Insight

Planning London’s Future Energy Infrastructure with GLA

Over the past year, global momentum towards a green economy has faced renewed headwinds. The rollback of climate commitments in the United States and withdrawal from key intergovernmental efforts has undone years of progress towards a coordinated transition.

Against this backdrop, the UK and London in particular continues to lead with intent.

London’s climate ambition is anchored in the Mayor of London’s commitment to reach net zero by 2030. Achieving that goal is not just a question of policy, but of infrastructure: how we power homes, move people, heat buildings, and design cities for long-term resilience. That requires intelligent, place-based planning. And that’s where the Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP) comes in.

A whole-system approach to net zero

The LAEP provides a framework for coordinating London’s net zero and growth objectives through a whole-system, place-based approach to energy planning. It defines optimised pathways and delivery plans for decarbonising local energy systems — ensuring investment decisions are informed, coordinated, and grounded in evidence.

At the heart of this sits the LAEP Data Hub: a planning platform designed to bring together the complex datasets required to understand, test, and prioritise energy interventions across the city.

infogr8 x GLA: Developing the next LAEP Data Hub 

Today, we’re proud to announce our new partnership with the Greater London Authority to deliver the next phase of the LAEP Data Hub.

The Data Hub will provide a holistic view of London’s energy system, integrating:

• Core energy infrastructure data (electricity, gas, heat networks, transport)
• Socio-economic indicators such as fuel poverty and deprivation
• Environmental datasets including air quality
• Building-level context such as EPC ratings
• Planning constraints including conservation areas and listed buildings

All brought together through a single, unified planning interface.

The goal: to move beyond fragmented datasets and towards a shared, evidence-led view of London’s energy future.

From data to decisions

The LAEP Data Hub is a strategic planning tool — used to inform policy, investment, and delivery rather than day-to-day operations. Its role is to act as a trusted source of insight, surfacing the outputs of sub-regional LAEPs and enabling users to explore trade-offs, constraints, and opportunities across geographies and systems.

By translating complex data into clear narratives, the Data Hub supports:

• Identifying the most effective pathways to net zero at local level
• Turning long-term targets into coordinated, on-the-ground action
• Building evidence to support delivery of projects such as heat networks and EV charging infrastructure

These insights feed directly into London borough Local Plans, shaping future development decisions and influencing utilities’ investment strategies, helping ensure the right infrastructure is built, in the right places, at the right time.

infogr8 × GLA: building the next phase

Over the coming months, infogr8’s multidisciplinary team will combine data journalism, information design, strategy, and engineering to evolve the LAEP Data Hub into a public-facing planning tool that helps steer London’s net zero ambition towards delivery.

This is data intelligence in action: not just showing the data, but revealing what it means — and how it can be used to shape a more resilient, equitable, low-carbon city.