Advanced Infrastructure

Value Proposition

LAEP+ (Local Area Energy Planner Plus) is a spatial analytics platform for net-zero planning. LAEP+ digitalised Local Area Energy Plans and puts hundreds of datasets and analysis tools in the hands of councils and stakeholders. Local Authority and Energy Network users can identify sites for low carbon energy interventions, build project pipelines and attract investment.

LAEP+ uses digital twins to support decision making by local stakeholders and forecasts network capacity, building retrofits, heat networks, and EV rollouts all in one platform. Hundreds of API integrations ensure that all decisions are made on the latest, building stock, sociodemographic and energy network data.

LAEP+ has been used to identify net-zero pathways for Oxfordshire County Council, Dundee City Council and Perth & Kinross as well as private developers SYNERGY and CEPRO. The software tool enables developers to build portfolios of retrofit projects based on data-driven techno economic analysis. 

Users have built pipelines to access government funding streams and to leverage private sector finance. The ability to rapidly score and access buildings based on up to date building fabric, grid connectivity and sociodemic data reduces development costs and increases access to capital.

There is a shortage of tools that can be used to assist decision making in local energy plan delivery. In most cases building level half-hourly energy demand data is needed as an input – but is rarely available at the scale provided by Advanced Infrastructure. Very few allow the modelling of multiple technologies in a single geospatial interface. None integrate with network capacity, limiting practical value. Most energy planning is done by consultants and outputs are often static PDFs. 

In the most recent report published by the Cabinet Office’s Geospatial Commission, Advanced Infrastructure’s LAEP+ tool has been positioned as a solution for Local Authorities and Distribution Network Operators to predict how many charge points are needed, and where they should be located.

Our geospatial software solution enables data-driven decision making without advanced tools and training. Our platform can help Cities decarbonise 20% faster and Utilities to reduce the cost of strategic investment by 10%.

LAEP+ has enabled energy networks, local government, private developers and consultants to accelerate the Energy Transition in the following way:

• 90% time saving spent sourcing data

• 30% increased revenues from LCTs 

• 1% of network reinforcement costs cut

Local Area Energy Plans are set to cost up to £250,000 per local authority. Replacing this cost with LAEP+ saves Local Authorities up to £200,000.  Improved governance and coordination of local energy systems in line with strategic investment in gas and power network operators could reduce capital costs by 7% representing a total market size of over £4 billion per year. 

LAEP+ has been deployed across 5 local authorities and a Distribution System Operator. With 2 more DNOs planned for 2023. Under RIIO-ED2 all 6 DNOs are required to support Local Area Energy Planning with teams of dedicated engineers.