NI Water has awarded Continu Ltd funding to undertake a collaborative research project into the benefits of large-scale battery storage technology to store and use renewable energy.

The water company is a major user of energy and the single largest purchaser of electricity in Northern Ireland.

It has invested “significantly” in renewable energy sources and sees battery storage as an “exciting initiative” as another step in its green energy strategy and to convey this concept, NI Water has developed four energy delivery themes: Use less; Buy less; Buy better; and Buy more.

Continu is a backup power and energy storage specialist, which has developed models that combine the technology and hardware from supplier partnerships with leading manufacturers in the battery energy storage, aggregation and backup power markets.

The latest funding, which follows six months of feasibility research, will help identify opportunities to use battery energy storage technologies within NI water to reduce energy consumption and cost, improve resilience and generate income.

Damien O’Mullan, Head of Energy at NI Water said: “To provide the green power for the increasing adoption of electric vehicles and to start to decarbonise the heating for homes and places of work, Northern Ireland needs to double its renewable generating capacity in the next 10 years.

“NI Water has over 3,000 widely distributed grid connected sites, which have the potential to play a vital part in the deployment of large-scale batteries across the province. The key outcome for this exciting research project is to reduce usage and costs while maintaining reliability of supply at all times.”