Centre for Net Zero

⚡ As electrification increases and extreme weather events become more frequent, understanding how household demand responds, and how flexibility can be deployed across time and location, will be essential to winter resilience.

🔗 Read the full analysis here: www.centrefornetzero.org/news/powerin...

Using @octopusenergyus.bsky.social household data, we found:

1️⃣ An increase in household electricity consumption that was notable, but not unseasonable
2️⃣Smaller and shorter-lived impacts vs. Winter Storm Uri in 2021
3️⃣Flexibility, including pre-heating, could help manage peak system stress

🥶 How does household electricity demand respond to extreme winter temperatures?

🌨️ In our latest piece, we analysed how electricity use in Texas responded during Winter Storm Fern in January 2026 — and what that tells us about managing winter stress in ERCOT.

👉 Our @centrefornetzero.bsky.social and @energysyscat.bsky.social proposal for net zero building metrics can be found on our website: www.centrefornetzero.org/papers/net-z...

👀 Find out more about what government has said here: www.gov.uk/government/c...

💡 Time to rethink building performance.

📣 UK gov has confirmed that reformed Energy Performance Certificates will include a new smart metric to capture microgeneration and flexibility.

💪 Great to see following our campaign with @energysyscat.bsky.social and our cross-industry coalition

🇬🇧 The Warm Homes Plan is a welcome step towards smart, low-carbon tech playing a central role in home upgrades.

⚡🏠 As empirical backing for that shift, our research shows that heat pumps cut carbon ~70%, while solar + batteries can slash bills for fuel-poor households (even below zero in summer).

🚪 How can you get access to Faraday?

Our model is open access. You can sign up directly by visiting faraday.centrefornetzero.org/sign_up

4️⃣ See seasonality.

See how power consumption varies across the year - spring, summer, autumn and winter.

3️⃣ Map regional variation.

Visualise our synthetic version of how typical daily household electricity consumption varies across Great Britain.

2️⃣ Explore household variation.

Quickly explore the data and gain insights into how different types of households consume electricity.

What can you expect from the latest update to the app?

1️⃣ Build your own dataset.

Define custom household types - detached homes with EVs, or terraced homes with solar PV - and generate data for your population.

OpenSynth (OpenSynth-Energy) Synthetic Smart Meter Data

🚨 We’ve updated the app for Faraday, our open-access generative AI model for synthetic smart meter data.

❓ The latest version includes a dataset builder and a dataset explorer, leveraging the @lfenergy.bsky.social OpenSynth repository

🚪 Want access? Sign up directly - see details & 🔗 in 🧵

New @nber.org paper by myself, @the-scheining.bsky.social, Yixin Sun from @centrefornetzero.bsky.social, & Cohen Simpson. We study the largest field experiment on AI-managed EV charging, showing that it can reduce peak demand, lower costs, and cut emissions without disrupting household routines.

💼 New year, new job?

📢 CNZ is hiring for a new Director of External Affairs to work with our CEO Lucy Yu and the rest of our talented team

👀 We're looking for highly motivated candidates with strong energy, comms & policy creds

📅 Deadline - 12pm, 18th Jan 2026

jobs.lever.co/octoenergy/f...

NEW ANALYSIS: Electric vehicles are entering the mid-transition space starting to replace ICE vehicles.

History shows that shifts like this can happen faster than expected: in the early 20th-century US, horses and mules virtually vanished from roads in under 30 years.

cdn.sanity.io/files/lrxd4j...

Excellent recommendations to make public charging cheaper (for users and the overall system):

Guest post: How to steer EVs towards the road of ‘mass adoption’ - Carbon Brief This article sets out the key findings of a new report, including a proposed policy framework that could keep the EV transition on track.

Link to our article in @carbonbrief.org 👇 www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-h...

Check out CNZ’s detailed research into EV charging demand 👉 www.centrefornetzero.org/research

👏 Congratulations to all those who contributed: @janrosenow.bsky.social, Laurens Speelman, Yuki Numata, Will Atkinson, Andy Hackett, Izzy Woolgar.

🔎 Drawing on research from each organisation, we identify three interlinked priorities for policy-makers:

1️⃣ Accelerating adoption & ensuring affordability
2️⃣ Smart integration into clean electricity systems
3️⃣ Ensuring sustainability across supply chains & new types of mobility

📈 One in five new cars sold last year were electric, with rates accelerating year-on-year. The exponential phase of EV adoption is within reach, but it is not inevitable.

🚗 NEW report from CNZ + @rockymtninst.bsky.social + @ecioxford.bsky.social answers a critical Q for policy-makers: how can we scale the EV S-Curve - and tip into the phase of mass adoption❓

🔗 centrefornetzero.org/papers/doc/s...

Details in 🧵

Thanks to @carbonbrief.org for featuring!

Review of AI deployment in the electricity networks: terms of reference Terms of reference for the independent review.

🔗 Find out more at: www.gov.uk/government/p... and share expertise or initiatives with: advice@turing.ac.uk

🤖 The review will assess opportunities, risks and enablers for safe, effective AI deployment, supported by experts from @energysyscat.bsky.social, Digital Catapult and @theturing.bsky.social.

🔌 AI could positively transform electricity networks - facilitating flex, improving resilience and supporting the 2030 clean power mission. But deployment is hampered by data access, testing tools, and regulatory gaps that make it difficult to verify systems safely.

📢 DESNZ & DSIT’s Lord Vallance have launched an Independent Review of AI for Electricity Networks, led by @centrefornetzero.bsky.social CEO, Lucy Yu. The review will explore opportunities, risks and enablers for deploying AI across the grid.

🔋 What the Government decides to do next with its ~£15b budget is key. Focusing on helping fuel poor households install tech like solar PV and batteries can deliver major bill savings. Find out more info on our ongoing trial in this space: www.centrefornetzero.org/news/evaluat...

💷 The @thecccuk.bsky.social estimated the UK should be spending £23.5bn this Parliament on upgrading homes. Pre-Budget, planned investment from the Government looked roughly in line with this - but it now sits at less than two-thirds of that figure.

⚡ We welcome the decision to address levies on electricity bills. Making electricity cheaper is critical - and our research evidences the benefits of electrification to consumers and the grid. But achieving this bill reduction involves a cut to the Government's plan to upgrade homes.

North Sea plan allows drilling while enabling Labour to keep ‘no new licences’ pledge ‘Tiebacks’ will permit small amount of new fossil fuel extraction, but campaigners want bolder strategy

💬 CNZ features in @theguardian.com on the implications of the UK #Budget for the #WarmHomesPlan: “Cutting levies on electricity is welcome and overdue, but it can’t come at the cost of cutting the very investments in homes that help make bills fall for good – especially for those in fuel poverty”