YouGov polling commissioned by E.ON supports putting battery storage in vulnerable customers’ homes

In medicine and elsewhere, it’s broadly accepted that prevention is better than cure. We’re told from an early age, for example, that it’s preferable to take care of our teeth rather than endure the pain and expense of dental work that could be avoided later. 

And yet, when it comes to the way the UK helps vulnerable energy customers stay out of fuel poverty, we all too often rely on cure over prevention. 

As an energy supplier, we’re proud to help our more vulnerable customers through efforts such as a £92 million winter support package and the Warm Home Discount scheme, but these are mostly geared towards the symptoms of fuel poverty without tackling the causes. 

This is why we’re working with Coventry City Council to pilot a new approach to supporting vulnerable energy customers by upgrading their homes with battery storage. We think this could be an effective new solution for keeping people out of fuel poverty while helping the UK reach its net zero targets, and according to nationally representative polling we recently commissioned from YouGov, the British public agree. 

Public agrees that home upgrades better than discounts

By upgrading financially vulnerable customers’ homes with battery storage, we can empower them to use Time-of-Use tariffs to buy and store electricity when it’s cheap, then use it at times of the day when retail prices are high. This could save the average UK household between £250 and £300 a year on their bills, which, over a battery’s 20-year lifespan, is considerably more than the roughly £3,000 it costs to install a battery in the first place. It is also more than the amount currently being spent on the Warm Home Discount. 

To us, tackling the problem of fuel poverty at the roots by upgrading homes to reduce their consumption is common sense, but we wanted to know if a broad range of British people agreed. 

According to YouGov, 73% said that ‘spending money on improving people’s homes so their energy consumption is less expensive’ would be ‘the best way for energy suppliers to support people experiencing fuel poverty,’ while more than twice as many people supported using money for ‘upgrading homes with green technologies that bring bills down in the first place’ as those who preferred ‘paying for an annual discount on energy bills.’ 

Not only could upgrading homes with battery storage help us support vulnerable customers, it would also help them support the energy transition. By using Time of Use tariffs and storage, more people could buy electricity from the UK’s renewable assets when weather conditions are generating surplus and lessen the need for fossil generation when they are not, all with the added benefit of helping to balance the grid. 

Putting batteries in people’s homes 

In recent weeks, we have already kickstarted our pilot in Coventry by surveying the first property in which we hope to install battery storage, and in collaboration with Coventry City Council we will be upgrading around 30 more homes in the months to come. 

Through these efforts, we hope to refine an effective approach for helping customers with battery storage with an eye to rolling out thousands more upgrades in the years to come. In the meantime, we want to work with the Government on making it easier to put green upgrades of all kinds in people’s homes at no upfront cost to the end user, for instance by offering green financing grants and guarantees to sustainable lenders, or by updating the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) to allow third-party ownership of installed devices. However we get there, we look forward to putting more batteries in people’s homes, preventing fuel poverty and excess emissions before a cure becomes necessary. 

To found out more about our pilot in Coventry, take a look at: Helping vulnerable customers in Coventry with  home energy upgrades