DECC Grant Winners: A closer look
Categories: Business, Energy
Eight companies and their collaborative partners have been given grants by the Department of Energy and Climate Change today to explore smart technology.
The grants are part of the UK’s plan to move to smarter energy supplies including smart meters in every home, a smart grid and entire smart cities.
The projects are spread across a range of various technologies supporting smart grid development including storage, distribution load management, demand response controls and a network platform for a future smart grid site in Glasgow. The grants will support smart grid development to a total value of £7.6 million.
The grants were awarded to:
Energy Optimizers
Arqiva Ltd
Highview Power Storage
Rltec
Smart Grid solutions
National Grid
Scottish Hydro Electric Power
SP Distribution
There was no further information on the DECC Press Release so I took a closer look at each of the companies. Please forgive the cut and paste job but I’m limited on time and just wanted to give you a quick synopsis of who these companies are and what they do:
http://www.plogginternational.com/applications.html – Grant Awarded – £12,324
‘Plogg is a smart meter plug that provides essential data about energy consumption at the point of use — the electrical power socket. It allows you to check the power consumption of appliances in real time, monitor it over a longer period, and even control it remotely from anywhere in a building or over a network.’
http://www.arqiva.com – Grant Awarded – £212,563
‘Arqiva provides much of the infrastructure behind television, radio, satellite and wireless communications in the UK and has a significant presence in Ireland, mainland Europe and the USA. Customers include major broadcasters such as the BBC, ITV, BSkyB and the independent radio groups, major telco providers including the UK’s five mobile network operators, and the emergency services.’
http://www.highview-power.com – Grant Awarded – £1,109,768
‘Highview Power Storage is a UK company dedicated to delivering economic and commercially viable industrial and utility scale clean power/energy storage. Working with the University of Leeds, they are developing proprietary power storage systems using cryogen, a very common product (liquefied nitrogen or air), as the working fluid.
First field demonstrator (500kW nominal power rating, ~2MWh of storage) to be hosted by a leading UK energy company/DNO at a Greater London generation site later this year. Multi-MW commercial products being developed for launch in 2011; first orders already in place with major commercial partners for deployment.’
http://www.rltec.com/ – Grant Awarded – £260,397
‘RLtec is a visionary clean technology company that delivers innovative solutions for the reduction of carbon emissions from electricity generation. We have developed a patented series of unique dynamic demand technologies that help promote a sustainable approach to electricity generation, transmission, distribution and consumption. Our technology is designed to:
- avoid wasteful standby and reserve generation
- displace high-carbon emitting generation with lower carbon alternatives
- facilitate the integration of renewable energy, including wind, solar, wave and tidal power generation
- reward each of us when we make a contribution to low carbon behaviours
- optimise the use we make of electricity generated
- give intelligent support for transition to the next generation of smarter grids
RLtec works with appliance manufacturers, industrial consumers, national grid operators and governments to ensure that dynamic demand takes its place at the heart of plans to reduce carbon emissions.’
http://www.smartergridsolutions.com/ – Grant Awarded – £74,332
‘Smarter Grid Solutions help clients resolve network constraints through the deployment of Smart Grid technologies.
Smarter Grid Solutions combine a mixture of centralised and decentralised intelligence to deliver the functionality required using the infrastructure available. The functionality may include solutions to deliver quicker and cheaper renewable generator connections.’
In addition, they facilitate the installation of other Smart Grid technologies, such as energy storage, dynamic line ratings and demand side management.
I’ve left off the remaining three:
| National Grid | TSO visibility of embedded generation | £33,000 |
| Scottish Hydo Electric Power Distribution (SHEPD) | Integrated Demand Site Management and Energy Storage | £1,049,600 |
| SP Distribution | Clyde Gateway Smart Grid | £49,500 |
principally because they are very large public companies and finding information isn’t as straightforward as the other companies.
