A trial to tackle fuel poverty in East Oxford through the innovative use of solar panels and battery packs has been praised by local MP for Oxford East, Anneliese Dodds, on a recent visit to Rosehill Community Centre.
Project ERIC (Energy Resources for Integrated Communities) was launched in March 2015 and is part funded by Government Agency, Innovate UK and is a partnership between organisations including Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), Moixa Technology and Oxford City Council. Through the project over 80 homes in the Rose Hill area of East Oxford, the local primary school and the new Rose Hill community centre have been fitted with solar panels and battery packs. As well as being able to use the power generated at the time, any excess solar generation from the panels on these buildings is diverted to the installed batteries and stored for use when the solar panels are not generating, so those trialling the scheme can make the most of their free low carbon supply, thereby lowering their energy bills.
Alex Howison, SSEN's Innovation Programme Team Manager South explains more: "By using solar generation locally instead of exporting it onto the wider network, this system can help lower the peak demand on Distribution Network Operators such as SSEN and mitigates the needs to switch off low carbon supplies when they are generating larger quantities of power that overload the grid. This trial and partnership is helping demonstrate systems that enable communities to harness their own power, through solar or wind, that can then be stored and fed back into the community when it's most needed at times of peak demand."
"It was great to welcome Anneliese to showcase the project and highlight the innovative developments in technology that are likely to be commonplace in how we use energy in the future, as we continue the transition to a smarter, flexible electricity system."
In addition to the homes and buildings benefitting from the trial, Project ERIC has also enabled the introduction of an electric vehicle car club that is part-charged by the installed solar PV, providing green public transport which is accessible to licensed drivers across the Rose Hill community.
Ed Gunn, Operations Director for Moixa added:"We were thrilled to introduce Anneliese to the project and demonstrate what we believe is a fantastic model for the future use of domestic energy - not only in the UK, but also globally."