Consultation on Cambridgeshire County Council's DRAFT Corporate Energy Strategy
1. The purpose of the strategy is to:
• Provide a better joined up, corporate approach to energy investment, savings and delivery;
• Identify the benefits of a strategic and more ambitious approach to energy for both the authority, its joint working with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough local authorities and our shared communities;
• Understand our role developing modern energy infrastructure that supports the delivery of transport, housing, waste management and smart community projects;
• Identify how we can reduce energy consumption through our service delivery and policy development
• Identify projects, delivery mechanisms and partners that can work with us to help facilitate greater energy resilience for our communities using our shared assets.
• Attract investment into energy infrastructure on the Council's assets which can benefit the broader community
Q1: Is the purpose of the strategy clear?
2. Cambridgeshire County Council’s vision is for a Sustainable and Prosperous Place (see page 3 of the strategy) and identifies that an ambitious approach to energy can support the delivery of the vision through:
• Helping to secure low carbon energy supplies and infrastructure to meet the needs of our businesses and communities;
• Maximising commercialism, income generation and making best use of the Council's assets;
• Building energy resilient communities through aligning the Council's assets and its potential for energy generation with local needs;
• Exploiting new technologies, Internet of Things (IoT) and data analytics to reduce energy consumption;
• Integrating energy solutions into our work on waste, transport, housing and digital infrastructures to bring new solutions and innovation to the growth agenda;
• Attracting investment into Cambridgeshire from third parties to upgrade energy infrastructure on the Council's assets for the benefit of the wider community
Q2: Will this approach to energy contribute positively to our vision for a Sustainable and Prosperous place? Please add in the comments section what more we could consider or how to improve on our approach.
3. To help deliver the vision and energy ambitions, key priorities and outcomes have been developed and are set out on page 4 and 5 of the strategy. The priority areas include:
(I) Energy generation
(ii) Energy supply
(iii) Energy efficiency
(iv) Managing costs
(v) Selling energy
(vi) Supporting growth
Q3: Are the six priority areas and their outcomes on page 5, the right ones?
If No, please explain in the comment box below how these can be adapted and improved. Thank you.
4. Cambridgeshire has the technical potential to deliver energy projects from a range of renewable fuels and technologies as set out in table 3.1 on page 6 of the strategy.
Q4. Are there any local fuels missing from table 3.1 that you would expect to see in this list?
If Yes, please comment below and identify the opportunities and challenges. Thank you.
5. In section 3.3 of the strategy, pages 10-13, we identify the work we are currently doing on energy and new opportunities that need developing to deliver our energy ambitions.
Q5 Have we missed any opportunities that you think we should develop and include in the strategy?
If Yes, please add your ideas and opportunities in the comment box. Thank you.
6. The funding and resourcing of the strategy is set out under section 4, page 15/16 of the draft strategy. Section 4 is a high level summary of the funding opportunities. Please note, it is assumed that business cases for individual projects will be developed and investment agreed, based on the financial and policy merits of the individual projects. In addition it is assumed that every project that is developed will need an engagement plan to secure community inputs.
Q6. Is there anything more you would like to see added under section 4?
Please tell us what else you would like to see in the comments box.Thanks
7. Are there additional skills, mechanisms (such as existing procurements or new procurements, government schemes or public sector companies) that could facilitate the strategy that we have not captured in section 3.3 and 4?
Please tell us more below about the skills and mechanisms that could be available in the comments box. Thank you.
8. The following section asks about yourself. All information provided by you remains completely confidential, however, if you do not feel comfortable providing us with any of this information, it is not mandatory.