'Smart energy grid' research project

According to New Energy Focus, the organisations have joined the 'Active Distribution networks with full integration of Demand and distributed energy RESourceS', or Address, programme.

Backed by £12.4 million in funding, this research project will look at ways to develop "smart energy grids of the future", or networks which allow customers to choose when they take power from the national grid.

This would allow them to avoid times of peak demand and expensive power and open up the possibility of microgenerators selling energy back to the main grid.

Current power systems are "outdated and in need of an urgent makeover" with innovative solutions needed to replace them and encourage greater use of micro-renewable energy technologies, the Address project claimed.

Some 25 partners from across Europe are collaborating on the research, the news provider reports, with the European Commission supplying £7 million in funding.

Earlier this month, it was announced that a one-year collaboration between the New and Renewable Energy Centre and Spain's National Renewable Energy Centre will examine ways to establish community-based smart grids to decrease communities' reliance on the national grid.