Following a competitive tender, NI Water has awarded Continu Ltd funding under Phase 2 of the SBRI (Small Business Research Initiative) to undertake a collaborative research project into the benefits of the use of large-scale battery storage technology to store and use renewable energy.

NI Water is a major user of energy and the largest single purchaser of electricity in Northern Ireland.

The utility has invested significantly in renewable energy sources and sees the initiative as another step in their green energy strategy. To convey this concept, NI Water has developed four energy delivery themes, i.e. Use less; Buy less; Buy better; and Buy more.

Damien O’Mullan, Head of Energy at NI Water said:-

“To provide the green power for the increasing adoption of electric vehicles and to start to decarbonise the heating for homes and places of work, Northern Ireland needs to double its renewable generating capacity in the next ten years.

“NI Water has over 3,000 widely distributed grid connected sites, which have the potential to play a vital part in the deployment of large-scale batteries across the province. The key outcome for this exciting research project is to reduce usage and costs while maintaining reliability of supply at all times.”

Alison McFadden, MD of Continu, commented:

“Having successfully completed six months of feasibility research (Phase 1), we are excited to build on this further to develop our findings. This will identify opportunities to use battery energy storage technologies within NI Water in order to reduce energy consumption, reduce cost, improve resilience and generate income.

“Given NI Water’s position in the Northern Ireland electricity market, the project has the potential to demonstrate major benefits and will provide valuable information to other large energy users in both public and private sectors.”

Continu are backup power and energy storage specialists, working in collaboration with world leading partners with a wide range of private and public sector customers throughout Ireland, mainland UK and Europe.

Continu have developed models which combine the technology and hardware from the unique supplier partnerships with leading manufacturers in the battery energy storage, aggregation and backup power markets. These will provide commercialisation streams for business customers, including utilities, data centres, healthcare and manufacturing sites.