Key technology components for local energy systems

Overview

UK Research and Innovation will invest up to £3 million in important technology components that can enhance the efficiency of local energy systems.

These should deliver cleaner, cheaper energy services and create more prosperous and resilient communities across the UK.

Scope

The innovation accelerator is open to technology components that:

• optimise the ‘whole system’ efficiency of localised energy systems and
• align with the overall objectives of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund’s Prospering from the Energy Revolution challenge

At the end of your 2-year project you must provide compelling, quantified evidence that:

• it has achieved the criteria in this competition brief
• you have considered and managed post-project benefits from the start

Innovate UK will fund innovations in these areas:

1. Applications for monitoring electricity and/or gas network hardware and software.
2. Enhancing integration between local and national electricity networks, both electricity system operators (ESO) and distribution system operators (DSO).
3. Enhancing integration between local and national electricity markets (wholesale market, balancing mechanism and ancillary services)
4. Multi-site, real time generation optimisation across multiple operators or aggregators.
5. Enhancing the efficiency of heat networks.
6. Heat and cold storage, especially inter-seasonal storage.
7. Optimised vector coupling solutions: electricity, heat and transport.

Eligibility

To lead a project you must be a UK based business of any size.

The lead organisation must claim grant funding through this competition.

To collaborate you must be:

• a UK based business
• academic institution
• charity
• public sector organisation or
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

Your project must:

• be collaborative unless led by a micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME)
• include at least one SME if led by a larger business

Funding Costs

Your project’s total eligible costs must be between £100,000 and £500,000.

You could get funding for your eligible project costs of:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small business
• up to 60% if you are a medium-sized business
• up to 50% if you are a large business

An SME working on its own can claim up to a maximum of £300,000.

If you have research organisations in your consortium they can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation, this maximum will be shared between them.

Exclusions

Innovate UK will not fund projects that do not meet the aims of the competition, for example proposals that:

• do not meet the criteria in this brief
• are not innovative
• involve niche configurations, unlikely to be replicable or scalable across the UK in the 2020s