The ESHIE facility is currently the subject of a funding application to Research England. If successful, the facility is expected to be operational by August 2021.

The proposed facility

The 4000m² two-story drive-through ESHIE facility will incorporate:

• industrial research lab space
• seminar rooms
• flexible lab space
• flexible office space for academics and industrial partners to work alongside each other
• collaboration space for SMEs to utilise the facility for research, testing and optimisation of new products and services, and how they could fit into the wider whole energy system (with adequate protection for confidential developments)
• the InTEGReL observatory allowing site-wide monitoring, testing and configuring different whole-energy systems
• a Northern Gas Networks and Northern Powergrid joint control room that is unique in allowing joint monitoring and control of the gas and electricity networks; a prerequisite for research on integration.
• a boardroom/conference room
• public event space, to engage end customers in research to optimise deployment of energy system integration
• data linkage to the Urban Observatory and the Urban Sciences Building (USB) at the Newcastle Helix campus (formerly Newcastle Science Central) for remote management, synthesis of data from multiple national sites, and further modelling, visualisation and simulation. This will allow InTEGReL to be accessible to multiple global partners and facilitate open research

Industrial research lab space

The industrial research lab will have the ability for any energy conversion equipment to plug-and-play with electricity, natural gas, hydrogen, hot heat, cold heat and compressed air.

It will contain items including but not limited to:

• an electrolyser
• vehicle to grid (V2G) Points
• fuel fell
• carbon capture cystem
• real time digital simulator (RTDS)
• battery energy storage system
• trigeneration unit
• compressed air energy storage system
• thermal energy storage system

Through experimentation and modelling, these technologies will all be integrated into an instrumented and controllable multi-vector energy system including the existing full-scale gas and electrical infrastructure operated by Northern Gas Networks and Northern Powergrid.

Environmental impact

While the team at InTEGReL is focused on delivering a low carbon energy future for the UK, it is also committed to preserving the amazing wildlife and ecosystem on its doorstep. As it is located on the outskirts of Thornley Woods, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and part of the Derwent Valley Walk, the team is working closely with stakeholders to help protect native species – such as red kites and roe deer – and will be taking every possible step to ensure that the work of the site does not affect the natural habitat.

Economical impact

Initiatives such as InTEGReL present a huge opportunity for economic growth through job creation, with hundreds, if not thousands of new job opportunities throughout the North. We anticipate that once industry and academia work with us to bring projects to InTEGReL, the opportunities generate economic growth will be significant.