UrbanChain joins pioneering low-income household project
UK’s leading peer-to-peer energy exchange provider wins funding to help Essex residents reduce costs and emissions
It comes as UrbanChain becomes part of UK Power Networks’ SHIELD project, funded through the Strategic Innovation Fund, an Ofgem programme managed in partnership with Innovate UK
A groundbreaking initiative designed to lift vulnerable households out of fuel poverty has added UrbanChain to its project team.
SHIELD (Smart Heat and Intelligent Energy in Low-income Districts) is a £5.4m funded scheme focused on reducing the energy bills and emissions for people living in Essex.
The project is funded through the Strategic Innovation Fund, an Ofgem programme managed in partnership with Innovate UK, and led by UK Power Networks.
Other partners include Power Circle Projects, Eastlight Community Homes, Electricity North West, Essex County Council, Thermify, UK Community Works, Citizens Advice Essex and Essex Community Energy.
UrbanChain will be delivering the energy supply and peer-to-peer trading work package.
Founder CEO of UrbanChain Somayeh Taheri said: “UrbanChain is delighted to be working with partners to deliver the ground-breaking SHIELD project.
“Our founding mission was to alleviate fuel poverty and fix a broken inefficient energy market model and our social responsibility values haven’t wavered.”
She added: “For SHIELD to develop its route to market, business model and customer proposition in more detail, it needs to interact and operate between consumers, prosumers and generators. UrbanChain will help SHIELD design this.
“As the leading UK peer-to-peer (P2P) energy exchange, UrbanChain have extensive experience delivering similar projects in other areas across the UK and we are looking forward to delivering on this in Essex, alongside the rest of the SHIELD project team.”
SHIELD is one of 12 Ofgem approved round two beta projects, awarding £84 million through the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.
The projects will play an integral part in accelerating the delivery of net zero by 2030. As well as delivering financial, environmental and societal benefits for Great Britain’s energy consumers, these projects also support government efforts to make Britain a clean energy superpower.
In the UK, there are an estimated six million households currently experiencing fuel poverty, but the technologies that can help reduce energy costs are often expensive and as a result cannot be accessed by low-income households.
SHIELD is a bold new initiative which aims to help solve these challenges by installing low-carbon technologies for free.
The ultimate goal for SHIELD is to reduce the number of people living in fuel poverty across the country and improve the lives of people struggling to pay their energy bills.
Backed by leading European investment group Eurazeo, managing €35.4bn in diversified assets, Manchester-headquartered UrbanChain helps people who generate renewable energy, sell it directly to people who want it.
Their blockchain backed and AI powered peer-to-peer energy exchange platform cuts out the big energy suppliers and volatile wholesale markets and connects buyers and sellers directly.
Clean energy flows from where it’s produced to where it’s needed. Energy users get traceable renewable power, not brown power with a green certificate. Producers sell at a fair price directly to people who use it.
