Social housing


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Can digital technology alleviate the energy crisis?


Gareth Copland, group operations director at Insite Energy, explores the role digital technology can play in the energy crisis, by helping social housing customers relieve the burden on tenants


W


ith energy and living costs soaring, heat debt and fuel poverty are affecting more people every day. Nowhere is this truer than in the social housing sector, where households have a higher percentage of


vulnerable tenants and have borne the brunt of furlough and job losses during the pandemic, making them more susceptible to falling into debt and less able to recover from it. This creates a tough dilemma for housing providers; while they want to protect their tenants from financial hardship, they cannot continue to absorb the spiralling cost of unpaid bills indefinitely. Each time a household fails to pay its energy bill, it increases the likelihood of tariffs going up further for those that do pay. Housing associations have generally been the last to increase residents’ fuel tariffs in the face of huge price increases. Some used their heavyweight buying power to secure three-year fixed rates which are now up for renewal. Others have already been heavily subsidising energy bills since the pandemic, leaving them little room for manoeuvre when faced with additional price hikes. It’s crunch time, and a fresh approach is urgently needed. There are no easy fixes, but there are some proactive steps that can be taken to minimise costs and ease some of the financial stress for both residents and housing providers.


Maintenance matters


Firstly, make sure the entire heating system is working optimally. Good maintenance is crucial to keeping costs down. If HIUs, energy meters or plant room equipment are in poor condition, underperformance and wastage can occur undetected, with expensive consequences. For instance, bypasses may run incorrectly, draining energy, and residents may unknowingly overconsume. Meters also require regular recalibration for accuracy and faults can lead


to increased risks of bad debt, which on occasion is applied to future tariffs for recovery. This uplift of around 10%, is very likely to be unmanageable for households already struggling to pay big bills. One way to avoid this is with the help of digital management platforms, such as Big Change. Not only are costs reduced as processes become paperless and automated, but remote diagnosis can save maintenance teams copious amounts of time and fuel.


Good data cuts costs


Installing smart meters is another smart move, for several reasons. It’s now known that access to real-time energy usage data stimulates behaviour changes that significantly reduce personal consumption. In our own client base, we’ve observed that residents who can easily monitor how much heat and hot water they’re using each day consume 20-55% less than credit billed customers who have no way of knowing what actions could really impact their bill, or by how much. Smart metering systems also enable housing providers to monitor the efficiency of their heat networks in real time, locating and resolving issues swiftly.


Web benefits


While smart metering solutions are still viewed by some as best suited to private build-to-rent (BRT) developments with ‘tech-savvy’ tenants, the stats show that social housing residents respond very well to the technology too. Earlier this year, a customer experience survey of residents using a digital smart-metering pay-as-you-go app for heat networks called KURVE,


20 August 2022


Gareth Copland, group operations director, Insite Energy


showed that 95% of users make payments online. Some 60% of the survey’s respondents live in local authority and housing association developments. Residents can view, monitor, and manage their energy account from any internet-connected device, anytime and anywhere. This helps them to keep track of where their money’s going and feel in greater control of their finances. This can be enormously beneficial, given that many of our housing association clients are telling us that mental health is becoming an increasingly prominent issue among their residents as their financial struggles worsen. As well as the convenience, control, and information benefits, using a web-


app reduces capital, (CapEx), operational (OpEx) and replacement (RepEx) expenditure for housing providers and disruption for tenants by avoiding the need to install and maintain in-home display units. This can translate into very welcome cost savings of up to 56%, which can be passed onto residents through lower tariffs.


Inaction is not an option


There are no simple answers to the energy and cost-of-living crises and a lot more needs to be done to support social housing residents buckling under the pressure of soaring bills. In the meantime, however, obviating any unnecessary costs through accurate, visible energy usage data and a regime of good maintenance are essential first steps. Although upgrading to the latest digital systems might seem counterintuitive when belts are tightening everywhere, the potential CapEx, OpEx and RepEx savings are significant and should not be ignored. Outdated technology can ultimately end up costing more in energy use and maintenance than the price of its replacement.


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