Europe’s largest smart grid trial to be tested on fridge freezers

In the trial, fridge freezers supplied by Indesit in the homes of npower customers will be fitted with RLtec’s ‘dynamic demand’ technology, which helps maintain the balance between supply and demand across the National Grid.

The trial aims to demonstrate the potential for ‘smart’ appliances to reduce CO2 emissions in the UK, in what the partners are calling “the biggest assessment of smart grid technology in Europe to date”.

RLtec’s dynamic demand technology enables appliances fitted with it to automatically modify their power consumption in response to second-by-second changes in the balance between supply and demand on the grid.

“This means that the amount of carbon emitting generating capacity used to maintain that balance can be dramatically reduced,” commented Andrew Howe, ceo of RLtec. “What’s more, it’s effectively a silent solution as it doesn’t affect appliance performance in any way and no action is needed on the part of the consumer.”

Dynamic demand is approved by the energy regulator Ofgem under the Government’s Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) legislation and npower is supporting the trial through its CERT obligations.

Bob Jackson, acting head of Energy Efficiency at npower, said: "Dynamic demand has the potential to significantly reduce the amount of carbon emissions – so these trials with domestic customers are very important and we hope they will show the impact that this technology could have in the UK and around the world."

Following the initial roll-out of the 300 Indesit fridge freezers between now and the end of 2009, a total of 3,000 fridges and freezers of different types and models will be deployed to assess the carbon savings against a full range of variables, said Indesit.

Commenting on the first phase of the trial, Enrico Vita, ceo Indesit Company UK, said: “We are excited to be involved with this project, and to be playing a pioneering role in the world of smart grids […] The efforts of our highly specialised research team, working alongside RLtec in Italy and the UK, should lead to the first results of this trial coming through early next year.”

This week’s announcement follows a major three-way venture capital investment into RLtec by the Carbon Trust's venture capital investment subsidiary, Carbon Trust Investments, Low Carbon Accelerator and Naxos Capital Partners, announced last week.



npower has 6.6 million residential gas and electricity accounts throughout the UK, while Indesit is Europe’s second biggest producer of home appliances by market share.