UKRI has announced close to £1.3 million of new funding across nine innovative new digital energy data projects. The funding is being awarded through UKRI’s Modernising Energy Data Applications phase one competition overseen by the Prospering from the Energy Revolution challenge.
In the competition, projects were required to develop data applications that address the challenges faced by organisations and individuals to deliver net zero local energy systems. The nine winning applicants were: Urbantide, Alian, Brits Energy, City Science Corporation, Power My Hub, Zuhlke Engineering, GL Industrial Services UK, Mind Foundry, and Advanced Infrastructure Technology.
The competition ran through Autumn 2020 and is the first of a two-phase opportunity that will be followed by the development and testing of prototypes from these winning projects. Projects were required to demonstrate their benefits to the users of local energy systems, provide scalable commercial opportunities, and utilise the Open Energy data architecture being developed through projects funded under the previous Modernising Energy Data Access competition.
The successful projects include Urbantide’s solution to integrate the smart meter system data across the UK to identify those who would benefit from energy efficient measures – and offer appropriate solutions, and Brits Energy’s technology platform for maximising the benefits of digitally-controlled crop production by managing the energy input.
Rob Saunders, challenge director for the Prospering From the Energy Revolution challenge, said. “The quality and range of concepts put forward in this initial competition not only shows what is possible by using some of the newest ideas in data and technology, but also highlights the variety of inefficiencies in the current energy landscape that can be improved as we move towards our net zero ambitions in the UK,”
“Whether it’s industry, farming, investment or efficiency for people’s homes, there is a part to play for innovative technology that reduces usage for us all. We are now looking forward to helping these projects move to the next phase of bringing their solutions to life through testing and development of the ideas.”
