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PEC’s model is a deliberate effort to build a joined-up, city-wide energy system that works for people and saves carbon. In Plymouth, cold homes, high energy costs and poor health are closely linked, but too often treated separately. PEC’s role is to connect these challenges. They combine immediate support with long-term solutions, reshaping how local energy systems serve residents.

A key feature of this model is PEC’s strong, long-term partnership with Plymouth City Council. They work closely together, not just to deliver services but to lead on shared goals like housing, health and net zero. By planning together, sharing information, and running programmes like retrofit schemes, PEC and the council can spot needs earlier, provide the right support, and act before problems get worse. This partnership also helps them try new ideas, including better ways to fund and deliver local energy projects.

Rather than acting as a collection of individual projects, PEC brings together energy advice, retrofit, community-owned generation and local partnerships into a coherent whole. This makes it easier for people to get help in ways that suit them – through PEC’s walk-in advice hub, in the community and through trusted local organisations. The support people get is tailored to their needs.

This person-centred approach is essential to making the energy transition work in practice. By build trust and offering consistent, face-to-face support, PEC helps people move from crisis towards stability. It also enables lasting improvements to their homes and how they use energy.

At the same time, PEC is changing how money flows through the local energy system. Its portfolio of 33 community-owned solar installations provides affordable, low-carbon power while generating income that is reinvested into advice services and wider community support (such as funding for food banks and mental health services).

Larger-scale developments, delivered in partnership with the council, are extending this model further – showing how local authorities and community energy organisations can work together to own energy systems and share the benefits.

PEC’s impact includes retrofitting 400 homes since 2021 – lowering fuel costs, and also powering green jobs for local small businesses. And its energy advice service reached 5,700 people in 2025 alone.

The place-based collaboration exemplified by PEC’s work increasingly recognised as essential to delivering national ambitions. Through the Warm Homes Plan and Local Power Plan, the UK government has highlighted the need for locally rooted, partnership-led approaches that can address fuel poverty and decarbonisation together. PEC’s model shows how this can be achieved in practice: aligning local authority leadership with community delivery, and ensuring that investment in clean energy translates into tangible benefits for residents.

The result is not only warmer homes, lower bills and improved wellbeing, but a system that is better able to prevent problems, respond to need, and sustain change over time. By demonstrating how community energy, retrofit and advice can operate as a single, integrated system – underpinned by strong local authority partnership – PEC offers a clear and scalable model for other places across the UK.