ECOE is a finalist in the Fuel Poverty Action, Social and Environmental Impact, Community Energy Organisation of the Year and Community Energy Champion (Team) awards
Exeter Community Energy (ECOE) has successfully earned four shortlist places in the Community Energy England awards 2022, the most of any organisation entering the awards. ECOE is a finalist in the Fuel Poverty Action, Social and Environmental Impact, Community Energy Organisation of the Year and Community Energy Champion (Team) awards. The winners will be announced on 10 November at City Hall, in London.
Initially, ECOE focussed on setting up its 10 solar power generation sites. However, the awards primarily celebrate the enormous success of its Healthy Homes for Wellbeing project. The Healthy Homes project’s Home Energy Advisors assisted 4,411 homes in ECOE’s 2021/2022 financial year ended March 2022, with home visits, telephone advice calls and one-to-ones at clinics and events. We estimate that these efforts will save clients £1.72 million.
Helping in hard times
The team run drop-in advice clinics at 19 venues, mostly community centres and food bank locations, and have become an integral part of the community service in many of these centres. The community regularly invites us to give talks and to attend green events. We also have a hardship fund, which provides fuel vouchers to vulnerable residents. Over the past four years we have built up a large referral network, targeting key frontline worker groups. These include social care organisations, medical teams and foodbanks. We send newsletters to more than 750 of these key workers. As a result, we receive more than 80 new referrals each month from them requesting help and support for vulnerable households.
ECOE’s high level of innovation inspires and motivates other community groups to do similar work. The team also supports them in that goal. For example, the Healthy Homes team has produced a software tool for tracking clients for fuel poverty work. Two other community energy groups have now adopted it. We have also recruited a benefits advisor to expand the range of support we can offer.
ECOE director Andy Extance said:
The 2022 energy crisis is enormously worrying, representing a major challenge to everyday people, while our government is in chaos. Community energy groups like ECOE show that local people can do something practical to help. We at ECOE are delighted that four more award nominations recognise our continuing success in driving positive change. However, this is all about our community. Our success is just a reflection of the work of our team and the backing of our members and supporters. It also reflects the great relationships with our partners.
