1st FEVER Demonstrator Decommissioned

The FEVER project has decommissioned its 1st ‘out of the laboratory’ demonstrator system that had been installed and operational at the University of Southampton Wide Lane Sports Fields. This completely off-grid system was installed and commissioned on 16th Dec 2024 and switched off on 7th Sept 2026. This site and container had received temporary planning permission to operate until the 21st Sept 2026, hence the decommissioning of this demonstrator and site had always been planned, and is useful experience regarding the full lifetime of other FEVER demonstrators.

Figure 1: Removal of FEVER Wide Lane Demonstrator

The comprehensive learning facilitated by the continuous operation of this off-grid containerised system is still being analysed, and summary data will be presented in due course. This system has experienced both the cold and very hot spells during 2026, and the Hybrid Energy Storage System (HESS) worked successfully throughout.

Key elements were delivering a fully remote control and monitoring capability, data server functionality, how to recover the system should the HESS fully discharge, and operational protocols for visiting and maintaining the system e.g. switching control to ‘local’ mode (from ‘remote’) when in the container to prevent any unwanted automated control actions.

Figure 2: Wide Lane Demonstrator featured wind and photovoltaic generation, and HESS

This 1st demonstrator was a vanguard for the latest ‘fleet’ of demonstrators planned as part of the FEVER project, across sites with XPO Logistics, Hull University Teaching Hospitals (HUTH) and Marwell Zoo all planned for delivery and commissioning within the coming months. 

In the meantime, please feel free to contact the FEVER Team on info@fever-ev.ac.uk where we would be happy to respond to any queries relating to the demonstrator programme or wider discussions on the potential of off-grid power systems.