Main Project Fund contains £9.3 million and offers grants of between £50,000 and £1 million for projects that will support energy consumers in vulnerable situations.
3. The Innovation Fund contains £2.1 million and offers grants of between £20,000 and £500,000 for projects that will develop innovative products or services to benefit energy consumers.
4. The Carbon Emissions Reduction Fund contains £2.1 million and offers grants of between £20,000 and £500,000 for projects that encourage householders to reduce their carbon emissions
Grants can be used for capital or revenue funding and can provide up to 100% of the project cost. Projects lasting up to 2 years can be funded.
The Energy Redress Scheme can fund the following types of project (please note that this is not an exclusive list):
o Delivering energy advice that does not duplicate existing advice services
o Engaging vulnerable customers with energy issues and referring them for support
o Installation of energy saving or renewable energy measures that cannot be funded elsewhere and/or are innovative or are being used in innovative ways, and/or
o Training and education on energy that is targeted at supporting vulnerable customers.
From February 2018 to August 2023 the Energy Redress Scheme has funded more than 470 projects across England, Scotland and Wales and awarded £81 million in funding. Funded projects have included:
o Boosting the uptake of whole-house retrofits.
o Digital media to engage hard-to-reach audiences with energy issues and the support that is available to them.
o Impartial energy advice services supporting vulnerable people.
o Research projects aimed at making sure that the needs of elderly people and disabled people are met by new energy technologies, and
o Trialling new business models or interventions to enable households to use more locally generated energy.
Funding is not available for:
o Advice services that duplicate existing provision, potentially causing confusion for energy customers.
o Any activity that directly benefits any organisation that is regulated in Great Britain by Ofgem or any person or organisation that has close links to any organisation that is regulated in Great Britain by Ofgem. As well as direct financial benefit, this includes positive publicity, reduced marketing costs or offsetting the cost of delivering their obligations.
o Energy saving measures that can be funded from another source, such as ECO, other government or devolved government schemes or an organisations’ own capital programme.
o Measures designed purely to enable access to ECO (such as a gas connection purely to enable an ECO-funded gas boiler), as these would also enable energy companies to use Energy Redress to part-fund their ECO delivery.
o Measures purely designed to save water.
o Measures that are simply to improve the appearance of a property.
o Referrals into a particular ECO offering or supporting residents in applying for the Warm Home Discount (WHD) or to Priority Services Registers (PSRs), as this would offset the marketing costs of the relevant energy company.
o Replacing or providing top up funding for ECO measures if a client is eligible for ECO. It also cannot be used by Housing Associations or private landlords to undertake work that they have a statutory duty to do.
o The installation of renewable energy technologies that can be funded through government schemes such as the RHI or an organisations’ own capital programme.
o “Top-up” grants for measures that are part-funded by ECO, as this would enable particular energy companies to use Energy Redress to part-fund their ECO delivery, or
o Work that is covered by Renewable Heat Incentive payments.
Further information, guidance and details about how to apply are available on the Energy Saving Trust website.
The application process is as follows:
1. Organisations wishing to access the Scheme should complete an online information form so that the Energy Saving Trust can check whether they are eligible to apply.
2. Charities that meet the initial criteria will be notified and will be emailed a link to create an account, through which they can apply for all subsequent rounds of the scheme.
3. When funds become available, eligible charities will be notified to use their online account to apply for funds (the latest round of the Energy Redress Scheme is currently open to applications).
The Energy Redress Scheme has regular applications windows. The next deadline for applications is 5pm on Tuesday 14th November 2023.
