Innovate UK gives green light to progress smart energy projects

Three smart energy projects have been given the green light to progress further following a funding extension from Innovate UK.

Equans, part of the Engie group, was initially awarded £1.4 million after being given the go-ahead in March 2020 to design a town-wide smart local energy system (SLES) in Staffordshire called Zero Carbon Rugeley (ZCR).

It has been given an additional £500,000 funding as part of UK Research and Innovation’s Prospering from the Energy Revolution challenge programme, delivered by Innovate UK, which was launched in 2018.

The company was tasked with bringing together a consortium of partners that would support with the design of the scheme and has since assembled a team of nine businesses, including Cadent, Keele University and West Midlands Combined Authority.

As part of the community engagement programme Equans worked with academics at Keele to include the people of Rugeley in the plans, gauging key insights on energy use and deliverables.

As well as the £1.9 million provided through Innovate UK, the consortium will provide an additional £1.7 million.

Louise Alter, energy innovation manager for Equans UK and Ireland, said: “We have spent the last two years investing heavily in this project and have passionately involved the local community to ensure we have co-designed a SLES that will work for them.

“A SLES is entirely dependent on local people engaging with the concept and we wholeheartedly believe this has been the point of difference for us.”

Rob Saunders, challenge director for Innovate UK’s Prospering from the Energy Revolution Challenge, said: “Zero Carbon Rugeley’s local energy system project has the potential to create transformational change in the community of Rugeley, making energy cheaper and cleaner for local people and accelerating the journey to net zero.

“We are delighted to be able extend the project’s co-funding so that its design and models can be piloted in the community, taking it to the next stage in becoming reality.”

ZCR is one of three detailed design projects from the original ten to receive a contract extension to push ahead with the design. The contract extension is for an additional year and will be reviewed again in March 2023.

The other projects granted an extension include the Liverpool Multi-Vector Energy Exchange (LMEX).

The LMEX will create a detailed design for a city-wide, smart local energy system that will facilitate clean energy, electric vehicles, and low-carbon heating and cooling.

It comprises two layers, with the first being a smart network controller which will communicate with, control and optimise in real-time local energy assets.

The second is a flexibility exchange platform through which prosumers will trade peer-to-peer with full transparency, automatic matching, and without third-party intervention.

Additionally green smart community integrated energy systems (GreenSCIES) is another project which has been extended.

GreenSCIES will deliver a detailed design for a smart energy system that integrates new low carbon energy technologies across heat, power and mobility.

Technical and business model approaches will be developed for the provision of smart energy systems that “significantly reduce carbon emissions and result in significantly smaller bills for the consumer”.

The smart energy grid will also help provide affordable warmth and lower local pollution which the project says can be replicated across the UK.

Elsewhere in the sector energy regulator Ofgem has issued a call for input in which it seeks views on four solutions it is currently considering as part of its review into local energy system operation.

Ofgem said it believed the current arrangements for operating the local grid and planning for future demand “have gaps, lack co-ordination and could create potential conflicts of interest” which could add unnecessary costs to customers and delay the transition to net zero.

One such solution is introducing independent distribution system operators (IDSOs) as a way of meeting the needs of the future energy system.