The cutting edge of energy data and analytics: Octopus & N-SIDE
As the energy industry takes steps towards digital transformation, the innovation path is being forged by organisations from across the sector who have not only recognised the potential for digitalisation but are already incorporating it into their broader commercial strategies.
Over the coming months, we will be shining a spotlight in our new ‘On the Marketplace’ feature series on those energy businesses who are maximising the value of their data, digital products and services by making them available through the re.alto marketplace. From retailers and traders to research organisations and AI specialists, these innovators share our vision that digitalisation is a powerful driver of the transition towards an optimised low carbon world.
First up this week, two organisations – Octopus Energy and N-SIDE – whose APIs on re.alto focus on market information and pricing.
Octopus is a British power retailer making waves in the shifting supplier landscape. Recognised by the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology as Company of the Year in 2019, 100% of the electricity supplied by Octopus comes from renewable sources. Since its launch in 2016, Octopus has quickly established itself as a ‘one-to-watch’, disrupting the incumbent retail sector with its progressive stance on sustainability (its parent company, Octopus Group, is the largest UK investor in solar farms) and innovative customer-centric model, delivered through digital solutions.
Its pioneering dynamic tariffs allow customers to align their on-demand energy usage by offering access to half-hourly energy prices based on the wholesale energy market at the time. In May, when wholesale electricity prices fell due to the impact of Covid-19, Octopus made headlines by being the first in the UK to incentivise its customers to help offset low demand by increasing their use by charging their electric cars.
Pricing information for the Agile time-of-use tariff is just one endpoint of the Octopus REST API which is now available on the re.alto marketplace, giving Octopus customers and partners greater digital capability to interact with its platform. Other API endpoints published through re.alto include the functionality for browsing products, pricing and tariffs, determining the grid-supply-point (GSP) for a UK postcode and retrieving details about a UK electricity meter point.
Let’s now move from a retailer putting digital first to a company at the very cutting edge of energy data analytics and AI forecasting.
Founded originally in Belgium in 2000, N-SIDE uses advanced analytics technologies to transform data into valuable commercial insights for energy companies around the world. Putting data and pioneering AI analytics firmly at the heart of its digital services, N-SIDE is able to solve complex industry challenges for its energy clients from strategy down to operations.
Having grown rapidly over the last two years, N-SIDE has now developed a state-of-the art time series forecasting algorithms that can be applied to many use cases in the energy landscape, from market price forecasting to load or RES generation forecasting.
With such a focus on energy data, working with re.alto was an obvious choice to easily showcase its digital services to a broad global audience.
Olivier Devolder, Energy Director at N-SIDE, said: “As a data driven company, developing AI-based forecasting and decision-making innovative products, it seemed natural for us to register our services on re.alto. It supports us in the objective to reach a larger audience for our energy solutions while accelerating the sales cycles; the service offered by re.alto is end-to-end, from technical integration to invoicing, allowing us to focus on our core business: generate value for our customers!”
Want to find out more about how re.alto can help you monetise your existing digital energy products and services, or provide specialist guidance on how to create new ones? Drop us a line, we’d love to chat.
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