Agenda item

The Principle Energy and Sustainability Consultant at City Science provided the Committee with an update in regards to the progress of delivery of the Local Area Energy Plans (LAEPs) within the Region.

It was explained that City Science was producing three LAEPs for South West Wales, in Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot and Swansea; with Pembrokeshire already having their own LAEP. It was noted that although the plans were produced separately and tailored to the local area, it was recognised that there was a need for regional alignment; a lot of the activity being carried out by City Science was ensuring consistency across the Region.

Members were informed that Local Area Energy Planning was a comprehensive study into the local area energy system; looking at the whole system and all of the sectors involved, to determine the energy requirements between now and 2050, and what was needed to decarbonise the energy system during that time. It was added that the LAEP project started in February 2023, and was due to run until February 2024.

A discussion took place in regards to the Corporate Joint Committee and LAEP interaction. It was noted that the Corporate Joint Committee was the regional steering group for LAEP sign off, and also a key stakeholder; whilst the plans were local, they will be developed using regional collaboration. Whilst many of the scenarios were local, it was highlighted that a large number were regional; therefore, ensuring the LAEPs remained connected and transparent with regional governance structures was vital.

Following on from the above, it was explained that whilst the Corporate Joint Committee was not a governing body for LAEP progress, it was important to provide updates on the progress made. Officers confirmed that the individual Local Authorities will soon be receiving their draft LAEPs.

In addition, it was stated that once all LAEPs across Wales were completed, the Energy Systems Catapult, who were the organisation to develop the concept and guidelines for the LAEPs, were going to pull the information together to create regional and national views of Local Area Energy Planning; this would help to provide informed evidence base across Wales.

The presentation detailed information in regards to the various stages of developing a LAEP. It was mentioned that throughout the progress of the LAEP, there was an extensive stakeholder engagement process to assist in the work.

-        Stage 1 and 2 – preparation, project management and producing a stakeholder engagement plan

-        Stage 3 -  developing a baseline using local and national data to understand the local area energy systems

-        Stage 4 – developing various data models for the local area energy systems, including model of future scenarios

-        Stage 5 – refining scenarios and identifying pathway to net zero

-        Stage 6 – developing and prioritising near and long-term actions to support the delivery of the pathway, as well as developing a robust action plan

-        Stage 7 – delivery of the LAEP

 

It was explained that the LAEPs for Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot and Swansea were currently at stage 6 of the process. Members were informed that various workshops had taken place during this stage, including Action Workshops and Prioritisation Workshops; Focus Groups were currently being held to build on the potential actions in a lot more detail.

City Science provided detail in regards to the extensive stakeholder engagement processes that had been undertaken thus far:

-        During Stage 2 – held a Stakeholder Planning Workshop to conduct stakeholder mapping and develop the stakeholder engagement plan.

-        During Stage 3 – held 1:1 interviews (10 per Local Authority) to provide baseline information; following this held a Stakeholder Baseline Review to share the developed baseline.

-        During Stage 4 – held a Scenarios Workshop to explore potential future scenarios; following this held a Modelling Approach Meeting to refine and agree on the modelling approach.

-        During Stage 5 – held a Wider Factors Workshop to understand the wider, non-technical factors in the area; following this provided a Model Outputs Presentation and Pathway Refinement Workshop.

-        During Stage 6 – as previously mentioned, held an Actions Workshop and Project Prioritisation Meeting.

 

It was highlighted that the next steps will be to hold a Governance Workshop with the Local Authorities, and a separate Community Focus Group.

The Committee were provided with detail in regards to the different ways in which actions could be developed. The presentation highlighted an example from Pembrokeshire’s LAEP, in which their actions were split into different categories e.g. electric grid reinforcement, deploy heat pumps and decarbonise transport; and another from Peterborough’s LAEP which used quick wins, low regrets, enabling actions and decision points as part of their actions.

Following on from the above, it was explained that the actions for Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot and Swansea had yet to be confirmed; however there was going to be 15 actions per Local Authority, and the presentation provided an idea of how these actions could be grouped.

The presentation also displayed an example of how the ‘action detail’ could be displayed for each of the final actions. It was mentioned that City Science had been refining this area of work over many years as a consultancy, and had found it was vital to provide extra detail; this would include an overview of the action, route map alignment, governance (both owners and champions of each action), implementation steps, funding requirements, cost benefit, and risk and dependencies.

To conclude the presentation, Members were informed of the next steps and current timeline for those steps:

-        Action Focus Group – 23/8/2023

-        Governance Workshops – 01/12/2023

-        Finalise Actions – 07/12/2023

-        Draft LAEP Delivery – 15/12/2023

-        Feedback from Councils – 19/01/2024

-        Delivery of Final LAEP – 09/02/2024

 

Members queried whether the work being carried out by City Science linked in with the Race to Zero campaign, and if the South West Wales Region would be signing up to this area of work. Officers explained that the Race to Zero campaign was a public facing way of demonstrating the progress being made towards targets. It was noted that arrangements could be made to provide the Committee with further information in regards to Race to Zero, at a future meeting, which could enable the Committee to determine if they wish to take part in this.

A discussion took place in regards to the capital costs involved in producing and delivering the LAEPs. It was explained that it would be a collaborative effort across both public and private sectors to deliver the LAEPs; it would be important to have Welsh Government intervention and funding in order to deliver energy efficiency. It was added that Welsh Government were already supporting with grants for heat pumps, and in regards to the Electrical Vehicle roll out around 97% of that had been leveraged as grant funding to date.

Reference was made to the engagement activities that City Science were undertaking as part of the work for the LAEPs, and whether a community based approach had been considered as part of the activities. It was highlighted that wider stakeholders had been included across a lot of the engagement work, for example engaging with Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and large energy users to discuss how they could potentially reduce consumption. In terms of community groups, it was noted that they had been invited to the workshops that had taken place; there was also an upcoming focus group which was specifically going to look at how the community can be involved in certain actions.

Officers added that there had also been community engagement at Welsh Government level; the team within Welsh Government leading on Local Area Energy Planning were in communication with Community Energy Wales to discuss local area energy planning.

RESOLVED: The report was noted.