As our energy system becomes greener, it also needs to become smarter and more flexible to accommodate high volumes of renewable energy. We need to change how and when we use renewable energy to make the most of times when it’s plentiful – when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing to power our solar farms and turbines.

To encourage this, a wide range of schemes and technologies are emerging that help people participate in flexible energy use. These include simple devices like smart plugs, kits that help people optimise their use of low carbon technologies like solar panels or heat pumps, and schemes like the Demand Flexibility Service. 

These smart energy options come with great benefits like savings on energy bills and increased convenience, but they also risk creating new forms of unfairness as new complexities or costs can exclude some people. As a result, it’s vital that everyone has access to impartial advice to help them understand and benefit from smart energy options.

Smart Energy Action Plans: A new type of energy advice

We’re being funded by National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) to deliver advice that helps people make the most of new options in the smart energy market. These are called Smart Energy Action Plans (SMEAPs), which provide personalised recommendations on ways to access smart energy offers based on a person’s capabilities and priorities. Through SMEAPs, we provide tailored advice to people with varied needs, like June and Keith (names changed for privacy).

June’s story

June is a housing association tenant. She has rooftop solar panels but when she spoke to us, she expressed frustration that they weren’t helping her to save much money. She also suffers from chronic back pain. 

We gave June advice on how she could shift her electricity use, such as changing the times when she uses lots of electricity, to make the most of the free power generated by her solar panels. We also recommended that she get some smart plugs. These would enable her to set timers for different appliances to turn on and off throughout the day. They’d also let her control appliances remotely, so she wouldn’t need to access awkwardly placed power sockets, which triggered her back pain. 

Keith’s story

Keith is a local authority tenant and full-time carer. When he spoke to us, he said he was desperate to reduce his energy bills. 

We gave Keith advice about getting a smart meter and how this could help him monitor his energy use and save money. Keith is digitally confident and often at home during the day, so we also suggested he could benefit from a dynamic time-of-use tariff, which offers cheaper prices for electricity at variable times. We advised that smart plugs could help him control his appliances more easily, so he could make the most of this kind of tariff.

How SMEAPs help people

We recently undertook an evaluation of our service to better understand how it currently supports people and identify areas for improvement. Below is a summary of what we found. For more detail, you can read the full service assessment report here.

High satisfaction and unique value

SMEAPs continue to stand out in the UK energy advice landscape, effectively filling a gap in current support available. Feedback from people who had received SMEAPs revealed a striking 94% satisfaction rate, alongside 73% reporting that they couldn’t have obtained the advice elsewhere.

The advice was praised for its appropriate detail and ease of understanding, a key strength of the service, as the rapidly changing energy market can make independent research complex and overwhelming. SMEAPs address this challenge by presenting tailored information in a digestible format, highlighting the expertise and judgement of our energy advisors:

People also emphasised the impartiality and trustworthiness of the advice at a time where the quantity of information available online can make identifying credible sources challenging. SMEAP advisors were described as friendly, helpful and patient: “I liked how the questions were open rather than rigid, and the advisor was keen to just chat – his active listening made it feel very personal.”

Knowledge and confidence gains

SMEAPs were valued by people for helping them think more strategically about energy use, providing reassurance, and offering unbiased, comprehensive advice.

92% of survey respondents reported increased knowledge of smart energy options, and 73% felt more confident after receiving advice. For some people, the information they received enabled them to understand how to get the most out of existing technologies in their home:

Many people found that the process validated their decisions, particularly in relation to making major changes to their home such as installing solar PV, batteries or new heating systems.

Action and impact

75% of survey respondents said that they plan to take up at least one recommendation from their Smart Energy Action Plan. There was a high uptake of smart heating controls and static time-of-use tariffs, with interviewees also reporting adoption of more expensive smart products such as solar PV and heat pumps. This spread of uptake ranging from smaller offers to larger installations highlights the flexibility of SMEAPs in accommodating a wide spectrum of households with differing capabilities and needs.

Since the previous evaluation, there has been an increase in people experimenting with flexing their energy usage. Last year only 26% immediately started flexing, compared to to 47% this year. This demonstrates how SMEAPs are making flexing more accessible for those facing barriers to participation in the energy transition.

People also noted material benefits such as energy cost savings and improved thermal comfort as a result of SMEAP advice.

Challenging market for vulnerable and fuel poor households

People continue to struggle with financial barriers to low carbon technologies (LCTs) and trust in smart meters, as highlighted by our Smart Energy Advice Forum in 2024. CSE’s advisors can help to overcome these barriers by building positive relationships and partnerships with retrofit schemes, and by doing lots of mythbusting on smart meters.

A few people struggled with tariff advice, and there was low uptake of recommended smart tariffs among interviewees. This might reflect the lack of suitable smart tariffs for many of the people we support, e.g. those with storage heaters.

There was limited evidence of impact for people without, or not seeking, LCTs like solar PV. Unfortunately, the market still offers comparatively few options for non-LCT households that meet the key motivations for most people: saving money and going greener.

Areas for improvement

A need for follow-up support and additional information

Several people expressed a desire for more follow-up support after their advice call. This would help consolidate new information, encourage action, and address any challenges encountered. Some also stated a preference for more face-to-face support, particularly to help with assessing the suitability of a property for retrofit or to troubleshoot newly installed heating systems.

Some people also suggested including an additional resource that lists all the organisations mentioned in their personal plan. This would inform them of who is likely to be involved at each stage of the retrofit journey.

Improving the format of resources

The evaluation found limited evidence of the value of written reports compared to the in-depth telephone advice call. Some interviewees suggested that the format of advice resources that are sent to people following their advice call could be improved by including more visual content. It is possible, therefore, that improving the format of written reports could enhance their usability and value.

Acting on the recommendations

We’ve listened to the feedback and we’re currently working towards improving our SMEAP process. Some home visits and casework are now also being offered alongside telephone advice calls, thanks to additional funding from National Grid’s Energy Affordability Fund. Easier to understand resources have also been developed, such as SMEAP advice packs for social housing tenants.

The future of smart energy advice

The latest SMEAPs evaluation has shown that there is a real need for this innovative approach to energy advice. It highlighted the benefits of using a capabilities approach and that this kind of detailed, bespoke support is crucial to ensure we provide the right advice in an emerging market in which information can be dynamic and complex.

The broader energy context also offers challenges. Smart meters are key to unlocking smart energy benefits, but low consumer confidence in smart meters remains a barrier. In the cost-of-living crisis, some very vulnerable people may also have limited capacity to engage with this new area of advice. Finding ways of making smart energy advice meaningful for these groups will be a key aim for future work.