Sava Intelligent Energy: Driving Funding Success with Plus Dane Housing.
Plus Dane Housing is a housing association which owns and manages over 13,500 homes across Merseyside and Cheshire. Plus Dane has been using Sava Intelligent Energy – our leading energy and carbon calculation software – for two years to support delivery of their energy efficiency programmes.
We caught up with Chris Roberts, Sustainability Manager for Plus Dane, to find out more about what they hoped to achieve by working with Sava, the successes that have followed, and their plans for the future.
What did Plus Dane want to achieve with Sava?
Plus Dane’s goals were two-fold; to improve the quality of their housing stock dataset and to achieve success with their funding bids for Wave 1 and 2 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF).
Chris said: “Our aim was to use Sava Intelligent Energy to highlight any holes in our data and work through these methodically to improve our dataset. This, in turn, would help us to enhance our overall strategy and improve our chances of success in the bidding process for the SHDF.
“We knew the Sava software would be vital in identifying the properties to focus on when considering improvement measures and would help us to forecast the impact our changes would have on the energy efficiency of our housing stock.”
What were the outcomes?
Success in their bids for funding through the SHDF
With the support of Sava Intelligent Energy, Plus Dane were successful in their bids for funding in both Wave 1 and 2 of the SHDF after using the software to elevate their housing stock data, plugging any gaps to inform more accurate and efficient improvement planning.
The housing association secured £1m of funding in Wave 1 to help more than 100 low-income homes save money on their energy bills, and over £4m in Wave 2 to deliver improvements such as loft insulation, solar panels, smart controls, underfloor heating and double glazed windows across more than 400 homes.
Chris commented: “The Sava software was able to do all the calculations we needed for our SHDF bidding which meant we went into the application with confidence. We achieved all the outcomes we said we would because the software was so accurate.
“We were fitting 50 PV systems a week and needed to report back to the senior executive team on the impact. We could see the updated EPC scores as soon as they were going in. We have fitted 420 PV systems so far this year under the funding.”
Saving time with quick impact assessments
Now that Plus Dane has its data in a strong position, Chris said they use Sava’s Improvement Planning tool to calculate the impact their housing stock upgrades will have.
“If considering loft insulation, we can calculate how many properties would reach target and the cost implications. Previously, this would have taken days, but with the Sava software I can do it in minutes. The Sava Intelligent Energy software supports everyone on their path to Net Zero.”
What was it like working with Sava?
“We struck it lucky procuring Sava Intelligent Energy,” Chris said. “It’s very useful. And it’s not just the software, it’s the support of the team at Sava. They are always available for any questions and to help you along your journey. You can have the best software in the world, but without the support it’s useless. It’s the only software I use that I don’t moan about. It’s so well-thought-out.”
What are the next steps for Plus Dane Housing?
Plus Dane are now hoping to be successful again for Wave 3 of the newly named Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund (formerly SHDF) and will continue to use Sava Intelligent Energy to support their funding applications.
With some of the oldest housing stock in the country (a number of 1800s terraced properties), Chris said: “In some respects, as we have more traditional construction properties, we have more of a challenge than some Housing Associations.
“These properties often need a lot of intervention to get them up to SAP band C; they are classed as ‘hard to treat’ properties which are typically difficult to make energy efficient through conventional improvements. These will be our focus as Sava Intelligent Energy has shown us that these have higher energy costs compared to conventional wall constructions.”
Looking at the future of improvement planning across their housing stock, Chris said: “Post 2030, we are predicting the introduction of heat networks, decarbonisation of the grid and a ramp up of Air Source Heat Pumps to get to Net Zero after our fabric first programmes have finished.”
“For projects like this, Sava Intelligent Energy is an essential tool in our arsenal.”
How can Sava help your organisation?
If you would like to find out more about how Sava can support you with your funding bids, analyse and improve your data, assist with zero carbon goals and provide strategic advice and research, please contact us at technology@sava.co.uk or read more about Sava Intelligent Energy and our leading analytics and strategic support services.