09 December 2025
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Lucy McKenzie, Head of Technical at MCS, reflects on their 2025 Annual Working Group Conference.
On Tuesday 4 November, Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) held the 2025 Annual Working Group Conference at the British Library, which brought together members of the Technical Working Groups for a series of panels and discussions.
The MCS Technical Working Groups are made up of around 250 independent experts from across the industry. These include installers, manufacturers, trade organisations, certification bodies, consumer groups, educators, and independent specialists. There are nine distinct Technical Working Groups, each focused on a different technology within MCS's scope.
The Technical Working Groups meet regularly to discuss key industry issues and ensure that MCS Standards are created by industry, for industry.
The Annual Working Group Conference is organised by MCS to bring together members from all our Technical Working Groups, to provide an opportunity to learn from each other and identify areas for future collaboration.
Discussions led by experts Throughout the day, the Technical and Standards team at MCS chaired dedicated discussions on the work accomplished by the members this year. This included:
- Experts from The MCS Foundation spoke about the relationship between policy and clean energy, and the evolving political discourse on net-zero.
- I hosted a panel with industry representatives about about the challenges regarding fire safety in solar PV systems and the work MCS is involved in to tackle them.
- An interactive session reflecting on the progress made in 2025 and gathering feedback from the working group members on what they want to see in 2026. This gave members the chance to learn more about the newest members of our technical team
- A spotlight on how and why the new Thermal Energy Storage Systems (TESS) Standard was developed by Tom Lowe, former chair of the TESS Working Group.
The conference concluded with a keynote speech from Martin McCluskey MP, Minister for Energy Consumers, who spoke about the upcoming policy developments that will directly impact the sector. Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, we will expect to see the Future Homes Standard mandate solar panels on new homes, and £13.2 billion set aside for the Warm Homes Plan, which will tackle fuel poverty and energy efficiency in UK homes; with smallscale renewables set to play a key role.
Get involved
Every year, we look forward to the Working Group Conference as a way of bringing together our community and providing people with the opportunity to meet each other – particularly those from other working groups – as well as our team. It also gave us a chance to showcase our progress across the different working groups. Ultimately, MCS Standards are crucial to our mission of giving everyone confidence in home-grown energy, as they define how small-scale renewables should be tested, designed, and installed.
If you are interested in becoming a member of one of our Technical Working Groups and having your voice heard in the creation of our standards, you can email our team at: [email protected]
To learn more about the work of the MCS Technical Working Groups, visit the website: www.mcscertified.com/who-we-are/mcsstandards/mcs-working-groups/
