Industry led programme · Innovate UK

Shift when you use energy. Earn income and cut your bills.

Honeycomb builds local energy markets that turn anchor sites’ demand shifting ability into lower, more stable prices for regional businesses and greater use of local renewable power. With 200 MW of battery storage, smart EV charging and HVAC flexibility assets, we will deliver over £24 million a year in savings, impacting 1,000 businesses.

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£24m a yearin savings across 1,000 businesses
10–25% offbusiness electricity bills
No upfront costassets financed from savings
The idea

Why a honeycomb?

A honeycomb is many small cells, built by many, that together form one strong structure. Honeycomb is many sites, businesses and generators, each doing a little, that together make one resilient local energy system.

Cell

Each site

A business, a campus, a generator, doing its own small part.

Comb

The market

The local energy market that connects them, and gives the structure its strength.

Honey

Flexibility

Stored when power is cheap and clean, shared when it is scarce and dear.

Bees

The intelligence

Our Qortex engine and SmartQube hubs, always working, moving value where it is needed.

Hive

The region

Self sustaining and efficient, making the most of what it produces locally.

Who benefits

Value on every side of the comb

Anchor sites

Earn from flexibility

Large industrial, commercial and public sector sites earn new, stable income from the flexibility they can offer, with assets installed at no upfront cost.

~£50kper MW, per year
Regional SMEs

A cheaper, calmer bill

Smaller businesses get a lower unit rate and protection from volatile markets, with savings on both halves of the bill.

10–25%off bills · up to 5p/kWh off the unit rate
Local generators

Sell power locally

Community and local renewable generators get better rates by selling into nearby demand, matched hour by hour.

Hourlymatched to local demand
How it works

How the value is made, and shared

Flexibility is produced at each site, then pooled and traded so the whole comb benefits, not just the cell that made it.

01POOL

Pool the flexibility

We aggregate asset metered flexibility from anchor sites: battery storage, smart EV charging, and smart heating and HVAC controls.

02MATCH

Match it locally

We match that flexibility against nearby business demand and the output of local renewable generators, every half hour.

03TRADE

Trade and hedge

Qortex forecasts demand, generation and prices, hedges ahead of time, then reoptimises through the day ahead and intraday markets.

04SHARE

Share the value

Businesses get a lower, more stable price. The sites that provide the flexibility earn new income. Nothing is wasted.

Funding available

£50,000 to £500,000 for solar, battery storage and smart EV charging

For businesses, provided by Q Energy with its finance partners. Assets are funded against your savings, so you can take part with no upfront cost.

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The technology

What flexibility means

Flexibility is the ability to shift when a site draws, stores or returns energy, without disrupting the business. Honeycomb unlocks it through four kinds of asset.

Battery storage

Store energy when it is cheap and clean, then use or sell it when it is dear.

Smart EV charging

Shift vehicle charging to the cheapest, greenest hours of the day.

Vehicle to grid

Let parked electric vehicles feed power back when the grid needs it.

Smart heating controls

Nudge heating, cooling and heat pumps around peaks, with comfort kept.

Q Energy battery energy storage deployed at the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre
Battery storage

Batteries that work for the site

Our battery energy storage systems store cheap, clean power and release it when prices spike, cutting bills and earning from the markets. These units run at the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre.

Explore energy storage →
Q Energy SmartQube, the UK built on site AI hub
SmartQube

The brain on every site

SmartQube, our UK built AI hub, connects the meter, battery, solar, EV charging, heat pumps and HVAC, and dispatches them in real time. It is registered with the Energy Networks Association and carries UKCA and CE marks.

Explore SmartQube →
SmartQube energy and carbon dashboard on laptop and phone
Energy and carbon management

Every asset, cost and tonne of carbon in one view

Track performance, savings, your flexible assets and your net zero journey across every site, on the desktop or in your pocket.

Explore energy and carbon management →
Read our case studies
The exchange

Flexibility matched contracts

At the centre of Honeycomb is a new kind of exchange. It puts anchor site flexibility to work continuously, half hour by half hour, to manage the trading risk and shape of a book of business energy. Here is what each side gets.

Anchor sites

provide the flexibility

→
The Honeycomb Exchange

allocates it to the energy traded, half hour by half hour

→
SMEs

get a lower, steadier price

Anchor sites with flexibility

A new, predictable income

Turn battery, smart EV, vehicle to grid and HVAC flexibility into an averaged, predictable income stream, beyond the occasional grid services you earn from today.

SMEs on smart tariffs

Real savings, less risk

Connect your demand to that flexibility and get a lower, steadier price, with your trading risk and demand shape managed for you. Savings on both halves of the bill.

Energy consultants and partners

More value for your clients

Advising businesses on energy? Bring their demand and local flexibility into the Honeycomb Exchange, and deliver savings without changing how they operate.

The programme

What we are setting out to build

£1mprogramme funding
200 MWflexibility identified
40 MWoperational in project
2 GWnational target by 2030

An industry led programme aligned with Innovate UK’s Consumer Led Flexibility for the Clean Energy Superpower Mission. A two year programme starting January 2027, launching in the Northwest and expanding across other distribution regions, backed by in kind partner support with funded delivery models available.

Region by region

Ready to grow across the UK

Honeycomb launches in the Northwest, and it is built to scale. Q Energy already works with anchor organisations across five UK regions, each inside a different distribution network licence area. As Honeycomb grows, we bring these existing relationships into the initiative, region by region, running the same playbook in each.

Region 1 · Launched

North West · Greater Manchester

Live with office, retail and manufacturing sites, signed up solar generators from 100 kWp to 1 MWp with a community pipeline behind them, and consultant and installer partners feeding the pool.

Anchor secured

West Midlands

Manufacturing. Anchored by the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre.

Anchor secured

Yorkshire

Landlord portfolio. Anchored by PGR Property.

Anchor secured

Eastern England

Higher education and retail SME. Anchored by the University of Hertfordshire.

Anchor secured

London

Office buildings and a large bank's data centre.

Each anchor sits inside a different DNO licence area, giving a natural template for national coverage. In every region the same playbook runs: recruit anchors, sleeve in local renewables, open the SME broker channel, and let Qortex coordinate the portfolio.

The team

Built by many

A growing consortium of energy, research, property and community partners, led by Q Energy.

Project partners
Q EnergyQ EnergyLead Energy Innovation AgencyEnergy Innovation Agency Manchester Metropolitan UniversityManchester Metropolitan University IWG GroupIWG Group GM Community RenewablesGM Community Renewables
Supported by
GM Combined AuthorityGM Combined Authority
Get involved

Add your cell to the comb.

Whether you run an anchor site, serve business customers, or generate local power, there is a place for you in Honeycomb. Register your interest and we will be in touch.