Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 31ST JANUARY - 6TH FEBRUARY 2020 | 23 Finance & Investment Northern Ireland Water has warned that people's health and the environment are at risk if water and wastewater infrastruc- ture is not invested in. The state-owned firm said funding had not kept pace with the requirements of the country. Steve Blockwell, head of investment at NI Water, said: "NI Water knows Northern Ireland's growth ambitions, we know WATER NI Water warns of environment and health risks of underinvesting what needs to be done and we have the plan and the skills to deliver it. However, if funding continues at current levels there will be significant constraints on economic growth, damage to the environment and risk to people's health." Earlier this month, NI Water was promised investment as part of the deal called New Decade, New Approach, which promised to transform public services and invest in the economy. Blockwell said the company welcomed the government's deal, which includes investment for wastewater infrastructure, and said: "While we have been able to maintain safe, clean drinking water, the huge con- straints on our capital budget have meant that wastewater issues have largely been le„ GridBeyond secures £9m in investment Funding will support a doubling of its workforce and an increase in research and development GridBeyond has secured a total of £9 million from investors including the Portuguese and Irish utilities EDP and ESB, as well as the venture capital arm of the French oil giant Total. The firm operates in the UK and Ireland and has developed a smart energy platform named Point for aggregating and optimising distributed genera- tion and demand-side response in order to provide grid services and back-up capacity. The funding will support a doubling of its workforce over the next three years, an increase in research and development and expansion into other markets. Chief executive and co-founder Michael Phelan said: "The newly completed financing round sets GridBeyond on the path to increase the reach of our intelligent energy platform, delivering world-leading AI and powerful auto- mation capabilities to smart grid and energy markets. "This supports our ambition to advance the transi- tion of the global energy networks towards digitalisa- tion, decarbonisation and decentralisation, all while enhancing commercial and operational benefits for market participants through fast-acting automation and optimisation of demand and distributed generation." Vera Pinto Pereira, chief executive of EDP Commer- cial, said: "This investment is driven by our ambition to gain experience in managing flexibility in distributed assets and seek new energy products and services." ESB strategy manager Brian Ryan commented: "ESB is pleased to announce today our further investment in our strategic partnership with GridBeyond, following a significant investment in 2016. This relationship has allowed ESB's smart energy services division to leverage from GridBeyond cutting-edge technology." TG ELECTRICITY Habitat Energy signs 74MW storage deal Habitat Energy has reached an agreement with Gresham House Energy Storage Fund to optimise 74MW of energy storage system (ESS) projects. Gresham's facilities are being optimised using Habitat Energy's PowerIQ platform, which can maximise the value of assets across wholesale markets while managing degradation, thereby extending their life. The agreement covers three existing projects of 20MW in Wiltshire, 5MW in Wolverhamp- ton and the recently commis- sioned 49MW project in the Red Scar Business Park near Preston. Andrew Luers, chief execu- tive of Habitat Energy, said: "We are delighted to be working in conjunction with the Gresham House Energy Storage Fund and their manager, Gresham House Asset Management, in order to accelerate the deploy- ment of much-needed flexible power assets onto Great Britain's electricity network. "Our aim is to provide unique insight for a unique asset class and add value in the short- and long-term for our clients." ENERGY Wales prioritises heat pumps in new homes planning Heat pumps and networks look set to be the principal means of keeping Wales' new homes warm from 2025, according to new dra„ building regulations. The Welsh government's revisions to the Part L regula- tions, which govern energy use in new housing, state that all new homes must be heated and powered from low-carbon energy sources from 2025, bringing Wales into line with changes in England. The new regulations tie in with moves by Welsh ministers to legislate for a 95 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which will be brought forward later this year. New and existing homes currently account for 9 per cent of total Welsh greenhouse gas emissions. The regulations stipulate that the use of high-carbon fossil fuels will be phased out in new homes and replaced by low-carbon heating and energy generation alternatives, such as photovoltaic panels, heat pumps and district heat networks. The document, which is out for consultation until 12 March, says the Welsh government anticipates that heat pumps, particularly air source devices, will play a "major role" in delivering low-carbon heat for new homes. While other technologies, such as hydrogen, "may" have a role to play in the heating systems of the future, heat networks and pumps will be the "principal" means of providing low-carbon heating in homes developed to the proposed Part L standard. Phelan: investment 'supports our ambition' unaddressed, as highlighted in our PC15 Business Plan; our PC21 business planning process has identified 99 areas where new housing and businesses may be unable to get connected to our sewerage system." The company warned it would not have the resources to provide water and wastewater infrastructure for 11,000 planned new homes without new funding. This week

• Cover