In a night to remember, the IONATE team took home this year's Energy Innovation Award for Future Energy System, presented by the Energy Innovation Centre (EIC). The prestigious prize recognises the best of the industry, with the Future Energy System category specifically rewarding innovation with "the greatest potential for future impact towards the energy systems transition". Indeed, before presenting the award, the judging panel of energy experts and utility partners emphasised that IONATE has a "ground-breaking innovation" which "allows for new services and capabilities for DSOs and DNOs".
IONATE's state-of-the-art power-flow control technology, the Hybrid Intelligent Transformer (HIT), rests upon a patented design of electromagnetic control. This enables a single HIT to provide sensing and monitoring, dynamic voltage- and power factor control and harmonics removal all within one device, while staying as reliable and affordable as a traditional transformer.
And just like a transformer, HITs are scalable by design, adding value for energy stakeholders ranging from DNOs/DSOs to renewables generation and storage plants. Through coupling essential visibility and control at these key locations in the system, HITs unlock a robust technology path for the energy transition. At the time of receiving this award, IONATE is just weeks away from finalising its full-scale prototype of its HIT, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and leading manufacturing partners.
In a line-up of prominent finalists, including Opus One Solutions & SP Energy Networks, Evergreen Smart Power and EcoJoule, IONATE's win represents a strong vote of confidence from the EIC, a not-for-profit platform for connecting industry with innovation, owned by seven utility partners. IONATE's Founder & CEO Matthew Williams said 'This award is a fantastic endorsement that the industry sees the transformative power of our technology and that we are on the same page as to how the Future Energy System should look like.'.
