Gateshead firm secures six-figure government funding to scale ‘virtual power plant’

As part of Bdaily’s latest feature, Innovation Week, we hear from equiwatt, which has secured funding from the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero, to support the further development and scale of its “innovative” peak energy usage reduction technology.

The Gateshead based company has been awarded more than £630k from Energy Entrepreneurs Fund (EEF9) through the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP), to aid the expansion of its community of UK households that power its virtual power plant.

This enables both homes and energy companies to reduce the costs and carbon footprint of peak time home energy use. The EEF is a “competitive” funding scheme to support innovation in the areas of energy efficiency, power generation, as well as heat and electricity storage.

This grant funding is for single and collaborative projects for UK businesses, with emphasis on small and medium enterprises. The aim is to accelerate the development and commercialisation of technologies, products and processes, which decarbonise the UK energy sector.

equiwatt’s technology enables households to connect appliances and electric vehicles to its energy management system using its free smartphone app and existing smart technology including smart meters.

The company’s technology is creating a growing network of connected homes that collectively act together to help create a more efficient and flexible energy system. When demand on the grid is high, users are notified to take part in energy saving events, called ‘equivents’ during which they switch off or avoid the use of high energy use devices.

Households are rewarded for their participation with points according to their energy and CO2 savings, which can then be redeemed for e-gift vouchers from the likes of Amazon, John Lewis and Asda.

Dr Johnson Fernandes, CEO of equiwatt, commented: “We are proud to receive this funding, which will accelerate our work to help create a more flexible and efficient UK energy system for all.

“The concept of a residential virtual power plant had previously been hindered by a lack of consumer engagement and high operational costs; however we are developing a scalable solution, which has already proven to be effective during the National Grid’s DFS trial, through the use of the smart technology that already exists in people’s homes.

“With this funding we can further grow our community and demonstrate that our model is commercially viable at large scales. When integrated into energy companies’ operations, we can help many thousands of people reduce their energy bills and support our collective ambitions to live in a net zero world.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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