The humble hot water tank gets a 'smart' treatment to become a virtual power plant
Heating hot water is the second most intensive use of energy in the home. As a result, Centrica, in a move to help decarbonise heating, is rolling out a new smart hot water tank offer for customers through British Gas. The partnership, with Oxford University spin-out, Mixergy, will offer customers the opportunity to upgrade their hot water systems with a new intelligent hot water tank.
Hot water tanks consume as much energy as running a small car but have received little innovation to date. The Mixergy tank system combines sensory and IoT technologies to keep track of hot water levels in the tank, learning the usage habits of the household so water volumes are personalised to heat just what is needed at the right time. This can reduce heat losses water energy usage by up to 40 per cent a year, saving over 10 per cent on hot water bills each year worth up to £100 per annum.*
Centrica has also secured approval from National Grid to include thousands of hot water tanks as part of its 2.5GW-strong virtual power plant, combining the units with the flexibility of industrial consumers and battery projects using its software platform FlexPondTM.
The partnership with Mixergy, funded by Centrica Innovations, follows the publication of National Grid’s Future Energy Scenarios, which suggests that more than 23 million homes will need to install new low-carbon heating solutions by 2050.
"We use our proprietary technology to unlock the power of Mixergy’s tanks in order to provide firm frequency response to the electricity grid. The first batch of 100 hot water tanks, which are now in homes in the UK will, at times of stress, be capable of capturing energy at low market prices on sunny or windy days when there is an abundance of renewables on the network, all whilst maintaining efficiency, cost and comfort for our customers."
Charles Cameron, Centrica’s Group Director of Technology & Engineering and Chairman of Centrica Innovations
"We are very excited to be at the heart of Centrica’s mission to bring about additional flexibility to the energy system whilst delivering customer benefits through the deployment of solutions like the Mixergy tank. Together with Centrica, we are paving the way for smart tariffs which will reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by storing excess renewable energy on the grid. At the same time we reduce bills for householders by only heating the amount of hot water they require."
Dr Pete Armstrong, Mixergy
Centrica Business Solutions is working with a variety of other global residential appliance manufacturers to explore opportunities to provide flexibility services to the electricity grid using the company’s demand response technology platform, FlexpondTM.
Claire de Silva, Senior Communications Manager
T: 07557 616130
Notes
* This depends on heat source and usage profile - reducing heat losses from the hot water tank by to 40 per cent and heating at the correct time with respect to the both the house-holders usage and energy tariff and can save up to £100 per annum. *
About Mixergy:
Mixergy is a spin out company from the University of Oxford’s Energy and Power Group and received funding from Centrica Innovations early in 2019.
The company provide intelligent solutions to heating water which are cost-effective, energy-efficient and convenient for customers.
British Gas has been selling Mixergy water tanks to customers in Oxford and Swindon since June 2019
The fleet of Mixergy tanks aims to offer a Demand Side Response (DSR) service to the National Grid, absorbing excess load from the grid and time shifting demand to help balance the grid and facilitate the uptake of renewable generation assets.