Electrifying homes at scale is no longer primarily a technology challenge. It is a commercial and operational one. The hardware exists. The consumer appetite is growing. What has been missing is a delivery model that removes the upfront cost barrier for households, keeps systems performing over time, and gives programme owners the visibility they need to manage a long-term asset portfolio.
Metis, a product of SMS, set out to build exactly that model. Working in close partnership with ENSEK Flex, and with delivery support from Oxfordshire County Council, the programme has now completed 306 solar PV and battery installations - exceeding its original targets - and demonstrated that affordability, performance, and resident trust can be delivered together, at scale.
As electrification programmes move beyond early adopters, the delivery models built for grant-funded, one-off installations are showing their limits. Upfront costs remain a fundamental barrier, not just for households in fuel poverty, but for a large majority of the population for whom a £6,000-£10,000 installation bill is simply out of reach, regardless of long-term payback.
For programme owners, the challenge compounds over time. Fragmented data from multiple OEM platforms makes it difficult to monitor whether installed systems continue to perform as expected. Residents often have little visibility into whether their system is actually saving them money. The relationship ends. The asset sits underperforming.
Metis set out to address this by rethinking electrification as a service, not a project: one that could scale without upfront cost to households while still delivering measurable, long-term outcomes that programme owners can monitor, report and build a commercial model around.
Under the Metis model, households receive solar PV and battery storage systems at no upfront cost. Instead of a capital payment, participating households pay a manageable monthly service fee, making electrification accessible across both private and social housing, including households that would never qualify for, or consider, a capital purchase.
This is not a financing arrangement bolted onto a standard installation business. The monthly fee structure means Metis has a direct financial interest in systems continuing to perform over the duration of the contract. A battery that silently degrades is not just a consumer problem, it is a liability against a promised monthly saving.
ENSEK Flex provides the optimisation and orchestration layer that underpins the Metis service - connecting installed assets to a cloud-native platform via API, with no physical hub device required. The platform sits between the hardware and the consumer's digital experience, and between the fleet and the programme team's operational dashboards.
For residents, the platform delivers:
For Metis operations teams, the platform provides:
"From day one, ENSEK have been far more than a technology supplier — they've been an embedded part of the Metis proposition. Their optimisation, data and resident experience layer is what allows us to move beyond 'fit and forget' retrofit and deliver ongoing value, trust and measurable savings for customers. Giving our end customers confidence the technology is saving them is so important. That's been a key enabler of both our impact and our commercial model."
Tom Woolley, Director of Low Carbon, Residential
The Oxfordshire programme brought together three distinct capabilities. Metis led programme design, financing, installation, and delivery, owning the consumer relationship and the commercial model. ENSEK provided the digital platform, optimisation engine, and ongoing resident experience. Oxfordshire County Council supported community outreach and resident participation, bringing the public sector credibility that materially improved conversion rates and programme trust.
This division of responsibility is deliberate. It means each partner does what it is genuinely best at, rather than one organisation trying to own the full stack. The result is that installing technology actually translates into measurable real-world outcomes.
The Oxfordshire programme exceeded its original installation targets, completing 306 solar PV and battery installations during the initial pilot phase. Participating households achieved an average reduction of around 35% in electricity costs measured against their pre-installation consumption baseline.
Resident engagement with the platform has been sustained well beyond installation: the majority of app users interact with it regularly, with more than three-quarters engaging with the app every week. This level of ongoing engagement matters commercially: it is the place where savings are visible, trust is maintained, and the service relationship is sustained over the contract term.
The programme's 65% conversion rate from trial participant to signed installation customer reflects the quality of the digital engagement layer. Residents who had already seen their own consumption data and understood the likely savings arrived at the installation decision informed, not sold to. That distinction shortens the commercial cycle and dramatically reduces the drop-off rate that undermines most large-scale retrofit programmes.
The programme was recognised with the 2025 Net Zero Engagement Award at the 2025 Utility Week Awards for its innovative approach to community-scale decarbonisation.
The Metis programme demonstrates that Energy as a Service is no longer theoretical. When optimisation and resident experience are built in from the start electrification can be simultaneously affordable for households, operationally manageable at scale, and commercially viable for programme owners.
The Oxfordshire programme provides a blueprint - but the question for any organisation evaluating it is whether the conditions are right for them. The model is most directly applicable to:
ENSEK Flex is 100% cloud-native and connects to solar and battery hardware via API meaning no physical hub device is required alongside the panels. A new fleet can move from commissioning to live consumer app in minutes. For organisations currently managing multiple OEM portals, or evaluating whether to build a HEMS platform in-house, that integration overhead is a significant factor in the build-vs-buy calculation.