Episode
In this episode, we speak with Mairi Brookes, Executive Director at the Low Carbon Hub (LCH) in the UK, about her and their amazing work in community energy and how they embrace the opportunities and challenges with combined efforts across 50 community energy groups.
Mairi speaks about her route into community energy as well as the LCH role in the Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks’ Local Energy Oxfordshire (LEO) project. She highlights the community led deployment of clean energy and the energy management platforms that help create value and positive climate impact: together, the People’s Power Station. Tapping flexibility value streams through a digital platform with more open data access is seen as an essential means of delivering the contribution from smaller scale energy assets. Policymakers, local government and platform providers taking the long-view is noted as an essential to allow community energy to fulfil its potential. Listen for some great insights on the way forward from our quick-fire questions round.
About our Guest (Mairi Brookes)
An experienced professional and a woman on a mission: As Smart Energy Systems Director at Low Carbon Hub I help to accelerate carbon emissions reduction through the development of new business models for community energy projects.
Formerly an astrophysics researcher I switched my career to sustainability in 2007 and have made my way from: product manager at a start-up developing carbon management software; through three years in central government at the Department of Energy and Climate Change as a Senior Energy Policy Officer; seven years at Oxford City Council as Sustainable City Manager working on community energy, city-scale decarbonization and electric vehicle infrastructure, and a short stint as Head of Transformation at its trading company Oxford Direct Services. Before joining the Hub this year I was freelancing via Purpose Built Consulting Ltd and I have been a Director at Westmill Solar Cooperative since June 2019.
About Us
Smarter Grid Solutions is a leading enterprise energy management software company operating internationally from bases in the UK and US.
Smarter Grid Solutions’ DERMS products are used by distribution utilities, energy service companies and microgrid operators to manage grid capacity and resilience and to seamlessly integrate energy assets to the grid and market. Its software already manages over 400 MW of distributed energy resources around the world and has saved customers over $300 million in grid upgrades.
If you’d like to find out how our smart energy management products help clean energy developers to add value and push towards net zero then visit us at: www.smartergridsolutions.com
