Energy innovation initiative invites efficient power ideas

Funding and product testing support is available to assist innovators in developing these products and services.

The ‘Call for Energy Innovators’, led by Cheshire’s Energy Innovation Centre, is backed by four of the UK’s leading energy firms: distribution network operators CE Electric UK, Electricity North West, ScottishPower Energy Networks and Scottish & Southern Energy.

With rising energy demand and ambitious de-carbonising targets, innovation has an increasingly important role to play in enhancing the way power is transported, monitored and stored.

The aim of the ‘Call for Energy Innovators’ initiative is to seek out technologies and processes with the potential to revolutionise existing power networks.

Clive Deadman, chairman of the Energy Innovation Centre’s Investment Forum, predicts this emerging market for innovative energy-related products and services will be worth more than £1bn per year in the UK alone by 2016.

Recent technologies helped by the Energy Innovation Centre include the ’CombiSave’ thermostatic valve for combination boilers from Furlong Innovations, which reduces the time taken for water to run hot, and a smart-grid-compatible platform from FMC-Tech, which uses line-mounted sensors and associated technology to detect faults and increase the capacity of conductors.