Arup appointed as lead consultant to help power Oxfordshire using local renewable energy

Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford City Council and West Oxfordshire, Cherwell, South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils have joined together, with support from Arup, under the Future Oxfordshire Partnership. They aim to deliver pioneering local area energy plans (LAEPs) for Oxfordshire to address climate change and secure cleaner, more affordable energy for the county.

Arup has been appointed as lead consultant in the development of the LAEPs. These plans will play a critical role in shaping a sustainable future for Oxfordshire, demonstrating how local collaboration can make a significant impact in addressing global challenges. They will provide clear, strategic, and community-focused actions for transforming the way local energy such as wind and solar is generated, used and managed, supporting both local and national climate goals.

They will assess how building improvement measures such as insulation and low-carbon heating can reduce reliance upon fossil fuels. At the same time, they will improve the quality of information necessary to plan and deliver the energy we will need from the electricity grid, ensuring homes and businesses can benefit from cleaner, more reliable power in the years to come.

The LAEPs will also provide more information to energy network providers, enabling them to plan and invest in necessary electricity grid upgrades ahead of demand. This is key to ensuring that Oxfordshire has the energy capacity to meet its future needs, powering homes, businesses and delivering locally generated renewable energy.

To develop the plans, the authorities will work with local communities and businesses to identify projects that will help manage the transition to cleaner energy. The plans will identify specific actions for each district, together with more strategic projects to be delivered at the county level.

Stuart Hallett, Urban Energy North Lead at Arup, said: “With a renewed focus on transitioning the UK’s energy system to net zero, supported through new functions such as the Regional Energy Strategic Planner (RESP) and access to investment vehicles targeted at decarbonisation interventions, such as Great British Energy and the National Wealth Fund, it is vital that regional scale LAEPs are developed and shaped to align with these strategic mechanisms as well as enabling local scale decarbonisation to happen.

“As advocates of a whole-system approach to energy planning at this scale, we are delighted to be working on this industry leading work, supported by our partners Global City Futures and Oxford Brookes University, to deliver a stakeholder led plan, placing people, business and communities at the heart of a cost effective and just transition, while enabling network infrastructure investment to be planned effectively.”

Councillor Liz Leffman, Chair of the Future Oxfordshire Partnership and Leader of Oxfordshire County Council, said: “It doesn’t make sense to spend energy, and therefore money, transmitting electricity made by burning gas through wires and pylons over miles and miles to people in Shrivenham, for example, when they could use the cheap energy created at a nearby windfarm or excess electricity made on a neighbour’s roof. This is why we need a local area energy plan.

“This project is a fantastic example of what can be achieved when we work together to tackle challenges. The six councils of Oxfordshire are joining forces and working with the community to make a plan for a greener, fairer energy system.”