*The cost of balancing the network has resulted in the need for flexibility on the demand side. EnergiVault customers can manage their energy costs by avoiding peak prices and contracting with aggregators to realise demand response value such as the capacity market and demand turn up (absorbing low cost energy to charge EnergiVault).

Ice Bank Ltd, has developed a highly versatile energy management technology with a number of unique, patent-pending features.

The technology - “EnergiVault”- is a fully integrated thermal energy banking system, with far reaching capabilities, addressing many problems associated with efficient energy management, and articulate with Building and/or process Management Systems of all types (BMS).

The problem - Instability of the electrical grid, caused by supply and demand issues has always been challenging for power producers, but in todays’ energy mix, the problem has got a whole lot more complex.
The ever-growing number of wind turbine, and solar arrays, makes managing and balancing of the electrical grid even more difficult.

*Without large amounts of energy storage capacity, the dream of a carbon-free UK would be a myth.

Historically, the UK had the problem covered. Energy storage was amply provided by pumped-hydro schemes, and kinetic flywheels.
These technologies, still in use, are designed to jointly provide a short-term solution until the power station(s) respond by raising their output.
Today, these old systems are much too small for the huge variations that can occur.
With the advent of renewable energy, derived from non-secure sources, (wind / solar etc.), stabilisation of the electrical grid has become an ever-increasing problem.
As the level of instability increases, the need for higher volume energy storage does too.

The Answer - It may surprise that 10% of the total electrical energy produced in UK is consumed maintaining the temperature of working fluids, (working fluid - often water based, used as a thermal energy transportation medium)) as used in industrial sized air-conditioning systems, and other industrial processes.  

Thus, energy storage is now an essential part of the renewables industry, and although electrical energy storage in batteries would seem the only answer, the complete answer lies in an integrated mix of storage technologies.

Our focus at Ice Bank Ltd, is of course thermal energy storage. Our technology has the highest “round-trip” efficiency of all other available technologies.

With industrial refrigeration systems consuming over 15% of the power generated in UK, it is both economical and useful to store low temperature thermal energy in support of cooling systems that would normally be electrically powered.

Our technology is growing interest with refrigeration users in warmer climates, where the percentage of total energy used for cooling is significantly higher.

A recent report stated, over 80% of electrical energy produced in Dubai is consumed by refrigeration systems.

Electrical energy storage is expensive and, in some applications, unavoidable. In cooling applications, the size of electrical battery would be greatly reduced by handling the refrigeration load with EnergiVault. Both capital cost and operational efficiency are improved

The applications and benefits of an EnergiVault system are numerous and will be of particular interest to specifiers, creating low carbon buildings.

For those building new, or upgrading processes, where daily peak refrigeration loads are high, EnergiVault will “flatten the peak”, supplementing the short-term cooling requirement. This would generally enable much smaller plant and equipment to be installed.

In most circumstances, Thermal Energy Storage (TES), makes perfect sense and can deliver payback in less than two years.

Background - Ice Bank Limited was established in 2016 by Bob Long and Jonathan Stephens. Bob’s 40+ years, career in refrigeration and extensive knowledge and experience of EnergiVault’s core technology, ensures a strong competitive advantage, optimising EnergiVault for a broad range of industrial and commercial applications.

In 2016, EnergiVault secured an Innovus R&D grant, to demonstrate the technology's capabilities. This project was very successful and demonstrated the concept of energy storage and the rapid cooling capabilities of phase-change material. A successful outcome from the R&D grant saw Ice Bank Ltd secure an Innovation-Award towards the end of 2016.

As the developing technology advanced, the company secured yet another energy award in 2017, giving confidence to embarking on the road to commercialisation.

If you are interested in supporting EnergiVault in commercialising this valuable technology by becoming an investor, please introduce yourself

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