Northumberland Community Energy Limited

Offer

Community buildings in Northumberland wanting to investigate the installation of PV and battery storage can join NCEL with their committee’s approval. NCEL will support feasibility studies to assess the most effective system working through securing planning permission, procurement, and installation of the system, including insurance and ongoing maintenance costs.

The buildings benefit from significantly lower operating costs and greener energy, with a combination of power generated by the PV and a regular supplier. The batteries installed ensure resilience in case of power cuts, enabling buildings to become emergency centres for their local communities. The use of batteries and smart energy management systems also maximises the financial return from energy generated.

NCEL has been established to bring together the knowledge of renewable energy systems, planning, power purchase agreements, and grid connections in one place. Legal support has been sought to ensure the most fitting organisational structure, to protect long-term community benefit, and to support key document creation, such as lease agreements for roof space.

Community buildings, such as village halls, community shops, Women’s Institute halls, churches, and community hubs from across Northumberland are eligible to join the co-operative.

Successes

NCEL was developed from one conversation with a village hall, into a registered CBS with engagement from over 70 buildings across Northumberland.

NCEL has been successful in raising significant funding, enabling the CBS to support multiple feasibility studies, bat surveys, and planning applications. NCEL has developed a suite of documents supporting both the organisation and the process of installation with each building. Expert consultants and installation teams have been procured, and installation of PV and battery systems has commenced.

NCEL has employed its first member of staff via CAN to project manage the installations onto building roofs and manage the future pipeline of enquiries and works.

NCEL is also registered on the NEPO (North East Procurement Organisation) framework, enabling its members to access energy supplies at preferential rates, often as much as 50% lower than is currently available to community buildings.

Challenges

Key challenges and their solutions have included:

• Early stage financial viability modelling, due to volatile energy markets and interest rates. To resolve this, multiple scenarios have been modelled, from worst to best case, and have been updated frequently.
• Securing the funding to develop and progress the project. To resolve this, multiple bids were submitted to a variety of funding streams by the project team
• Working with listed buildings and those in conservation areas, and securing planning for all buildings. To resolve this, experts have been commissioned, when required, to ensure permissions are in place and all consultation is completed.
• Legal agreements to cover ownership and usage of assets, and to develop the organisational structure of NCEL, including insurance. To resolve this, costs for legal fees have been covered through the grants secured by the project team
• Securing permission from the land or building owner to install schemes. This involved ongoing relationship building and demonstration of lack of risk to the building or the owner.

USP

• NCEL is a collaboration between multiple partners that brings together community buildings across Northumberland to establish a renewable energy organisation for community benefit.
• More community buildings across Northumberland are expected to join NCEL increasing the number of installations over time.
• Excess revenue generated by NCEL will be returned to the members supporting further environmental initiatives within their communities.
• Along with addressing the energy trilemma benefits to communities in Northumberland, NCEL is a unique partnership and approach that offers replicability and scalability to other places in the UK.

Key partners

The project has been led by Community Action Northumberland (CAN) in partnership with the Rural Design Centre (RDC) and NICRE.

The project launched with 19 community buildings involved and now has over 70 engaged.

The NCEL committee includes representatives from five village halls as well as independent experts.

The project also works closely with the Diocese of Newcastle.