75. Evaluation of the Mayor of London’s Local Energy Accelerator
The Mayor of London’s Local Energy Accelerator (LEA) was evaluated by Kada at the end of 2023. The £9.5 million LEA programme was jointly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Mayor of London between June 2016 and July 2023. LEA supports the development of large-scale decentralised energy in London. It provided funding to public and private sector beneficiaries for expert technical support which produced concept plans, feasibility studies and business cases. This helped London organisations to access capital funds to invest in decentralised energy projects.
Kada’s evaluation of LEA involved a desk review of the social, economic policy context and programme documentation, consultations with stakeholders and beneficiaries, and analysis of LEA’s performance against its targets. The evaluation found LEA has enabled good progress towards developing more decentralised energy projects and renewable energy capacity in London. The flexibility and responsiveness of LEA support was key to making sure beneficiaries were able to complete feasibility studies or funding applications in time to meet external deadlines.
LEA has accelerated plans and developments from support during feasibility phases of various projects and strengthened business cases. Three beneficiaries were able to leverage a total of approximately £50m in grant funding because of the support they received from LEA.
Supporting the GLA in this evaluation was a great opportunity for Kada to explore LEA’s effective delivery model in-depth. LEA has played an important part in London’s journey to net zero and I am pleased the lessons from the evaluation will help inform the delivery and evaluation of Zero Carbon Accelerator, the GLA’s successor programme.
Sam Nair, Project Director
If you are thinking about commissioning an evaluation or if you would like to talk through an idea or hear about this work, contact the Project Director Sam Nair at sam@kadaresearch.co.uk or get in touch via info@kadaresearch.co.uk.
