January 28, 2021: UK energy storage consultancy Swanbarton announced on January 10 that founder and director Anthony Price has been appointed Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his services to the energy storage industry.
More commonly known as the OBE, the award is given to ‘individuals who have made major contributions at a local level, or whose work has gained a national profile’. It is third in ranking after the KBE or DBE (knight or Dame); the CBE (Commander), and above the fourth-ranked MBE (Member).
The medal would normally be pinned to the chest by Her Majesty the Queen or a member of the royal family, but the Covid-19 pandemic means this year it will probably be sent by post.
“I am very touched that someone thought the work I’ve been doing was worth recording in this way,” said Price, who says he had no idea he had been nominated.
“I’d like to thank friends and colleagues and supporters who have encouraged me, and the journalists who have been willing to report it as well. Whoever did it, they did it very carefully and kept it very much in the background — but I’m delighted, and naturally it’s always pleasing to have one’s efforts recognized.
“I was touched with the announcement that it was done for services to the energy storage industry, which is the first time that description has been used. As a result of my efforts we now have an energy storage industry, where we didn’t have one before.”
Price believes that by constantly ‘banging the drum’ over the years, he has pushed energy storage into the public arena so that it is now a recognizable sector.
“Energy storage is a fundamental part of running a power system,” he says. “We needed to show what the value of storage was, and now it’s changed dramatically — it’s gone from being a way of providing services and reducing reliance on peaking generation towards optimizing the use of energy behind the meter, allowing for the integration of renewable energy.”
Price, who is also the figure behind the annual International Flow Battery Forum, has been working in the sector for decades and has strong ties with the US Energy Storage Association and British Electricity Storage Network.
Separately Isobel Sheldon, chief strategy officer for Britishvolt, has been awarded the OBE for her services to motor vehicle battery technology. The award recognizes her work in the field of lithium-ion batteries and a career which has included working as business development director for UKBIC, a battery production development facility set up to enable the scale-up of UK battery manufacturing.
Price and Sheldon join the cadre of OBE appointees: J K Rowling, the Harry Potter writer; England footballer David Beckham; and Jim Carter, the actor who played the dedicated butler Mr Carson in Downton Abbey.
