June 21, 2019
StorTera, a small Edinburgh based innovator, has succeeded in winning £1.6million of funding to demonstrate the next generation of smart grid technology. StorTera are energy storage specialists who have partnered with Canadian firm Equilibrium Engineering to develop their project ‘Alba Nova: A Smart Grid Pilot Using Advanced Battery Storage’.
StorTera and Equilibrium Engineering won the funding following a highly competitive pitching event in Ottawa where the project was presented to a panel of expert judges comprising grid operators, corporate companies, investors and government officials.
The funding is being awarded through the Power Forward Challenge, a joint initiative between the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Natural Resources Canada.
The Challenge is looking for innovators who can bring disruptive technologies or new thinking to develop clean, robust and flexible power grids and energy systems that anticipate and meet the needs of networks around the world, looking ahead to 2030 and beyond. Four UK based and three Canada based teams have been selected to demonstrate their novel smart grids over the next two years. The most successful pilot project will be awarded a prize of $1m upon completion in March 2021.
StorTera and Equilibrium Engineering have partnered with the Town of Berwick in Nova Scotia and Dalhousie University’s Renewable Energy Storage Lab to address the challenges faced by grid operators who all need to decarbonise and plan for the future.
The Alba Nova team’s project will implement both commercial and domestic battery systems that have inbuilt artificial intelligence to optimise performance. These systems will demonstrate how intelligent and distributed energy storage systems can increase the market uptake of renewable energy, save money for customers and utilities, and accelerate carbon reductions through increased electrification.
Dr. Gavin Park, StorTera’s CEO, says “this is a great opportunity to develop strong, collaborative links with Canada to demonstrate the future of electric grids and share our expertise globally. Our technology utilises simple architecture that is self-optimising and dispatchable by the grid operator. By focusing on the needs of the customer first and providing them with a financing mechanism that requires nothing upfront, we have come up with a highly scalable model that can be rolled out quickly across the world. We have formed a great team and partnership with Equilibrium Engineering and we look forward to delivering this exciting project together.”