About
Energy Saver App and Save with Solar
Energy Saver App is a free mobile app that helps you understand how your home uses energy and where you could reduce your bills.
It uses your real energy data to show how your home is using energy and what changes are likely to make a difference.
Save with Solar is a service that offers solar panels and battery storage without the usual upfront cost. If your home is suitable, solar panels and battery storage are installed and managed for you, with a fixed monthly fee instead of a large one-off payment.
The two are designed to work together.
Through the app, your energy use is analysed to assess whether solar is likely to benefit your home. Save with Solar is only encouraged where modelling indicates the system is likely to deliver a net saving over time, after the monthly subscription cost.
Where it began
Energy Saver App and Save with Solar began in 2024 as part of a government-funded project, supported by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), and delivered in partnership with Metis, Oxfordshire County Council and a group of delivery organisations.
The aim was to test a different way of helping households reduce their energy bills and access technologies like solar and battery storage.
From the outset, the model was designed to remove some of the main barriers that typically stop people taking action, particularly upfront cost, unclear pricing, and the complexity of installation and ongoing optimisation of the technology.
This earlier version of Save with Solar was delivered with households in Oxfordshire and went on to become an award-winning pilot.
Who is behind Energy Saver App and Save with Solar
Metis
Metis is the company responsible for delivering Save with Solar.
It is a wholly owned subsidiary of SMS plc and was set up to deliver long-term home energy services in partnership with local authorities and housing providers.
Rather than focusing on a single product, Metis designs and delivers joined-up solutions that combine funding, installation and ongoing management — so households can benefit from technologies like solar and battery storage without needing to navigate the process themselves.
Metis led the delivery of the original Oxfordshire programme, working with Oxfordshire County Council to roll out the model across real homes. That project showed how a fully funded, data-led approach could drive strong engagement and real uptake when delivered in partnership and built around real household energy use.
That same approach underpins Save with Solar today.
SMS
SMS is a long established UK energy infrastructure and services business, specialising in the funding, deployment and long-term management of low-carbon technologies. With more than 30 years of operational heritage and a nationwide technical workforce, SMS supports organisations across the UK to reduce carbon, modernise energy systems, and accelerate the transition to Net Zero.
As strategic partners for carbon reduction, SMS combines end to end delivery capability with deep asset management expertise — from smart metering and data services to large scale retrofit, energy optimisation, and long term infrastructure operation. The business operates with industry leading governance and health & safety standards and has committed to achieving Net Zero by 2030.
SMS is backed by KKR and USS, two global infrastructure investors with a proven track record of long term investment in energy systems. This partnership ensures access to flexible capital, world class operational tools, and the financial resilience required to support multi decade retrofit programmes at scale.
Through Metis, SMS applies its full group capability — smart data services, engineering, optimisation, customer engagement, financing and O&M — to create a fully funded, long term, scalable solution for social housing and local authority decarbonisation programmes. This combination of financial strength, technical excellence and long term accountability is what enables Metis to offer a simple, high trust, 25 year managed service to landlords and residents alike.
