DERRY-based electricity supplier Click Energy has been shortlisted as a finalist in the prestigious Ulster Excellence Awards 2019 for a project which celebrates collaboration in business and academic research.
Click Energy and Ulster University have been working together on a project to help predict electricity prices, following the introduction of the Integrated Single Electricity Market (I-SEM), which enables suppliers to choose when best to buy wholesale electricity.
The project is part-funded by Innovate UK through its Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), a three-way partnership between a business, a university, and a high-calibre graduate known as an associate.
Professor Sonya Coleman, Dr Dermot Kerr and Daniel McGlynn, who is employed by Ulster University as a KTP associate, have been working with Click Energy to develop a machine-learning algorithm, which forecasts the wholesale electricity price.
Damian Wilson, managing director of Click Energy – which has been shortlisted in the Business Category (under 50 employees) for Research Excellence - said the ongoing collaboration with the university had been invaluable in helping the company inform its buying decisions.
He added: “Accurately predicting energy prices is vital in enabling us to maintain prices as low as possible for our customers.”
Professor Coleman added: “Working with Click Energy has enabled us to take many of our machine learning algorithms out to industry for application to real world big data for accurate prediction of energy prices. This has been an invaluable opportunity for us as academics and helped us to extend our research beyond our laboratory.”
Daniel McGlynn said: “Working with Click Energy and Ulster University on this project has been of great benefit to me both professionally and personally. Not only has it allowed me to advance my knowledge of a new emerging technology, it has seen Click Energy access the latest research and development from Ulster University that will impact business positively.”
The Ulster University Excellence Awards - which take place on Wednesday May 8 at St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast - are held annually in recognition of “outstanding partnerships that have made a significant contribution or impact on our societies and economies, both locally and internationally”.
