Recent Additions to the EDC

The increasing need for residential cooling in Great Britain due to rising temperatures could pose significant challenges to the electricity infrastructure. This study estimates the spatiotemporal cooling demand for residential buildings in Great Britain in 2050. A bottom-up methodology using a lumped parameter dynamic thermal model of building was applied to estimate half-hourly cooling demand and the electricity consumptions of cooling devices for representative dwelling archetypes in 41,726 local areas. The upper estimate for annual and peak electricity consumptions for cooling technologies have been estimated to be 9.3 TWh and 62.6 GW, respectively. The study highlights regional demand variations, correlations between the electricity consumption of cooling technologies and electricity generation by distributed photovoltaics, and the moderating effect of higher dwelling thermal capacities on cooling peak demand. These insights highlight the need for electricity infrastructure reinforcement, and integrated strategies for buildings retrofit and renewable energy to ensure system resilience. This is the data behind this study.

Energy consumption readings for a sample of 5,567 London Households that took part in the UK Power Networks led Low Carbon London project between November 2011 and February 2014. Readings were taken at half hourly intervals. The customers in the trial were recruited as a balanced sample representative of the Greater London population. The dataset contains energy consumption, in kWh (per half hour), unique household identifier, date and time. The CSV file is around 10GB when unzipped and contains around 167million rows. Within the data set are two groups of customers. The first is a sub-group, of approximately 1100 customers, who were subjected to Dynamic Time of Use (dToU) energy prices throughout the 2013 calendar year period. The tariff prices were given a day ahead via the Smart Meter IHD (In Home Display) or text message to mobile phone. Customers were issued High (67.20p/kWh), Low (3.99p/kWh) or normal (11.76p/kWh) price signals and the times of day these applied. The dates/times and the price signal schedule is availaible as part of this dataset. All non-Time of Use customers were on a flat rate tariff of 14.228pence/kWh. The signals given were designed to be representative of the types of signal that may be used in the future to manage both high renewable generation (supply following) operation and also test the potential to use high price signals to reduce stress on local distribution grids during periods of stress. The remaining sample of approximately 4500 customers energy consumption readings were not subject to the dToU tariff.

This project explored the development of policy and practice for local energy systems (LES) across England, Scotland and Wales. It aimed to provide evidence, and learning, about the role of more locally integrated energy systems, and the policy approaches being pursued in Great Britain. The research analysed policy mixes for local energy systems and developed a database of relevant government policies from 2010 to 2021 (deposited here). These policies were identified based on systematic analysis of published government energy strategies, alongside strategies specifically concerned with ‘local’,‘community’ or ‘area-based’ energy. This resulted in detailed analysis of over 50 policy documents and identification of 105 policy instruments across the three jurisdictions. Documentation was retrieved primarily from Scottish, Welsh and UK Government websites. Details about individual instruments were then collated using government sources (for example, evaluation reports), or websites of managing organisations. If financial information about an instrument was obscure, Freedom of Information (FOI) requests were submitted to establish additional detail, but financial information for some instruments remained unclear. The authors each cross-checked the instrument database drawing on their expertise in Scottish, Welsh and UK Government energy policy. The instrument database was also verified through review by two external policy experts.

The purpose of this project was to explore the institutions and organisations that are shaping the development of local energy systems in Great Britain, comparing England, Scotland and Wales. The project was part of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). Institutional mapping explores functional relationships and powers relevant to decision-making. It focuses on the key actors, their interactions, where power is located, who has the ability to influence and make decisions, and sources of funding. The objective is to create a (simplified) visual representation of the different groups and organizations within a community and their relationships and importance for decision-making. In order to explore the governance frameworks and actor networks for LES in England, Wales and Scotland governance mapping was carried out for the three jurisdictions. Draft institutional maps of local energy systems in England, Scotland and Wales were developed through a desk-based review of key organisations, (formal) institutions, rules, relationships and decision-making power based on a database of LES relevant strategy documents and policy instruments (data also deposited). These maps were validated based on interviews with energy system stakeholders to valuate accuracy, and explore informal agenda setting power, future policy needs and governance gaps. Interviews were carried out with a total of 21 people, across 18 organisations, including government, local authorities, distribution network operators, regulators, consultants and NGOs. Maps were revised and finalised based on interview outputs and published in September 2022. The institutional maps developed are deposited here together with the interview schedule.

Recent years have seen unprecedented shifts in global natural gas trade, precipitated in large part by Russia's war on Ukraine. How this regional conflict impacts the future of natural gas markets is subject to three interconnected factors: (i) Russia’s strategy to regain markets for its gas exports; (ii) Europe’s push towards increased liquified natural gas (LNG) and the pace of its low carbon transition; and (iii) China’s gas demand and how it balances its climate and energy security objectives. A scenario modelling approach is applied to explore the potential implications of this geopolitical crisis. We demonstrate how integrating energy geopolitics and modelling enhances our understanding of energy futures. This is the data behind this journal article: Pye, S., Bradshaw, M., Price, J. et al. The global implications of a Russian gas pivot to Asia. Nat Commun 16, 386 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55697-7

Going Dutch? was a 2-year research project, led from the University of Sussex and funded by the UK Energy Research Centre, comparing governance arrangements for heat decarbonisation and natural gas phase-out in the UK and the Netherlands and investigating how these arrangements have been shaped by different political and institutional context. The UK and the Netherlands share a similar starting point for heat decarbonisation in that they are the countries most dependent on natural gas for heating in Europe and the OECD. However, they have taken different approaches to their heat transitions so far, with the Netherlands giving a much more central role to local government (municipalities). There are also differences within the UK, with Scotland adopting a governance approach that is closer to the Netherlands than England, where heat transition governance remains highly centralised. The project aimed to understand how wider political, administrative and economic institutions have shaped these different governance approaches, what the experience of the Dutch approach has been to date, and what lessons there might be for the UK. The topics of study included: the nature of climate governance; the roles and capacities of local government; the structure of multi-level governance; mechanisms for knowledge-sharing and learning; allocation of resources; organisation of technical support and knowledge, and public engagement and participation. The collection includes anonymised interviews with 16 observers of and participants in attempts to decarbonise residential heating in the Netherlands and the UK. The interviews were conducted between December 2021 and September 2022, and the focus of the research was on the governance arrangements for heat decarbonisation.

The decarbonisation of domestic heating is essential for the UK to achieve net zero carbon emissions, but requires significant changes in domestic infrastructure. Public participation plays a pivotal role in this transition, yet public attitudes towards decarbonised heating remain under-researched and poorly understood. We collected a nationally representative dataset via an online survey of 2,226 individuals in Great Britain, and an additional booster sample dataset of 1,378 individuals in Scotland and Wales specifically. The survey explored attitudes to three decarbonised heating technologies currently being trialled or entering the market: heat pumps, hydrogen heating, and district heating networks. A wide dataset of interrelated variables was collected, including heating system preference and usage, knowledge and support for decarbonised heating, environmental and energy security concerns, perceptions of trust and responsibility, financial considerations, and many others. Central to the study was an informed choice decision pathway element designed to investigate key factors underlying personal willingness to adopt each technology.

Carbon and Place website & App provide free tools to allow communities, planners, and policymakers in the UK to understand their local carbon footprint.

Based on the latest research and the best available data, we explore how carbon footprints change between neighbourhoods and how the path to net-zero will vary between places.

Carbon & Place is a family of tools developed as part of the Energy Demand Research Centre.

The IEA Demonstration Projects Database seeks to map major demonstration projects of clean energy technologies, globally. For each project, it provides information on location, sector and technology grouping, status, capacity, timing and funding, when available.

Access to datasets provided by the IEA on a wide range of topics. Some of these are openly available and some have restrictions

The non-gas map is a detailed map of Great Britain showing the distribution of properties without a gas grid connection across local authorities, LSOAs (lower-level super output areas) and, for registered users, postcodes. It also provided a wealth of other information about each properties and residents, from the type of house or flat to the type of heating and tenure.

To better understand the processes of digitalisation, dematerialisation and decarbonisation, this paper examines the relationship between energy and information for the global economy since 1850. It presents the long run trends in energy intensity and communication intensity, as a proxy for total information intensity. The evidence suggests that, relative to GDP, global economic production has been reducing energy and increasing information use since 1913. The analysis indicates that it initially required little information to replace energy in production and that the ability to substitute away from energy and towards information has been declining. The result implies that the global economy is now reducing energy and increasing information at a substitution rate of 0.2 kB per kWh of conserved energy or 0.8 GB per tonne of carbon dioxide mitigated. As the price ratio of energy to information is currently higher than this marginal rate of substitution, there are incentives to further substitute information for energy. However, one conclusion is that (without the long run escalation of carbon prices) substitution away from energy and towards information is likely to cease within the next few decades and, beyond that, digitalisation will play a declining role in the decarbonisation process.

Automated vehicles (AVs) may represent the most profound technological change in road transport since the rise of vehicle mass production, with reductions in energy demand being one of the many anticipated benefits. This project has explored expectations regarding the potential energy-saving benefits of AVs among two groups ‘professionals’ and the general public. The project has used a Delphi study design. The Delphi method offers an exploratory, flexible and iterative technique to obtain insights into what futures might look like when uncertainty is large. This is the case with AVs as much remains unclear if and when fully autonomous vehicles will be introduced on the UK roads and how automation may interact with electrification and a possible shift away from individual ownership towards forms of shared ownership and use. Delphi studies typically consist of several rounds of surveys that are increasingly conducted online in which participants receive feedback between rounds and can adapt their responses and views based on that feedback. Two separate Delphi studies, each consisting of three rounds, were conducted sequentially in 2019-2020. Delphi studies have traditionally been used to build consensus among participants but this often marginalises more radical imaginings of the future and may underappreciate controversies around future developments. This project has, therefore adopted a dissensus-oriented Delphi, which cultivates divergence of views and is particularly appropriate for emergent topics such as the expected effects on transport and energy of vehicle automation.

The FAIR project explored the causes and links between fuel poverty and transport poverty in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It collected interview data to draw up policy recommendations designed to limit the impacts of double energy vulnerability in the transition to a more sustainable future. Tens of millions of households across Europe struggle to afford adequate electricity and heating services and reliable transportation, while recent high fuel prices could lead to an increase in excess winter deaths. Tackling energy and transport poverty is thus of paramount policy importance. Here, we document the drivers and lived experiences of energy and transport poverty in the United Kingdom based on expert interviews. We find a set of policies that resonate with expert planners, implying they have a level of political and social acceptability that other measures may be lacking, notably: mandatory landlord energy efficiency upgrades, increasing the extent of financial assistance to households, cheaper (or even free) bus and train fares and restarting and expanding bus services. We buttress these findings with further suggestions for energy and transport system redesign that better meets emerging principles of energy and social justice.

The current energy, climate and cost of living crises have affected peoples’ wellbeing, their health, employment and finances showing significant inequalities across population groups and regions. These kinds of challenges entail technological innovation while shifting energy consumption patterns. Yet, the UK transition to Net Zero requires greater transformative change at institutional, infrastructural, sectorial and social levels. Building on Multi Criteria Mapping and survey methods, this paper investigates how citizens value energy demand reduction options for communities’ wellbeing and identifies multiple social, economic, and environmental ‘co-benefits’, often discounted in policy making. While arguing that energy demand mitigation options can improve citizens’ living conditions and quality of life while diminishing energy use and GHG emissions, the paper challenges the adoption of approaches based on conventional economic models to deliver Net Zero. The analysis of two UK-based case studies discloses that citizens prioritise fairness including environmental intergenerational concerns and value restrictions on individuals’ lifestyle choices. The paper calls for better incorporation of citizens’ values in policy on energy demand reduction.

This data collections consists of data and documentation produced to examine the spatial and social differences in people’s lack of access to adequate energy and transport services in the United Kingdom (UK). The work responds to the need for developing a differentiated understanding of both the drivers and expressions of this ‘double energy vulnerability’, while seeking to integrate and analyse relevant information from all four UK nations. Using a variety of statistically representative census and survey datasets, the project developed a series of multi-dimensional indices to map transport- and energy-related injustices. This was followed by a cluster analysis to examine broad-level geographical patterns, and a Geographically Weighted Regression model to explore the spatial variation of vulnerabilities related to contingencies such as income, ethnicity and housing. The work corroborates the results of previous qualitative studies, and research within selected UK nations, while revealing a number of unexpected territorial clusters and underpinnings of infrastructural injustice.

A survey was undertaken with UK energy and climate change stakeholders involved in and/or effected by Brexit - it was undertaken as part of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKRC) funded project on 'Brexit and UK Net Zero Energy Policy'. The survey was designed to ascertain views on the implications of Brexit for energy and climate change policy and politics, and to build knowledge about actual effects in practice. There were 83 respondents - from UK government (Westminster and devolved), business (mainly energy industry and finance), think tanks and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), academics researching Brexit, and representatives of EU countries.

Data from the survey was used to inform the analysis underpinning 2 papers: the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) policy briefing paper, Brexit Implications for UK Decarbonisation Objectives, and the Policy & Politics journal article, Brexit Implications for Sustainable Energy in the UK.