About the SENS trials
The SENS project ran from 2019 – 2022. For the full reports on the outcomes of the project see: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) website.
The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) funded several Smart Energy Savings (SENS) projects to develop and trial innovative energy feedback products and services that used smart meter data to help consumers reduce their energy consumption.
An independent Trial Design and Evaluation Lead (TDEL) worked with SENS project leads to:
- develop a trial of their product
- lead a robust evaluation to identify the impact on household energy consumption; and
- implement a package of wider research (with projects and domestic customers participating in the trial).
The TDEL consortium was headed up by Ipsos MORI working with the Energy Saving Trust and the University of Edinburgh.
The UCL Smart Energy Research Lab (SERL) based at University College London provided energy consumption data from trial households (with customer consent) to the TDEL for their analyses.
For more information see the ‘frequently asked questions’ below, read more on the BEIS website or view the infographic or contact [email protected]
It is important that some products and services are independently evaluated. The UK Government has appointed the research company Ipsos MORI and its approved partners to do this. Evidence from this evaluation will help to inform the development of future policy to support household energy efficiency. Part of the evaluation is to check if the products and services being trialled help you to use less energy (there are six separate projects and each participant will only normally be involved in one). To do this, Ipsos MORI needs to access data on how much energy your household uses. This data is held in your smart meter. If you choose to participate in the trial, Ipsos MORI will access the energy data stored on your smart meter using a service provided by University College London (UCL). Your smart meter data will be used by Ipsos MORI, its approved partners and UCL solely for the purposes of this research study.
- If you provide your consent, the project lead organisation will share your name, address and information about your smart meter(s) with UCL.
- With your consent, UCL will use this information to remotely collect data on your energy use from your smart meter (see further FAQs for how UCL does this). UCL will not need to visit your address and your energy bills will not be affected by this in any way.
- UCL will continue to collect your smart meter data for the duration of the trial, or until you withdraw from the trial (see FAQ on withdrawing from the project) or you move home. UCL will link your smart meter data with data from the Energy Performance Certificate for your property, if available. Energy Performance Certificate data can provide valuable information about your building and heating system to help better understand your energy use data.
- UCL will provide secure access to your smart meter and Energy Performance Certificate data only to the Ipsos MORI team and only for the purposes of this specific project.
Taking part in this trial is entirely voluntary – we hope lots of people do sign up as it will help us to understand whether the products and services being trialled are able to support UK homes to use less energy. Even if you sign-up now, you can withdraw your consent at any time without giving a reason – please see FAQ on withdrawing from the project for how to do this.
By agreeing to take part you will help the trial products and services be independently evaluated. This will provide confidence and credibility to society, the UK Government and industry about which products or services are most effective at reducing household energy use. It could also help individual households to better monitor and potentially reduce their energy usage, saving them money on bills and benefiting the environment.
UCL are an accredited party to the Smart Energy Code (SEC), the UK legislation that ensures safe and secure access to smart meter data. To access your smart meter data, UCL uses a technical service provided by the software company CGI. CGI are an accredited SEC Party and authorised User of the Data Communications Company that connects to the national smart meter communication network (the DCC Gateway). With your consent, UCL will be able to remotely collect your smart meter data and securely transfer it to the UK Data Archive, which securely store and manage all smart meter data on behalf of UCL.
With your consent, UCL will collect, and share with the Ipsos MORI team, the following data from your gas and/or electricity smart meter(s):
- Half-hourly energy use readings from today to the end of the trial period, unless you withdraw your consent earlier
- If you have had your smart meter for a while: half-hourly energy use readings for up to the last 12 months (or fewer if you have not had a smart meter for this long)
- Information about your energy tariff (how your supplier charges you for each unit of energy you use)
- Whether or not you have any devices like an in-home display connected to your smart meter(s)
To understand how the energy use of households trialling the products and services changes, Ipsos MORI would like to look at how much energy you used before the trial, including before you had a smart meter installed. You will need to confirm in the Consent Form you received whether you give your permission for Ipsos MORI to access your past energy use information through your energy supplier. This information will be shared securely with the Ipsos MORI team and only used for the purposes of conducting this research.
We would be grateful if you grant your permission to share your contact details (name, address, email and telephone) with Ipsos MORI. This is so that they can invite you to provide feedback on how your homes uses energy and on the product or service (if you are one of the households that receives it). Over the next year, you may be invited to take part in a short telephone survey or an interview. By giving your permission to share your contact details now, you will still be under no obligation to take part at a later date. We can assure you that your details will be securely shared with, and held by, Ipsos MORI and only used for the purposes of this research.
We do not anticipate any disadvantages to you from UCL and the Ipsos MORI team accessing your smart meter data for the purposes of evaluating the trial.
No, the data accessed by UCL and the Ipsos MORI team will never be sold to third parties and will only be used for the purposes described here.
The results of the evaluation will be published on the www.gov.uk website and may also be published through reports or publications such as academic books, journals, and at conferences. Individuals and households will not be identified in any publication.
Your participation in the trial will be kept strictly confidential. UCL and Ipsos MORI commit to safeguarding your privacy.
You can do this by contacting the project lead organisation (see the letter you received for details) or [email protected] . You do not need to give a reason to do so and you can withdraw at any time. If you withdraw from the trial, all parties including Ipsos MORI and UCL will delete any identifying information held relating to you. Any data retained will be anonymised so that it cannot be used to identify you.
Please note that this DPPN relates specifically to SENS project participants. For the Smart Energy Research Lab (SERL) participants’ DPPN please see https://serl.ac.uk/data-governance/data-privacy-public-notice/
According to data protection legislation, Ipsos MORI and UCL are Data Controllers for the evaluation of your smart meter data. UK Data Archive and CGI are Data Processors acting on behalf of UCL. The categories of personal data processed by Ipsos MORI and UCL include: your name, address, email address, telephone number, smart meter data and Energy Performance Certificate information. If you give your consent to share this data, Ipsos MORI will use that consent as their lawful basis for processing the data. Since UCL is a public authority, their lawful basis for processing this data is performance of a task in the public interest.
UCL and Ipsos MORI will only process your personal data as long as required for the purposes of this project. They will keep your data secure, store your contact details separately from data used for research, and minimise the processing of personal data wherever possible, in accordance with data protection legislation. Your personal data will be securely deleted once the project finishes (planned for Summer 2021).
Further information about your rights, and how Ipsos MORI and UCL use participant information, is available at:
https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/privacy-data-protection
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/legal-services/privacy/ucl-general-research-participant-privacy-notice
Neither Ipsos MORI nor UCL are responsible for the trial products and services. If you have any queries, or wish to make a complaint about how Ipsos MORI or UCL processes your data for this project, you can contact them on [email protected] or [email protected]
If you feel that your initial complaint has not been handled to your satisfaction then you can contact the Chair of the UCL Research Ethics Committee, which has been involved in approving UCL’s role in this project, at [email protected], or you can contact Ipsos MORI at [email protected]. If you have any questions about data protection, or if you would like to contact someone about your rights, you can contact UCL’s Data Protection Officer at [email protected] or Ipsos MORI at [email protected].
If you remain unsatisfied, you have the right to lodge a formal complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Full details may be accessed on the complaints section of the ICO’s website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/
