London Mayor Sadiq Khan has kickstarted his flagship Energy for Londoners scheme with a series of new initiatives to boost local energy use in the capital.
The £34 million scheme will see City Hall make use of its junior electricity licence through a year-long pilot that will see locally generated cleaner energy bought and used to power Transport for London (TfL) buildings.
The scheme, which has gone live this month, will use energy bought from housing association Peabody Services’ solar installations and a CHP Plant at Woolwich Arsenal owned by Scottish & Southern Energy, to help power the Northfields and Northumberland Park depots, which service and maintain trains for the London’s underground network.
The plans will supplement TfL’s own efforts to boost clean energy across its property, with Engie today unveiled as the winner of a competitive tender which will see 1.1MW of solar deployed on buildings including bus stations and offices.
Khan has also moved forward plans to tender for the delivery of an energy supply company for London, aiming to offer fairer energy bills to Londoners.
The mayor has faced criticism over this plan following an election campaign which promised to establish an ‘Energy for Londoners’ not-for-profit company, providing a range of energy services including buying clean energy generated across the city to power London’s public buildings.
However, City Hall has since moved to issue a tender for the delivery of an energy supply company in London via a ‘white label plus’ model through an existing supplier, prompting campaigners to brand the move a ‘white-label whitewash’
Other measures outlined today include a new £2.5 million package offering free home energy improvements including boilers, heating controls and insulation worth up to £4,000 to London’s most vulnerable home owners that are struggling to pay fuel bills.
Khan said: “It’s a sad fact that for many Londoners, keeping their homes warm during the cold winter months is a luxury they simply cannot afford. My Energy for Londoners scheme aims to help those most in need with grants for new boilers, windows and home insulation to help cut fuel bills.
“I’m also working on a number of ambitious projects to generate more local clean energy to power our homes, businesses and communities.”
The Mayor is also testing new and innovative ways to reduce energy bills down to near zero through whole-house ‘eco-refurbishments’ in a new Energy Leap project. The pilot scheme will refurbish ten homes installing insulation, solar panels, heat pumps and other measures from this summer to test if it can be rolled out more widely across London.
