DESIRE (Domestic Energy Storage Integrating Renewable Energy)

A cloud-based platform will orchestrate a fleet of home hot water tanks and batteries to help balance the UK’s electricity grid. The problem is that wind and solar power are intermittent—when the wind drops or clouds pass, supply can suddenly fall short. Grid operators currently rely on large, centralised power plants to smooth out these fluctuations, but that model is expensive and carbon-intensive. This project tests a different approach: using thousands of small, distributed energy storage devices already sitting in people’s homes. If successful, the trial will create new supply chains and income streams for domestic energy storage. Households with Mixergy’s intelligent hot water tanks or Powervault’s home batteries could earn money by letting Upside Energy’s software briefly charge or discharge their units in response to grid signals. The project will quantify how much multi-vector storage capacity exists in UK homes, assess consumer willingness to participate, and develop optimal control strategies for integrated battery and hot water systems. The ultimate impact would be a more flexible, resilient grid that can absorb large amounts of renewable energy without requiring new fossil-fuel backup plants.