Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council has been awarded £500k from Welsh Government, through the Whole System Business Research Innovation for Decarbonisation Challenge (WBRID), to develop a solution to the Council’s challenge of – Developing a Smart Industrial and Commercial Energy Platform Model Solutions to achieve Net Zero Outcomes.
The funding will allow the Council to move into Phase 2 of the challenge which involves working with two suppliers. They will test and pilot each solution to help the Council towards its decarbonisation goal over the next year. In Phase 1 the competition was launched and 11 companies bid for the opportunity which was further shortlisted to four suppliers.
Phase 2 has seen that number reduced to only two suppliers, with Stortera and BankEnergi given a share of the funding to continue work over the next year.
StorTera are an Edinburgh based energy storage solution provider working to revolutionise the energy storage industry. BankEnergi is a consortium consisting of Consortio, IBECCS, carbonTRACK UK, Wales & West Utilities and BankEnergi. The consortium has worked together on a number of previous projects from whole systems thinking to Prospering From the Energy Revolution (PFER) projects related to energy and flexibility trading.
The companies will be demonstrating their solutions which includes creating an energy trading platform utilising existing renewable energy generation and installing new equipment including battery storage, solar PV, heat pump and Artificial Intelligence (AI) controls. This will optimise performance and energy utilisation with a view to decarbonising business parks.
Councillor Dai Davies, Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Regeneration and Economic Development commented:
“I am very pleased that we have funding in place from Welsh Government which will allow us to progress to Phase 2 of the project. This will present solutions through real practical measures to set out what we can achieve in the future. Blaenau Gwent Council must do all it can to reduce carbon emissions if we are to meet our target in 2030 of becoming a carbon neutral organisation. It’s so positive that we are taking action on climate change today so that we can all benefit from a better tomorrow.”
The Council are delighted to move into Phase 2 of the project which will help reduce overall carbon emissions across the borough and achieve their ambition to become a carbon neutral organisation by 2030.
Ian Byrne, Principal at IBECCS added:
“It’s exciting to be part of the team testing the BankEnergi solution as a way of enabling companies on Blaenau Gwent’s business parks to cut their energy bills, take advantage of new and renewable energy, and lower their carbon emissions. IBECCS is providing technical support to the consortium, as well as working on engagement activities.”