Homegrown Cornish company Wattstor is already taking advantage of the high-quality, modern office and workshop space at the Enterprise Space for Advanced Manufacturing (ESAM).
Wattstor, an award-winning leader in the design and installation of bespoke renewable energy storage systems, began life in 2013. While the company initially focused on solar storage batteries, it soon turned its sights on creating a computer system that could optimise renewable energy use.
More than five years on and its primary product is an energy management system called iMP, or Intelligent Management of Power. Designed and owned by Wattstor, the product is manufactured by a partner company in Europe.
Technical Manager Bob Hicks said: “If you invest in renewable energy, the best return is for you to use the energy yourself, rather than selling it to the grid. This is where our product comes in.
“iMP can give customers complete visibility of their energy and can provide them with information on how to make better use of their energy.
“The hardware we are using has been overspecified and futureproofed to unlock capability later on. The imbedded software and cloud software can be updated as technology progresses, much like a smartphone.”
A perfect test bed for green technology, Cornwall has around 20,000 renewable installations across the county and is a great spot to trial the energy management system.
Wattstor’s product is now ready for use and the company is beginning to approach customers in Cornwall to make use of iMP.
Bob said ESAM is the perfect location to help Wattstor progress during the next phase of its business.
“There are meeting rooms available at ESAM where we can bring in perspective customers, run training courses and meet stakeholders,” he said.
Wattstor found the progress of its business was restrained by its previous work spaces and moved to ESAM in September 2019. ESAM is the first phase of the new Carluddon Technology Park and a centrepiece of the West Carclaze Garden Village, the multi-million pound regeneration project taking place in mid Cornwall.
Bob added: “ESAM provides spacious, light, and clean technical accommodation. We have an area between an office and a workshop. Our unit offers HGV access and allows us to take something off a pallet and put it right next to my desk. I have a clean, and comfortable space to do technical work in.
“The building has areas allowing us to work on even our largest equipment, the Wattbooster. These containerised battery systems allow businesses and industry to operate power hungry equipment, such as superfast Electric Vehicle chargers, on limited grid connections.
“ESAM is a high profile site and helps us to show ourselves as a credible player as well as with the presentation of our system. It is a perfect turnkey solution to what we are doing.”
Opened in 2018, ESAM is one of a series of developments owned by Cornwall Council and operated by Cornwall Development Company. It offers 32 high quality flexible business units including offices, workshops and light industrial units alongside additional break-out spaces, meeting and support facilities and the capacity for future expansion. The development of ESAM was funded by a £6.2 million European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) investment, matched by £2.7 million funding from Cornwall Council.
