When the Future Moves Into Your Home
A Conversation with Michelle Little
On the podcast Next Time Around, Lauren and I spoke with Michelle Little. Michelle has worked in the UK energy industry for more than twenty years, beginning in customer support and later holding senior roles across several suppliers. She was part of the team that created the first non-standard tariff for prepayment customers, giving people more choice where previously they had none. Today, she continues to work on propositions that support decarbonisation and electrification.
What made this conversation different was that Michelle doesn’t just work on these ideas — she’s put them into practice at home. Her house is fully electric, with solar panels, battery storage, an EV and charger, and a heat pump. That combination of industry knowledge and personal commitment gave us plenty to talk about.
From Prepayment Meters to New Propositions
Michelle’s career began on the phones, speaking to customers directly. She described the frustration people felt with prepayment meters and how little choice they had. Out of that came the first non-standard tariff for prepayment customers, which gave people options for the first time.
It was a reminder that change in this industry often starts small, and with empathy. If you listen closely to customers, you see where the gaps are and what really needs to change.
Research, Research, Research
Michelle has carried that approach into her own choices. She told us she spends weekends test-driving electric vehicles. Her advice for anyone considering an EV was simple: research, research, research.
The right car depends on your circumstances. A long-distance driver has different needs from someone with a short commute. A family of five has different needs from a single person. She puts the emphasis on matching decisions to context.
I found that point familiar. In leadership, as in energy, copying others rarely works. The best results come when you understand your own situation and make choices that fit it.
Living in a Fully Electric Home
Michelle has gone further than most people. Her home has solar panels, a battery, a charger, and a heat pump. It is, in her words, “fully electric.”
What struck me most was the effect on her family. Her daughter has learned about climate change at school and now takes pride in talking about the solar and battery at home. She tells her classmates what they’ve installed. The technologies have become part of her everyday world.
That tells its own story. When children grow up with these things as normal, the transition is no longer abstract. It becomes part of daily life.
Seven Apps, Too Many Apps
Of course, there are frustrations. Michelle laughed about the number of apps on her phone: one for the car, one for the charger, one for the solar, one for the battery, one for the heat pump. She enjoys it, but most people won’t. Her mother finds the idea completely baffling.
This is where software and AI come in. Customers don’t want to juggle seven apps. They want their home to run in the background — the heating at the right temperature, the car ready to drive in the morning.
At Powerverse we often talk about helping people unthink energy. Michelle’s point brought that to life. The aim isn’t to make people more obsessed with energy, but less.
The Pull of Self-Sufficiency
When I asked Michelle what the future home might look like, she talked about self-sufficiency.
More people want to generate their own energy, store it, and use it when they need it. They want to buy power from the grid only when it is cheap and clean, and cover the rest from their own supply.
This is a long way from the old model of one meter and one bill. The future is about orchestration: homes producing, storing, and consuming energy in ways that give people more control and resilience.
The Supplier Challenge
This shift creates new demands on suppliers. Michelle made the point that one EV can add as much consumption as an entire second household. That’s a big change. Suppliers can’t just focus on billing accuracy anymore. They need to offer propositions that help customers use energy differently — for example, tariffs that charge cars when the grid is cleaner and cheaper.
In her words, the industry needs to stop thinking only about kilowatt hours and start thinking about how to support customers in the transition.
Convenience Matters
Michelle also talked about convenience. She described someone she knew who returned their EV because they couldn’t get a charger installed at home, even after waiting a year.
That brought the point home. The transition won’t be decided only by technology. It will be decided by how easy it is for people to take part. If ordering a takeaway takes seconds, but installing a charger takes months, adoption will stall.
The Realities of Charging
Michelle shared a story from her own driving. A 200-mile trip charged at home on a smart tariff cost £5.60. The following 400 miles, charged on the public network, cost £195.
It’s a striking difference. She also spoke about safety, especially for women using public chargers in dark car parks. Charging at home isn’t just cheaper — it’s safer.
Her point was clear: home charging will remain at the centre of the EV transition, and intelligent tariffs will be vital to making it affordable.
What I Took Away
Speaking with Michelle reinforced a few things for me. The transition happens in homes. It shows up in the cars people buy, the heating they use, the apps they open, and the conversations their children have at school.
The challenge is not only about technology. It is about people wanting choice, convenience, and trust. If we don’t deliver those, even the best technology won’t get used.
And leadership in this sector means being honest about the complexity while working hard to make it simple. Michelle’s perspective showed how progress happens when industry knowledge meets day-to-day reality.
That is what made the conversation valuable. It helped connect the ambition of the energy transition with what it means in practice for families and communities.