tailored for the Universities & Education market

The energy sector is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the UK. If the UK Government is to meet its carbon budgets the sector will need to be largely decarbonised by 2030. Critical factors to consider in achieving this will include policy changes, low-carbon technologies, grid up-grades and realising the potential for innovation and sustainable growth.

SSE Energy Solutions can design and build, as well as, adopt and manage your private electricity network, taking full responsibility for its network resilience and improving its energy efficiency and sustainability.

Electricity Infrastructure forms the core energy backbone for any organisation and having a private electricity network can bring significant business advantages.

Reliable electrical power is an inherent necessity for any organisation and for high energy users where there is a private electrical network, balancing investment and risk mitigation whilst maintaining resilient supplies is a complex undertaking for many businesses and local authorities. The UK’s transformer fleet is generally considered to be aged and there are significant risks associated with this – risks to business operations, unplanned repair or replacement costs, and not least threat to life due to fire risks. SSE Energy Solutions can adopt and manage your private electricity network, taking responsibility for its network resilience and improving its energy efficiency and sustainability.

For new developments we will design and build your network to meet the most stringent standards of safety and efficiency and where appropriate, SSE’s Independent Network Operator business can adopt, own and operate the distribution network.

Clients connected to our networks benefit from regulated charges, freedom of choice of supplier and guaranteed performance standards.

Solar & Storage

For institutions interested in generating their own energy, SSE Energy Solutions offers fully-funded solar solutions where we develop, build, own, operate and maintain solar systems.

Zero carbon energy is then provided at no upfront cost – simply charged under a fixed term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

We utilise onsite space such as car park canopies, vacant ground space, or roof-tops to deploy Solar PV and create value from under-utilised assets. If you don’t have available onsite space, we can secure offsite land, delivering energy through a private wire, or from a remote solar facility via the grid.

Our whole system capability means we can integrate solar generation with a wider range of complementary distributed energy solutions, bespoke to your site requirements and ensuring your energy resources are fully optimised for efficiency and carbon reduction whilst adding/improving resilience?”

Renewable Energy as Standard

SSE Energy Solutions enables you to show the world that you are committed to a sustainable future through choosing our UK generated renewable energy.

All parts of the higher education market must act now to reduce their carbon emissions, for their employees, staff and their students. SSE Energy Solutions enables you to show the world that you are committed to a sustainable future through choosing our UK generated renewable energy.

Not all green energy is equal. Some renewable energy tariffs give just the illusion of being green, though purchasing Green Certificates from generators in the UK or EU. At SSE we are investing £7.5Bn by 2025 in order to treble the amount of renewable energy we generate and this is the energy we supply to all our business customers. Further more, we are third party verified by AToS giving you the assurance that your supply is 100% renewable.

Traceability is important. To boost your sustainability credentials further, you can choose SSE Next Generation where every unit of electricity is matched to a named generating asset, providing specific traceability. Or, we can give you direct access to output from specific SSE generation assets through our Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) options.

What going green can do for you. Having authentic CSR (corporate social responsibility) credentials is increasingly important in procurement and can help you win business as well as engage employees and attract investors. We can work with you to start improving your entire supply chain’s sustainability, too.

Decarbonising heat is critical to achieving net zero, and innovators have a vital role to play. Here is our overview of the heat decarbonisation challenge and how we can tackle it through market leading, sustainable low carbon solutions.

We design, build, own, operate, and maintain heat and cooling networks for property developers, housing associations, local authorities and universities across the UK.

Across the UK, generating heat consumes nearly half off all the energy we use! Domestic heating accounts for around 20% of the nation’s carbon emissions.

Currently, most electricity networks are either generation or capacity constrained, meaning EV chargers, electric powered heat pumps and renewables cannot connect.

Heat networks can provide the ideal solution in areas with high heat load, such as city centres. They enable us to distribute waste heat from, for example industrial processes and distribute it to nearby customers. Using that waste heat means we don’t need so much electricity to generate heat and therefore helps to reduce the overall demand on the electricity grid. Heat networks can provide the lowest cost, lowest carbon heat for homes and businesses in UK cities.

Undoubtedly, decarbonising heat sources is one of the biggest challenges facing UK energy policymakers over the next few decades.

These challenges will be difficult to overcome. But not impossible with the right combination of innovative design, investment, reliability and resilience, as well as positive change to regulation to support our path to net zero.

The Transport Decarbonisation Plan (TDP) will set out in detail what government, business and society need to do to achieve carbon budget targets and net zero emissions across every single mode of transport by 2050.

SSE Energy Solutions provide simple end-to-end vehicle charging solutions designed for your campus to support in being ready for the electric vehicle (EV) revolution.

We make business, students and employees’ lives easier and show commitment to sustainability with our EV workplace and campus fleet charging solutions.

We deploy fleet and community EV charging hubs, electrify bus depots, support with workplace charging and help our clients to develop long-term EV strategies. We offer:

• Simple, scalable EV charging solutions for businesses, from a couple of charge-points at their offices, to providing access to large EV charging networks across the country.
• We support companies in showing their commitment to sustainability, we help their staff to drive greener and to cut carbon.
• We attract employees and make their lives easier with convenient charging solutions at the workplace and on the go.
• We provide a specific EV time of use tariff to incentivise companies to take advantage of lower priced periods for charging.
• All of the energy we supply is fully traceable to SSE’s UK generating wind and hydro assets

SSE Energy Solutions Smart Buildings integrate technology and process to create a facility that is safer, more comfortable and productive for its occupants, and more operationally efficient for its owners.

SSE Energy Solutions Smart Buildings integrate technology and process to create a facility that is safer, more comfortable and productive for its occupants, and more operationally efficient for its owners, using innovative, integrated Building Energy Management solutions.

SSE Energy Solutions’ Smart Buildings team provide Building Energy Management System (BEMS) design, operation and maintenance services for new buildings, major refurbishments, or retrofitting into existing buildings. The system controls and monitors all the essential heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) plant, power and equipment that ensure the building continues to run efficiently, safely and comfortably.

Increasingly, our Smart Buildings Platform can connect other systems, such as lighting or fire safety, as well as offer an engineered solution of actively treating the air in mechanically ventilated buildings and removing contaminants and particulates such as bacteria and viruses. Moreover, sensor technology is moving at pace and with wireless connection of additional IoT devices. It’s now possible to have even smarter dynamic estate monitoring and control, based on real-time building occupancy and other usage and performance metrics to improve energy and cost efficiency, whilst also improving staff well-being.

Our breadth of technical expertise covers all the main BEMS (building energy management system) platforms in the UK, including Siemens, Trend, and Tridium systems – all of which can be controlled remotely from our state-of-the-art Energy Management Centre. We also have a national network of local offices ready to respond should you ever need an engineer to visit your site. Our Business Energy Intelligence service gives business’ all the information they need by taking in half-hourly data for optimising the workplace. Understanding where you use your energy is the first step to reducing it. BEI enables customers to visualise their consumption up to half hourly granularity and compare to previous periods to spot trends and exceptions to save money, cost, and ultimately carbon.

The Association of University Directors of Estates (AUDE) promotes excellence in the strategic planning, management, operation and development of Higher Education estates and facilities. AUDE offers membership to publicly funded UK bodies whose primary remit is higher education teaching and/or research.

As leaders within University Communities, we recognise that AUDE members are under increasing pressure to achieve Net Zero and Decarbonisation targets across the campus estate, as well as maintaining high standards of academic excellence and demonstrable value for money for students.

To support these aims, we deliver innovative and fully funded campus-wide energy infrastructure solutions which further support the decarbonisation pathway to net zero. Using SSE’s evidence-based holistic 'Whole System' approach across multiple energy vectors and digital technologies we improve your system’s resilience, increase sustainability and reduce energy risk.

SSE Energy Solutions is a division of SSE that delivers ‘Business Energy’ electricity & gas supply as well as ‘Distributed Energy’ infrastructure solutions to public and private businesses across the UK and Ireland. The range of energy solutions and services provided through our Distributed Energy (DE) team, compliments the UK’s national de-carbonisation strategy and includes:

• Low carbon, renewable energy generation
• De-carbonisation of heat solutions and district heat networks
• Private & regulated electricity network infrastructures
• Smart buildings and digital solutions that optimise energy use
• Fully funded and de-risked, tangible hard energy infrastructure solutions
• A genuine energy partnership where SSE invests in, develops the solution and ensures long-term energy, cost & carbon outcomes
• We are truly an energy pioneer, with a clear vision and focus to deliver a better world of energy. Part of that vision and focus is the commitment and desire to partner with the AUDE to power change in University communities across the UK & Ireland, helping to maintain your University performance metrics and to achieve your Net Zero ambitions

Jane White - Executive Officer - The Association of University Directors of Estates (AUDE)