BankEnergi project launched

After several months of careful planning, the BankEnergi project has gone live. To start with, BankEnergi will focus on bringing together organisations across London’s South Bank to plan ways of reducing energy demand through better energy management, identifying cost-effective means of energy storage and renewable energy, and developing a trading platform to allow those in the area to better balance local energy supply and demand and prepare for the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Several use cases were discussed, including EV charging. The group discussed, for example, how network charges could be allocated – who is responsible for paying the use of system charges as each supplier would be expected to pay their own volumetric charges, with the primary supplier responsible for passing through capacity based charges. However, this could depend on the premises’ arrangements. Suppliers need to understand the impact to their business.

“I’m delighted that London South Bank University are partners in BankEnergi”, said Graeme Maidment, Professor of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration at LSBU. “All too often energy is solely seen in terms of generation and supply, with little attention given to the rising demand for it in heating and cooling. In higher tech offices, commonly found across the South Bank, energy used in air-conditioning often exceeds that for heating, leading to patterns of use that are quite different from those commonly assumed. BankEnergi will help organisations identify and trade on these to lower their costs and environmental impact.”