UK - An innovative event power solution was deployed by Energy Management Solutions to run the whole site from a large battery for the first time in the UK, reducing carbon emissions at Brighton’s series of On The Beach shows this month.
Sixty thousand people attended the concert series, featuring artists ranging from Bicep, Underworld, The Kooks, Sub-Focus, Carl Cox and The Libertines.
NW Live delivered the site planning and management and production, their project lead Joe Nichols, comments: “Having worked with Gerhard and James at Energy MS to introduce the solar panels for the production village last year, we were delighted to work with them again and be the first large event to run all of our site off a giant battery and be able to extend our carbon reduction protocols.”
Energy MS invested in a 275kVA battery with 500 kWh of storage, which, in a UK first, powered the whole site: bars, traders, merchandise, production and dressing rooms. Energy MS Director James Gunson lead the On The Beach project, he explains:
“We designed a solution whereby the battery unit was connected to a 300kVA generator to charge and support the load during peak times. When the battery discharges to 40% capacity, it automatically starts the generator and recharges the battery in three to four hours, running at 60-70% load.
“Two Stage V generators are powering the stage during show days. These 500kVA sets run in sync, to provide a stable power source for show days, including 100% redundancy should it be required.”
The software in the battery means the connection with the generator runs at optimum efficiency whilst ensuring a reliable power supply. Initial data from the first live weekend shows that generator run time was almost 50% lower than for last years’ show, equating to a diesel saving in the order of 5,000 litres, or over 13,000kg of CO2 Emissions.
Gerhard Venter, Energy MS director, states: “This is new technology, which is currently costly, but having invested for a long-term install, before deployment we had this opportunity to introduce it at On The Beach and collect data. This allows us to understand how big-battery technology can reduce CO2 Emissions, coupled with the financial savings from the reduced fuel consumption.
“There is a lot of interest from clients’ to reduce their carbon impacts, but everyone has to balance their books, so it’s key that we have the data for organisers to guide their choices towards more sustainable event.”
At last year’s On The Beach, Energy MS supplied three 300kVA for stage, two 200kVA for bars and concessions along with two 100kVA and 60kVA for production and traders, so reduced from eight generators to three in 2024.
In between show weekends and during production build the new 500 kWh battery ran everything on the stage in between the show days, so another six days of generator run time were reduced.
Repeating last year’s successful sustainable system, Energy MS once again powered the production cabins with a solar powered battery, charged form panels on site, covering event control/CCTV control, which coupled with the larger battery run throughout the time on site – saving over two weeks of generator emissions.
As well as investing in new generators and the large battery, Energy MS has added three people to its expanding team, with Tim Williams (operations manager), James Watson (warehouse manager) and Gareth Cooper (UK sales & marketing manager) all joining this summer.
