Smart Metering Systems moves into aggregation market

Smart Metering Systems (SMS) has announced it has acquired energy technology firm Solo Energy as part of a move into the aggregation market.

Glasgow-based SMS, which also recently announced a partnership with sustainability fund Columbia Threadneedle, completed the deal last September but only made the announcement today (27 March).

Solo Energy provides battery storage, microgeneration, and electric vehicle (EV) chargers to homes and businesses at no-upfront cost and has also developed a cloud-based aggregation platform called FlexiGrid.  The platform can coordinate the actions of a number of distributed energy assets, allowing them to provide balancing and ancillary services as part of a virtual power plant.

Solo Energy’s largest trial to date, funded by the government-backed ReFLEX scheme, is underway in Orkney, Scotland. The ReFlex Orkney trial aims to integrate electricity, transport and heat networks on the islands to better balance supply and demand.

Tim Mortlock, chief operating officer of SMS, said: “By integrating energy storage, renewable generation and vehicle charging into the UK energy system, FlexiGrid can help shape consumer demand to follow renewable energy supply, and help the UK transition to 100 per cent green power – as we are now demonstrating under the pioneering ReFlex Orkney project.

“Looking forward, FlexiGrid will additionally enhance our ability to provide a comprehensive end-to-end service proposition to our established industrial, domestic and energy services customer base and will address the market disruption affecting the UK and global energy system now and in the years to come.”

Mark Hamilton, managing director and co-founder of Solo Energy, added:  “Energy demand needs to become more flexible to respond to the intermittency of renewables, and behind-the-meter technologies such as batteries, smart EV charging and flexible electrical heating will all play a major role in the energy transition.

“Solo’s FlexiGrid platform controls these assets to be responsive to renewables, but for these technologies to become mass market and available to everyone, we believe the consumer shouldn’t be asked to put their hand in their pocket to cover the up-front cost. This is where asset-financing comes in.

“SMS’s recent acquisition of Solo demonstrates the strong appetite for private financing to get behind a rapid decarbonisation transition where every consumer can adopt flexible demand technologies to support the renewables transition and enjoy low-carbon, low-cost energy.”