The Energy Innovation Centre is a not-for-profit dedicated to supporting innovators throughout the innovation process, in gas, electricity transmission and distribution.
In partnership with nine of the UK’s energy networks, we strive to accelerate innovation to support the transition to a net zero power system.
Innovation isn't easy, but it drives the world we live in. That's why 16 years ago, the UK energy networks decided that it made sense to work together to bring innovation forward and improve performance as the world transitions to a low carbon economy. We are owned by seven utility partners working with 7,000+ innovators across the world.
Over 150 calls for innovation have been launched and 85% of these calls have been successful in sourcing a solution.
The EIC provides a shared platform to bring our partners and our innovator community together, in order to facilitate processes that take innovation projects from an idea to business as usual. Our dedicated team of technical and commercial experts work alongside industry and innovators, to make the journey happen.
Our energy world is rapidly changing. Gas and electricity network operators have an important role to play in our transition to a low carbon future. This change creates unprecedented challenges and opportunities and, as a result, the energy industry needs to become more customer-centric, competitive and efficient.
This calls for new ways of thinking and working, an open approach to innovation and to the delivery of outcomes that will benefit customers and stakeholders. Indeed, each UK network operator’s performance is measured in this area through the RIIO regulatory framework which is closely monitored by the industry regulator, Ofgem.
At the EIC we support the innovation ambitions of our industry partners from the gas, electricity and renewables sectors by helping them to discover good technologies that meet their challenges.
We do this by constantly searching for new ideas from around the world that have the potential to be game-changing for energy consumers, the supply chain and the industry itself.
Once we have identified these bright ideas and clever technologies, we help the people behind them to get access to the large energy companies that can help propel these innovations to the next stage in their development.
For our partners from the transmission and distribution networks, this creates a pipeline of new technologies that can be adopted quickly into business as usual.
This open innovation model generates win-win outcomes for innovators and energy network operators for our stakeholders, and lies at the heart of what makes the EIC unique within the sector.
