Our work with Solar for Schools
Power Back Community Energy
The generators we work with
Get funding for your group
Community Energy Kickstart case study
Powering Communities Fund case studies
Community energy blogs
Community energy events
What is community energy?
Our team
Energy Champions Supporting Homes with Independent Energy Advice
Reading Hydro Community Benefit SocietyReading Hydro Community Benefit Society (CBS) has launched a new home energy service aimed at supporting people in the local community who need it most.
Project overview
Using funding from the Powering Communities Fund, the group recruited and trained a brand-new home energy services team.
The team has been out in the community going door-to-door, carrying out energy assessments, helping fix boilers, and offering practical support to help households reduce their energy bills.
About the project
Building Skills to Support the Community
The Powering Communities Fund helped make the project possible by funding essential tools, training and software.
Reading Hydro recruited six volunteers as their Energy Champions and provided them with green skills training to prepare them for their new roles. The project has also enabled one volunteer to receive specialist thermography training, allowing the team to better identify heat loss in homes.
The impact is already being felt. In January alone, the team carried out seven home visits, helping residents with simple but effective improvements such as installing draught excluders and repairing gas boilers to reduce energy waste and bring bills down.
Raising Awareness and Sharing Support
Alongside home visits, the group has been actively engaging with the wider community. The team regularly attends green fairs and eco events, championing the role of community energy.
At these events, they’ve distributed hundreds of free LED lightbulbs while sharing advice on how households can save energy. With the programme set to run throughout 2026, the team is just getting started.
The perfect solution for our new home energy advice start-up group, getting us from zero to up and running within a year.
It’s fantastic to see this project taking off. Reading Hydro CBS has said that without support from the Powering Communities Fund, the initiative simply wouldn’t have been possible.
And up and running they certainly are.The group is now also supporting Citizens Advice Reading, whose Energy Team did not receive funding this year, by helping to take on their referrals.
For Reading Hydro CBS, the project has already made a lasting impact. “This has given a new lease of life to our community energy group.”