Project Local Energy Oxfordshire (LEO) is one of the most ambitious, wide-ranging, innovative, and holistic smart grid trials ever conducted in the UK.

It aims to improve our understanding of how opportunities can be maximised and unlocked from the transition to a smarter, flexible electricity system and how households, businesses and communities can realise its benefits.

Our electricity system is changing. The increase in small-scale renewables and low-carbon technologies is creating opportunities for consumers to generate and sell electricity, store electricity using batteries, and even for electric vehicles (EVs) to alleviate demand on the electricity system by charging at periods of low demand. To ensure the benefits of this transition are realised, Distribution Network Operators (DNO) like Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) are becoming Distribution System Operators (DSO).

Project LEO seeks to create the conditions that replicate the electricity system of the future to better understand these relationships, and grow an evidence base that can inform how we manage the transition to a smarter electricity system. It will inform how DSOs function in the future, show how markets can be unlocked and supported, create new investment models for community engagement, and support the development of a skilled community positioned to thrive and benefit from a smarter, responsive and flexible electricity network.

Project LEO has various project partners, including the Low Carbon Hub and:

• Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks
• University of Oxford
• Oxford Brookes University
• EDF energy
• Piclo
• Oxfordshire County Council
• Nuvve
• Oxford City Council
• Industrial Strategy