PETERBOROUGH’S FIRST COMMUNITY ENERGY CHALLENGE

Saving energy ultimately means saving money. With the ever increasing price of fuel and the cost of electricity rising fast there has never been a better time for residents to be more energy efficient. The Community Energy Challenges are the perfect project to help residents focus on this topic in a competitive yet interesting way.

· The aim of this project is to raise awareness of domestic energy usage and efficiency in a fun and interesting way.
· The first challenge was held in February 2010 which saw 100% of the volunteers needed come forward, a total of 62 meters loaned out.
· The project will now be rolled out across other interested communities in Peterborough.
· This project has directly contributed to the city’s Environment Capital agenda.

Background: This project builds upon the successful Peterborough City Council ‘Your Footprint Counts’ climate change campaign. That campaign has already seen the same energy meters (efergy) placed in libraries around the city. The Community Energy Challenge adds a competitive element which we believe has really helped in achieving such a high uptake within the community.

How the initiative worked: Residents in the Werrington community were invited to take part in the first Peterborough Community Energy Challenge initiative. Whilst the trial was run by the council's climate change team it had full support from the all the local councillors within that area.

The launch took place on February 3 at Werrington village hall. All volunteers borrowed an energy monitor for three weeks and were asked to maintain a diary of their energy consumption, using the figures obtained from the monitor. The monitors enabled residents to see how much energy they were using at any given time, the consumption in terms of cost and KWh, as well as help them to learn which household appliances use the most energy.

The results of the challenge were revealed in a special event to mark the end of the trial on Monday 22 March at Ken Stimpson School. There were prizes for the most energy saved as well as goody bags for all participants.

Key findings:
The volunteers were predominantly families, although all aspects of the community were represented in the sample.
66% of participants returned their energy diary within the competition timescale.
Of the surveys completed, 83% found the energy meter easy to use, 69% preferred to watch the KWh mode and 67% of those who responded said that the meters would help them change their energy habits around the home.

Conclusion: This has been the climate change team’s first personalised community initiative. Its has received full support form all ward councillors, something which has really ensured the success of this project. Lessons learnt from this challenge will be carried forward to result in many more successful energy challenges across the city.