Scottish energy tech firm joins pioneering green power project

By A Scottish energy technology firm has been chosen to take part in a pioneering project alongside partners including Honda to help local communities tap into cheaper and greener power.

Edinburgh-based Flexitricity is working on the Smart Hub local energy scheme demonstrator, one of four projects to have been announced by UK energy minister Claire Perry.

The project will take place in West Sussex and aims to integrate energy management across council housing, private residential properties, transport infrastructure and commercial properties.

It plans to use innovative technologies, including a hybrid hydrogen and electric vehicle filling station, alongside more established ones such as heat networks.

Flexitricity’s technology will be used to establish a virtual power plant which can monitor and respond to energy demand and generation in the local area.

Other partners in the project include Honda Motor Europe, Connected Energy, ITM Power, Moixa Technology, Passivsystems, Switch2 Energy and West Sussex County Council.

Neil O’loughlin, project leader at Flexitricity, said: “We are very excited to be working on this exciting project which will bring further momentum to the energy revolution.

“Flexible energy will be an essential element of the UK’S energy mix when carbon generation falls off the grid by the mid-2020s. There is a huge opportunity for local community generation projects to create sustainable revenue streams and take advantage of the National Grid’s need for flexible power.”

Funding for the project has been awarded by UK Research and Innovation, the new organisation that brings together the UK Research Councils, Innovate UK and Research England.

Last year Flexitricity, which started at a kitchen table, celebrated its tenth anniversary of “smart grid” operations by announcing it had surpassed the £20 million mark in benefits for its customers.

Flexitricity said it had generated £12m in direct revenue for UK businesses since going live in 2008, by helping them respond to shortfalls and excesses in the nation’s energy supply.

It has also helped large energy consumers save £11m in network charges, by helping them reduce load and increase on-site generation when UK energy demand is at its highest.

The firm was sold to Swiss energy company Alpiq in 2014.

Early backers of the firm included Scottish angel investor network Archangels.