On 2 April 2025, our founder and director Dr Mary Gillie appeared in front of the House of Commons Energy Security and Net Zero Committee to give evidence on "Unlocking community energy at scale".
In this wide-ranging session, which highlighted the complexity of electricity trading regulations, she set out how the concept of local energy markets (of which Energy Local clubs are an example) can empower communities and give people greater agency over energy generation, consumption and costs.
You can watch back here from 4pm onwards.
At Energy Local, we're currently campaigning for a modification to electricity trading regulations to simplify and clarify the rules around setting up local energy markets - you can read more and join our campaign here.
Local energy markets can also help incentivise households to match their consumption to local generation, which leads to more efficient "balancing" of local electricity distribution networks and national markets.
This potentially frees up connection capacity, allowing for more small-scale renewable generation to be installed and contributing to the UK government's community renewables targets and decarbonisation. It would also reduce the costs of decarbonisation for all.
Adopting the "P441" modification and simplification this year would give more communities the opportunity to take greater control over their energy costs, while more radical changes to electricity trading rules, and the role of suppliers in supporting community energy, continue to be discussed.