Energy Resilience Accelerator – helping SMEs scale their resilience innovations

Energy Systems Catapult has launched the Energy Resilience Accelerator programme which is designed to help ambitious SMEs scale their energy resilience innovations and bring them to market faster.

We’ve partnered with Centrica, NHS England, the National Energy System Operator (NESO), National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) and Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) to identify their key innovation opportunities related to energy resilience.

Our partners recognise that innovation will play a vital role in strengthening the UK’s energy resilience and are committed to supporting promising innovators who can demonstrate real-world impact.

To achieve this, the newly launched Energy Resilience Accelerator will connect promising innovators with industry partners. The aim is to collaboratively develop demand-led trial proposals that tackle some of the most pressing energy resilience challenges – helping turn breakthrough ideas into deployable, scalable solutions with a clearer route to commercial adoption.

Through the programme, each partner will actively collaborate with their selected SMEs (TRL 6+), with successful applicants receiving a fully funded support package that includes:

1. Expert technical and business support, drawing on the breadth and depth of energy systems and commercial expertise from the Catapult and our delivery partners, to increase the likelihood of successful trial propositions.
2. Direct connections to major industry players and potential commercial partners.
3. A tailored business support offering that identifies each SMEs specific scaling needs. This could include business modelling support, consumer insights, commercial and investment strategy, PR and marketing alongside deep technical energy systems expertise.

The above Catapult support package is intended to prepare applicants to develop and pitch a competitive trial proposal. This provides SMEs the opportunity to be funded up to £40,000 within the programme – subject to a challenge partner approving the trial proposal.

If you’re an SME with a cutting-edge innovation ready for the next stage, this is your opportunity to accelerate your impact.

Challenge areas

Challenge area 1: Whole-system vulnerability

Challenge statement: How can NESO and industry better identify, assess and monitor whole-system resilience risks across an increasingly complex and interconnected energy system?

There are growing challenge in understanding, assessing and improving the resilience of an increasingly complex and interconnected energy system. This impacts the operator’s ability to understand current resilience levels, assess future risks and prioritise interventions.

We are interested in solutions that could:

• Improve visibility of dependencies across critical infrastructure sectors;
• Identify and assess emerging vulnerabilities associated with distributed assets and shared systems;
• Improve understanding of cascading and concurrent risks and their impact on system operation;
• Support assessment of digital, operational and communications dependencies;
• Improve visibility of resilience impacts arising from interconnected systems;
• Identify critical points of failure across complex networks;
• Support whole-system resilience assessment and monitoring.

Challenge area 2: Resilience for remote and island communities

Challenge statement: How can SSEN maintain resilience for remote and island communities as existing resilience arrangements evolve, particularly during climate-related disruption and wider network outages?

Networks face growing resilience challenges as the electricity system becomes increasingly dependent on distributed resources, flexibility services and renewable generation, while customers become more reliant on electricity for heat, mobility, communications and essential services. These challenges are often compounded in areas of the network serving remote and island communities.

We are interested in solutions that could:

• Provide credible alternatives to fossil fuel-based resilience arrangements;
• Use local renewable generation, storage, flexibility and other distributed energy resources to maintain or restore supply;
• Improve operational visibility, coordination and control-room confidence in using local assets during disruption;
• Support vulnerable and electricity-dependent customers during prolonged outages;
• Improve response, restoration and recovery for remote or islanded communities;
• Strengthen resilience to storms, flooding and extreme temperatures;
• Enable place-based approaches that coordinate network operations, communities and critical local services.

Challenge area 3: Maintaining emergency response capability during power disruption

Challenge statement: How can NHS ambulance services maintain emergency fleet readiness and response capability during an unplanned electricity supply disruption lasting 12-24 hours as their fleets transition to electric vehicles?

NHS ambulance services are facing a significant resilience challenge as emergency fleets transition from diesel to electric vehicles. While electrification supports decarbonisation objectives, it also introduces a growing dependency on electricity infrastructure for fleet operations.

We are interested in solutions that could:

• Maintain sufficient emergency fleet availability during power outages;
• Integrate on-site energy generation and storage;
• Provide backup, temporary or alternative charging provision;
• Provide vehicle-to-grid and other flexible energy approaches;
• Improve mobile and rapidly deployable resilience solutions;
• Maintain resilience during localised, regional and prolonged outages;
• Provide interoperable charging and mutual aid between public sector organisations;
• Enable affordable and scalable resilience approaches that can be deployed across different types of ambulance site;
• Support solutions capable of scaling to regional or longer-duration disruptions.

Challenge area 4: Resilient clinical buildings and estate infrastructure

Challenge statement: How can backup power, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems and alternative energy sources be integrated more effectively into NHS buildings, clinical spaces and fixed estate infrastructure while meeting operational, clinical and regulatory requirements?

NHS trusts face growing challenges in maintaining resilient clinical infrastructure as electricity demand increases, estates age, and the services they provide become increasingly dependent on electrical systems. During periods of electricity supply disruption, these challenges could start to affect trusts’ ability to maintain safe and reliable clinical services.

We are interested in solutions that could:

• Provide UPS and backup power solutions for existing healthcare environments;
• Support the integration of renewable generation and storage into the energy system of the NHS estate in such a way that they can play a part in providing resilience;
• Enable deployment of resilience technologies within ageing buildings;
• Address infection control, fire safety and operational constraints;
• Provide healthcare-specific resilience solutions;
• Improve affordability and scalability of resilience technologies;
• Overcome barriers to adoption and deployment within healthcare environments;

Challenge area 5: Extreme weather impacts on vulnerable customers

Challenge statement: How can innovative solutions help NGED reduce the impact of extreme weather-related network disruption on vulnerable customers?

As extreme weather events become more frequent and severe, electricity network operators face increasing challenges in maintaining continuity of supply. While all customers can be affected by disruption, vulnerable customers may face disproportionate risks where loss of power affects health, safety, wellbeing or access to essential services.

We are interested in solutions that could:

• Improve anticipation and preparedness for weather-related disruption;
• Identify and prioritise support for vulnerable customers during resilience events;
• Reduce the impacts of disruption associated with extreme heat, cold, flooding or storms;
• Improve situational awareness and decision-making during incidents;
• Support faster, more effective restoration and recovery activities;
• Enable better coordination between network operators, local authorities and support organisations;
• Improve resilience outcomes for vulnerable customers during prolonged outages.

Challenge area 6: Site and estate resilience 

Challenge statement: How can commercially viable, lower-carbon solutions strengthen energy resilience at sites where disruption could significantly affect operational continuity, while remaining mindful of cost considerations?

Through this challenge call, Centrica is interested in understanding and exploring relevant TRL6+ technologies, approaches and business models that could complement and support its existing innovation activities in site-level energy resilience.

Cost is often an important factor in the adoption of resilience solutions. While the primary focus of this challenge is on strengthening resilience, applicants are encouraged to consider the potential cost implications of their approach and how these may affect the wider adoption and deployment of their solution over time.

Responses will help Centrica build its understanding of the solutions available and identify opportunities that may warrant further exploration.

This could include, but is not limited to:

• Compact, modular power or thermal backup technologies capable of retrofitting into legacy estates with space constraints or restricted grid capacity;
• Near-term, lower-carbon transitional solutions, such as biofuels, clean fuels, modular micro-generation, hybrid battery systems, or other approaches that bridge the gap from diesel to zero carbon;
• Fast-acting site energy management and control software that prioritises critical services during an outage;
• Predictive software that models outage risk and dynamically allocates available on-site generation and storage;
• Solutions that allow backup or resilience assets to generate value during normal grid conditions, such as peak shaving, local flexibility, or frequency response, without compromising emergency readiness.