Faraday Grid has been awarded £1 million in funding from Innovate UK to support the development of the company’s Faraday Exchanger technology.
The energy technology company says the funding underlines the “huge potential” that the technology can play in enabling a low-carbon energy system and delivering economic growth.
The Faraday Exchanger is a control device that maintains target voltage, frequency and power, efficiently over a range of operations.
It can achieve “game-changing” levels of net reactive power generation reduction, the company said.
Working alongside the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and the University of Edinburgh, the funding will be used to support the FERGI (Faraday Exchanger for Renewable Generation Integration) project that aims to develop a full-scale Faraday Exchanger demonstrator device with power capacity of 2 to 3 MVA (MW).
Derek Boyd, UK marketing director of Faraday Grid, said: “We are very happy that our technology has been recognised as a critical piece of the jigsaw to enable a low carbon future.
“This funding is further endorsement of the Faraday Grid’s capability and we are delighted to be working with the ORE Catapult and the University of Edinburgh as we continue to develop a path to commercialisation.
“Faraday Grid’s technology will transform the grid into a modern and flexible system, taking advantage of the UK’s tremendous renewable generation sources.”
Faraday Grid claims that deployment at scale would improve the competitiveness of the UK’s offshore wind sector and provide a 1.6 per cent reduction in the levelised cost of energy.
The company intends to scale up the device to several MVA by 2020 to meet renewable generation capacity. It added that it intends to deploy the product in a pre-commercial renewable demonstration site as a second phase of the product’s path to commercialisation.
Chris Hill, operational performance director for ORE Catapult, added: “We are delighted to be supporting Faraday Grid with the development of their Faraday Exchanger technology to generation-scale units.”