Friday 4 January 2019

Premier Inn holds trial to see if batteries are suitable for a long stay

Premier Inn has announced it is trialling the UK’s first battery-powered hotel, having chosen The Gyle at Edinburgh as its test site.

It hopes the 100kW lithium-ion battery at the 200-room site will help the hotel better manage energy consumption, improve efficiency, strengthen power supplies and enable cost savings.

The new storage infrastructure will be able to supply the hotel for up to three hours and takes two hours to completely charge.

The Gyle was judged to be a suitable hotel to test the technology because of plentiful intermittent wind resources in the locality.

The battery will draw power from the National Grid during off-peak periods to help balance the network and is expected to save the hotel around £20,000 per year.

Cian Hatton, parent company Whitbread’s Head of Energy and Environment, said: “Batteries are of course everyday items, more commonly associated with powering small household goods, like the TV remote control, so it’s incredibly excited to launch the UK’s first battery-powered hotel – an innovation which will save money, ensure security of supply and support the transition to a more flexible grid."

Project partner E.ON supplied and installed the battery technology.