Monday 18 February 2019

Centrica unveils domestic distributed energy plan

Centrica has unveiled a plan to integrate solar, battery and heat pump technology into its domestic products.

The energy giant aims to use distributed domestic energy solutions to drive down average electricity bills and support the flexibility of the overall grid.

It suggests combining domestic battery storage with rooftop solar installations could enable over 4.5GW of flexible power capacity, significantly more electricity than a new nuclear plant would be likely to produce.

Centrica Innovations has also invested in two start-ups - energy management solutions provider GreenCom Networks and the University of Oxford’s Energy and Power Group, which is called Mixergy.

The former has developed an energy Internet of Things (IoT) platform that allows customers to save money by reducing their energy consumption or make money by selling excess power to the grid.

The latter has received funding to support the growth of its smart hot water tank technology, which learns the usage habits of the household so it only heats just enough to meet their needs.

Sam Salisbury, Director of Centrica Innovations Labs, said: “These investments are an important step forward to a time when IoT-enabled technology in the home will operate as a single unit to ensure that energy is used in the most effective way.

“Our mission is to make people’s lives easier, by providing seamless, time-saving services that are easy to use, have a positive environmental impact and help save them money."