Making Exeter an Energy Neutral Council

As part of the Exeter City Futures initiative, QBots technologies have been engaged with ECC to understand its Energy Action plan 2017-22 to make Exeter an energy neutral council. Exeter City Council (ECC) have been evaluating and planning various renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives starting with its corporate estate.

QBots have attended several meetings with Jo Pearce (Corporate Energy Manager) and Paul Wotton from ECC to identify the sites that could benefit from energy storage. Following this, it was decided that sites located in the corporate estate with existing solar panels and/or high energy bills are good candidates for the installation of energy storage.

Following our discussions, the feasibility of a QBOTS system was evaluated for 5 sites belonging to the council’s corporate estate. The below summarises our analysis.

• Civic Centre
  • Solar capacity: 70 kW
  • Storage solution considered: Behind‑the‑Meter (BTM) only, as on‑site demand exceeds solar output; all PV is self-consumed. Switch from day/night tariff to pass‑through billing to be financially feasible. Enables bill savings and ancillary‑services revenue at other times.
  • Possible net income: Savings £10–15k; Revenue £20–25k
• Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM)
  • Solar capacity: 25 kW
  • Storage solution considered: As above (BTM). Also consider additional on‑site PV and potential nearby PV deployment.
  • Possible net income: Savings £10–15k; Revenue £20–25k
• Mary Archers Car Park
  • Solar capacity: 150 kW
  • Storage solution considered: On‑site storage to increase local PV utilisation; requires private‑wire agreements.
  • Possible net income: Savings ~£1k; Revenue £15–20k
• John Lewis Car Park
  • Solar capacity: 150 kW
  • Storage solution considered: Private wire for nearby business use or EV charging points; storage can also deliver ancillary services.
  • Possible net income: Savings ~£1k; Revenue £15–20k
• Livestock Centre
  • Solar capacity: 1.5 MW
  • Storage solution considered: Co‑located battery to reduce ~85% export by shifting PV to local use; additional revenue from selling stored solar and DSR/ancillary services.
  • Possible net income: Savings £2–5k; Revenue £60–70k

Currently the Livestock centre is the most feasible site however, the RAMM and the civic centre both have significant potential for the future. Through this analysis we realised that pass through billing, or a large generation asset are required to ensure the feasibility of a BTM system.

A more in-depth analysis on the Livestock centre was undergone. A proposal was then put forward suggesting a design for an energy storage system, which will enable ECC to maximise their benefits from solar generation and existing private wire agreements.