Energy Systems Catapult has launched the Energy Resilience Accelerator, a new initiative designed to help innovative SMEs develop, test and scale solutions that can strengthen the resilience of the UK’s energy system and the critical services that depend upon it.
The programme brings together some of the country’s largest infrastructure operators and service providers, including Centrica, NHS England, National Energy System Operator (NESO), National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) and Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), to address some of the most pressing resilience challenges emerging across the energy sector and wider critical infrastructure landscape.
From maintaining electricity supplies to remote island communities and supporting vulnerable customers during extreme weather events, to ensuring NHS ambulance fleets can operate through power disruptions and helping organisations manage increasingly complex system-wide resilience risks, the challenges facing infrastructure operators are becoming more complex, interconnected and urgent.
The Energy Resilience Accelerator aims to bridge the gap between innovative SMEs and industry challenge owners, creating new opportunities to develop and trial solutions that can be deployed in real-world environments.
Guy Newey, Chief Executive Officer at Energy Systems Catapult, said:
“A resilient energy system is fundamental to the UK’s future economy. As we move towards a more electrified, decentralised and low-carbon economy, ensuring that critical infrastructure, essential services and communities can anticipate, withstand and recover from disruption will become increasingly important.
“Creating that resilient energy system is also a huge opportunity for innovators. Those who can harness the potential of new technologies, including digitalisation and AI, to provide a more resilient energy system should thrive. This programme aims to help those high-potential business get their ideas – their new products and services – into market, driving their growth and helping create a system that is more resilient to shocks.”
Ian Fortune, Programme Lead, Strategy and Transformation at Centrica, said:
“Energy resilience is becoming a critical priority for organisations that depend on secure, uninterrupted energy to deliver essential services. We’re interested in identifying practical, commercially viable solutions that can strengthen resilience and improve affordability while continuing to reduce emissions. The Energy Resilience Accelerator provides an opportunity to explore and test technologies that could help achieve both.”
John Zammit-Haber, Head of Technical Office for Resilience at NESO, said:
“We are proud that Great Britain continues to operate one of the most reliable energy systems in the world, with comparatively few disruptions affecting consumers, and electricity network reliability remaining strong at 99.9998% (2024-25).
“This resilience does not happen by chance. It comes from understanding and managing risks across the whole energy system, identifying emerging challenges, and ensuring we have the right tools, capabilities, and flexibility to respond effectively, ensuring a reliable and resilient energy system.
“The Energy Resilience Accelerator provides a valuable opportunity to bring together innovators, infrastructure operators, and resilience experts to experts to tackle some of these emerging challenges that will help keep Great Britain’s energy system secure and resilient for the future.”
Fiona Nicholls, Head of Vulnerability at National Grid Electricity Distribution, said:
“Severe weather can have a disproportionate impact on some of the customers we serve, and it’s important that we continue to look for new ways to support them. The Energy Resilience Accelerator creates space for organisations to work together on shared challenges and test fresh ideas, building on the support already available through NGED’s resilience and vulnerability programmes. We’re excited to see what innovative solutions emerge and how they could help strengthen support for vulnerable customers in the future.”
Paul Leach, Head of Ambulance Fleet at NHS England, said:
“As ambulance services transition towards electric fleets, energy resilience must be built into both vehicles and charging infrastructure from the outset. We are looking for practical, scalable solutions that help services maintain fleet readiness and emergency response capability during power disruptions, supporting continuity of care for patients. Through the Energy Resilience Accelerator, we want to work with innovators to explore and test approaches that support a resilient transition to zero-emission ambulance fleets, with the potential to benefit other emergency services.”
Jack Stancel-Lewis, Senior Technical Innovation Manager at NHS England, said:
“Reliable energy infrastructure underpins every aspect of modern healthcare. As NHS services become increasingly dependent on electrical systems, it is essential that we continue to improve the resilience of our estates, facilities and critical services. Therefore, energy resilience is no longer simply an estates issue – it is fundamental to the delivery of safe and effective patient care. By participating in the Energy Resilience Accelerator, we want to accelerate the adoption of innovative solutions that help the NHS manage growing electricity demand, improve infrastructure visibility and ensure our healthcare services remain resilient.”
Steve Atkins, Senior Manager for Corporate Affairs (Distribution) at SSEN, said:
“Energy resilience is integral to our clean secure energy future. As traditional resilience arrangements evolve and communities become more dependent on electricity for heating, transport, communications and essential services, we need new approaches that harness the potential of local energy resources. Through the Energy Resilience Accelerator, we want to uncover innovative solutions that help remote and island communities remain secure and connected during outages, while building a more flexible, sustainable and climate-resilient energy system.”
Successful applicants will receive a fully funded package of technical, commercial and business support, alongside access to challenge owners and potential future customers. The programme will support SMEs through challenge refinement, trial design and, where partners choose to proceed, live trial deployment.
The initiative reflects Energy Systems Catapult’s mission to accelerate innovation that delivers a smarter, cleaner and more resilient energy system, while helping UK innovators overcome some of the barriers that can prevent promising solutions reaching commercial scale.
Analysis undertaken by Energy Systems Catapult during the challenge identification phase found a common thread across all participating organisations: resilience is becoming increasingly important as infrastructure systems become more electrified, more digitally connected and more dependent on one another. At the same time, climate change, changing customer needs and evolving technologies are creating new operational challenges that cannot be addressed through traditional approaches alone.
The Energy Resilience Accelerator has therefore been designed as a demand-led programme. Rather than asking innovators to develop solutions in isolation, Energy Systems Catapult worked directly with challenge owners to identify real operational problems and define challenge statements that reflect genuine market need.
The result is a programme focused on practical deployment and adoption, helping SMEs develop solutions with a clear route to implementation and commercial impact.
The participating organisations highlighted a wide range of resilience challenges during the programme’s development. These include strengthening resilience for remote and island communities, improving support for vulnerable customers during extreme weather events, helping emergency services maintain operational capability during power disruptions, developing alternatives to traditional fossil-fuel backup systems and improving the assessment of resilience risks across increasingly interconnected infrastructure systems.
Through the programme, Energy Systems Catapult will draw upon expertise from across its innovation, engineering, systems, commercial and Living Lab teams, alongside access to modelling tools, specialist facilities and wider industry networks.
Applications for the Energy Resilience Accelerator are now open to SMEs with technologies and solutions at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6+ and above.
Successful applicants will join a cohort programme that includes bespoke business support, direct engagement with challenge owners, expert technical guidance, trial design support and opportunities to showcase their solutions to investors, customers and industry stakeholders.
Applications close at 23:59pm GMT on 8 November 2026.
Join our upcoming webinar on 14 October to learn how to apply to the Energy Resilience Accelerator and explore the support available to develop and scale your solution. Register here.
About the Energy Resilience Accelerator
The Energy Resilience Accelerator is delivered by Energy Systems Catapult and connects innovative SMEs with industry partners seeking solutions to real-world resilience challenges.
Participating challenge owners include:
Successful SMEs will receive a fully funded support package including technical expertise, commercial support, trial development assistance and access to major industry stakeholders.
The programme will run from January 2027 to June 2027, culminating in a showcase event featuring participating SMEs, industry partners, investors and wider stakeholders.
To find out more and apply, visit: https://es.catapult.org.uk/news/energy-resilience-accelerator-helping-smes-scale-their-resilience-innovations/
Enquiries
Adam Duckett
Communications Officer
Energy Systems Catapult
Email: Adam.Duckett@es.catapult.org.uk
About Energy Systems Catapult
Energy Systems Catapult is an independent research and technology organisation with a mission to accelerate clean energy innovation. It helps innovative companies, small and large, test, trial and scale new products and services so they can win customers, attract investment, create jobs and thrive in the future energy system.
The Catapult’s team of more than 200 people brings technical, engineering, consumer, commercial, incubation, digital and policy expertise, backed by test facilities, modelling tools and data from more than 500 research projects. That whole energy system view helps innovators understand how their idea will work in practice, where the market opportunity lies and how to capture the benefits of clean growth.
Launched by Innovate UK in 2015 and based in Birmingham, Energy Systems Catapult is part of the Catapult Network of nine technology and innovation centres. The network connects industry, government, research organisations and academia to turn great ideas into successful businesses – and scale them up.