Moixa has announced plans to create a virtual power plant in Sussex, as part of a scheme which could potentially save the country up to £32 billion.
The virtual plant will be the first operational part of a £40 million smart local energy system, which will link up solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles (EVs) around Worthing and Shoreham-by-Sea to work together and help manage the local electricity system more efficiently.
The system is being developed by a consortium of technology firms, including Moixa, which has secured £13 million from the government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge.
It will also include a marine source heat pump and combined heat and power system, a grid-scale battery and air source heating pumps supporting domestic boilers.
A hybrid refuelling station supporting EVs and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in nearby Horsham will also be part of the system.
The project has been supported by West Sussex County Council and the Carbon and Energy Fund and is expected to cut energy costs by an average of 10 per cent per user.
Moixa’s GridShare platform will aggregate more than 1MW of spare capacity from batteries in homes, schools and council offices, providing a range of services to National Grid, energy companies and energy distribution networks.
Once EVs are fully integrated into the virtual plant they will be capable of providing a further 1MW.
From Autumn 2019, Moixa will also begin installing solar panels and batteries in 250 council homes in Worthing and Shoreham-by-Sea and 100 schools and council buildings in the area, offering a combined 4MW of generation and 4.2MWh of storage.
The platform will use machine learning and artificial intelligence to tailor their performance to customers’ needs and maximise their savings, and this is expected to cut home energy bills by up to 40 per cent.
“This project will show how solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles at home and in the workplace can play a vital role in creating a smart, low-carbon, energy system, cutting energy bills, saving the country billions and helping to meet our climate targets. It will demonstrate the benefits of linking power, heat and transport in one local system and showcase UK expertise in an emerging global smart grid market,” said Moixa’s chief technology officer, Chris Wright.