Case Study: Energy Integrity Services (EchoBolt)
CWLEP Support – Programme Name – Geographical Area Case Study
- Support Received: Financial
- Grant awarded: £14,306
- Private Match: £14,306
- Outputs Achieved: 3 jobs created, new service offering for the renewable energy market, follow-on commercialisation project with Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and GE Renewables supported by Innovate UK.
Energy Integrity Services is a company based in Warwickshire providing structural integrity inspections for wind turbines. They help customers to maintain their wind farms by providing skilled technicians to monitor the condition of turbines, providing detailed information about the health of the turbine whilst significantly increasing turbine uptime and reducing maintenance costs.
The grant of £14,306 awarded from CW Innovation Programme, which is part funded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) has allowed the company to demonstrate an innovative new technique for monitoring the condition of the large bolted connections which hold wind turbines together. Through the grant they were able to access the skills and equipment to develop a new technology and carry out a pilot demonstration at one of their customers sites.
Pete Andrews, director of Energy Integrity Services said: “The Coventry and Warwickshire Innovation Programme has provided an invaluable springboard for our business in our first year of trading. With the fantastic support of the Local Enterprise Partnership, we’ve developed our unique inspection technology which allows wind turbine operators to save 80% of the time and cost associated with managing bolted connections. The innovation grant gave us the opportunity to initiate further business development for products and services that we have been able to bring to market during the COVID disruption, setting the foundation for a more dynamic and adaptable business.”
As a direct result of the project Energy Integrity Services have been able to bring three new people into the business and secure backing from the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, GE Renewable Energy and Innovate UK to carry out a full-scale demonstration of their technology on some of the world’s largest wind turbines. The new inspection technique will allow to offer a game changing service to the wind industry helping to reduce the costs of renewable energy.
Pete Andrews also stated that the economic impact of COVID-19 has been a significant challenge for their business as a core offering involves providing inspection services at customer sites. They had to refocus their efforts on developing new commercial offerings such as an innovate data analysis platform and a wind farm life extension service.