A £600k UK-Nigeria energy catalyst project was created to establish a local community energy scheme in Nigeria. A school was provided with solar PV panels and battery storage to serve them and 15 houses nearby, which also had the option of installing solar panels.

This provided clean, reliable, and cheap energy for both the school and the local community. The project, known as NICE, was led by QEnergy™ in collaboration with partners – VAYA Energy (a Nigerian renewable energy company) and Manchester Metropolitan University (a leading research institute in smart grids and Peer to Peer Energy Trading) – with a view towards future commercialization.

Demand-side management using virtual mini-grids was relatively new and evolving, and the UK had been a leader in such innovative technologies.