Research services

Tender description

BEIS is developing an innovation competition to support the development of smart meter enabled products and services that enable domestic consumers to reduce their energy consumption. To support delivery of the competition, BEIS wishes to procure a programme of work to evaluate the energy-saving products submitted by competition entrants. The trialled products will use data generated by smart meters (potentially alongside follow-up support) to provide information or tips to consumers that enable and/or motivate them to behave in a more energy efficient manner. The goal of this work will be to understand the magnitude of the effects that these products have on consumer behaviour and the mechanisms through which they exert these effects. To be clear, the procurement advertised here is for the evaluation of products supported by the competition; it is not for the management or organisation of the competition. BEIS wishes to procure a contractor to assess evidence gathered over the course of the Smart Energy Savings (SENS) competition. The SENS competition will support successful applicants to develop products that use smart meter data to help consumers reduce their energy consumption. The contractor will design, monitor and analyse data from trials that test the impact of these products using meter data. The trials will be implemented by competition winners but overseen by the contractor. The number of trials will be determined by the number of successful competition entries but will be capped at eight. The contractor will also: 1) Conduct a light touch evaluation of the competition itself to assess its impact on the market for energy efficiency-promoting products; 2) Conduct qualitative and quantitative research with trial participants to uncover the mechanisms through which the effects of the products were achieved; 3) Participate in the review of innovation competition bids.