The aim of the app is to enable users to optimise how and when energy is used around their homes, integrating smart devices, such as electric vehicle charge points and solar panels, regardless of their brand.

“There’s a lot of clever technology out there that helps people manage the energy in their homes but, incredibly, there’s nothing in the UK that works with different brands and devices, meaning people can’t currently control all the energy devices across their home in one place,” said Swarm Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Anthony Piggott.

“We knew we could create something to change this and with [Opencast’s] tech expertise and our knowledge of the energy sector, we have the ability to make something really exciting: one app to control every aspect of energy in the home.”

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Demonstration and testing of the new app are set to take place in a purpose-built energy hub at the Hoults Yard business village in Newcastle, where the two companies are based, with the first iteration planned for launch in autumn 2023.

Growing UK consumer interest in green innovations

The availability of such apps as Swarm’s would appear to be timely, with a new survey from McKinsey & Company of more than 2,000 consumers revealing a soaring demand for green energy innovations to curb high energy prices and reduce household bills.

McKinsey reports that as wholesale prices have started to fall enabling retailers to offer lower prices the incentive to switch suppliers, after record low levels, has increased and a third of consumers are considering switching, while almost half are willing to adopt some form of time-of-use tariffs.

Further, a quarter are also willing to buy additional green products and services from energy retailers such as energy management services, solar panels, electric vehicle chargers and heat pumps.

With this suppliers also have the opportunity to attract more customers and diversify their offerings by curbing costs, simplifying processes and boosting public awareness of new energy products and services, McKinsey indicates.

Kiril Bliznakov, Senior Partner at McKinsey, says the survey findings point to the driving of a more competitive market where low cost and low carbon tariffs, products and services will be the key differentiators of the future.

“The ‘gamification’ of energy services and rising demand for energy-as-a-service offerings will create new opportunities for suppliers to increase long-term customer loyalty and to both decarbonise and cut household bills.”
 

The project EDGE (Energy from Distributed Resources for the Management of the E-Distribuzione Network) aims to test and establish the most appropriate solution for the procurement of local ancillary services and related remuneration in Italy.

The project will initially cover areas in four provinces, Cuneo and Venice in the north of Italy and Benevento and Foggia in the south.

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“We are incredibly excited to launch this new market alongside E-Distribuzione, which is setting a new, leading standard for what can be achieved through DSO flexibility markets,” says James Johnston, CEO and co-founder of Piclo.

“This unparalleled development across Europe marks a new era for these markets including short-term flexibility services, greater integrations and end-to-end automation and ultimately improved network decarbonisation and resilience. We can’t wait to get going.”

The EDGE project is focussed on providing active power regulation services, in order to comply with network constraints in both normal operating conditions and reconfigurations caused by failures or scheduled works.

Potential resources that can participate include production and consumption units, battery storage units and electric vehicle charging systems with delivery from both residential and non-residential users.

Piclo Flex as an independent marketplace will provide the end-to-end solution to acquire and dispatch the flexibility services to E-Distribuzione’s networks.

For Piclo the project marks a further step in the growing use of the platform around the world by network operators, including four DNOs and the TSO in the UK as well as others in Ireland, Portugal, Lithuania and New York state in the US.

As of 2022, Piclo Flex had 55,000 registered flexible assets representing 16.6GW of flex capacity, with flexibility contracts awarded totalling £58 million (US$73 million) and 1.1GW+ of flexible capacity procured.

E-Distribuzione is part of the Enel Group and is the largest DSO in Italy.

The EDGE project was initiated in response to the EU’s Clean Energy Package and the growing need for flexibility in Italy, with the government’s plan to add at least 70GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030 to cover 30% of the gross energy consumption.

Also on the radar are a €140 million ($150 million) financing round for investor EIT InnoEnergy as Europe is set to update energy policy, and a triple acquisition of US gas utilities by Canada-based Enbridge.

Shell to reportedly sell sonnen

On Thursday, German publication Handelsblatt reported that oil giant Shell intends to sell sonnen, the German developer of energy storage systems.

The report comes in as Shell moves to divest its retail operations within the UK, Netherlands and Germany as part of a strategic restructuring.

The strategy follows the company’s review of market conditions, announcing in June its retail exit.

Kicking off the strategy late last week, Shell sold its UK and German domestic operations to energy major Octopus Energy.

Shell’s Dutch operations are winding down and in the process of transition.

Shell acquired sonnen back in 2019. According to Handelsblatt, the sale will be a significant deal for Shell, which acquired the Bavaria-based company for €500 million ($535 million); the sale is expected to be valued between €1.35 billion ($1.4 billion) and €1.8 billion ($1.9 billion), according to Handelsblatt.

So far, sonnen has had a very strong 2023 with an expected turnover of €450 million ($482 million). Earlier this year the company announced increased capacity of its German VPP at 250MWh, marking the largest in Europe.

The company is expecting to grow the demand response tech, which consists of tens of thousands of intelligently-controlled sonnenBatteries throughout Germany, to 1GWh in the coming years.

Shell has declined to comment.

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EIT InnoEnergy’s private placement round

Dutch energy investment company EIT InnoEnergy has received over €140 million from strategic players in industrial, financial, training and digital sectors in a private placement round.

According to the company, proceeds from the financing will be used for increasing new deal flow, launching new industrial initiatives, tapping opportunities from new regulatory frameworks and expanding in the US.

InnoEnergy’s portfolios focus on early-stage innovative technologies and teams in clean tech, normally CAPEX heavy.

InnoEnergy currently has a portfolio of 200 companies, three of which are unicorns, on track to generate €110 billion ($118 billion) in revenue and save 2.1G tonnes of CO2e accumulatively by 2030.

According to InnoEnergy, these companies have collectively raised €9.7 billion ($10.4 billion) in investment to date.

Tabled earlier this year, the European Union has been expecting to pass several policies in mind of better enabling its industrial capacity within the energy sector.

Namely, the European market design has had a proposed reform and the Green Deal Industrial Plan – within which are contained the Critical Raw Materials and Net Zero Industry Acts – will aim to upskill the workforce, develop European clean tech supply chains and lower barriers to deployment.

Part of the private placement round will, states InnoEnergy, also be used for training and upskilling:

“The new skills, and the larger workforce we will need to fulfil net zero objects, are significant, so with our shareholder make-up of those in industrial and financial sectors, and also in academia and research, we are perfectly placed to deliver progress,” stated the company.

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Earlier this week, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) hosted the first High-Level Electricity Grid Forum, of which EIT Innoenergy was a collaborator, during which the grid was placed high on the agenda as a strategic focus for future investments.

New investors in the round include Societe Generale, Santander CIB, PULSE – CMA CGM Energy Fund, Renault Group, Stena Recycling and NIIT.

Existing shareholders Siemens Financial Services, Schneider Electric, Capgemini, Volkswagen Group, ING, Koolen Industries, GROUPE IDEC and Engie were also among the strategic players.

Commenting on the announcement, Diego Pavia, CEO of EIT InnoEnergy, said: “New strategic players have joined InnoEnergy’s outstanding cap table, several shareholders have reinvested, and altogether we have secured sufficient fresh financial resources to double our on-going impact.

“The accelerated energy transition in Europe and in the world, and an increased re-industrialisation ambition in the western world are unique opportunities for InnoEnergy, its portfolio companies and our trusted ecosystem partners. We have geared up for the journey ahead.”

Details on individual investor contributions have not been disclosed.

Triple gas utility acquisition

Canada-based energy company Enbridge has acquired three US-based gas utilities to create what it is calling the largest natural gas utility franchise in the US.

Enbridge entered three separate agreements with Dominion Energy to acquire EOG, Questar and PSNC for the purchase, which totals $14 billion after deductions, including $4.6 billion of assumed debt.

Enbridge owns and operates pipelines throughout Canada and the US, transporting crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. The company also generates renewable energy, touting a growing European offshore wind portfolio.

Upon the closings, Enbridge will add to its portfolio gas utility operations in Ohio, North Carolina, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, representing a significant presence in the US utility sector.

The acquisitions will double the scale of the company’s gas utility business to approximately 22% of Enbridge’s total adjusted EBITDA and is hoped to balance the company’s asset mix evenly between natural gas and renewables, as well as liquids.

Enbridge states that following the closings, its gas utility business will be the largest by volume in North America with a combined rate base of over CDN$27 billion ($19.8 billion).

In a press release announcing the acquisition, Enbridge cites how “high-quality, utility cash flows from the gas utilities” will reduce its business risk.

Michele Harradence, president of GDS and executive vice-president at Enbridge, commented that the utilities, each being based in the US, offer strategic advantage when it comes to regulation, namely how they “operate in regions with very attractive regulatory regimes” while offering diverse, low-risk growth opportunities.

However, earlier this week, credit ratings agency Moody’s changed Enbridge’s outlook from stable to negative, a result of the acquisitions.

“The negative outlook on Enbridge is prompted by the company’s announcement that it would acquire US gas utilities… adding pressure to an already weak financial profile that we expect to persist following the transaction close,” said Gavin MacFarlane, Moody’s vice-president – senior credit officer.

“Although Enbridge’s business risk profile improves modestly with the transaction, it is not enough to offset ongoing pressure on the company’s financial profile.”

What are your thoughts on Shell‘s reported strategy to move away from the residential market? If the reports are correct it will be interesting to see who manages to acquire sonnen, which has only been growing.

For the latest finance and investment announcements coming out of the energy sector, make sure to follow Smart Energy Finances Weekly.

I will also be attending Bentley’s upcoming Going Digital Awards in Infrastructure in Singapore in October. Will I see you there?

Cheers,
Yusuf Latief
Content Producer
Smart Energy International

Follow me on LinkedIn

Also on the radar are two further acquisitions: that of a Chinese EV manufacturer by a Dubai-based tech company, as well as of a grids-focused advisory company by a US-based global consultancy.

SMS acquires heat pump division for flexibility services

The Scottish smart metering company has announced the acquisition of Evergreen Energy’s domestic services division, which specialises in the installation and maintenance of renewable energy assets, including heat pumps, solar and battery storage for homeowners.

According to SMS, the acquisition will enhance their capacity to deliver an extended range of low-carbon, behind-the-meter energy solutions to the UK’s domestic and commercial marketplaces.

The company, which earlier this year pointed to their flagship smart meter services and storage portfolios as key profit areas, is calling the acquisition “highly complementary to SMS’s leading role in the delivery of Great Britain’s smart meter programme, owning and managing c.4.5 million meter and data assets for customers,” they state in a press release.

Heat pumps are a key clean tech asset for enabling demand side response, which is gaining attraction in the UK as a method of alleviating peak demand on the country’s grid system.

The acquisition is thus hoped to deliver associated data solutions and demand flexibility services to energy suppliers, businesses and consumers.

Earlier this year in February, SMS announced a demand side response project, part of the UK Government’s Flexibility Innovation Programme, to design and deliver testing schemes for flexibility applications.

Earlier this week, UK market research company Cornwall Insight released research illustrating the crucial element smart meters represent for flexibility services, which have exponential savings potential, should households participate.

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SMS’s acquisition follows other strategic investments made last year in EV charge point software company, Clenergy EV, and of smart energy data platform, n3rgy, which similarly bolstered SMS’s presence in the EV charging infrastructure and data services markets.

Evergreen Energy’s other divisions, including the Homely and Easy MCS brands are not included in the transaction and will operate independently from the Evergreen Energy brand going forward.

Stated SMS CEO Tim Mortlock: “Whilst we will continue to operate the Evergreen Energy brand that has been successfully established within the northwest, the acquisition will bolster the Group’s overall capacity to deliver these carbon reduction assets on a wider national scale to a fast-growing domestic and commercial marketplace.

“The location of Evergreen’s Manchester base close to our national training academy and innovation centre in Bolton, where we are focussed on upskilling our engineering workforce and testing new technologies, will also be highly beneficial.”

A Middle Eastern acquisition of Chinese EV manufacturing

Dubai-headquartered mobility tech company NWTN has reached an agreement to make a strategic investment of $500 million in China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group (EVGRF), a Chinese automobile manufacturer that specialises in developing EVs, aiming to accelerate the company’s position in the EV space.

NWTN and EVGRF entered into a share subscription agreement pursuant to which NWTN will acquire approximately 27.50% of shares of EVGRF alongside the right to nominate a majority of EVGRF’s board.

The proposed transaction is expected to close in Q4 2023, subject to customary and other closing conditions.

NWTN, a mobility and green energy company, has a full vehicle assembly facility in Abu Dhabi. Technologically, the company has expanded its capabilities to include PV generation, green hydrogen production and energy storage.

The strategic acquisition forms part of the company’s continuing expansion, vying in growing markets in the Middle East, North Africa, China and other countries.

NWTN states an emphasis for their business on the use of AI technologies, autonomous driving and personalised passenger experience as key to its market positioning.

The company believes a partnership with EVGRF will be instrumental in addressing the EV needs of the Middle East and will facilitate EVGRF’s research and development and mass production of new car models for eventual export overseas.

According to Reuters, the deal forms part of a $3.2 billion plan unveiled by Evergrande to reduce its debt and stay afloat.

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Consultancy’s acquisition to reinforce grid expertise

US-based ICF, a global consulting and tech services provider, has acquired CMY Solutions, a power and energy engineering firm that advises on decision-making for grid modernisation, programmes and investments.

Founded in 2016, CMY’s team of 50 specialised experts advise senior leaders of utilities and developers across the US, Europe and Asia, including investor-owned utilities, electric municipalities and electric cooperatives.

ICF on the other hand consists of approximately 9,000 employees, consisting of business analysts and policy specialists who work alongside digital strategists, data scientists and creatives in the public and private sectors.

The acquisition brings to ICF strong backgrounds in renewable energy integration, distributed energy resources (DER) impact studies and management.

Additionally, CMY brings “deep technical expertise in substation, transmission and distribution system design, protection and control, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) compliance, as well as system planning and capital strategy consulting,” states ICF in a press release announcing the acquisition.

Commenting on the acquisition was John Wasson, ICF chair and CEO, who stated how the deal will “strengthen our ability to support utilities’ needs for grid transformation, reliability, resilience and renewables integration in a much more holistic way.

“As one team, we will scale our industry-leading energy service offerings and continue to grow our rapidly expanding technology and data management capabilities across the various markets we serve.”

Acquisitions have been key in this week’s Smart Energy Finances with smart metering for flexibility, EV manufacturing and grid modernisation expertise for consulting all seen driving strategic corporate moves.

What are your thoughts? What have you seen as having a large influence on decision-making when it comes to acquisitions in the energy sector and what would you like me to cover?

Let me know.

Cheers,
Yusuf Latief
Content Producer
Smart Energy International

Follow me on Linkedin

The UK market researcher’s report, The power of flex: Rewarding smarter energy usage, outlines the importance of enabling household flexibility, which has the potential to benefit individual households, the national energy system and the environment.

The report highlights four key findings:

• Smart meter-enabled flexibility can cut peak consumption by 3GW;

• Household flexibility could deliver annual savings for consumers and the energy system of £14.1 billion/year ($17.9 billion/year) in 2040;

• Individuals engaged in flexibility could save 52% in wholesale electricity costs in 2040;

• Carbon savings increase 45% with the engagement of household flexibility.

Smart meters crucial for enabling flexibility

According to Cornwall Insight, the research focussed on the system-facing benefits that can be realised by managing and deploying the flexibility potential in household electricity use.

The flow of relevant data between different parties engaged across the energy system is essential to delivering opportunities, states the company, and smart metering infrastructure is a core component in ensuring this information is available to all relevant parties when they need it.

Using the half-hourly data from smart meters, customers can also be rewarded for reducing their use of electricity at certain times, in a way that would not be possible with a traditional meter. With a traditional meter, suppliers typically do not have visibility of consumption at different times of day, states the research, and therefore could not reward customers for making a change in their consumption pattern.

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Enabled by the presence of smart meters, household flexibility was found to support substantial reductions in peak consumption, the equivalent of four new gas-fired power stations.

Specifically, states the research, managing flexible demand technologies like EV charging, heat pump operation and solar and storage activities to market prices and system requirements equates to 3GW of peak demand on the network avoided overall in 2030.

This reduction is equivalent to saving almost £1 billion ($1.3 billion) in spending on the electricity network, including wires and other infrastructure which delivers electricity to homes.

Further savings are seen in 2040, with a 1.5GW reduction in peak demand facilitated by household flexibility, saving £1.7 billion ($2.2 billion) in avoided network upgrades and the building of new gas-fired power stations.

£14.1 billion saved by 2040

According to the study’s comparison between two scenarios, one with enabled flexibility and one without, the flexibility scenario sees consumers and the energy system benefit from £14.1 billion in savings in 2040.

This arises from three key areas, states the report:

• Lowered wholesale electricity prices accounting for £12.3 billion ($15.6 billion);
• Lowered peak demand, reducing the need to build additional power stations, delivering savings of around £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion);
• Reduced need to build additional network assets, equating to a saving of around £500 million ($634 million).

These financial savings relate to single-year scenarios modelled for 2025, 2030 and 2040. The scenarios are stand-alone and are not cumulative for the time periods between the scenarios, states the research.

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Looking nearer term, in 2030 the research finds overall savings of £4.6 billion ($5.8 billion) and by as soon as 2025, the ability to shift some consumption out of expensive peak periods supports wholesale power price savings, with overall power costs £21 million ($26.6 million) lower.

Flexible households could save 52% in wholesale electricity costs in 2040

According to the research, for households with EVs, heat pumps and other smart-capable assets that are managed in line with flexibility incentives, wholesale electricity costs are 52% lower in the Flexibility Scenario, saving £3755 ($4759) in 2040.

These savings take account of the additional electricity demand required to transition to electrified heating and transport and come from these households being rewarded for moving the flexible parts of their electricity consumption into cheaper periods. This means these customers won’t face additional costs from petrol and gas, states Cornwall Insight.

45% increase in carbon savings

According to the report, engagement with household flexibility results in a 45% increase in carbon savings compared to the no flexibility scenario, the equivalent of planting 630,000 trees, states the research.

By engaging with flexibility, households can have a positive environmental impact, shifting consumption from peak times when gas-fired power stations are often used to meet demand, to other times of day when renewable energy is generating more.

According to the regulator, domestic DSR, which entails consumers adjusting consumption in response to the needs of the energy system and being rewarded through reduced bills, is a key element in achieving Government plans to decarbonise.

New market reforms and regulations are being developed in the UK to manage the expanding domestic DSR market, underpinned by digitalisation and decentralisation, which enables better monitoring and response to grid activity.

However, for domestic DSR to work at scale, states Ofgem, it also needs large scale consumer participation. Ofgem is thus seeking input from energy sector stakeholders on how to facilitate the transition to consumers becoming flexible energy consumers.

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Marzia Zafar, deputy director of digitalisation and innovation at Ofgem, said: “domestic demand side response is about optimising the way we consume energy, so it works best for a decarbonised energy system and consumers. The key to unlocking high consumer uptake is making it both attractive and easy to participate in.”

“It is not Ofgem’s role to specify what this domestic DSR journey should look like, but it is important that it is not left to chance.”

According to Ofgem, it’s anticipated that in the UK there will be many different ways for consumers to engage with Domestic DSR both manually and via automation.

The simplest and most common method of engagement, they add, is expected to be automated DSR, whereby consumers configure smart devices with default off-peak time settings, optimising consumption against time-of-use tariffs and choosing to have a third party manage their participation in flexibility markets.

Zafar added that “as the regulator, we are seeking input from a wide range of stakeholders including those working in industry, the providers of smart home and transport assets, consumer representatives and other parties’ interested in flexibility.

“This will help build a shared vision of what the emerging domestic DSR customer journey should look like and how to make that vision a reality.”

Ofgem’s inquiry comes in as energy demand in the country continues to grow with the proliferating number of clean tech assets, such as EVs and electric heating systems, coming online and adding stress to the UK’s electricity grid.

The call for input is now open and will close on Friday 29 September 2023.

The human factor, when it comes to the use of distributed generation such as rooftop solar and its delivery to the grid is one of the biggest challenges when it comes to the modern grid.

Zhao, who directs Mines’ Smart Grid and Energy Research Lab, intends to study this human factor and this in turn could be incorporated so that the grid could predict how it will then be used by the humans.

Zhao says that while there is a great deal of effort underway right now to build the technology and infrastructure needed to run smart grids, the one thing missing from current research is the human factor.

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“The most important part of the equation is people, and we are trying to understand human behaviour to help build the most robust and fully functional smart grid models.”

The grant from the National Science Foundation is worth almost $200,000 over the next two years.

Specifically the intention is to introduce a data-driven approach to analyse and explicitly model power demand behaviour at the household level using real-world long-term data.

The goal is to reveal macro- and micro-residential power demand patterns, through matching 15-minute resolution smart meter data with consumer surveys, along with local parcel data and meteorological data, to achieve a comprehensive understanding of residential power demand behaviour at a disaggregated level.

This should then lay the foundation for research focused on data-driven analysis and modelling for next-generation power grids.

The primary contribution of the project is intended to be the development of a data-driven temperature-time-day-based model for residential power demand behaviour, relying solely on real-world data.

Zhao anticipates that the research also should have wider impacts, with the proposed model potentially readily expanded to other domains such as water usage.

It also should contribute to better understanding incentive effectiveness in changing consumer behaviour, particularly in green consumption.

Alongside the project a new ‘Smart Grid and Data Science’ curriculum will be developed, combining power engineering and social science.

Partners in the project include the local coop West River Electric Association and the chamber of commerce Elevate Rapid City.

Smoke impact on solar PV

The new project comes as Zhao has just completed another study on the impact of wildfire smoke on solar PV.

While solar energy production is likely to be impacted by low-level smoke, the project found that the output of individual solar panels can be reduced by nearly 50%, even when the smoke is present at high altitudes and air quality near the ground is not significantly impacted.

Moreover, the fluctuations vary with the intensity of the smoke, which often varies, indicating the importance of taking this into account as solar becomes more widespread in wildfire-prone areas and beyond given the propensity for the smoke to potentially travel large distances in the air.

The partnership involves a minority investment in Pratexo through ABB’s venture capital unit, ABB Technology Ventures (ATV). Financial details of the investment were not disclosed.

Pratexo’s technology platform supports IoT and AI initiatives which demand compute power at the edge. The company’s technology enables the rapid set up of systems that can process huge amounts of data generated by IoT sensors and run advanced analytics in real time close to the location of the device, rather than in the cloud.

ABB’s Electrification Service will leverage Pratexo’s industry-leading, no-code development platform, Pratexo Studio, to accelerate and revolutionise how edge-to-cloud digital solutions are designed for customers, allowing them to make better decisions for future operations.

According to ABB, the collaboration will help customers deploy edge-based networks and solution architectures that provide real time insights, with the added benefits of reduced cloud data transfer volumes, improved data privacy and security and the ability to run when not connected to the internet.

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One example cited by ABB is customised, decentralised software solutions that allow distribution grid operators to manage, monitor and assess electrical systems in real time, identify what could potentially be causing machine faults and optimise at the local level to adjust to rapidly changing circumstances such as identifying and responding to changes in power availability and consumption.

“We are in a unique position to support customers in their digital transformation regardless of what stage they are at. Investing in and partnering with innovative startups like Pratexo advances our technological services capabilities to provide enhanced industry 4.0 business outcomes to our customers,” said Stuart Thompson, president of ABB’s Electrification Service Division.

Added Blaine Mathieu, CEO of Pratexo: “The last 20 years of IT have been mostly about centralising computing into the cloud. The next 10 will be about balancing that with a hybrid edge-to-cloud approach – doing the right compute at the right place and at the right level. Our close collaboration with ABB will further enable and accelerate that transition.”

The partnership is ABB’s sixth venture capital investment of 2023 and helps expand the company’s portfolio of solutions that support decarbonisation.

US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) chose DERMS provider Smarter Grid Solutions (SGS) to implement their Strata Grid DERMS at the facility.

ESIF is an energy systems integration laboratory facility focused on developing and deploying clean energy technologies and resilient distribution systems.

According to the ESIF’s research project manager, Sarah Williams, “DERMS-related research is core to the integrated, multi-disciplinary work happening at ESIF.

“We have confidence we are developing a powerful toolbox with SGS to address both existing and future use cases.”

DERMS are known for enabling enhanced control and visibility over assets for utilities and electric cooperatives, allowing operators to manage incoming renewable energy resources and grid-edge devices for improved performance of the electrical system.

According to SGS in a press release announcing their selection, example use cases of the Strata Grid DERMS include the autonomous operation and coordination of modern grid devices.

Within the system distributed energy resources (DERs) are leveraged for improved grid planning and operation, as well as demand-side management and customer engagement through bidirectional communication with utilities and energy market operations.

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According to SGS, the system is the “only DERMS software to combine the grid and market optimisation with real-time control”.

According to the ESIF, when it comes to their integrated energy capabilities, the lab includes tools and approaches to enable better integration with the electric grid and other energy infrastructure, diversification of integrated energy streams for resilience, cybersecurity risk management and customer participation in smart load management and energy generation.

The ESIF also states it has “hundreds of commercially available” DERs, including inverters, electric vehicles, batteries, home energy systems, solar panels, fuel cells and more, which can be integrated ‘in-the-loop’ with simulations for realistic experimentation.

According to SGS’ statement, NREL sought a DERMS capable of replicating utility control and the monitoring of distributed devices from small residential systems to the grid substation level.

“SGS is excited to partner with NREL on their research in the DERMS realm. With NREL’s research leadership and SGS’ industry-leading DERMS solutions, we expect to see very interesting and exciting learnings from this partnership,” said Jon Grooters, director of utility solutions at SGS.

At the end of June, more than 200,000 individual and collective self-consumption installations were operating on its network, Endesa has reported.

This follows the connection of 85,000 self-consumption units in that six-month period, compared with 81,800 in all of 2022 and almost 3.5 times more than in 2021.

In particular there was a notable tripling in the number of collective installations, increasing from 161 at the start of 2023 to 488 by the end of June.

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Such installations have been the last to join the self-consumption ‘boom’ in Spain, Endesa has indicated, noting they are expected to continue to increase significantly in the future, with almost three-quarters of family homes of this type wanting to participate.

For example, the almost 500 collective installations are comprised of more than 2,400 customers.

The more than 200,000 self-consumption installations in Endesa’s network – which takes in Andalusia, Extremadura, Catalonia, Aragon, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands – have a combined installed capacity of 3GW.

The majority, almost 99%, are with surpluses that are fed into the network.

By area, most are in Andalusia and Catalonia, which concentrate 84% of the active self-consumption with close to 90,400 and 78,000 units respectively.

In the Canary Islands, the number is close to 10,000, having doubled over the first half of 2023, while in Aragón the number is close to 7,400 following an 84% increase and in the Balearic Islands it is close to 11,670 after an 81% increase.

Endesa anticipates that given the current rate, the number of activated self-consumption connections will reach 270,000 by the end of 2023.

To expedite the procedure, which is otherwise complex, particularly for collective installations, Endesa reports having proposed changes to the regulator with the aim to complete contracts within a time of 10 days as well as initiating improvements in its communications procedures.

The new DER-specific ancillary service ‘MW Dispatch Service’ will support the management of transmission network constraints, by extending the options available to the ESO’s control room beyond those generators currently operating in the Balancing Mechanism.

With the support of the UK Power Networks and NGED control rooms, the ESO will be able to instruct these DER units to reduce their output at times of system constraint, enabling DERs to receive constraint payments for the electricity they would have otherwise generated.

The service will provide a cheaper alternative to the existing constraint management process used within the balancing mechanism, helping to reduce costs for consumers.

UKPN and NGED are in the process of signing up customers to participate in this service which will start to operate over the coming months.

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This will involve developing technical capabilities that will enable the distribution companies to coordinate and exchange data with the ESO while being able to dispatch the generators when there is a constraint in the transmission network.

In a release announcing the collaboration, Claire Dykta, head of markets for ESO, commented, “Collaboration across networks is helping us to unlock new solutions to manage the network of the future. Alongside other steps on our Markets Roadmap, the MW Dispatch Service is unlocking new tools to deliver long-term management of constraint costs and to deliver new service options for distributed assets.”

Added Ben Godfrey, director of DSO at National Grid Electricity Distribution: “Through the MW Dispatch project, we are providing the ESO with unparalleled visibility of new DERs connecting to our network, and the ability to manage constraints on the transmission network in a more efficient manner.

“This, alongside wider industry reform work, will enable us to accelerate over 2GW of additional generation connection offers in the South West. This collaborative approach, and the underlying capabilities are now being scaled up across the UK to help us alleviate wider constraints at the transmission/distribution boundary and connect more renewable generation to the network.”

The programme, which began in 2021 and runs to 2025, has so far seen the installation of over 150,000 new smart meters.

A further 7,000 units are due to be installed by year end in the central-southern municipality of Pälkäne.

The new generation smart meters are of Finnish design by Elenia in partnership with the smart grid solution provider Aidon, which together have developed a platform on which over time new services may be enabled, such as the use of self generation, electric vehicle integration or flexibility for the grid.

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The telecom operator Elisa also is a partner, with responsibility for IoT communications between the meters and the wider system.

The new meters are aimed to involve Elenia and its customers more strongly in climate solutions and actions, according to the company.

Customers with the new meters can access Elenia’s new AinaLab service, where they can monitor their electricity consumption down to the five-minute level on an almost real-time basis.

The service also disaggregates the loads by the three phases enabling monitoring of individual phases and checking the phase connections of individual devices.

Sanni Harala, Account and Stakeholder Manager at Elenia, says that consumption data often appears in the AinaLab service within a few minutes and usually within an hour.

“The energy sector plays a key role in the electric, green transition, which we are promoting by modernising the electricity grid and its technology. The smart grid is increasingly involved in climate solutions,” he says.

The installation of Elenia’s smart meters is being undertaken by Finnish provider Voimatel.

Since the start of the programme, installations have progressed in Elenia’s network area in Northern and South Ostrobothnia, Central Finland and Pirkanmaa.

Installations will begin in Kanta-Häme in 2024 and in Päijät-Häme in 2025.

In all approximately 400,000 smart meters are being replaced, broadly in line with the end of service life of the current meters.

A further 40,000 customers have newer meters that will be replaced at a later date.

Kaluza heads ‘down under’

UK headquartered energy software company Kaluza is planning to expand its activities in Australia and New Zealand with an office in Melbourne led up by former London-based client solutions director, Conor Maher-McWilliams.

Over the next 12 months, Kaluza intends to build a local team of experts to support activity in the region.

The team will work closely with Kaluza customer AGL Energy, one of Australia’s largest energy retailers and generators, on the ‘OVO Energy Australia’ joint venture to accelerate the adoption of clean energy solutions across the country and develop new EV and solar propositions for AGL’s customers.

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Kaluza is also expanding its managed charging programme to New Zealand with Meridian Energy. Through this new service, Kaluza will manage the charging of Meridian Energy’s customers’ EVs in response to their needs as well as market signals and pricing data.

Scott Neuman, CEO of Kaluza, described the development as “an important milestone” for the company’s global expansion, which so far has extended to Europe, North America and Japan.

Training for the energy transition

Britain’s Heriot-Watt University, known for its technical training, is launching a new Master of Science degree programme to provide advanced training in the energy transition.

The programme, run from the University’s Orkney campus, is taught both in person and online, with a focus on the technologies, systems, processes and economics, alongside the design of transition projects to move away from fossil fuels and accelerate the integration of renewable energy.

The MSc in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Transition, to give its full title, has been developed by the mechanical and energy systems engineer Susan Krumdieck and is built around the rapidly growing discipline of ‘transition engineering’, an interdisciplinary approach to change for unsustainable systems across power, transport, industry, real estate and other sectors, according to a statement.

Krumdieck, who hails originally from New Zealand, is Chair of Energy Transition Engineering at Heriot-Watt and her research group has led the development of ‘transition engineering’ as a discipline since the early 2000s.

“If the world is to decarbonise and reach net zero emissions by 2050, whole systems will have to be redesigned and redeveloped, including energy infrastructure, technology, regulation and markets,” she commented.

“A new generation of transition engineering specialists is needed to drive this change – and our MSc ReSET is firmly focused on helping students and professionals develop these vital skills – so they can help to reset global energy systems.”

The MSc programme has four themes: Transition Engineering, Economics and Commercialisation, Renewable Energy Technology and Energy Systems.

Hydrogen trains – before their time?

Germany has been a pioneer with hydrogen-powered trains over the past five years and the rail operator Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen (LNVG) was the first, a year ago, to launch a network of such trains using Alstom’s Coradia iLint rolling stock.

But now the company has decided that its future – at least for the next generation – is with battery-powered trains, citing their cheaper operating costs.

LNVG is now planning to obtain 102 new units with battery-powered technology, which will progressively replace its diesel rolling stock from 2029 onwards until the last diesel is withdrawn in 2037.

Hydrogen has been billed as the option for emission-free trains on lines that have not been electrified. However, an advantage of the battery-powered trains is that they can run on both electrified lines, drawing on the power and recharging batteries via the pantograph, and non-electrified lines using the battery power with charging from purpose-built charging islands.

LNVG has not specified what the cost differences are or where they arise. But like hydrogen for road transport, undoubtedly the ‘chicken and egg’ of infrastructure availability vs demand is likely to be a factor.

With hydrogen-powered trains under test in other locations such as Canada, their potential is very much a space to watch.

The organisers of the Olympic Games have in the past used generators that run on diesel to electrify the events, in particular for lighting and television broadcasting.

Enedis has set itself a challenge to contribute to the Paris 2024 objective of halving the event’s CO2 emissions thanks to a high quality, solid, constantly maintained and modernized electricity network.

“The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games are perfectly in line with the company’s objectives of taking concrete action for the planet and improving customer service. The Paris 2024 deadline challenges our processes and forces us to adapt quickly to be on target”, adds Marianne Laigneau, CEO of Enedis.

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Enedis has mobilised Team France Electrique, a group of 39 000 employees who are committed to the ecological transition around stadiums and everywhere in France. The employees are committed to the success of this unique event.

Development, security and network reinforcement work and infrastructure will be part of the legacy left by Paris 2024 everywhere in the territories concerned, in the same way as the installation of permanent connection solutions for events within the venues.

The president of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games stated, “Sport is a solution machine for education, for health, for inclusion and for behaviour change. With Enedis, we are committed to a more sustainable society by rethinking the energy connection of all the Games sites.”

The utility has reported making progress with the state’s first of its kind community microgrid, which will power around 100 homes in Bawley Point and Kioloa, 250km south of Sydney on Australia’s southeast coast.

The AU$8 million (US$5.3 million) project is on track to be operational by the end of the year, Endeavour Energy has reported.

The community microgrid will act as a self-contained energy system, harnessing electricity from renewable sources including rooftop solar, home-based batteries, and a 3MW grid connected battery, strategically positioned between the two communities.

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This configuration empowers the microgrid to operate autonomously during outages, forming an island of power for the community, a statement reads.

Guy Chalkley, Endeavour Energy’s chief executive officer, said the microgrid will lead the way in making isolated communities more resilient while laying the foundation for future renewable energy solutions.

Bawley Point and Kioloa are both situated on the edge of the Endeavour Energy network and prone to adverse weather events and thus vulnerable to supply disruptions.

“The grid independence provided by this microgrid becomes essential for their survival and safeguarding our regional communities,” he said.

“What makes this microgrid the first of its kind is the customer centric and integrated approach to planning – we can call upon a customer’s energy resources such as rooftop solar and batteries to add resilience to the network and the community’s power supply.”

Endeavour Energy, which reports co-designing the solution in partnership with the local community, anticipate that it will serve as a blueprint for other communities and is exploring additional locations that could benefit from similar microgrid installations.

The new system uses G3-PLC communication between gateways installed at transformer stations and load control devices installed in customer premises to control endpoints including heat pumps, boilers and electric vehicles.

The load control system functions concurrently with the existing G3-PLC enabled AMI rollout.

The G3-PLC coordinator, the nBox-SG at the transformer station, which is supplied by the Swiss connectivity solutions provider Neuron, multiplexes both metering and load control traffic towards their respective backend-systems.

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The load control devices are managed through machine-learning algorithms, which were developed by researchers at ETH Zurich.

This AI/ML logic is hosted in a software container within Neuron’s G3-PLC device and can take load switching decisions based on a variety of locally collected and remotely supplied information.

“We are excited to see this novel application of G3-PLC realising multiple smart grid functions, namely metering and load control,” said Leon Vergeer, general secretary of the G3-Alliance.

“Efficient integration of renewable energies requires real-time control and I am sure this application will find additional adopters in various markets.”

The OrtsNetz project, which was started in October 2021 and runs for four years, is aimed to address consumer energy behaviour in a local energy market in order to manage and reduce peak demand.

It involves approximately 500 Zurich households with other facets including the design and testing of incentives and dynamic tariffs in order to inform regulation and other aspects of Switzerland’s future electricity system.

The project is being supported by the Swiss Federal Ministry of Energy.

EKZ is one of Switzerland’s largest energy suppliers, supplying electricity to approximately 1 million people in the canton of Zurich.

The company also was one of the first in Switzerland to introduce smart meters back in 2013 and currently has more than 210,000 smart meters in its network.

Energy metaverse – the building blocks securely in place

The metaverse may seem very conceptual to many at this stage but it is coming in the energy sector – and coming big, according to a new report from Guidehouse Insights, which estimates that over the next decade global investment in core technologies will grow from just over $6 billion in 2022 to nearly $80 billion in 2031 – a compound annual growth rate of no less than 33%.

Core energy metaverse technologies include digital twins, AI and machine learning, unmanned aerial systems and drones, extended reality and blockchain-based applications.

“When the energy metaverse is fully realised – admittedly more than a decade away – utilities and O&G concerns can envision a day when employee onboarding and training take place via XR in a metaverse-based training centre,” says Richelle Elberg, principal research analyst with Guidehouse Insights.

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“Much like it was difficult in the early 1990s to imagine all the ways a smartphone or the internet would change how business is conducted, in 2023 it can be hard to see just how radically metaverse technology stands to change the operating dynamics of energy industry verticals.”

Potential examples cited by Guidehouse include utility storefronts in metaverse malls that could provide virtual customers with real-world benefits such as product comparisons and purchasing, energy use analysis and evaluation of a premises’ suitability for solar.

In-demand specialised experts in a field could work on a virtual offshore rig, advising onsite workers how to address a problem. And drones could conduct ongoing inspections of critical assets, feeding real-time data into digital twins equipped with advanced AI to predict and prevent wildfires or methane emissions.

Flexible solar panels coming to market

Solar panels only a few millimetres thick that are claimed integrable on all kinds of surfaces are about to become available from the Belgian startup EnFoil (derived from ‘Energy enabling foil’).

The panels, which are based on copper-indium-gallium-selenium technology, are the outcome of years of research by the Hasselt University and microelectronics research organisation imec within the Energyville collaboration, with EnFoil a spin-off from the two organisations.

Potential applications range from buildings to tents and swimming pool covers, with what is said a pliable but robust format manufacturable in all shapes and sizes and offering greater flexibility than the current mostly flat and predetermined size formats.

“As a result, the technology was mainly limited to exclusive construction projects or as an expensive extra option for the roof of your car. With Enfoil, we are changing this,” says Marc Meuris, CTO.

He adds that talks with industry to bring EnFoil’s solar films to market are “in full swing”, with the current focus mainly on the logistics sector, where the proposal is to integrate the materials on the roofs and sidewalls of trucks to power their sensors and track and trace systems.

An edible rechargeable battery

Children’s toys, gastrointestinal tract disease diagnosis and treatment and food quality monitoring are considered some potential areas where edible electronics would be of interest.

As a step towards this researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology have created a first totally edible and rechargeable battery.

With inspiration from the biochemical redox reactions that happen in the body and materials consumed as part of the daily diet, the battery utilises riboflavin or vitamin B2 as anode and the plant pigment quercetin as cathode, along with activated charcoal to increase the electrical conductivity and a water-based electrolyte.

The separator was made from nori seaweed, the kind found in sushi.

Then, electrodes were encapsulated in beeswax from which two food-grade gold contacts – the foil used by pastry chefs – on a cellulose derived support come out.

The battery cell operates at 0.65V, a voltage low enough not to create problems in the human body when ingested, and can provide current of 48μA for 12 minutes or a few microamps for more than an hour – enough to supply power to small electronic devices, such as low power LEDs, for a limited time.

Ivan Ilic, who co-authored the study, said the edible battery is also very interesting for the energy storage community.

“Building safer batteries, without usage of toxic materials, is a challenge we face as battery demand soars. While our edible batteries won’t power electric cars, they are a proof that batteries can be made from safer materials than current Li-ion batteries. We believe they will inspire other scientists to build safer batteries for a truly sustainable future.”

In a new white paper prepared in partnership with the Indian Energy Exchange and Australian blockchain pioneer Powerledger, the ISGF states that neither net or gross metering tariffs nor subsidies have led to the expected uptake of solar capacity, mainly due to low feed-in tariffs and unattractive yearly returns from the current market model.

In comparison, peer-to-peer (P2P) trading offers a financially attractive model for both prosumers as well as consumers in the domestic and C&I segment.

In addition, the distribution companies benefit when net metering customers switch to P2P, while the government subsidies, which are presently disbursed to install rooftop solar, can be avoided.

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The white paper states that the significance of P2P energy trading in promoting rooftop solar has been recognised by the regulator of Uttar Pradesh, which has approved a new set of regulations to facilitate the seamless integration of rooftop solar with the grid.

This follows the implementation in 2020 of a blockchain-based P2P energy trading pilot in Uttar Pradesh by the ISGF and Powerledger, which has received overwhelming interest from multiple distribution companies across India keen to replicate similar projects in their respective regions.

Subsequently, other initiatives have been launched in Delhi and West Bengal among other states.

The white paper states that P2P and local energy markets create both the right market and price signals to boost the deployment of renewable energy assets, such as rooftop solar, to meet India’s national renewables targets of 2030 and beyond.

Some benefits highlighted that can be derived from P2P trading that have emerged from pilots in India include incentivising the deployment of rooftop solar, increasing the viability for net metering prosumers to switch to P2P and trade with C&I consumers and potentially offering higher revenue than gross metering to current subscribers.

Others are reducing the losses incurred by discoms through net metering, helping them to meet their renewable purchase obligation targets, reducing energy transfer on transmission corridors – and thereby deferring capex for the network – helping to remove subsidies for rooftop solar installations and addressing energy inequity by enabling consumers without rooftop solar to purchase green energy and be part of the renewable economy.

Moreover, the suitability of blockchain technology for both low-trust environments and high-information cost environments makes it ideal for the energy sector. With a secure and transparent record-keeping system supported by smart contracts, complex transactions can be automated, ensuring efficient and reliable energy transactions.

While most blockchain use cases are in finance, supply chain management, and identity management, it holds great promise for asset registries and energy trading platforms.

PG&E CEO Patti Poppe invited Schneider Electric North America CEO Annette Clayton and Daryl Willis, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Energy & Resources to talk a bit about the announcement during the event.

Poppe first recalled the heat wave that hit California in September last year. “I’ll never forget it; we were standing in our control room and we were watching the load curve go up. It was September 6th and it was getting dangerously close,” she said. Ultimately after CAISO used the public broadcast system to ask millions of Californians to conserve energy, there was no brownout. And while it is wonderful that the people saved the grid Poppe would rather not re-live that scenario.  

“Let’s not do that very often,” she said.

Instead, what if PG&E could “leverage distributed resources to supply energy on the hottest days at the lowest societal cost possible,” and that’s what this DERMS should allow PG&E to do, she said.

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Clayton added that PG&E has been “innovating on one side of the meter and we’re innovating on the other side of the meter and that innovation really needed to intersect in a much more powerful way.”

Indeed, the exponential growth of DER promises much-needed load flexibility as more renewables come online. DERMS provides the ability to harness that flexibility when and where it’s needed.

The DERMS technology provides greater visibility into DER behavior and the ability to control DER intelligently. Greater situational awareness allows for more proactive management to keep the grid safe, secure and resilient, while helping utilities provide clean, reliable and affordable energy to their customers.

Schneider’s EcoStruxure DERMS is a cloud-based, grid-aware software platform, which runs on Microsoft Azure, that integrates, analyses and optimises data from DER — like solar, electric vehicles, battery energy storage and microgrids, according to the company. That data then provides electric grid operators with enhanced communication and coordination capabilities to unlock the value of DER as flexible grid resources. 

EVs as mobile energy storage

In California, where 23% of all new vehicles sold last year were EVs, Poppe sees great potential in eventually being able to tap into those EV batteries.

“We have almost 500,000 electric vehicles on our roads, which is the equivalent of 9000 megawatts of capacity,” she said. While today the utility thinks of those megawatts as load that needs to charge, “I imagine them as supply and with the DERMS platform we’re talking about, they can be leveraged at the right times,” she said.

PG&E serves more than 16 million people across Northern and Central California, where its customers are often early adopters of new, clean energy technologies. PG&E is taking proactive measures to ensure grid reliability and meet the growing electricity demands of California.

The utility has connected more than 700,000 customers with rooftop solar to the electric grid and more than 55,000 PG&E residential, business and government customers have installed battery energy storage systems connecting to the grid across PG&E’s service area, totaling more than 500 megawatts (MW) of capacity.

Plus PG&E has made significant progress deploying grid-scale battery energy storage. In August of 2020, PG&E had just 6.5 megawatts (MW) of battery energy storage connected to the power grid. Today, PG&E has 1,200MW of storage capacity operation and by September this year, it expects to have 1,700MW online, or enough to meet the instantaneous demand of 1.2 million homes at once. PG&E has contracts for battery energy storage systems totaling more than 3,000MW to be deployed over the next few years.

DERMs will enable the dispatch of these technologies when California needs energy most.

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A unified team

The DERMS collaboration among Microsoft, PG&E and Schneider Electric to develop and launch a DERMS strategy symbolizes the power of a unified team with diverse talents and expertise working collaboratively to achieve a new utility-industry standard for integrating DER at scale, said the companies in a press release.

Clayton lauded PG&E’s comprehensive, cloud-enabled DERMS strategy as an example of Schneider Electric’s Grid to Prosumer philosophy. “This approach to optimise distributed energy resources is agile enough to keep up with 21st century demands on the grid. A stepwise approach is key in DER implementation to effectively handle short-term goals and prepare for the long-term vision.”

The collaboration builds on Schneider Electric’s 30-year co-innovation relationship with Microsoft to deliver solutions integrating Microsoft Azure, an open cloud computing platform with the tools, scale and security to address the demands of critical energy infrastructure today and in the future.

“Collaboration is key to addressing the complex global energy challenges and achieving a more sustainable future,” said Willis.

Priority use cases

Schneider Electric, Microsoft and PG&E have identified several foundation use cases for the new system, including:

• Real-time visibility into all DER. Enhanced situational awareness of grid impacts, both in real-time and with forecasted lookahead, plus instant alerts for improved operations planning.
• System capacity for peak summer days. Visualized DER capacity, timely impact analysis, customer feedback (measurement and verification) and additional DER capacity.
• Local capacity for new service connections and interconnections. Oversight of interconnection requests enables utilities to leverage actionable data to faster evaluate and process DER connection requests and streamline processes that ensure resilience.
• Reliability and resilience with energy storage. Utility-owned & aggregator-provided storage asset dispatch for improving local reliability and network deferral (non-wire alternatives).
• Transportation electrification. Integration, managed charging and vehicle-to-grid coordination for residential vehicles and commercial fleets.

The companies are continuing to build and enhance the platform to address additional use cases over the next several years.

Originally published on Power Grid.

Series A for autonomous EV charging

Rocsys, a developer of autonomous charging solutions for electric transportation, has announced a $36 million Series A funding round.

Rocsys combines soft robotics, AI-based computer vision and data-driven services to adapt existing chargers into an autonomous system that can plug in and out without manual intervention.

According to the Dutch company, the solution removes the risk of operator errors, ensures regulatory compliance and vehicle uptime and minimises damage and human exposure to high-voltage equipment.

They add how the solution works for consumer and fleet vehicles, including port equipment, industrial applications, heavy-duty and more.

Led by SEB Greentech Venture Capital, the round includes participation from Graduate Entrepreneur, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and returning investor Forward.One.

With the investment, which includes a roughly equal split of debt and equity financing, Rocsys will expand the capabilities of its platform as it scales up its presence in the US and Europe.

“There’s too much friction in the EV charging process today, creating needless barriers to sustainable transportation,” said Rocsys Co-founder and CEO Crijn Bouman.

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“That’s why we created a technology-agnostic solution that converts any charger into a fully automated experience, maximising the return on investment and sustainability impact of already-installed charging infrastructure. With this Series A funding, we’re bringing this breakthrough solution to more customers and industries worldwide.”

The capital infusion will support research and development into additional features for the platform, which include intelligent parking guidance, expanded software integrations for vehicle navigation and fleet management systems and additional remote diagnostics and teleoperations support.

Rocsys also plans to build out its North American division, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, to further support application engineering and customer service in the region while expanding local supply chain and manufacturing activities.

As part of the round, Rocsys welcomes four new members to its Board of Advisors, including Mikko Huumo of SEB, Frederik Gerner, and Jan Willem Friso of Forward.One, and new chairperson Dr Gregor Matthies.

Ireland’s GridBeyond acquires Veritone Inc Energy Business

Through an acquisition, Veritone Energy’s acumen and energy management solutions have been integrated into Irish tech developer GridBeyond.

California-based Veritone develops software that uses AI for energy forecasting, optimisation, and control, aiming to unlock the full potential of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) while enhancing reliability.

Dublin-headquartered GridBeyond, on the other hand, develops a technology platform that provides real-time optimisation of distributed assets across a range of industries and asset types.

The acquisition sees Veritone’s extensive portfolio of such AI-powered solutions integrated into the Irish business. It is also a strong growth signal for GridBeyond, expanding its capabilities in the US.

The combination of the two technologies will allow GridBeyond to offer more functionalities to its customers through a new design platform, which they describe as “an extremely accurate forecasting technology” in a press release announcing the acquisition.

One particular combination is that of Veritone’s aiWARE Enterprise platform, which utilises AI forecasting to boost profit from DERs, into GridBeyond’s virtual power plant (VPP) platform.

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Equity capital for a VPP

In the realm of VPPs, Leap, a software platform that aggregates DERs and connects them into VPPs, has secured a new capital raise totalling $12 million in equity financing.

The California-based company utilises customer meter points – to date connecting over 70,000 in the US – to facilitate automated access to energy markets.

Assets such as battery storage systems, EV charging points, smart thermostats, building management systems and other DERs are connected, with the aim of easing the process for technology providers and operators to earn revenue in demand response and other grid services programmes.

Leap co-founder and CEO Thomas Folker, commented on the successful finances: “With this new investment, we will continue to add high-value features to our platform, grow our network of technology partners and expand our value stack across geographies as we advance our mission to decarbonise the world’s electric grids.”

Earlier this year in April, the US-based VPP operator joined the Virtual Power Plant Alliance (VP3).

“Distributed energy resources are a growing priority for both consumers and utilities. With Leap’s unique ability to monetise all types of assets — from energy storage to electric vehicles to building management systems — it is a market maker in an increasingly crowded field,” said Standard Investments’ Logan Ashcraft, who was named to Leap’s board of directors.

The funding round was led by Standard Investments with participation by DNV Ventures and Sustainable Future Ventures as well as existing Leap investors, including Union Square Ventures, Congruent Ventures and National Grid Partners.

An acquisition to bolster ultrasonic water meter readings

French industrial group Sagemcom, which develops broadband communication and energy solutions, has acquired Odit-e, a French digital player specialising in AI solutions for the planning, operation and maintenance of low-voltage drinking water electrical distribution networks.

The acquisition enables Sagemcom to broaden its range of software solutions (namely the Siconia software suite) for network managers, relying on Odit-e for the analysis of data collected by smart meters and sensors installed in the networks.

According to Sagemcom, the Siconia technology offering includes a range of ultrasonic smart water meters to control, monitor and manage water use in residential and industrial environments.

Odit-e’s solutions, utilising smart meter-gathered data, aims to inform decision making for DSOs, through ‘Physics informed AI’ algorithms.

Thus, through the acquisition, Sagemcom is aiming to strengthen its position in the electricity and water distribution markets.

In a release announcing the acquisition, Patrick Sevian, Sagemcom president commented on how the deal “strengthens our expertise in energy transition and enables us to meet the growing needs of energy and water distribution operators.

“By combining the skills of Odit-e and Sagemcom, we are convinced that we will be able to offer ever more innovative and efficient industrial solutions to our customers.”

Make sure to follow Smart Energy Finances Weekly for the latest in finance and investment announcements coming from the energy industry.

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Yusuf Latief
Content Producer
Smart Energy International

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The project, which is being undertaken with Ovo Energy and boiler supplier tepeo, is planned to trial the new boiler systems in 30 homes across London and the east and southeast of England

With installations currently underway, NeatHeat will seek to understand how tepeo’s Zero Emission Boiler (ZEB) interacts with the electricity network.

This will allow UK Power Networks to understand its charging pattern and test optimisation mechanisms that could provide flexibility to the local electricity network.

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Further, the participating Ovo Energy customers could cut their emissions by 2.50-3t of CO2 a year, during the trial which runs for 12 months from when they sign up.

“Decarbonising heating is an essential step in our country’s journey towards net zero. Homes are already transitioning to electric heat pumps, but for some, that is less straightforward,” says Ian Cameron, director of customer service and innovation at UK Power Networks.

“Through NeatHeat, we can open the door to millions of UK homes who don’t yet have access to decarbonised heating solutions. This is a new technology with tremendous potential to expand low-carbon heating across the UK. We’re putting it to work on the electricity network, finding out exactly what it can do and how it can benefit customers and the network.”

Using the heating systems already present, the boiler charges up when electricity is cheaper or greener. With a high-density storage core, the boiler stores the energy for release when the thermostat calls for heat or hot water.

Its software will also create a unique heating plan and a charging schedule to enable the most cost-efficient heating for the home.

As part of the trial, tepeo and Ovo Energy are initiating a first-of-its-kind ‘type-of-use’ tariff bolt-on, charging participants a lower rate to encourage them to charge during off-peak hours.

UK Power Networks also has reported that the NeatHeat project has been recognised as part of National Grid’s ‘bridging the gap’ scenarios to net zero.

Lunar power satellite conceived

With the European Space Agency’s Solaris initiative to develop space-based solar power for transmission to Earth just getting underway, the organisation also is starting to investigate the potential for space-based solar to deliver power to the Moon.

With support from ESA’s innovation programme, the Swiss startup Astrostrom has developed a design concept of a ‘Greater Earth Lunar Power Station’ that could be constructed on the Moon mainly from resources there and that could deliver microwave power down to receivers on the lunar surface, for example for powering a base there.

The design features V-shaped Moon-produced iron pyrite crystal-based solar panels with integrated antennas, deployed in a helix configuration extending more than a square kilometre end to end and yielding an estimated continuous 23MW of energy for lunar surface operations.

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The station, located at a determined point around 61,350 km from the lunar surface, would also be inhabited, serving both as a gateway between Earth and Moon operations with artificial gravity for adaptive health purposes, as well as potentially an attractive tourist destination.

The concept could equally be adapted for the development of Earth facing solar power satellites.

Launching large numbers of gigawatt-scale solar power satellites into orbit from the surface of the Earth could run into the problem of a lack of launch capacity and a lunar-made solar power satellite would require around five times less velocity change to place into geostationary Earth orbit compared to satellites launched from Earth itself.

According to the study the power station could be achieved without requiring any technological breakthroughs, with most of the core technologies for lunar surface mining, beneficiation and fabrication operations already in use or under development on Earth today.

Moreover – and despite the substantial engineering development required – the solar power satellites produced on the Moon would not only be cheaper than any comparable Earth-developed solar power satellite, but the electricity they generated for Earth would also be cost-competitive with any terrestrial power alternative.

Harvesting electricity from air

If new research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst is anything to go by, almost any material could be turned into a device that continuously harvests electricity from humidity in the air.

The secret, according to the researchers, lies in being able to pepper the material with nanopores, or small holes, less than 100nm in diameter – less than a thousandth of the width of a human hair.

This number corresponds to the ‘mean free path’ of water molecules when suspended in air. An energy harvester made from a thin layer of material filled with nanopores smaller than 100nm would let water molecules pass from the upper to the lower part of the material, but as the pores are so small, the water molecules would easily bump into the pore’s edge as they pass through the thin layer.

This means that the upper part of the layer would be bombarded with many more charge-carrying water molecules than the lower part, creating a charge imbalance, thereby effectually create a battery and one that runs as long as there is any humidity in the air.

“Think of a cloud, which is nothing more than a mass of water,” says Jun Yao, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering at UMass Amherst, and the work’s senior author.

“Each of those droplets contains a charge, and when conditions are right, the cloud can produce a lightning bolt – but we don’t know how to reliably capture electricity from lightning. What we’ve done is to create a human-built, small-scale cloud that produces electricity for us predictably and continuously so that we can harvest it.”

Since humidity is ever present, a harvester should be able to run 24/7, rain or shine, day or night and whether or not the wind blows.

Moreover, as the thickness is so tiny, many thousands could be stacked to create a device capable of delivering kilowatt-level power.

Solar PV for agriculture

With the need to install renewables in different locations, French solar energy developer TSE has come up with the concept of PV canopies for installation in agricultural settings.

In 2022, the company installed its first agrovoltaics pilot site of 3ha in north central France, comprised of a PV shading system with a capacity of 2.4MWp – equivalent to the power consumption of a community of 1,350 inhabitants – over large-scale crops of soya, wheat, forage rye, winter barley and rapeseed.

The project came into being because of production limitations on the farm after suffering from hot and arid summers for more than a decade.

The agricultural canopy is composed of a large shading structure equipped with solar panels with tracker systems fixed on cables 5m above the fields. A supervision system controls the orientation of the panels, depending on the weather conditions and to completely automate the acquisition of operational data.

With the rotating shades, the system is able to mitigate climatic conditions in the summer season by lowering the temperature under the shade.

The pilot is a 9-year demonstrator and three similar projects are reported under construction along with a further 12 in the development phase.

The white paper points to the issues such as intermittency, inertia deficits and grid congestion that have arisen with the introduction of renewables to the grid and the classical response being to build bigger and more infrastructure.

But with their costs and scalability issues, blockchain as a distributed architecture is seen by many as the sensible alternative – and according to the white paper, is the only option that will prove to be better and more efficient.

“The rapidly emerging and more complex energy landscape demands a shift from traditional centralised databases to blockchain and the new and decentralised markets they unlock. Realising this is fundamental to saving lots on battery capacity by using the existing resources better.”

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The white paper continues that there is also a stronger claim to be made about the appropriateness of next-generation blockchain to mitigate the problems of the grid with new functionalities anticipated such as peer exchanges in real time and forward booking of electricity slots with time ahead cost dependencies.

With forward booking, auctioning and re-booking slots with penalty clauses and bonus offers, a real-time high-volume Gen 3 blockchain will be needed to manage this market.

Gen 3 blockchains

Gen 3 blockchains are the latest evolution providing significant advances in terms of scalability, interoperability and transaction throughput and cost.

Whereas Gen 1 blockchain, or Bitcoin, with its proof-of-work consensus, is energy intensive and Gen 2 blockchains introduced smart contracting, Gen 3 blockchains use the more energy efficient proof-of-stake or proof-of-history consensus mechanisms.

Examples are Polkadot, on to which Energy Web is moving for its next-gen Energy Web X, and Solana, which Powerledger – one of the white paper’s contributors – has adapted for its blockchain, while others include Cardano, Avalanche and Algorand.

The white paper points out that the high throughput and low latency of Gen 3 blockchains capable of processing thousands of transactions per second make them suitable for handling the high volume of data generated in energy systems in applications requiring near real-time settlement, such as energy trading and grid management.

Other features detailed of Gen 3 blockchains include transparency and security and trustless and decentralised operation.

Gen 3 blockchain use cases

Blockchain technology is best suited for environments where trust is especially important, where there is a need for a secure and transparent record-keeping system, supported by the automation of complex transactions through smart contracts, the white paper states.

Some examples cited among those that have been introduced include renewable energy tracking and energy attribute certificates and transactive approaches including peer-to-peer trading and demand response, while emerging examples are real-time electricity billing with smart metering and electric vehicle-to-grid transactions.

In conclusion, the white paper says that while centralised database systems are working well right now by and large, as countries reach their renewables goals or net zero goals, the grid will need to engage traditional consumers to help balance supply and demand. And in order for it to work well a very agile energy market is needed.

“While sceptics argue that existing technologies can fulfil the same functions, blockchain represents the culmination of advancements in mathematics that have revolutionised everyday activities like communication and online shopping.”

The two storylines proposed are for two so-called ‘deviation scenarios’, which are deviations from the ‘national trends’ scenarios that are in line with national energy and climate policies.

With the aim to reflect the latest developments in national policies that are in line with European greenhouse gas reduction ambitions as well as to acknowledge the need for high ambition in terms of energy efficiency and renewable energy deployment and explore different levels of energy and other independences for the EU, the scenarios cover a wide range of possible future evolutions of the energy infrastructure.

The two scenarios are ‘Distributed energy’ and ‘Global ambition’ reflecting respectively more European and global approaches.

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Broadly the ‘Distributed energy’ scenario pictures a pathway to achieving EU-27 carbon neutrality target by 2050 with higher European autonomy. The scenario is driven by a willingness of society to achieve high levels of independence in terms of energy supply and goods of strategic importance, e. g. industrial and agricultural produce.

It translates into both a behavioural shift and a strong decentralised drive towards decarbonisation through local initiatives by citizens, communities and businesses, supported by authorities.

Alternatively, the ‘Global ambition’ scenario pictures a pathway to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, driven by a fast and global move towards the Paris Agreement targets.

It translates into the development of a very wide range of technologies, many being centralised, and the use of global energy trade as a tool to accelerate decarbonisation.

Scenario features

Features of the two scenarios are as follows.

Distributed energy scenario:

● The transition is initiated on local/national levels and aims for EU energy independence and strategic independence through maximisation of renewable energies and smart sector integration.
● Energy demand is reduced through circularity and better energy consumption behaviour and digitalisation is driven by prosumer and variable renewable energy management.
● There is a focus on decentralised technologies, i.e. PV, batteries, etc., and smart charging and on electric heat pumps and district heating. There is a higher share of electric vehicles, with e-liquids and biofuels supplementing for heavy transport, but minimal carbon capture and storage and nuclear.

Global ambition scenario:

● The transition is initiated on a European/international level with high EU renewable energy development supplemented with low carbon energy and diversified imports.
● Energy demand is reduced with priority given to decarbonisation and diversification of energy supply and digitalisation and automation reinforce the competitiveness of EU business.
● There is a focus on large scale technologies, i.e. offshore wind, utility storage, etc., and on a wide range of heating technologies, e. g. hybrid heating technology. There is a wide range of technologies and energy carriers across mobility sectors, viz electricity, hydrogen, e-liquids and biofuels, and the integration of nuclear and carbon capture and storage.

With this storyline report along with accompanying data published as a first deliverable in the formal process for TYNDP 2024 scenario building, feedback is now sought until 8 August 2023.

Taking into account the feedback, the draft TYNDP 2024 scenario report is expected to be published for consultation in late 2023 and finalised in 2024.

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LV Insights X, part of the Siemens Xcelerator digital platform, is designed to enable grid operators to gain full transparency over the LV grid in order to actively manage it to maximise the capacity.

With the decentralisation of renewable generation, the electrification of sectors such as transportation and new loads such as electric vehicles and heat pumps, the majority of which are connected to the distribution grids, they are coming under increasing strain.

Siemens states that with LV Insights X outage times can be reduced up to 30% and grid capacity increased by identifying critical segments.

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Integrating data from multiple sources such as geographical information systems, meter data management systems and advanced distribution management systems, a digital twin of the distribution grid can be easily created.

Referring to LV Insights X as an industry first, Sabine Erlinghagen, CEO of Siemens Grid Software, says that low voltage grids can become a trailblazer on the path to net zero but only if software is deployed to increase the capacity of the existing grids quickly.

“That’s why we are extremely proud to launch LV Insights X. This software enables utilities to actively manage low voltage grids to gain speed for transforming the overall energy system, make maximum use of the existing infrastructure and ultimately shape the energy transition.”

Other benefits of LV Insights X highlighted by Siemens include a breaking down of siloes across departments, stakeholders and systems, reducing data handling efforts by up to 80% and the time required for grid model maintenance by 50%.

Further, up to 25% better investment decisions may be made based on the improved planning insights on grid segments where the usable capacity may be increased.

LV Insights X is available as a software as a service (SaaS).

Project POWER STATION, started by Walthamstow based artists Hilary Powell and Daniel Edelstyn, aims to install solar panels on as many houses as possible in one street to create their own local green power station.

The initiative lets residents generate clean electricity that benefits them and their local community, save money on their energy bills and lower their carbon footprint.

Hilary and Daniel crowdfunded £113,000 ($145,000) by sleeping on their rooftop and have used this to offer Lynmouth Road residents in Walthamstow subsidised solar installations via Octopus Energy.

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The partnership started in June and in just one week Octopus has completed the installation of solar panels on all 13 houses that have joined the project so far with the potential to expand to 30 homes in total.

The Lynmouth road ‘power station’ has the potential to expand to 30 homes in total.

The solar panels will aim to reduce bills by a third. The houses that join the POWER STATION will also see an average carbon reduction of 70% and help reduce costs for all bill payers by decreasing demand on the grid.

Octopus is committed to working with communities to help them use and benefit from renewable energy. The company pioneered this with its ‘Fan Club’ tariff in 2021, where customers living near a wind turbine are offered cheaper energy when the wind blows.

The vision of POWER STATION provides Octopus Energy an opportunity to test the viability of further community-led solar projects in the future.

Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, chief product officer at Octopus Energy Group, comments: “This project fills me with so much joy and pride – it’s a powerful example of the tremendous impact people can have in accelerating the green energy revolution.

“Hilary and Dan didn’t come from the energy industry, and yet they found a way to help their community move to green power and massively reduce their energy bills. We are delighted to have joined forces.”

According to people familiar with the announcement, the project marks the first V2G system deployed in the country, which has been seeing surging investment in the EV market.

Just two weeks ago, Siemens became one of the latest companies to tap into the Indian e-mobility market with a €4.3 million ($4.6 million) acquisition.

“There is a desperate need for energy storage solutions to cater to sudden peaks in demand, especially during summer when the need for cooling solutions [increase],” says Sheru marketing manager Kavin Aadithiyan, who is involved in the project.

“However, standalone energy storage solutions are expensive for power utilities to install and have long payback periods. Distributed V2G networks help with supporting the grid as it offsets the need for expensive capital upgrades.”

According to Aadithiyan, the country has been experiencing a major need for distributed energy storage solutions due to the influx of renewable energy sources coming online. “Over 92% of new installed power capacity in 2022 in the country was solar and wind power,” he said.

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India V2G: Unstable grid backdrop

A consequence of this – similar to the situation in the Netherlands, where grid connections sometimes have to be halted due to the lack of capacity on the grid – when combined with a lack of energy storage options, has been an unstable electrical grid.

According to the Indian publication Mercom, one of the latest signs that the country’s grid risked blackout came in December last year, when frequency oscillated between 50.55 to 49.41Hz, rather than the allowed 49.90 to 50.05hz.

And this, adds Aadithiyan, is where a V2G solution can help by supporting the grid through both solutions; energy storage to get through periods of high demand alongside a supply of renewable energy to add to the grid.

According to India Times, the system was announced in partnership with BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL). Shikar Sharma, Sheru’s chief operating officer, commented on how the V2G collaboration between Sheru and BRPL will ensure a “constant supply of renewable energy for round-the-clock power.

“Traditional standalone battery storage entails significant capital expenditure. However, [our] solution taps into the untapped battery capacity of electric vehicles, thus resolving the CAPEX challenge faced by BSES, while also generating income for EV and battery owners.”

Distributed and scalable

A distributed network, through the V2G system batteries will be brought online from idle EVs and used to create an energy storage network.

The company is working alongside New Delhi utilities and has entered partnerships with EV fleet owners and operators in other parts of the country.

The hope of these partnerships is to enable a scalable system, as the V2G market in India, which has otherwise been nascent, picks up.

“As we collaborate with more players, we bring online greater storage capacity while also increasing the geographical presence of the storage network across India.

“Our V2G network is not a short-term project [and] we expect to onboard a significant amount of electric vehicle battery capacity onto our network. And this would only be increasing as the electric vehicle fleet in India increases,” added Aadithiyan.

The paper, Distribution Grids: The Energy Transition’s Backbone, points to the role of the DSOs as “the crucial actor” in the energy system and “enablers of the changes” and that they are ready to play a more active role in the operation of their grids.

For example, as neutral market facilitators, the DSOs are the ideal partner for energy communities, who can benefit from their expertise in grid management while providing flexibility to the grids.

The DSOs also are best placed to enable decarbonisation by facilitating the integration of hydrogen and biomethane.

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Thus, it is essential to establish a proactive adequate regulatory framework acknowledging the role of DSOs and supporting and anticipating the necessary investments for upgrading and expanding the existing distribution grids, procurement of flexibility services and for strengthening its digital and data capabilities, states GEODE.

Grid controllability and observability is crucial. Measures for faster and simplified permitting procedures for new grid infrastructure also are needed.

In the paper, GEODE adds that DSOs require a toolbox of solutions to operate a future electricity grid fit for purpose.

To further promote flexibility, they must be able to have control options among their responsibilities, including the use and operation of system-serving storage.

Electricity networks

Europe’s targets and measures towards decarbonisation have led to the transformative trends in the electricity sector of decentralisation, democratisation and digitalisation, while other key areas for focus are the gas networks and wider network and investment planning.

Decentralisation

The penetration of solar PV, electric vehicles (EVs), heat pumps and batteries is having a strong impact on distribution networks. While promising for decarbonisation, this trend poses complex challenges for the management of the grids.

One of the tools to integrate DERs is flexibility with a wide range of technologies available to deliver it.

Norwegian DSO Å Energi implemented the Norflex project to demonstrate a local energy marketplace (NODES) in distribution grids, with the main objective to incentivise and facilitate the use of flexible DERs through a market-based approach.

The main goal was to establish an independent market platform and common language for the DSOs to develop tools and methods to use market-based solutions for congestion management purposes, to provide the TSO with new aggregated resources for balancing the power system and to help aggregators to develop their individual business models.

During the project period, the NODES platform has provided 31,470 trades with a total volume of 1.39GWh from over 4,400 assets.

Democratisation

The more active participation of consumers in the energy system individually or in energy communities is another trend. An example is the COMPTEM collaboration between the Spanish energy cooperative Enercoop and the municipality of Crevillent (Alicante) to develop a village-wide energy community.

ENERCOOP promotes collective self-consumption facilities in public and private buildings, small PV plants in the peri-urban area of the village and EV charging stations. A mobile app is available to members to maximise their electricity self-consumption. Digital panels in public buildings with the municipality’s energy information also are being implemented to support the education and engagement of citizens.

At the beginning of 2023, COMPTEM had 600kW of PV installed on public roofs, 242kWh of energy storage, four EV charging stations and two information panels within the municipality. The objective is to substantially increase the capacity of renewable generation and storage in the community in the next years.

Digitalisation

Digitalisation is considered the necessary tool to optimise system operation while improving the experience of customers, with promising developments in this area including the design at EU level of smart grid Indicators and the development by DSOs of digital twins for use to simulate and test the impact of DER integration.

Austrian DSO Linz Netz has launched a digital twin pilot to gain experience using existing measurement data from transformers, inverters and customers in the grid planning process, which is expected to give more detailed insights and result in more economical use of existing grid infrastructure than traditional grid planning exercises that rely on worst case assumptions and can lead to costly grid expansion.

Gas networks

Decarbonisation policies and recent geopolitical developments are redefining the role of gas in the European energy system. Nevertheless, gaseous energy will continue to play a relevant role in the EU’s mix for the foreseeable future, both in the form of alternative natural gas imports and through the penetration of new solutions such as renewable hydrogen and biomethane.

Thus the role of the gas DSOs will remain crucial in contributing to the decarbonisation of the EU gas system.

Danish gas DSO Evida is responsible for the injection of biomethane into the distribution grid and has so far connected 56 biomethane production plants reaching a share of about 34% biomethane by the end of 2022. The level of 100% biomethane in the grid is expected to be reached around 2030.

Biomethane cannot flow freely across the full distribution grid which results in imbalances when the local production is greater than the local consumption and the need for grid reinforcements. Evida’s strategic planning approach to reinforcement along with ‘local’ ownership are attributed to the speed and expansion of biomethane in the Danish grid.

In Austria, the purpose of the construction of the H2 Collector East hydrogen pipeline from Burgenland to Vienna by the DSOs Wiener Netze, Netz NÖ and Netz Burgeland and the TSO Gas Connect Austria is to alleviate the strain on the electricity grid infrastructure caused by the increase of volatile PV and wind generation and to lay the groundwork for the future of hydrogen in Austria.

The objective is to produce renewable hydrogen through the expansion of renewable energy in order to supply industry, which has an urgent need for renewable hydrogen.

Investment and network planning

To support all the transformative trends, GEODE’s view is that network investment and planning are priorities to make grids more resilient and fit for a new energy system.

Thus it is important to support a comprehensive approach towards the investments, with requirements including regulatory certainty, easier and faster permitting procedures, support for capacity-based network tariffs and a more balanced approach between opex and capex in DSOs’ remuneration.

Since 2014, in Finland the DSOs have been obligated to form their network development plans and since 2021 to undertake a one-month public consultation.

Considering that its webpage would not create value for customers nor itself, Elenia innovated an interactive map-based platform for public consultation, ‘Elenia Avoin’ (Elenia open/transparent), covering the basics of how the grid works and enabling users to gain insights such as where the electricity comes from, outage histories and future plans for any location in the company’s network.

The project ‘Zukunftsstadtwerk Schwerte’ aims to identify a decarbonisation strategy for the energy system of the German DSO Stadtwerke Schwerte.

Together with the BBH group, Stadtwerke Schwerte wants to answer the key question – what is its future role in 20 years, in 30 years? To answer and develop a roadmap, several steps were necessary, including analysing historical data and examining the current revenue situation in the respective electricity, gas and heating segments, identifying the potentials, devising a model of the future role as supplier, optimising the entire energy system and evaluating the regulatory framework conditions.

These key questions should be asked by every DSO and answered considering the individual parameters. “In the end, only a stable and proactive planning is beneficial to users”.

UK Power Networks states that its new DSO will ensure that sufficient electricity capacity exists across London and the east and southeast of England to support the anticipated uptake of electric vehicles (EVs), heat pumps and renewables generation.

The DSO is working to incentivise customers to shift their energy consumption or generation, to maximise use of its existing electricity grid infrastructure and facilitate the lowest cost transition for customers adopting low carbon technologies.

“The DSO marks the start of a new era for electricity networks across the UK,” commented UK Power Networks CEO Basil Scarsella.

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“We are pleased to be leading the way in supporting the energy transition through the launch of our DSO. It is an independent, legally separate entity, which we are confident will bring savings to customers, inform our network investment decisions in the most cost-efficient way and help facilitate the transition to net zero.”

The director of the DSO is Sotiris Georgiopoulos, who has made his career with UK Power Networks and most recently served as head of smart grid development with responsibility inter alia for delivery of the company’s flexibility markets and the DSO capabilities and programmes.

UK Power Networks currently has 7.4GW of renewable energy connected to its network and is preparing for 2.6 million EVs in its regions by 2028, compared to 450,000 vehicles currently charging from its grid.

The role of the DSO will be to make decisions, independent from the DNO, on the most cost-effective way of expanding the capacity of the network.

As different areas decarbonise at different rates, clusters of low-carbon technologies are expected to emerge. The DSO function will assess the most efficient route to providing capacity for these technologies to connect, whether it be building more assets or procuring flexibility.

Overall, the company’s analysis shows that the DSO could deliver wider system savings of between £780 million ($962 million) and £2.6 billion ($3.2 billion) across its service region by 2040.

Earlier this month, UK Power Networks DSO awarded more than 1GW of contracts to flexibility providers to compete to provide a flexibility requirement of 426MW, including the first contracts to increase demand or turn down supply during periods of excess power.

The DSO has committed to saving customers £410 million ($505 million) over the next five years by using flexibility to deliver capacity on the network at lower cost than building new infrastructure.

All of Britain’s network operators are in the process of transitioning to DSOs. The three DSO roles defined by the regulator Ofgem are planning and network development, network operation and market development.

Key activities for the operators for 2023 include making it easier for flexibility service providers to participate in the flexibility market by standardising products, processes and contracts.