PFER Demonstrators

A range of large scale SLES Demonstrators across the UK have been funded through the Prospering From an Energy Revolution (PFER) Programme. The EnergyREV team collaborated with these Demonstrator projects to enhance the delivery of the projects and inform future development of further SLES in the UK and Internationally:

Energy Superhub Oxford (ESO) Project

Project Lead - Pivot Power LLP

Consortia - Habitat Energy Limited, Kensa Contracting, Oxford City Council, Invinity Energy Systems and the University of Oxford

Energy Superhub Oxford (ESO) is a world-first project pioneering a model for the rapid decarbonisation of power, transport and heat in cities across the UK and worldwide. It is a key part of Oxford City's Council's response to the climate emergency.

It has delivered rapid electric vehicle charging with Europe’s most powerful electric vehicle charging hub, hybrid battery energy storage systems, low carbon heating, and smart energy management to improve air quality and support Oxford’s journey to zero carbon.

The project achieved:

  • 52MW hybrid lithium ion / vanadium flow battery directly connected to the transmission network.
  • EV charging ‘superhub’ with 42 fast to ultra-rapid chargers.
  • Delivered 40 electric vehicles into Oxford City Council’s fleet and supported 22 fully electric black cabs into the city’s taxi fleet.
  • Heating in 62 social housing properties converted to ground source heat pumps supplied from shared loop arrays.
  • ESO took advantage of an opportunity to connect Oxford Bus Company’s depot to the private wire, facilitating decarbonisation of up to 104 buses.

ESO aims to save  25,000 tonnes of CO2 per year by 2032.

Find out more about ESO here. 

ReFLEX Orkney

Project Lead - European Marine Energy Centre

Consortia - Aquatera, Community Energy Scotland, Heriot-Watt University, Orkney Islands Council and sms plc

The ReFLEX (Responsive Flexibility) Orkney project demonstrated a first-of-its-kind Integrated Energy System (IES), interlinking local electricity, transport and heat networks into one system. The project aimed to create a ‘smart energy island’, demonstrating the energy system of the future, which will reduce and eventually eliminate the need for fossil fuels.

The project achieved:

  • Exceptional engagement and participation: ReFLEX Orkney membership had grown to circa 1,000 by the end of 2022 (5% of the total Orkney population).
  • Significant uptake of decarbonised transport, including an increase of over 210 electric vehicles (EVs) on Orkney, almost 150 domestic EV charge points, and enrolment of over 200 people in the local car club.
  • Demonstrated aggregated demand and control of EV chargers to help avoid curtailing wind power, by controlling nearly 40 smart chargers in response to grid and wind conditions.
  • Improved understanding of carbon emissions and energy use across Orkney, through completion of over 300 carbon footprints and deployment of energy monitors in 115 properties.
  • Integrated Energy System control platform developed and deployed.

More information on ReFLEX Orkney is available here.

Project LEO (Local Energy Oxfordshire)

Project Lead - Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks

Consortia - EDF Energy, Nuuve, Open Utility, Origami Energy, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council, The Low Carbon Hub C.I.C and the University of Oxford

Project LEO ran trials in Oxfordshire to build a broad range of reliable evidence of the technological, market and social conditions needed for a greener, more flexible, and fair electricity system. It has developed a robust evidence base showing the technological, market and social conditions needed for a greener, more flexible, and fairer electricity system.  Projects include solar panels, batteries, hydro generation, vehicle-to-grid and demand management. These sit alongside a series of smart-fair neighbourhood trials which engage with community-level energy, social, economic and environmental issues. LEO has brought together many of these grid-edge projects to deliver flexibility which can support efficient use of the electricity network and maximise the value of the local energy portfolio.

The project achieved:

  • Delivery of demonstration and trial local energy projects, many of which have participated in delivering local flexibility.
  • Development of local Distribution System Operator (DSO) market framework and trading platforms.
  • Significant improvements in network visibility through installation of more than 100 data monitoring stations.
  • Successfully completed DSO market trials to procure network services and enable peer-to-peer network capacity trading.
  • Regional and local mapping tools bringing together dozens of data layers to provide a geographical visualisation of energy use, constraining factors, and opportunities for smart local energy systems.
  • Improved understanding of the barriers and opportunities for local communities and others on the grid edge to participate and benefit from smart local energy systems.

Key up with latest news on LEO here.