£40 million fund open for charities and community energy groups

The Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme distributes funds, paid by companies who may have breached Ofgem rules, to Registered Charities, Community Interest Companies, Co-operative Societies and Community Benefit Societies, to deliver energy related projects that meet the scheme priorities and benefit people in England, Scotland and Wales.

The core priority is to help people who are most at risk from cold homes and high energy bills. The Scheme is not currently designed to support energy saving improvements or energy generation technology in individual community buildings and facilities. The Main and Small Funds are only open to charities. Most likely to be of interest to our borrowers are the Innovation Fund and the Carbon Emissions Reduction Fund.

Innovation Projects

Up to 15% of Energy Redress funds can support the development of innovative products and services related to energy that have a realistic prospect of delivering benefits to existing and/or future energy consumers and that help to reduce the environmental impact of energy use.

Projects seeking support through the Innovation Funding Stream should involve:

  • testing or trialling the roll-out of products or services that are ready to implement but not yet accessible to energy consumers or certain groups of energy consumers
  • conducting research or analysis into the development of products or services not yet accessible to energy consumers or certain groups of energy consumers

Carbon Emissions Reduction Fund

Up to 15% of Energy Redress funds can also be used to support energy-related activities aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions from energy use. These projects must focus on energy generation, distribution or energy use.

Projects seeking support through this funding stream must demonstrate

  • measurable and lasting reductions in the carbon intensity of energy end use and accelerate the transition to Net Zero CO2
  • have a realistic prospect of delivering broadly replicable benefits to existing and/or future energy consumers

If this sounds relevant to your organisation, find out more about the Scheme here, read the application guidance notes here, and find out how to apply here.