As industrial electricity prices soar toward £150/MWh, a Scottish engineering firm is debuting a “zero-risk” hardware-as-a-service model to capture the 20% of power currently lost to heat.
For the EV community, regenerative braking is a fundamental pillar of efficiency. Yet, in the industrial sector—the world’s largest consumer of electricity—that same kinetic energy is systematically wasted. Every time a high-torque motor decelerates an automotive press or a heavy-duty mixer, “braking energy” is traditionally burned off as heat through resistors.
IR Power, a Scottish energy technology firm under the MWNW Group, is aiming to end this era of waste. By launching a standardized, plug-and-play recovery system, they are turning industrial machines into self-contained energy recovery units.
The Economic Catalyst: Why Retrofitting is Now Critical
Historically, the business case for industrial energy recovery was hampered by two factors: low electricity prices (~£50/MWh) and high custom-engineering costs. Today, the landscape has fundamentally shifted:
- Price Volatility: With current UK rates hitting £100–150/MWh, the ROI on energy recovery has plummeted from decades to months.
- The CapEx Barrier: Manufacturers are often hesitant to commit millions to total drive-system overhauls.
- Net-Zero Mandates: Binding carbon reduction targets mean efficiency is no longer “optional” for tier-one suppliers.
Technical Breakdown: Standardisation over Customisation
The genius of the IR Power solution lies not just in the physics, but in the standardisation. Traditionally, recovery systems required weeks of downtime for bespoke integration. IR Power has eliminated this via:
- Three-Tier Scalability: Standardised hardware sizes that fit almost any industrial application, replacing £40k in custom engineering costs.
- Universal Compatibility: The system is equipment-agnostic, meaning it can be networked across a site regardless of whether the original motors are from Siemens, ABB, or Schneider.
- Fail-Safe Redundancy: Unlike some competitor systems that shut down the entire machine if overloaded, IR Power’s design routes excess energy back to existing resistors only when capacity is exceeded, ensuring 100% uptime.
A New Commercial Standard: Performance-Based Opex
In an industry-first move, IR Power is removing the financial risk of adoption through a Rental Model. Manufacturers pay nothing upfront. Instead, monthly fees are calculated as a percentage of verified energy savings.
“We’ve inverted the traditional risk model,” says Richard Bradshaw, Founder and Managing Director of IR Power. “Our job was removing every barrier: cost, complexity, and disruption. If our system doesn’t save the customer money, we don’t get paid. We take 100% of the performance risk.“
Impact on the Grid and the Future of Manufacturing
For the readers of EV Charging Magazine, the implications are clear. As the grid faces increasing pressure from fleet electrification, reducing the base load of industrial facilities is essential. By recapturing 10-20% of total electricity consumption—worth up to £100,000 per machine cluster—IR Power is effectively creating “virtual power plants” within existing factory walls.
With the first commercial deployments launching in Q1 2026 within the automotive and construction sectors, the “Industrial Regen” movement is set to become the new standard for modern, sustainable manufacturing.
Are you an industrial operator looking to derisk your energy strategy? IR Power is currently offering no-obligation site assessments for UK manufacturers. Contact the team at info@i-r-power.com or visit i-r-power.com.
