The Hot Chips project exploring the use of excess heat from data centres for domestic heating is among four new initiatives to receive support, thanks to early-stage support from Ofgem.

The heat recovery from data centres project explores how waste heat from data centres can be repurposed to support low-carbon, flexible heating. It will assess how surplus heat can be used to improve the performance of heat pumps in nearby homes, use low-temperature heat networks, store heat for later use, and test flexible pricing for heat pumps, helping to cut carbon from heating and manage demand on the electricity grid.

It is one of four projects being put forward by UK Power Networks, and other project supported include SHARED (Smart Hydrogen and Resilient Energy Delivery) that considers hydrogen backup to improve resilience for rural communities.

Conductor is will trial bulk supply points on the rail network, allowing under-used electricity substations supplying power to electric trains and reducing the need for unnecessary network upgrades.

The fourth project, Super DuPPR (Dual Purpose Power Reserves) hopes to unlock backup power stored by operators such as BT, and share it with the electricity grid.

Luca Grella, head of innovation at UK Power Networks, said: "Securing funding for all four of our Discovery Phase projects is a huge milestone for us, and a testament to the strength of our innovative approach to tackling some of the UK’s most pressing energy challenges.”

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