Case Study: Energy Superhub Oxford (ESO)

Officially launched on Tuesday 5 July 2022, the Energy Superhub Oxford (ESO) project is one of the most ambitious urban decarbonisation projects to have been undertaken in the UK to date. A world first, it is a recognised blueprint for other cities to follow as part of the transition to Net Zero.

Energy Superhub Oxford – 2 Years in Numbers

• Saved 2339 tonnes of carbon (up 219% year-on-year)
• Provided over 2.75 GWh of power 
• Enabled 89,194 EVs to be charged at the Redbridge Park and Ride, roughly 122 charging sessions per day (in first year, 32,000 EVs being roughly 95 sessions per day)

Sources: Second year – Oxford Mail article (13 August 2024) and first year – Oxford Mail article (21 July 2023)

As one of three demonstrator projects part-funded by the UK Government’s Industry Strategy Challenge fund under its “Prospering from the Energy Revolution” (PFER) programme, ESO is designed to deliver innovation in smart local energy systems. This transmission-connected project’s purpose is to decarbonise Oxford’s power, transport, and heat networks to help the city successfully transition to Net Zero by using cutting edge energy storage systems. This future-proofed, flexible system will support the UK’s largest public electric vehicle (EV) charging hub, a low carbon heating network, and smart energy management technologies, which together will help to eliminate 10,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year once operational, rising to 25,000 tonnes per year by 2032.

As part of a consortium of partners delivering the entire hybrid battery project, Invinity was chosen because its VS3 modules are able to perform deep charge/discharge cycles multiple times each day; safely, reliably and without degradation. These characteristics mean our flow batteries are ideally suited to the “heavy-lifting” requirements of grid scale energy storage projects with high asset utilisation or long (2 – 10 hour) charge/discharge durations.

Working closely with our partners, Invinity successfully delivered, installed and energised (in late 2021) a 2 MW / 5 MWh battery – the UK’s largest flow battery to date – comprising 27 VS3 flow batteries, to the site in Cowley, Oxford. Our vanadium flow battery technology sits at the heart of a total 50 MW ‘hybrid’ lithium-ion/vanadium flow battery system and enables load shifting for overnight charging of fleet vehicles, the opportunity to provide services to National Grid and to trade on energy markets via an innovative energy management system designed by Habitat Energy. The battery system has the ability to power over 6,000 homes for an entire day*.

*Average UK Household Energy Consumption: 8.5 kWh per day. Source: homeserve

The hybrid nature of this battery will ensure the maximum potential of this system can be achieved over a longer time period. In a hybrid system, flow batteries can be used to ‘front-end’ lithium-ion or other technologies, acting as a first responder for a large proportion of system use. Using non-degrading flow battery technology in this manner reduces throughput on limited cycle technologies such as lithium-ion to prolong their life. This is demonstrated in the diagram below.

Click the links below to learn more about who we are working with on the Energy Superhub Oxford Project

• Visit the Energy Superhub Oxford website to learn more about the project
• Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for the latest news
• Speak to our team