The Smart Energy Affordability Fund works with organisations that support people to take up and benefit from low carbon technologies and smart energy products and services.

Administered by the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) on behalf of National Grid Energy Distribution (NGED), the fund has helped people be warmer at home and been a vital lifeline for many households across the NGED area since 2016.

Eligible organisations can apply for grants between £30,000 and £40,000.

Applicants will need to show how this funding will give them the opportunity to deliver activities in a way that would not have been possible otherwise. Applications will be scored against set criteria and assessed against the broader strategic aims of NGED.

Apply now

Click here to jump down to the Smart Energy Affordability Fund guidance for applicants and application form (MS Word document), and to the eligibility notice.

Applications are open until midday on Thursday 27 March 2025.

Last year’s awards

In 2023-24 we awarded £250,000 to seven local energy advice organisations. They trained 483 frontline workers, who in that year supported 3,166 hard-up households who saved £1.15m on their heating and energy use. Around 1,000 we signed up to their energy companies Priority Services Register, and the same number given advice on low-carbon and smart energy.

You can read about which projects we supported during 2023-24 here (.pdf).

And here are the headline figures in graphic form.

Smart energy advice and low carbon transition support

This programme will help to enable every customer to participate and benefit in a net zero energy system, by offering the right advice at the right moment in each customer’s journey, to ensure no one is left behind in the energy transition.

The Smart Energy Affordability Fund helps fund costs of in-depth and innovative local affordable warmth advice, smart energy advice and low carbon transition support. It supports initiatives run by energy advice providers and community organisations in the National Grid (formerly WPD) network area across the East Midlands, South & West Wales, South West, and West Midlands.

Discover more about our previous funded projects here.

Smart Energy Affordability Fund funding objectives

The specific focus of the funding changes to meet the challenges facing vulnerable customers. More broadly, the Smart Energy Affordability Fund supports activities that meet one or more of the following objectives:

• Provide in-depth one-to-one advice and support to help vulnerable households take up and benefit from low carbon technologies and smart energy products and services.
• Provide in-depth one-to-one fuel poverty advice and support by helping vulnerable households to lower and manage their bills, make their homes more energy efficient, reduce their energy demand and maximise their income.
• Provide support and advice to increase resilience of vulnerable households to severe winter weather and what to do in a power cut – including identifying new registrants for the Priority Services Register (PSR) and offering support to households already registered.
• Target home energy advice and support to households that are in areas of higher deprivation, at greater risk, not connected to the gas network or who have difficulty accessing support.
• Connect with healthcare providers, other support organisations and community partners, to widen networks; raise awareness of the links between cold, damp homes and poor physical and mental health; improve collaboration to register PSR eligible patients; and increase access to support.

The fund is open to all organisation types, but activities must take place within the National Grid network area. Check if that’s your area. 

How to apply

Applications are open until midday on Thursday 27 March 2025.

To download the Smart Energy Affordability Fund guidance for applicants and application form (MS Word document) click on the button. You may want to read the eligibility requirements below first.

Eligibility

To qualify for a grant, you must be able to meet these criteria. For the full criteria, read the guidance on the application form.

• Your project activity takes place within the National Grid network area as shown here: www.nationalgrid.co.uk/our-network/distribution-area-search.
• You have experience of delivering in-depth one-to-one energy advice to vulnerable households. If you can’t demonstrate this, then you’ll need to partner with a local organisation experienced in energy advice and submit a joint application clearly outlining a combined approach. Please get in touch with CSE if you’d like to discuss this.
• You are legally incorporated with a bank account in the name of your organisation. Small organisations that are unincorporated may only apply if they work with a willing organisation who can manage the receipt of funding on their behalf.
• If you are a statutory body or private enterprise you need to demonstrate why this funding is required and why your proposed activities cannot be funded from existing business models or statutory funding sources.
• You have robust reporting mechanisms and are able to meet the requirements to provide customer data and monitoring data.
• You are free to attend a kick-off event held on Zoom on Tuesday 3 June 2025.
• Your activity will be completed by 31 May 2026.