Scottish building optimisation company arbnco has won a £641,000 contract for phase two of the government innovation competition ‘Boosting Access for SMEs to Energy Efficiency’ (BASEE).
The contract with the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) through its Energy Innovation Programme will allow arbnco to develop a prototype of its Digital Energy Efficiency Platform (DEEP) to improve energy efficiency across the UK’s 5.9m SMEs. Phase two of the project will involve arbnco deploying the prototype for pilots in the central belt of Scotland, the West Midlands and Bridgend, Wales.
Led by arbnco, the project brings together expertise from multinational energy and services company Centrica, Energy Systems Catapult, Aston Business School, Durham County Council and sustainable finance company, Cyan Finance.
DEEP will simplify the process of engaging with energy efficiency, by automatically optimising a business’ total energy consumption and the energy performance of its premises specifically.
The platform will utilise a range of data sources such as energy consumption and building energy performance, retrieved automatically or supplied by the SME, to generate a bespoke list of physical and behavioural energy efficiency recommendations together with costs, trusted suppliers and finance options.
Centrica, whose brands include British Gas and Scottish Gas, is the UK’s biggest energy supplier to business with 340,000 customers. The multinational energy and services company will be working with arbnco to roll the platform out to market.
Phase two of the project commenced in February 2020 and runs for 14 months. Following completion in April 2021, the platform will be rolled out nationally.
