Five teams of energy experts have been selected to design a prototype smart energy system which has the ability to generate renewable energy and trade/transfer that energy to a different council site for storage and use.

Perth & Kinross Council, in collaboration with the Can Do Innovation challenge fund and Innovate UK, launched the competition.

The main aim of the project is to develop a sustainable system that can be used to power buildings in the Council's estate and reduce ongoing energy costs and existing carbon footprint.

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The five teams selected for Phase 1 of the project are:

• iPower Energy Ltd with Urban Chain Ltd, Kiwi Power Ltd & Pure Drive Energy Ltd

• StorTera with Solo Energy

• New Resource Partners with Smart Power Networks (SMPnet)

• Scene Connect Ltd with Locogen & Swanbarton

• Energievan with Energy eXchange Enablers & Bax & Co

During Phase 1 each team is designing a solution for a smart energy network to meet the Council's aims and objectives. From the five designs, the two most viable will be eligible to move forward to the next phase of the project. Phase 2 will allow the teams to develop and test their designs within the Council's estate.

Working with the Council's Energy Team, four Council buildings have been earmarked for testing the prototypes within Perth - two pairs of renewable energy generation sites (Tulloch Primary School and Oakbank Primary School) and two battery storage sites (2 High Street and Perth City Hall). Each team will pick a renewable energy site and a battery storage site to work with.