Tuesday 21 August 2018

UK grid balancing tech for renewable integration granted £1m

A grid balancing technology that is expected to allow electricity grids to integrate much higher levels of renewable energy at no additional cost has been granted £1 million.

The Faraday Exchanger for Renewable Generation Integration (FERGI) project, in collaboration with the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and the University of Edinburgh, aims to develop a full-scale demonstrator device with a capacity of between 2MW and 3MW.

Faraday Grid said the funding from Innovate UK will support the development of the technology "to maximise the benefits" for renewable eneryg generators, developers and system operators and has the potential to save energy consumers £1 billion a year.

It adds deployment at scale would improve the competitiveness of the UK’s offshore wind sector and provide a 1.6% reduction in the levelised cost of energy.

Derek Boyd, UK Marketing Director of Faraday Grid Limited said: “We are happy that our technology has been recognised as a critical piece of the jigsaw to enable a low carbon future.

“Faraday Grid’s technology will transform the grid into a modern and flexible system, taking advantage of the UK’s tremendous renewable generation sources.”