Girona Project

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North Coast energy ‘micro grid’ powered on by £2m funding boost for local companies

Innovate UK has thrown its support behind new plans to bring the first ever ‘micro-grid’ to Northern Ireland. This will be the first project of it’s kind in Northern Ireland and will offer businesses and customers on the North Coast the opportunity to access clean energy.

The ‘micro-grid’ works by combining Northern Ireland’s expertise in power engineering, fintech and big data. Behind this exciting new project is ‘Girona Energy Limited’, a consortium created by Poweron Technologies Limited and GES group.

Eddie McGoldrick, Director of Poweron Technologies said:

“We want to make the energy market more democratic, consumers feel they have no choice when it comes to the big energy companies.

These innovations are an easy, inexpensive way to bring smart energy solutions like solar panels and battery storage into consumers daily lives. The ‘micro-grid’ isn’t just good for the environment because it uses more renewables, it will also see a reduction in energy bills, contributing to the Net Zero target”.

David Moore, Managing Director of Grants Electrical Systems said,

 “Providing more flexible energy solutions holds big benefits for businesses. Reducing their environmental impact (not to mention their energy bills) is often a key objective for companies, but investing in the technology needed to do so is often expensive. Our innovative system of financing the technology means they too can reap the rewards without large outlays.”

NIE Networks has been supporting the ‘Smart Grid’ project through exploring the impact the technologies will have on the electricity distribution network in Northern Ireland.  Ian Bailie, Network Development Manager for NIE Networks, said;

“We are delighted to see the Smart Grid project receive further support and it’s been a privilege to have played such a critical role from the start in such an innovative project. Our Future Networks team has been assessing the impacts the deployed technologies will have on the electricity network and analyzing that data to shape how the final technology will operate. This project will enable domestic customers to have a meaningful impact on the network and transform the future of energy generation and consumption in Northern Ireland.”

The initial £2.4m government investment aims to support ‘scale up’, repeating the smart approach across Ireland and GB.

Belfast Harbour is currently being utilised as a testbed for the Northern Ireland micro-grid and Trevor Anderson, Director of Infrastructure & Business Transformation at Belfast Harbour said:

“We welcome the opportunity to work in partnership with Girona in developing this technology and are fully supportive of the plans for a micro-grid to grow and expand within a large-scale test environment.  This aligns with our ambitions to be the best regional port in the world and to embed SMART and sustainable technology across our business