Consumer Vulnerability

Greener Home

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What the project is about How we’re doing it What makes it innovative What we’re learning

Project Data

Start date:

04/01/2025

End date:

09/30/2026

Budget:

£1,716,885

Summary

Greener Home supports UK Power Network’s ambitious ED2 consumer vulnerability goals by directly assisting 500,000 customers at risk of being left behind in the energy transition. It also contributes to delivering net present value (NPV) and achieving a customer satisfaction (CSAT) target score of 9.5.

What is the project about?

The Greener Home project is creating the Home Energy Saver website, a one-stop resource for customers seeking tailored energy advice. By combining support across income and energy efficiency topics, the site will generate personalised home energy plans to help customers lower their energy use and bills. It is designed to provide practical guidance for everyone, regardless of whether they rent or own their home, their budget, or their prior experience with energy efficiency measures.

 Key features include: 

  • Personalised energy action plan based on user inputs and circumstances, giving bespoke advice to each customer on how they can improve their energy efficiency. Examples of user inputs include housing status, expertise level, and priorities
  • Free and easy to use Benefits and Grants calculator so customers can check if they are entitled to any additional government support or other grants
  • Appliance calculator — to understand how using appliances differently can help save money

Following the development and successful launch of the website, one/multiple innovative add-ons will be developed and integrated. Examples include a game that enables customers to learn how flexibility works at the household level and an augmented reality visualisation tool that can help customers understand how low-carbon technologies could be installed on their property.  

How we’re doing it

The Home Energy Saver website has been developed through multiple rounds of design, development, and customer testing. Given its importance to customer satisfaction scores, we are taking a phased approach to testing and launch, starting with a slow initial rollout. We are collaborating closely with teams across the business, including Consumer Vulnerability and Customer Services, to ensure a successful launch.

The website is accessible via a simple web link and guides users through a short series of questions. Based on their responses, it generates a tailored set of energy-saving recommendations that users can adjust according to their preferences to create a personalised plan. Customers can also choose to use additional tools, such as the grant and benefit eligibility checker and the appliance calculator.

Alongside development, we have conducted research to explore and define innovative features to further enhance the tool. Each selected concept will go through a mini-tender process, after which the chosen supplier(s) will design, develop, test, and embed the feature into the core website, creating an enhanced customer resource.

What makes it innovative

Some elements of the tool are already in use across the UK, for example, Snugg and Citizens Advice provide energy efficiency advice, but bringing these features together into a single platform is a first of its kind. The website creates a one-stop shop for a broad range of guidance and support, making the service more accessible to all customers.

The site is also innovative in how it addresses a well-known barrier to low-carbon technologies: their high cost and limited accessibility for those without disposable income. By signposting available grants and home upgrade schemes, and highlighting simple, low-cost actions that anyone can take, the website helps customers save money while improving their home’s energy efficiency.

What makes the platform unique is its commitment to ongoing innovation. New add-ons will be developed and integrated through research and iterative customer testing, ensuring the tool delivers meaningful value for vulnerable customers and supports them throughout their energy efficiency journey.

What we’re learning

Extensive customer testing has been carried out during the development of this tool, supported by a dashboard that tracks and analyses user interactions. The insights gained go beyond this project, offering valuable lessons on how digital tools should be designed and positioned to encourage customer adoption. As digital solutions become increasingly important, these findings will inform the successful development of future tools, both within Consumer Vulnerability and more widely across the business.

Key learnings include:

  • Customer engagement: how users interact with the tool and navigate its features.

  • Barriers to action: challenges customers face when implementing recommended energy efficiency measures.

  • Content preferences: feedback on what customers value, as well as content that is less effective.

  • Clarity of communication: wording and language that customers find difficult to understand.

  • Engagement channels: preferred methods of communication and distribution.

  • Digital behaviour: patterns of user engagement with online tools.

  • Customer identification: insights into whether usage data can help identify customers eligible for the Priority Services Register (PSR).

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