Centrica and the European Regional Development Fund are to invest some £19 million in a smart grid and energy storage units project in Cornwall.
Centrica said this was a pioneering trial aimed at creating “a local energy market in Cornwall, which will see the development of a virtual marketplace and the installation of new technology into over 150 homes and businesses.”
Over the next three years, Centrica’s distributed energy and power business will work with renewable generators, local businesses and other large energy users to give them free smart technology upgrades and install new energy storage units. Moreover, the team will also install battery units, micro-combined heat and power (CHP), or a combination of the two, in up to 100 homes.
“Once complete, participants will use the very latest smart technologies to connect to a virtual marketplace that will allow them to sell their flexible energy capacity to both the grid and the wholesale energy market” it said.
The programme has been developed in response to the global shift of focus from centralised generation to a distributed model where energy is generated and managed closer to the point of demand, Centrica said.
The trial is being funded by Centrica and the British Gas Energy for Tomorrow fund alongside a £13 mil grant from the European Regional Development Fund. A spokesperson for Centrica confirmed that no impact is expected on this grant from the UK leaving the EU following the Brexit vote, as "the full £13m has been ring fenced for the duration of the three years."
“Cornwall has been at the forefront of harnessing renewable generation, but that has brought challenges to the local grid” commented Jorge Pikunic, managing director of Centrica distributed energy & power.
“Our ambition is to explore how battery storage, flexible demand and generation can to reduce pressure on the UK’s electricity grid, avoid expensive network upgrades and support future decarbonisation.”
“ I believe this is a clear example of how the energy landscape could look in future, a truly decentralised market where energy is smarter, greener and cheaper” he added.