NI’s first smart grid delivers 55% energy cost savings

A £4.5M RENEWABLES project, part-funded by UKRI (£2.2M grant) with £2.3M match-funded, has saved a combined £27,000 in energy costs for 60 properties concentrated around the Ballysally area of Coleraine in just one year.  This represents an average saving of 55% per property across the Project.

Northern Ireland’s first smart electricity grid, ‘Project Girona’, was designed by Joulen to demonstrate the potential benefits of a SLES (Smart Local Energy System).

Bringing cheaper, smarter, greener electricity to homes and communities in Coleraine, Joulen is yesterday, 28th September 2022, announcing the findings of the 12-month study.

Combining solar panels and battery storage technology, Project Girona has successfully saved businesses, homeowners, tenants, and local community groups an average of 55% in electricity costs.  Further to the significant cost savings – which will become even greater as energy prices continue to soar – Project Girona saved 40 tonnes of CO2 – which equates to the same amount of C02 used by 19 family cars in a year.

The project generated 171MWh of renewable electricity and exported 30MWh of green energy to the grid.  The exported electricity generated further income for the properties and enabled other properties to benefit from clean energy.

Commenting on the results of Project Girona and the technology behind its success, Eddie McGoldrick, Co-Founder of The Electric Storage Company said: “We’re living through a cost-of-living crisis with energy costs spiraling, and this makes the results of Project Girona even more relevant in today’s environment.

“We have been working on bringing this technology to market for seven years, and it’s now available to customers across Northern Ireland, who can benefit from reduced electricity costs, whilst reducing their carbon footprint. Combining battery storage with renewable technology is the way forward in future-proofing homes from the escalating energy costs that we’re seeing today.”

Following the initial pilot project, the homeowners and tenants participating in the project have been gifted the pilot technology, worth £840,000, and will continue to benefit from the savings that it generates for years to come.

Co-Founder and Operations Director of The Electric Storage Company, Anne Marie McGoldrick, continues: “Project Girona successfully demonstrated average savings of 55% on electricity bills using this solution.  With the addition of our smart management platform, PARIS – which extracts the full economic value of every unit of energy – we are predicting further savings of up to 20% for customers.

“PARIS uses smart technology and data to make the complex simple so that the customer  doesn’t have to do a thing.”

Project Girona involved just 60 properties, which in turn saved almost £27,000 in energy costs. As a pilot project, this indicates that if the same solar panel and battery storage smart solution provided by The Electric Storage Company was applied to 1000 new homes that it would generate 2.8GWh of green energy, worth £625,000 and importantly reduce carbon emissions by 667 tonnes in one year.

Minister for the Economy, Gordon Lyons, visited Focus on Family, a charitable Nurturing & Development Centre based in the Ballysally Estate, to learn more about the benefits of the technology and how it has saved businesses, homeowners, tenants and charities like Focus on Family thousands of pounds in electricity costs. A representative from Focus on Family met with the minister and told how the organization has made savings of a staggering 69% (£855*) on its electricity bills since adopting the solar panel and battery storage solution.

Commenting on his visit, Minister Lyons added; “I am acutely aware that the unprecedented rise in energy prices is having a significant impact on homes, business, and the community sector. While we, unfortunately, do not have control of the global markets dictating many of these costs, green energy projects help to protect consumers by providing alternative sources of energy. Project Girona is an excellent example of an innovative local pilot project making energy more affordable.

“My Department’s energy strategy ‘The Path to Net Zero’ is a longer-term strategy for the whole of Northern Ireland to become less vulnerable to volatile global energy markets. Affordability is front and centre of this strategy which takes an ‘energy efficiency first’ approach aiming to help consumers to reduce the energy they use and therefore their energy bills.”

Find out more about this smart energy solution and the work of Joulen at www.joulen.com

Curtis Cregan *Joulen* curtis@joulen.com

Riki Neill / Jolene Kelly * RNN Communications * jolene@rnncommunications.com

1. The GIRONA project started in Mar 20 with field installations starting in Feb 21.  The Project concluded on 28 May 2022 with the final report submitted in Jun 22 to UK Research and innovation (UKRI).
2. The project started as the first COVID-19 lockdown was initiated.  The Project was successfully delivered during the pandemic.
3. A total of 172 MWh of electricity was generated by solar PV (12 months).  This is 49.6% of total electricity consumption by the Girona cluster (129 MWh).  There are 2 locations in the cluster that are large consumers which are skewing the figures somewhat.  If these are removed the total generation increases to 55% instead of 49.6%.
4. Total/cluster savings (12 months) is approximately £26,995 (based on a 18p/unit price)
5. Total/cluster CO₂ savings (12 months) equates to 40.2 tonnes of CO₂ not produced by the power stations.  This is the equivalent of taking 19 family cars off the road in terms of CO₂ production.
6. The GIRONA cluster exported a total of 31 MWh of electricity back to the network (this is included 172k generation figure) (12 months).  This means that other consumers were availing of renewable/green electricity generated by the GIRONA cluster (c.3tonnes of CO₂ that power stations have not had to produce). * This CO₂ data was generated using the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Footprint Calculator.
7. GIRONA has 60 properties with PV and battery.  These properties came on-line incrementally and not altogether.
8. TESC has already created 15 new green jobs with a plan to raise a further 10 jobs in the near future.
9. Focus on Family, made cost savings of 69% (equating to £855*) on its electricity bill following installation of the solar panel and smart battery solution for Project Girona.

*this figure is an estimate based on a flat rate cost of 24p and no feed in rate