The rise of Stupid Electricity
21st century power systems engineers may enjoy reflecting on the comical but expensive mistakes of the telecommunications industry in the 20thcentury. Digital technologies capable of controlling telephony services became available from the 1960s. At first the telecoms operators used the technology to replicate, more reliably and more economically, the exact same services that they’d formerly […]
The Minuteman of the Half Hour
The Concord Minuteman – “Minutemen were civilian colonists during the American Revolutionary War. They were known for being ready at a minute’s notice, hence the name. They provided a highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that allowed the colonies to respond immediately to war threats.” The burgeoning popularity of electric vehicles and the increase in renewable […]
Lighting the dark waters of local energy
As long ago as 2016 we started warning of the information security risks in community energy schemes. In the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, we said that: There are many community energy schemes. Their number and variety are increasing briskly. They bring new kinds of information into existence and they handle existing kinds […]
Electricity access without the big networks
We’ve always taken on the challenges in the energy sector. We were champions of energy storage right from our beginning. Now we’re grappling with the challenge of electricity network costs. In the UK, only about 34% of our electricity bills are paying for electricity generation. We pay almost as much as that towards the cost […]
Energy access with a future: minigrid markets
We are delighted to announce that we’ve been awarded grant support through the Energy Catalyst programme of Innovate UK and the Department for International Development, to make commercial trials of the new product EMBLEM in Rwanda and Nepal. After a successful proof-of-concept trial on the Isle of Iona, Scotland, we have teamed up with local […]
Multi-chemistry smartness
Our friends at the University of Sheffield have produced an interesting video of the ADEPT project and their part in it. Viewers who know us will easily spot Clive and Derian. We have been privileged to contribute to the project, with partners Infinite Renewables and GS Yuasa. We built the Multi Storage Manager that actually […]
MW scale power network balancing from domestic loads
Here’s a video showing how Swanbarton’s EACS software can deliver MW scale balancing services to the grid, by managing very large and widely-distributed fleets of domestic energy assets, without affecting their usability.
Local energy market project to help reduce costs and carbon emissions
An innovative project which will help reduce carbon emissions and energy costs, by increasing the use of local renewable energy, starts this month. The Local Energy Market in Devon and Exeter (LEMDEx) project is grant-supported by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy through the Prospering from the Energy Revolution Programme. It will be […]
Worth its weight in carbon
Here’s more news from our trial of a liberated market for electrical power on the island of Iona, with our partner Scene. Over the past quarter-year, our Real Time Trading Platform has been facilitating energy trading, in real time, for thirty homes. Each of them has had a smart agent negotiating for it within the […]
Smart chemistry, smart control.
Swanbarton is proud to be contributing to the ADEPT project in partnership with Infinite Renewables, GS Yuasa and Sheffield University. ADEPT is demonstrating adventurous new energy management techniques on an industrial site. It includes the control of an exciting new battery configuration. GS Yuasa’s 100kW battery integrates strings of Lithium-ion and Lead-acid cells onto a […]