Alyth  Climate  Action Town

The Energy Challenge Project

Project background

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform ( formerly the Department of Trade and Industry) awarded Scottish Hydro Electric a research contract, in partnership with Ofgem and the University of Reading, to carry out and evaluate a two year trial project with a number of communities in the UK, to explore the potential for communities to reduce their energy costs.

Why Alyth?

Three such communities were identified in Perth & Kinross - Alyth, Comrie and Letham - that met certain criteria for the project. Alyth was chosen as a suitable community   due to its size (approx 1,200 homes);   its location in respect of the head offices of Scottish & Southern Energy(SSE) in Perth;   its suitable electricity supply infrastructure; but primarily because Alyth had demonstrated a commitment to energy efficiency through its recent and proposed activities with the Alyth Climate Action Town project (ACAT).

What will the ACAT project do?

The project aims to help Alyth residents reduce their electricity usage, and also provide Scottish and Southern Energy and the government with valuable research data.

Smart Meters

Firstly SSE offered its customers the installation of SMART meters in their homes, to monitor their electricity consumption. Non-SSE customers were offered a more basic version of the SMART meter. This would enable householders to view their electricity usage in an easy to understand format (such as pounds and pence) that can be displayed in an accessible and visible position in the house. In theory the installation of Smart meters in homes makes users more conscious of unnecessary electricity usage, such as leaving appliances on standby, and will reduce overall electricity use as a result. From this activity, SSE hope to get a better understanding of how the installation of these can change electricity users’ actions, but it also hopes to learn from the practicalities of installing these meters, prior to a possible roll out programme across the whole UK in the near future.

Community activities

The second aspect of the project looked at the initiating other activities through which the community could engage in order to reduce its electricity use. Alyth was given a budget of  £30,000 over a 2 year period, in conjunction with a challenge to reduce the community’s electricity usage by 10% within this time period. The money would enable the community to carry out a range of awareness raising activities, educational events and promotional material. It was not intended that this money be used for any major installation of renewable energy equipment. However if the community did meet their target, then a further  £20,000 would be awarded to them, and this was intended to be spent on some larger renewable technology project of benefit to the whole community.

Managing the project

Scottish & Southern Energy has overseen all aspects of the project in all three communities, but the intent has been for each community to have ownership of the project and the freedom to be innovative. The project has been coordinated under the Alyth  Climate Action Town (ACAT)   initiative, currently managed by the Alyth Environmental Group (AEG). Thus AEG has been the lead organisation for the project in Alyth, but they are looking for full community support and participation in all aspects of the project, not just to help meet the target, but to further put Alyth on the map as a leading example of an active and environmentally aware community in Scotland.

Project timescale

The project began on 15th September 2007 with a launch event involving the ‘magic planet’ show by Sensation Dundee. This started the clock for the 2 year countdown.   At this point the community’s current average energy usage was   recorded. From that date a number of community workshops and meetings and training events have been held, in conjunction with the installation of SMART meters across Alyth.

Following the recruitment of a project Co-ordinator and seven Energy Advisors - all trained and qualified to the relevant City & Guilds level - a street-by-street energy audit and insulation phase was launched in May 2009.

How did we do?


See how our Street By Street Insulation Project progressed.