It is a year since the creation of the Energy Demand Research Centre. One year into our five-year programme of research, and we remain committed turning the volume up on the energy demand conversation.
Looking at our five core values, we are making progress across the board.
Acting on the science of climate change and sustainability, in our journey towards providing evidence for just energy futures, we made a submission to the consultation issued by the Committee on Climate Change. In our evidence, we highlighted the need for a full assessment of cost and benefit, of demand reduction measures. Our blogs are also a way to communicate the science to a range of stakeholders. Energy security was the topic of a blog back in April.
We want to work openly and honestly, to build rigour, trust, accountability and integrity in our research. We also want to work with a wide range of people, to maintain diversity and inclusion in our work.
In the first year, we have set up an independent Advisory Board, have created a Citizen’s Panel, have begun our Equity Living Lab, and created a Governance Co-Production Panel. These touch points, with diverse communities, keep us accountable whilst also ensuring that the approach we take to the research is transparent.
We are driven and ambitious in our views of the future and our intent to take the steps necessary to get there.
Sometimes, this involves challenging the conventional wisdom and posing awkward questions, for example with our paper “How much storage do we need in a fully electrified future?”. The paper argues the benefits of much lower carbon ways of life, with different patterns and levels of demand, which challenges both status quo thinking, and hidden assumptions around the need for energy storage.
We will display empathy, respect, care and kindness to all that we interact with for the duration of this work and beyond.
Our Advisory Board brings together a broad range of organisations and interests in energy demand, and we welcome their input on our activities. Team members across the consortium are engaging with a wide range of organisations, giving back to the wider community through various roles. Practicing kindness towards one another is also important – for example our flexibility theme recently incorporated a well-being “walk and talk”.
Our research itself addresses complex issues with empathy, for example we have a paper which explores how household energy assistance interacts with different forms of energy-related hardship.
We strive to make a positive difference with our robust, high-quality research.
Energy demand reduction is vital to the achievement of net zero. Getting our research in front of stakeholders, to achieve impact, is a high priority. Recently, we have been having great conversations with policy makers about flexibility certificates and about who pays for energy demand reduction.
Our community of researchers and support staff has grown as the Centre has established itself. With this critical mass of expertise, we are ready for the next four years and beyond. Thank you to everyone who has engaged so far on this journey. We are just getting started, so watch this space!
Mari and Sara, on behalf of the EDRC community.
