How does REMEDY help?

Smart local energy systems built around heat offer a number of advantages:

For customers they:

• Have a user experience comparable to the current combi-boiler experience.

• Could be up to 10% less expensive to run than comparable low carbon air source heat pumps.

• Potential to reduce the upfront investment needed in individual low carbon solutions.

• No need for the space for indoor and outdoor heat pumps and heat stores, just a simple heat interface unit giving more space in homes.

• They move the complexity of smart optimisation, maintenance and renewal costs to

  expert system operators who can find all the value in the energy system.

For the wider system they:

• Create significant local energy storage in the form of heat and power. REMeDY solutions could save up to £1bn a year if deployed in 20% of housing least able to be thermally upgraded.

• Provide a single point of control to drive smart optimisation benefits rather reducing the need to harness and optimise thousands of individual consumers’ systems.

• Can be made to work in many situations (dense or more distributed).

The REMeDY business model can also provide valuable alternative investment and financing options for developers and housing providers looking ways to fund efficient, smart and flexible low carbon heat systems.

Using historical ‘normal’ costs (based on ‘normal’ 1 prices between 2019 and 2021) for energy, it was estimated that, compared to a communal heat pump solution at Fossetts Farm, a saving of 11% on a customer’s annual bill was possible with REMeDY solutions, although it would still be 10% more than the cost of gas (although there are other reasons gas would not be viable in a high density development).

* During the latter part of 2021 and 2022 a surge in global gas prices was driving much higher electricity and gas prices. Increases in the price differential between electricity to drive low carbon systems and gas will only serve to make the justification to replace gas harder, but comparisons between low carbon systems will remain valid.