The UK Government has pledged £10million for the current year to help businesses cut their energy costs and reduce demand for power.
The Electricity Demand Reduction pilot scheme will offer £10million (out of a £20million full-pilot pot) to businesses who apply for funding for projects that reduce electricity demand, dependent on upfront funding.
Applications will be open till July 29, with more than 300 organisations as diverse as hospitals, airports and supermarket chains having already expressed interest in the auction.
The figure adds to the £45billion energy investment already made between January 2010 and December 2013, with nearly £8billion investment in renewable technologies in 2013 alone, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey said.
The investment will ensure continued power supply on and a low-carbon energy system, which would support up to 250,000 jobs by 2020, he told The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) Energy Conference on Thursday.
The government also plans to remove unnecessary barriers to investment in infrastructure by scrapping rules that prevent the same companies investing and exercising rights in both generation and transmission networks at the same time, according to the announcement.
“Our plan is powering growth and jobs in the UK economy. We are building a secure, sustainable energy system for the future, dealing with an historic legacy of underinvestment and neglect that threatened to undermine the whole economy,” Davey said.
“I want to unlock the untapped potential of better efficiency in electricity use – so that more efficient kit can compete with building new power stations in the future.
“Our £20million pilot will fund schemes that will help reduce our demand – not only saving businesses and their customers money, but reducing the amount of electricity we’ll need to generate.
“And by stripping away barriers to investment in our energy market, we’ll make attracting capital investment cheaper and easier – meaning real benefits for the British economy and British consumers.”
