In an interview with Utility Week Davenport revealed that developing an electricity storage offering had become a priority among innovation projects at the independent energy supplier – though there is no clarity as yet exactly what this proposition will look like.
“I would hope that we’ll have some kind of storage proposition, whether large scale or small scale, by next April,” said Davenport who is looking to a new commercial director, due to be appointed in September, to accelerate the project.
Currently, Good Energy is conducting trials with Battery manufacturer Moixa to explore the extent to which its technology could be useful in managing renewables variability and promoting domestic energy efficiency.
Davenport added that she believes energy storage “will peak the interest of many where energy efficiency never has – solar plus batteries followed by energy efficiency could see energy demand significantly change and so the role of the supplier changing too”.
Welcoming the heightened interest in storage technology which has followed Tesla’s announcement of its intentions to bring a range of storage products to market – potentially including both domestic scale and distribution scale batteries – Davenport observed “Tesla has brought one side of the market into play – demand. People want a Tesla battery even though they don’t know what it does and how much it is going to cost.”
The full interview with Juliet Davenport is available online here, and in the 7 August print issue of the magazine.
NB: Juliet Davenport will speak at Utility Week Congress 2015 which takes place in Birmingham on 14-15 October. Find out more about this event at: www.uw-congress.net/home