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24 | 10TH - 16TH JULY 2015 | UTILITY WEEK Customers Analysis T he launch of Tesla's energy storage bat- teries, Powerwall and Powerpack, in early May captured the imagination of the nation and had both industry profession- als and lay people talking about energy. The wave of hype created by the company has lured other technology firms into the open as they hope to cash in on the potential of stor- age, which is rapidly emerging as a new sec- tor within the energy space. So far, Tesla has kept its cards close to its chest on whether it plans to enter the UK market, although it did recently announce plans to trial utility-scale systems in the Republic of Ireland so, geographically at least, it's getting closer. However, hot on its heels, British tech- nology start-up Powervault announced in mid-June that it had raised £700,000 through investment crowdfunding and claimed it would "take on Tesla" by installing 50,000 2kWh and 4kWh home energy storage sys- tems in the UK by 2020. The firm's managing director, Joe Warren, says: "Tesla is raising awareness of home energy storage, exciting potential custom- ers and helping to create a market. Its entry into the market demonstrates the scale of the business opportunity, with battery costs fall- ing and up to two million UK homes forecast to have solar panels by 2020. The Powervault system has been designed specifically to meet the needs of British homeowners and is available today." Another firm hoping to take advantage of Tesla's success is Moixa Technology. Chief executive and entrepreneur Simon Daniel agrees that Tesla is helping raise awareness of energy storage. "We see Tesla as a very interesting market movement," he tells Util- ity Week. "We've been developing and patenting technologies for the past five or six years, but Tesla shines the spotlight on a retail aspect to the customer. Venture capitalists have known about this, technologists have known about this, but Tesla makes it much more public to consumers that it's happening and it's real." So it looks as though Tesla is paving the way for other tech firms to enter the energy storage market. "There's good battery technology coming which will drive down prices," says Daniel. "It's very good and sup- portive for us that they [Tesla] have entered the market." Industry group the Electricity Storage Network (ESN) argues that electricity stor- age is "essential" to the delivery of a secure, reliable and sustainable electricity network strong enough to meet rising demand and insists the UK needs at least an additional 2GW of electricity storage by 2020. The group's director, Anthony Price, believes energy storage is "fundamental to our electricity network" and will become "even more critical". "Not only do we need to have a plan to make storage available to all in the future, but we should have a plan to use storage now," he says. "Storage at all scales, domestic, mid-size and utility scale are all achievable now," the group says. "With demonstration projects underway here in the UK." However, ESN argues that now is the time to ensure there are "open and efficient power markets in the UK", so that manufacturers and developers can deploy their products. "Energy storage makes it possible to con- nect more renewable generation sources where there is low grid capacity," Warren tells Utility Week. "It can also maximise the use of renewable generation once it is installed. More generally it can improve the efficiency of networks and help to deal with fluctuations and imbalances." Daniel believes energy storage technol- ogy can be a "friend of network operators and utilities" because it can reduce peak and imbalance charges. "In the UK we already see a number of partners with very large scale solar projects being not given approval by the network operator because of network constraints or too much solar on a feeder, which means the social housing or the developer can't get permission without pay- ing something, and that's because the wires need to be upgraded and substations need to be upgraded." If the "right amount" of storage is installed in the home it can be an "asset" to the networks, who can "use it to balance when an electric vehicle goes on or to bal- ance the voltage or to act as a reserve". "That's the correct way to do it," he says. There are "already problems" in the UK, with utility networks in the north, particu- larly, struggling to incorporate new renewa- bles on to their networks. In the southern part of the country too, networks are con- strained on capacity in urban spaces because of high demand. "In a number of places it [the utilities sys- tem] is breaking down," Daniel says. "Stor- age is seen as a solution for that because it reduces peak, it also gives more grid-edge resilience to the system." With Tesla remaining quiet on any UK ambitions, and the UK energy storage market there for the taking, perhaps now is the time for one of its rivals to step up to the plate. Batteries included Tesla may be the poster boy of domestic-scale electricity storage, but it is not alone – many rivals are also developing products for what many forecast will be a huge market. Lois Vallely reports. Computer and software giant Apple is rumoured to be developing an electric car, in a move that could see the trailblazing cowmpany energise the electric car market. Although Apple has refused to comment on the story, website Apple Insider reported in March that the "super-secret" project, code- named Titan, was "well beyond the concept stage". It said Apple had poached 18 senior staff from rival technology companies such as Tesla and specialist battery research company A123 Systems. What is certain is that A123 Systems filed a lawsuit against Apple in February claiming five of its top engineers had been poached by Apple, in violation of non-compete clauses in their con- tracts, which effectively closed down A123 Sys- tem's research into electric car batteries. The two companies were reported in May to be close to agreeing out-of-court terms. The big Apple?