Loughborough University is a top-ten rated university in England for research intensity (REF2014) and an outstanding 66% of the work of Loughborough’s academic staff who were eligible to be submitted to the REF was judged as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’, compared to a national average figure of 43%. In choosing Loughborough for your research, you’ll work alongside academics who are leaders in their field. You will benefit from comprehensive support and guidance from our Doctoral College, including tailored careers advice, to help you succeed in your research and future career. The concept is developing small scale household energy generation services that can provide modern energy access. This will consider basic supply for lighting, phone charging as well as potential to supply clean water or cooking. However, these 'family' systems will be connected to a central generation and distribution system to facilitate energy use for economic purposes in communities. Trading supply and demand of power between the centre and households will require metering and control. The technical aspects will focus on control and priority decision making around productive uses of energy. Households will act as both consumer and prosumer. Design, modelling and prototyping is expected. Furthermore, interdisciplinary research will be embedded in the research with community on co-design and economic / business solutions being essential goals. Challenges relating to gender, capacity building and traditional culture will need to be addressed along with the transferability of the solution to different situations.