The project ‘Social entrepreneurship at the grid edge’ explores how community groups can generate value through an energy system that is becoming more flexible and distributed. The project focuses specifically on demand side response and collective self-consumption opportunities.

Drawing on critical infrastructure studies and place-based entrepreneurship theory it provides an evidence base of how community groups are responding to such opportunities appearing ‘at the grid edge’ and co-produce a toolkit to support more community groups to engage with the energy system.

The project team is carrying out a comparison of two national contexts; the Netherlands where there is regulatory support for community-led innovation and the UK where there is less support. The team has also worked with diverse community groups in Newham to co-design collective energy projects that contribute to Newham’s climate strategy and generate local value.