EVALUATION

AN INDEPENDENT EVALUATION OF THE LCNF
Another respondent has found these partnerships have established a strong
communication link with commercially driven organisations, and thus they can go to the
market with problems in a more collaborative manner.
A.1.7.4 Other Benefits
One of the respondents commented on the increased amount of customer engagement
they have had as a result of their projects – they have been given an insight into how their
customers view them and their services.
Another respondent identified several benefits, as detailed in the following paragraphs.
They made the point that LCNF projects have provided policy guidance or evidence for
the energy and climate change select committee. This type of input can inform the
political understanding and recognition of the value of smart grids.
A further benefit identified in this response was the creation of a collaborative forum –
saying that the business as usual solutions rolled out were usually a combination of
several projects. They feel the establishing of area-specific forums has been very
effective in producing solutions as it creates a pool of information and knowledge. They
provided two examples of these forums; the Energy Storage Operators’ Forum and the
Sustainability First Smart Demand Forum.
This respondent also believes the LCNF has resulted in economic benefits to UK plc. – it
has given companies an opportunity to develop their products and services, especially
small and medium enterprises. As a result, a number of companies are now doing more
work internationally.
The final benefit this respondent was aware of is the spin off processes and learning from
data that has occurred. They identify an example of a spin off process – the Transform
model – a tool which forecasts the spending profile required to prepare distribution
networks for future uptake of low carbon technologies, which was successfully used at the
ED1 price control view. It originated from bid preparation work in CLNR. This respondent
believes that vast amounts of published data will be a great resource in the future for
researchers.
A.2 Innovation in GB and Internationally
A.2.1
Would The Innovation Projects Have Occurred Without The LCNF (Q2.1)
Questions:
To what extent do you believe that these innovation projects would have occurred
without the LCNF? Are you able to provide examples to support your views?
A.2.1.1 Summary of Responses
All of the respondents were of the view that the LCNF aided the projects occurring to a
degree – two felt the majority would not have happened; three felt they would never have
happened to the same scale and the remaining respondent felt that the fund definitely
sped up the process of the projects coming to fruition.
One of the DNOs made the point that stimulation is needed for innovation to occur in a
sector as regulated as the energy sector and this was in mind when the LCNF was initially
set-up. They believe that not only would the projects not have occurred to the same scale
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