API Marketplace Fix (Following Elia API Updates)
Provider updates made to some of the APIs on our portal earlier this year caused them to suddenly stop working for our Marketplace users. One of re.alto’s developers quickly explored the reasons why and successfully found a solution for our users, resolving the issue efficiently for those actively using the APIs. More below.
The re.alto API Marketplace enables consumers to find and integrate with third-party energy data via APIs and offers providers a platform to easily advertise and sell their data. In the rare case that access to an API no longer functions as it should, re.alto’s developers will resolve the issue as soon as possible. A recent example of this was when one of the providers on our marketplace, Elia, made changes to the structure of their APIs earlier this year, leading to some technical issues for those trying to call the APIs from the re.alto platform. The issue was flagged and re.alto quickly began investigating and working towards a solution.
The issue occurred on 22nd May 2024 when Elia changed their public APIs to make them more powerful with the downside that the APIs became fragmented. The Elia databases are very large, and they greatly improved the versatility of their APIs by updating them to enable users to be far more specific when filtering for data, something which is quite rare in APIs and offers the user far more control in specifying exactly which dataset they want to view. With such a large amount of data available (quarter-hourly data, minutely data, historical data, near real-time etc.), this separating of the data via different URLs based on time frame makes the quantity of data far more manageable for many of the users seeking a specific dataset. Normally, users would receive a large amount of data and then have to filter it themselves on their end, depending on their needs. Via Elia, users can now filter the desired data before receiving that data (for example group it, order it, offset it, limit it). This gives more power and control to the user. But in making the APIs more versatile, the data was split up into new categories, with the consequence being that users now needed to use several different URLs to separate databases to obtain the same kind of data that was previously available through a single URL. Via Elia, users are now required to make calls to different APIs depending on the date, time frame and type of data that is required. For example, Elia has now split their Imbalance Prices API (one of the more popular ones on our marketplace) into six separate APIs, depending on the date/type of data required. There are imbalance prices per quarter hour and per minute as near real-time data but also as historical data, and some of these categories are then split into different tables again depending on whether the data is from before or after the changes were implemented on 22. May 2024 (for example, historical data before or after this date). So, where there used to be one API for this huge amount of data, the data is now found in various data tables each reached via a different API/URL. The update to the APIs on Elia’s side made our implementation of the Elia APIs suddenly unusable because the URL had changed and the data had been split into many different tables.
The question re.alto then faced was how we could continue to provide this data through our marketplace without our customers having to do multiple API calls to various separate data tables on Elia’s side. The users of re.alto’s marketplace value simplicity in obtaining data. We wanted to resolve the issue by keeping the API as simple and familiar to use as possible for our users and therefore maintain the value in our implementation. Before the changes, users could specify the day they wanted data from, and the API would provide all the data from this date. While updating the URL in our API gateway would have been a simple fix, we would have then had to add various APIs to the marketplace to cover all the same data that the single API had provided access to previously, due to it now being found in different data tables at Elia. Instead, we wanted to provide value to our users by simplifying the API calls so that the data from multiple data tables would be consolidated back into one single endpoint without having to take those different data tables into account on their end. One of our developers updated the API definition and programmed our gateway to pull the requested data from various Elia data tables by configuring a branching redirect to the various tables dependent on the date given as a parameter. This means that data from various data tables is still available on re.alto via one single connection, keeping it simple for our users. Thanks to re.alto’s development team, our users can just continue to specify the required date/time frame and they will see all of the expected data as before. The simplicity of calling these APIs has therefore been maintained for our marketplace users, meaning the changes from a user perspective are now minimal.
If you’d like to learn more about our API Marketplace or our IoT connectivity solutions, please reach out via the contact us page on our website.
(The Imbalance Prices API is now split into six via Elia.)
Image source: Elia
re.alto Obtains ISO 27001 Certification (Revised 2022 Version)
We're proud to share that re.alto is now certified for the newest version of the ISO 27001.
We’re proud to share that re.alto has successfully completed ISO 27001 certification, this time for the new, revised version of the standard (version 2022). This update includes new controls to address the needs of modern businesses and evolving technologies, such as cloud environments. This new standard with more emphasis on technology and cloud computing aligns perfectly with re.alto’s business model and operations, making it even more suitable than the previous 2013 version of the standard.
ISO 27001 is the leading international standard on how to manage and apply information security and compliance within a business. It adopts a risk-based approach to evaluating security and outlines the requirements for implementing, maintaining and continually improving an information security management system, with the aim of protecting the information and data held by a company from unauthorised access or loss. The information security certification process requires companies to undergo regular audits to ensure the quality of their information security management system is being maintained and that potential improvements to security, threat management and security processes are regularly assessed and implemented. Facilitating access to data and assetless connectivity is our core business at re.alto, so it is of utmost importance that our partners can work with us in the confidence that they can trust the company to handle data and information securely and professionally. That is why, despite being a relatively young company, it was important for re.alto to obtain the latest version of the ISO 27001 certification.
The latest and revised version of the ISO contains 11 new controls to better address the requirements and challenges faced by modern businesses with a much stronger focus on remote working and cloud computing. These control points include but are not limited to: information security for the use of cloud services, configuration management, web filtering, secure coding, remote working and data leakage protection. At re.alto, we prioritise the best protection of information in the cloud by setting and monitoring strict security requirements for cloud operations. By adhering to the revised ISO 27001, organisations are better able to safeguard the business against modern threats and meet a high standard of security, especially when it comes to technology. Companies that are ISO 27001 certified can better identify risks and respond appropriately, train their team members sufficiently in information security matters and ensure all data (including sensitive data from IoT devices) is handled correctly and securely at all times.
Achieving this latest ISO 27001 certification demonstrates that re.alto safeguards the data of companies we work with and that we have well-maintained, robust security protocols and regulations in place for safely handling and processing data, and for operating within IoT and cloud environments. re.alto’s ISO 27001 certification means that potential partners do not need to audit us themselves before collaborating, saving them time and effort. We’re proud to have once again successfully met this international benchmark for security and to be able to provide potential partners with the assurance and confidence to work with re.alto-energy.
The EU Data Act
News
This article looks at the EU Data Act and what it means for OEMs.
30.11.2023
News/Energy APIs
What is the EU Data Act?
The EU Data Act (regulation on harmonised rules on fair access to and use of data), proposed by the European Commission in February 2022, will play a significant role in Europe’s digital transformation going forward. The Data Act has now been adopted and is expected to be published in the next few days. As an EU Regulation, the provisions of the Data Act are binding and directly applicable in all Members States and will apply from 20 months from the date of entry into force.
The Data Act will provide a framework for data access and data sharing and aims to make more data available for companies and consumers, and to ensure fairness regarding the distribution and use of this data. According to the European Commission, the main objective of the Data Act is “to make Europe a leader in the data economy by harnessing the potential of the ever-increasing amount of industrial data, in order to benefit the European economy and society”. The Commission states that “the strategy for data focuses on putting people first in developing technology and defending and promoting European values and rights in the digital world” and emphasises that the Data Act is “a key pillar of the European strategy for data”.
An essential part of this act for the average citizen is regarding the data generated by Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as electric vehicles or smart home devices. IoT appliances are smart devices that can connect to the internet and independently communicate in real time with other devices or apps within the IoT network. When someone purchases an item from a store, they become the legal owner of that physical item. The situation with digital data from connected devices and who owns or uses it, however, has always been more complicated, and the new act aims to create clarity here.
- The new Data Act (Art. 3(1)) mandates that all connected products should be designed and manufactured in such a manner that the product data, including the relevant metadata, is, where relevant and technically feasible, by default directly accessible to the user easily, securely and free of charge in a comprehensive, structured, commonly used and machine-readable format – (i.e. not only accessible to the owner, but also to the one leasing the product, for instance). This particular obligation will apply from 32 months after the date of entry into force.
- It also stipulates (in Art. 4) that where data cannot be accessed directly by the user of the connected product or related service, data holders should make accessible the data to the user, free of charge and in real-time. This means that, after the date of application (~last quarter of 2025), the manufacturers of these devices must provide users with free access to the data produced by those devices.
- In addition, upon request by the user (or by a party acting on behalf of the user), that data should also be made available to third parties and such a request should be free of charge to the user (see Art. 5). The act also specifies the obligations of third parties receiving the data at the request of the user, e.g. they can only use it for the purposes and conditions agreed with the user and subject to relevant EU law on data protection (see Art. 6). However, making data available to third parties (data recipient under Art. 5) must not necessarily be for free, and the act provides conditions as well as rules regarding compensation (Art. 8 and 9).
Finally, while specific obligations for making available data in Union legal acts that entered into force on or before the date of entry into force of the Data Act will remain unaffected, these harmonised rules should impact the update of existing or new Union sector legislation.
What other enabling EU framework is out there?
In the meantime, recent EU legislation is already paving the way towards accessing and sharing of data from connected devices.
For instance, the recently revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED, Directive (EU) 2023/2413) not only mandates a Union target for 2030 of at least 42,5% of share from renewables in the gross final energy consumption. It also asks Member States to (Art. 20a(3)):
- ensure that manufacturers of domestic and industrial batteries enable real-time access to basic battery management system information to battery owners and users and third parties acting on their behalf.
- adopt measures to require that vehicle manufacturers make available in real-time in-vehicle data to EV owners and users as well as third parties acting on their behalf.
We can find similar provisions for instance in the proposed revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), asking Member States (Art. 14) to ensure that building owners, tenants and managers can have direct access to their buildings system’s data (inc. data from building automation and control systems, meters and charging points for e-mobility).
The recently proposed reform of the Electricity Market Design also asks Member States (Art. 7b) to allow transmission system operators and distribution system operators to use data from dedicated metering devices (submeters or embedded meters) for the observability and settlement of demand response and flexibility services.
Last but not least, as part of the Action Plan on the Digitalisation of the Energy System, there is a focus on the need to enable an EU framework for data access and sharing, namely via so-called EU energy data space(s). In that regard, the Commission announced the creation of an expert group (“Data for Energy” working group) that will support them in the definition of high-level use cases for data sharing (in particular for flexibility services for energy markets and grids, and smart and bi-directional charging for EVs) and in defining the governance of EU energy data space(s).
What does this mean for OEMs/manufacturers?
The new Data Act ultimately means that the European Union is going to impose upon OEMs/manufacturers to make the data of their appliances available to the user for free in a machine-readable format (ie: an application programming interface or API to extract or share data). To enable access to the data, manufacturers will therefore need to build interfaces to give consumers (or companies) the opportunity to download or read this data. Some OEMs, such as SMA Solar, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, are ahead of the game and have already been working on building this infrastructure over the past year or two. Others, however, have not yet dedicated resources to implementing this and will need to follow suit in the year to come. With the last quarter of 2025 deadline set, the remaining OEMs will find themselves under pressure to switch their focus to ensure they are compliant with the new legislation on time.
How can re.alto help those requiring access to this data?
re.alto works with IoT connectivity and acts as a connector between OEMs and third parties. While there was previously a question of whether OEMS would choose to offer access to this data, it is now being dictated by legislation, and their compliance is therefore mandatory. That ultimately means that the IoT technology is emerging, and each OEM will have to make their data machine-readable and create a suitable interface to share this data by 2025 at the latest. But while compliance in ensuring data is machine-readable is compulsory, the EU has not imposed a standard by which all OEMs must comply when implementing this. That means that each OEM will create their own kind of interface, with the API for each device or brand potentially differing greatly from the next. The result will be a jungle of different interfaces/APIs to integrate with, making it incredibly complicated for third parties to access the various data they require when building their own energy-as-a-service products.
That is where re.alto comes in. This recent evolution in EU legislation supports our vision and aligns with the services and solutions we are offering our customers. If you are building energy-as-a-service products or applications and want to be able to access energy data from various OEMs or devices, we can give you access via a single, standardised API. re.alto can create a path through this jungle of APIs, so you can use one single interface to communicate with them all. Whether you want to add electric vehicles or heat pumps to your solution, we can act as a standard interface for all of the energy-related transactions and connections, thus simplifying access to energy data for third party use.
Conclusion
The new EU Data Act, as well as other recent pieces of EU legislation, is shaking up IoT connectivity and putting pressure on manufacturers/OEMs to make their data machine-readable and available to the public sector and ultimately the end consumer. Going forward, the strategies of OEMs will no longer play a role in whether they choose to make this data available – legislation now dictates that they must comply. While compliance is mandatory, the EU has not set any standard for the resulting infrastructure. This means that data will be available via many very different kinds of APIs and interfaces, resulting in connectivity being complicated. To simplify all of this for third party use, re.alto translates everything into one standard API connection, regardless of the kind of device or its brand.
If you are building energy-as-a-service apps or solutions and want to know more about how we can help you access the data you require in the simplest way possible, don’t hesitate to reach out to us!
Meet Xenn: The Answer to Belgian Energy Questions
Energy has become an important topic for consumers in recent years with plenty of coverage in mainstream media across Europe. The subject is on everybody’s lips due to the energy crisis and the rising energy bills resulting from it. This is because prices have skyrocketed across the continent, and people are now looking for solutions to help them better understand their bills and ultimately reduce their costs. Our new product Xenn aims to help residentials in Belgium do just that. Xenn will launch in Flanders in March 2023 before progressively expanding to other regions.
re.alto was originally set up to facilitate energy data and services transactions and to empower businesses to manage their clients’ energy on a consumer level. We created the re.alto API marketplace to give people access to the data required for basic energy management. However, access to general data alone (such as market prices, weather forecasts etc) is only the first step in optimising a household’s energy management – access to household appliances and the knowledge of what they are doing in real-time is also required. Through re.alto Connect, we provide appliance data access without the need for additional hardware, giving our users and partners the freedom to create software energy solutions. The current standard is still to have everything physically wired up, often requiring a professional installer, which is not always feasible or reduces the likelihood of having viable business models. Why not simplify the situation and use the by design connectivity available on electricity assets such as photovoltaic systems, electric vehicles and heat pumps? re.alto Connect is “simply” using what is already available (think Internet of Things – objects or devices possessing the technology to be able to connect to other devices or systems that are also connected to a network). It opens the possibility for people to enjoy the benefits of energy services without needing to have all the professionally wired cables or solutions in their home. Our assetless solutions avoid complicated technical setups and serve as a backend platform used to help other parties develop energy services.
Thanks to re.alto, you can obtain close to real-time data via APIs for almost every energy-relevant asset. However, when it comes to head meters, the infrastructure does not exist, meaning that meter data has to be extracted by other means. Solutions differ depending on the country but are most of the time based on sensors, dongles and similar devices accessing meter data via different interfaces of the meter. These kinds of tools, along with various home controls, are all used to gain insight into the energy consumption of a household and therefore offer the opportunity to optimise energy management. Most of the solutions out there today are quite technical, however, such as displaying complicated graphs showing a household’s kw/h consumption, which does not speak to most people on the street. Consumers just want to understand their bills and don’t want to read complex visuals and complicated diagrams. Instead, they simply seek the most important information in a way they can quickly understand, such as in euros. Most of the tools used to gain insight into energy management are aimed at the technical enthusiast instead of the average consumer. Again, the majority of energy users simply want to know whether they are paying too much and where they could save money.
That is where our new product comes in. Powered by our Connect platform, Xenn is a novel kind of mobile application that answers a need in the Belgian market for which there was no adequate answer until now: The customer concern, echoed by the press, around the introduction of a capacity-based grid tariff and the incomprehensible evolution of advance payment in utility billing. The Connect platform gave us the opportunity to quickly respond to this need, and so Xenn was born. Xenn will initially focus on two main needs of the end consumer: budget control and capacity tariff optimisation, but as it is powered by re.alto Connect, it can and will easily expand to other devices and assets such as EV, HP and so forth, should the consumer need arise. Xenn will reinforce the evolution of Connect through first-hand end consumer feedback to ensure it remains truly consumer centric. We launched Xenn based on the traction and interest we observed around this topic and to show that there is a solution to this issue that can be brought to the Belgian market today. re.alto has set up the digital platform to run this solution on, and Xenn will perfectly demonstrate what our clients can do through our Connect platform. re.alto has built and provides the necessary infrastructure for a new product like Xenn to be a success.
For Xenn, users will simply attach a P1 dongle to the P1 port on their smart meter and then connect to their dongle via the user-friendly Xenn app and web portal. The dongle will read the data from the meter 24/7 and provide the consumer with easy-to-understand insight into their energy consumption at any time via the app. Xenn will include tariff information, giving the user insight into their costs, and will translate the technical gibberish into plain Flemish, thus simplifying energy and making it more comprehensible for the average consumer. With the capacity tariff in play, Xenn calculates the current costs of the user’s energy consumption, so that they can see how much the tariff will cost them and adjust their advance to avoid nasty surprises on the final invoice. Through the app, the consumer has easy access to the most important data relating to their consumption and invoices, and the app will also notify them about any peaks in consumption (and spikes in cost). In addition, the dashboard in the online portal provides further clarity about even the tiniest details for those with a thirst for more knowledge. In using Xenn, consumers can avoid surprises when it comes to bills, better monitor and manage their energy consumption and receive tips on how to save. In times of rising prices and new rates, everyone understandably has concerns and questions. Thanks to Xenn, the consumer gains more clarity and can take back control of their consumption and costs. In future, Xenn will be able to optimise the energy management of a household even further by providing the ability to steer certain devices or assets (ie: to start charging a car at an opportune moment), therefore making the most of the Internet of Things universe and enabling smarter consumption through connectivity.
Update: As of January 2025, Xenn is no longer available. However, it remains an interesting use case and showcases not only the capabilities of the re.alto connectivity platform, but also the potential for the smarter energy solutions of the future.
re.alto Obtains ISO 27001 Certification
re.alto is proud to share that we are now ISO 27001 certified. Cloud based optimisation, assetless connectivity and facilitating access to data is our core business at re.alto, and we therefore take data security very seriously. ISO 27001 certification was the logical choice for us.
What is ISO 27001?
ISO 27001 is the leading international standard on how to manage and apply information security and compliance within a business. It is a risk-based approach to evaluating security and details the requirements for implementing, maintaining and continually improving an information security management system, the aim of which is to protect the information and data assets held by a company from loss or unauthorised access. Topics covered in the ISO 27001 include, but are not limited to, information security policies, human resource management, operations and communication security, asset management and control, cryptography and access rights. The information security certification process requires companies to undergo audits to ensure quality is being maintained. ISO 27001 certification is recognised around the world as an indicator of a credible and trusted business. Companies that are ISO 27001 certified meet and abide by legal requirements, are better organised and are better able to manage any potential security incidents, while offering a high standard of security to both their customers and their partners. Achieving ISO 27001 certification shows that re.alto safeguards the data of companies we work with and that we have well-maintained security protocols and regulations in place for handling or processing data.
What does this mean for re.alto?
This successful certification shows that re.alto is fully compliant with the ISO 27001 standard. Our compliance was validated by an independent audit company and the certification is proof that we have followed all necessary requirements for covering information security in our business. We believe this will increase the trust that potential partners place in us and open new doors as the company continues to grow. Companies which have been audited save their customers or partners time in that they need not carry out an audit on us themselves. It is not uncommon for companies to request to see ISO certification before agreeing to do business and being certified means partners or customers can work with us in full confidence that their data is secure and being handled correctly and that no confidentiality breaches will occur. In the words of re.alto’s CTO, Pepijn Schoen: “Our ISO27001 efforts along with other compliance activities we’re active in are important in offering transparency and trust to our customers. Through it, we want to provide certainty that our IT security, data privacy and business continuity is on a level that ensures they don’t have to worry about this when working with us. Being handed the certificate is an achievement, a milestone showing that our work has paid off. The content of the compliance work itself and ensuring this continues to be applied, however, is the most important thing.”
We’re thrilled to announce that re.alto has successfully met this international benchmark of security, and we look forward to the opportunities our ISO 27001 certification will bring us.
Integration with BMW
At the end of last year, we announced the launch of re.alto Connect. This product offers cloud-based, assetless connectivity to various kinds of high energy consuming applications at home and now also enables connectivity to electric vehicles. With EV uptake advancing and EVs set to have a fundamental impact on the decarbonisation of our society, re.alto is thrilled to announce that we have now integrated BMW vehicles onto our Connect platform, a significant milestone in maturing the Connect product.
BMW is a pioneer in electric vehicles in Europe and worldwide. The company is driving the energy transition by enabling use cases like smart charging, which creates a lot of value for their customers. Our integration with their platform will help enable the many interesting use cases that we unlock through re.alto Connect, use cases that any company with BMW cars in their portfolio can potentially benefit from. This integration means re.alto has access to the official BMW APIs, enabling us to provide our clients with reliable and high-quality data, while also generating value for BMW’s EV customers, who are partaking in the energy transition and can expect to see their assets increase in value as the ecosystem grows. With increasingly more use cases now arising around capacity tariff optimisation, vehicle and battery health monitoring, employee reimbursement, CAPEX reductions, Energy-as-a-Service and smart charging, there have never been more opportunities in e-mobility.
Alongside standard telematics data, such as charging data records and GPS locations, re.alto Connect gives clients access to the more elusive state of charge and odometer data. We are able to provide BMW EV insights for fleet and private vehicles. While our customers are mainly larger companies operating fleets, the end users of these devices reap many of the financial benefits of the optimisation offered by EV monitoring and eventually by smart charging. The BMW platform currently enables EV insights through re.alto, and we are also in the process of implementing further features, such as the ability to steer the charging of a car, which will ultimately allow us to provide smart charging functionalities to third parties without the need for a smart charge pole.
Our EV insights features offer value to those responsible for residual value calculations and are useful in employee reimbursement use cases. Residual value estimation can help leasing companies and fleet managers better manage their fleets. With some of the data sets we have available now, they can easily assess the health status of these fleets and determine the rate of depreciation of their vehicles. Utilities and charge pole operators, on the other hand, will be interested in state of charge data to optimise charging. This is data that we can provide our clients through re.alto Connect.
We’re currently working on access to start and stop charging commands, which will enable more advanced use cases, such as smart charging and optimisation for a capacity tariff. These are use cases that can be provided by any company with a large B2C client portfolio that wants to offer Energy-as-a-Service. With current end user apps, increasingly more companies are taking advantage of the opportunity in diversifying to other sectors where they can further monetise their extensive user base. re.alto is developing the energy services for third parties to take advantage of. This is an ongoing process, and we will communicate more on this once these additional features have been implemented.
Are you a fleet manager or leasing company interested in capacity tariff optimisation, residual value calculations or involved in employee reimbursement? Or are you an electric utility needing to know state of charge for smart charging purposes? If either applies to you, re.alto Connect is the solution you have been waiting for. Get in touch with us today to find out how Connect can benefit and transform your business.
Data Collaboration in a Digital Energy Market
News
The great paradigm shift
(*This is a translation of an original white paper by Microsoft)
Energy APIs
The energy market is rapidly changing and this requires innovative solutions to accelerate the challenges of the energy transition. Naturally, this has a major impact on various players and market mechanisms. Both on the production and distribution side, but also on the delivery side. Partnerships are the cornerstone of this new ecosystem. Standardisation, scalability and flexibility are the new normal.
Our global energy market is facing major changes. The traditional model where electricity is centrally generated in a power plant and operated by a large utility company has changed into a more decentralised model dominated by renewable energy offered by often smaller players.
New small-scale energy players such as citizen cooperatives and energy communities, but also prosumers, consumers who also produce at the same time, have emerged and require a different approach.
Connectivity and data exchange is an essential part of the digital revolution in the energy market in the Netherlands. This data then makes it possible for supply and demand to be better predicted within a smart grid and for the stability of the distribution network or power grid to be guaranteed.
In a decentralised energy landscape, with large solar installations, wind turbines, electric cars, heat pumps and also battery storage systems, millions of those connected points need to be aligned in order to make their data available.
In many areas, this represents a major paradigm shift. The conventional model, where electrical systems are centrally managed, is being challenged by the decentralised generation of renewable energy. Due to their exponential growth and often less controllable nature, this literally and figuratively puts strain on existing supply systems. To guarantee a stable distribution network, energy storage is important, dynamic models are being introduced and better coordination between supply and demand is necessary. After all, creating decentralised units creates collective intelligence. By means of bi-directional communication between the various parties, in open data formats and in real-time, it is possible to better respond to the new dynamics between supply and demand.
It is clear that existing services and business models need to be redesigned. The current power and smart grids need to be adapted to such far-reaching flexibility. Naturally, this offers opportunities for new players in that market, but it also gives existing stakeholders the opportunity to develop new services.
Accelerating launching services through an API-first architecture
Unlike a classic code-first approach, where developers first develop code and later figure out how that software can communicate with other systems, a modern and open API architecture starts with the interface or the bridge. The focus is on designing and building the programming interfaces and only then on effectively developing the application. In this way, products can be built quickly and safely that are both future-proof and easily scalable.
In addition to the benefits of flexibility and agility, an API-first architecture also offers another major advantage, namely lower development costs because the same APIs and coding can be used over and over again on different projects. The design resolves most issues before code is written, which also allows development teams to work in parallel.
The cockpit for API lifecycle management
With its focus on specific industry segments such as utilities and energy companies, Microsoft builds strong ecosystems that enable developers and system integrators to build modular and reusable applications.
Companies and service providers can therefore bring smart products and digital services to the market more quickly. Automation continues to accelerate APIs and application developments. The benefits of speed, efficiency and self-service are clear. However, the danger lies in duplication of code or building redundant APIs. An important component is API management. Microsoft APIM was selected in 2021 by Gartner and recognised as a leader in its Magic Quadrant™ for Full Lifecycle API Management.
With APIM, the Microsoft Azure API management platform, you can easily build a cockpit to monitor and manage the complete API portfolio. This allows developers to build applications faster and customers receive direct added value.
Through API imitation, front and backend teams are separately linked, API revisions and versions are easy to track, and it allows you to build a central and automated API documentation library. API Management also helps import, manage, secure, test, publish and monitor GraphQL APIs.
The benefits of an API economy
Exchanging data and services using APIs allows faster product development, increases customer satisfaction, provides access to new markets and offers better collaboration opportunities, as well as many other benefits. Such an API-first approach fits perfectly within the concept of an API economy.
However, an API economy is not a technical concept, nor is it a financial model. It is the foundation of a strong ecosystem, where data and digital services are exchanged in a standardised way through APIs. Despite the fact that a company can already be fully API-driven internally, the primary focus of an API economy is on B2C and B2B. A classic example is the cloud itself.
Microsoft Azure is nothing less than a collection of APIs that provide access to their underlying infrastructure and applications.
To develop such an ecosystem as a company, technological choices must be made. Access to data, to distributed data, requires good preparation and a different approach. The choice of APIs to use, access to an industrial API marketplace and the use of a cloud platform determine this accessibility.
Traditionally, REST APIs are often used. This is the most commonly used API model, designed to work with HTTP protocols. REST APIs are easy to understand and implement and are suitable for small to medium-sized projects and are supported by most programming languages.
Today, companies are increasingly turning to GraphQL (although this still remains a small minority) because this API query language offers a more efficient, powerful and flexible approach to designing APIs. It also ensures a uniform interface for retrieving data from different sources and is also very flexible in retrieving a selection of data points from a larger data lake.
In addition to the choice of the API, it is also important to be able to rely on a relevant API marketplace. This speeds up the search for data sources, makes accessing them easy and supports their integration. Such an energy API marketplace focuses specifically on the various players within the energy sector, including solution developers, renewable energy producers, traditional utilities and traders.
On the one hand, there are initiatives such as Open Energy Data (OEDI) in the United States, with multiple data lakes and data sets, but also European initiatives such as the Energy Web Foundation (EWF) and EDP (European Data Portal) with more than 1300 data sets that enable access to public open energy data.
On the other hand, cross-industry API marketplaces such as re.alto.io (which, by the way, is built on the basis of APIM – Azure API Management) offer additional data sets such as weather information, IOT data, wind and solar production data, spot energy prices, e-mobility data and smart meter data. This makes integration a lot easier and speeds up the development process.
As a business model, companies can not only share their data on a marketplace for free but can also sell it or make it available via a subscription. This makes it easy to collect real-time data from wind and solar farms, for example, making it possible to quickly respond to changing weather. Moreover, this data can be used afterwards to make the prediction models more accurate.
The energy API marketplace for digital energy products
An API Marketplace is a database that collects APIs and makes them available for accelerated and standardised access to real-time data and various datasets. An energy API marketplace provides direct access to data from energy suppliers, e-mobility and EV charging data, market prices and forecasts, sun, wind and weather information and forecasts, grids and systems, imbalance information, smart meter data, as well as data from IoT and Smart Cities.
By offering a cross-border list in an API format, it becomes possible to find digital energy products in a simple and clear way and to connect to them via APIs.
Within an API economy, built around future-oriented APIs and an energy API marketplace, the various parties in the energy value chain can directly benefit from its advantages, and it accelerates the development of new digital energy solutions and services.
The marketplace itself offers a range of options to quickly and easily put together new products without in-depth technical knowledge.
This way, different parties can work together without having to draw up lengthy cooperation agreements and negotiate partnerships.
As an example: The re.alto API marketplace was used at the Elia hackathons in Brussels and Berlin, so that professional IT teams could offer working solutions to tackle the energy transition in 3 days.
- For the Smart Grid, this means faster and easier development of e-mobility solutions, consulting and using smart meter data, energy monitoring, extracting data from SCADA sensors, controlling heat pumps, linking inverters and battery storage systems.
- With the Power Grid, by making intelligent use of dynamic energy prices, variable wind and solar energy generation and the possibilities for demand management and storage, one can respond more flexibly and scalable to the changing market conditions and customer needs.
- Inter and intra-sector links are made simpler, more eddificent and safer. All this through standardised and secure API interfaces that guarantee interoperability.
- In energy trading, through more accurate predictions, the price algorithms can be dynamically tuned to offer far-reaching automation and optimisation.
Microsoft Azure Data Manager for energy services
With ADME, Azure Data Manager for Energy, Microsoft enables energy companies to gain actionable insights, improve operational efficiency, and also accelerate time to market on the cloud-based OSDU data platform. This supports innovation with a flexible and open platform on which developers can quickly build applications and adapt them flexibly.
Azure Data Manager for Energy (ADME) is a vendor-agnostic, open data platform that integrates with virtually any data set, application or cloud service.
ADME helps reduce the time, risk and costs of energy exploration and production by integrating with virtually any energy data set, application or cloud service with built-in tools. Management for compute-intensive workloads can be deployed on a global scale. All this in compliance with the OSDU Technical Standard for open-source innovation.
Implementing ADME accelerates data ingestion for analysis and decision-making. It provides additional insights so that additional actions can be taken quickly and increases operational efficiency, thereby reducing operational costs.
Access to data is more important than having data.
It is therefore necessary to build an architecture that serves as a collaborative platform, enabling scalable and flexible collaboration. A Microsoft Azure cloud architecture forms the basis of such an open data platform.
IT technology serves the right business expectations and enables them to develop new products, solutions and services more quickly. This requires far-reaching optimisation of the data infrastructure and simplified access to the available decentralised data points.
An on-premise IT architecture is a traditional way of managing IT systems, where all hardware, software and data are located at a central location within the organisation itself. This has the advantage that the organisation has maximum control over its own IT infrastructure, but the major disadvantage is that this infrastructure is often expensive, complex and rigid. All central and core processes run on this. Exchanging data, via old API standards, CSV files and FTP file transfer, is often manual or semi-automatic and therefore time-consuming.
It should be clear that a cloud architecture (in this specific case) is more secure. To achieve the same level of security on on-premise systems, which still have to communicate with the outside world, you have to take many costs into account. Of course, on-premise software that doesn’t have to communicate with anything is even more secure, but how long can these systems be maintained? Moreover, this kind of API first architecture guarantees more control. With an APIM, you can see at any time what is running, what is not running and where problems may arise. The entire setup becomes clearer and less difficult to manage. By introducing a cloud architecture, a modern way of managing IT systems, where all hardware, software and data are located on servers that are rented from external providers, those obstacles disappear. With a cloud solution, you can enjoy lower costs, higher performance and more flexibility. The dependence on the availability and security of the external provider is absorbed by the correct SLA agreements.
Microsoft Azure Cloud forms the foundation
Today, most companies are convinced of the many benefits of a cloud-based IT architecture. Through a Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure and the additional tools offered by Microsoft, the connection of distributed energy assets can be accelerated and becomes extremely scalable and efficient. For players in the energy market, the transition from on-premise IT to a cloud architecture offers a number of direct business benefits:
– Accelerate the go-to-market of new services. The scalability of the cloud environment and the ready-to-use software components offered in an energy API marketplace make development and testing faster.
– Existing services can be adapted or expanded. A modular software architecture can easily be connected or disconnected via the API cloud interfaces.
– Dynamically respond to changing customer demands or market situations by using elastic software capacity. This can be scaled up or down automatically according to needs.
– Make more efficient use of data flows, such as better weather forecasts, insight into wind and solar energy generation and dynamic energy prices.
Scalability, standardisation and new services are the new normal. The challenges of a changing energy market are therefore best met by developing an adapted underlying cloud infrastructure that is scalable and dynamic and also allows for greater flexibility.
With Microsoft Azure as the foundation, a switch-to-cloud strategy is used to avoid creating data swamps. (The swamp of data abundance that no one wants to drown in.) To achieve this, the data must be intelligent, reliable and easily accessible.
The more robust building blocks for the new energy API economy are formed by a layer of future-oriented APIs supplemented by the associated API marketplace. This makes it possible to respond dynamically and predictably to supply and demand, by using collective data and by exchanging data in a standardised manner.
Such an architecture makes it possible for the various parties to create insights into their own rhythm and needs and to additionally design new business models.
Partnering with Microsoft also has additional advantages because as a company you can rely on a strongly developed ecosystem, a professional network of local partners and an international range of services for support and implementation.
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Citation/References:
Elia Group (BE-DE) en Octopus Energy Group (UK) ondertekenen overeenkomst om samen te werken aanconsumentgerichte diensten rond energieflexibiliteit om de energietransitie te faciliteren
Ondersteuning voor GraphQL-API’s – Azure API Management | Microsoft Learn
Microsoft Customer Story-Vipps uses Microsoft Azure to scale and innovate its mobile app—andtransform how Norway pays
re.alto – European Electricity Suppliers by re.alto energy (realto.io)
White Paper: Realising the Energy Transition in Times of Change
News
The role of the API Marketplace in driving down data acquisition costs and establishing new service-led business models.
Energy APIs
Chapter 1: Executive Summary
The energy industry is in flux, with existing change accelerated by the dual influences of global Covid-19 disruption and a heightened sense of urgency in the fight against climate change.
The upheaval to the status quo presents a unique opportunity for innovation and transformation; for digitalisation to expedite the development of new service led business models and solutions which enable long-term low carbon transition and industry growth in these challenging times.
As this whitepaper will show, the energy industry however remains relatively digitally immature, lacking the understanding and technical capability to fully realise the digital opportunity. In this paper, we explore the existing operational barriers to digital change that are deeply embedded within the industry. In particular, we examine the obstacles preventing the smooth exchange of energy data, a critical element of digitalisation, including the high cost of data acquisition and the challenges presented by legacy IT infrastructure.
At re.alto, our ambition is to accelerate digital transformation and decarbonisation through the standardised exchange of energy data and digital services. We believe that a collaborative approach through API connectivity is the key to business transformation, sidestepping the legacy infrastructure of yesterday. In this paper, we delve into use cases around e-mobility, energy communities and data-driven profiling for utilities to demonstrate how a data-led approach enables operational streamlining and unleashes entirely new revenue streams. The purpose of this whitepaper is to demonstrate the added value of an API marketplace in facilitating this data exchange and driving the creation of a digital ecosystem which ultimately enables the energy transition
Chapter 2: Introduction
Within energy, digitalisation has been a disruptive force for years, but progress has remained painfully slow.
Amongst the talk now of a ‘new normal’, the pandemic will almost certainly accelerate the momentum towards digital transformation as those with more traditional business models struggle to bounce back and find themselves unable to compete at an expedited pace of change. As recovery now becomes the priority, the pan-European infrastructure upgrade initiatives promised to stimulate the sector offer a unique opportunity to accelerate decarbonisation, enabled by digitalisation and an API-led connectivity approach. Post-Covid, building a digital eco-system and forging new collaborative industry partnerships to support next-generation business models will be more important than ever to move towards a dynamic and sustainable energy future.
I. The role of COVID-19 in accelerating change
The energy industry has felt the impact of the pandemic in key areas such as demand reduction and the supply chain thanks to lockdown. Rather than raise new issues however, the disruption from Covid-19 has instead exacerbated existing challenges and is accelerating change that had already been well underway. It has, in fact, given us a fascinating glimpse into the future of a power market where renewable sources (RES) outstrip non-renewables in system share and demonstrated the opportunities for innovation.
At the height of the first wave in April, electricity demand dropped by nearly 20% across Europe as business and transport networks slashed their usage during global lockdown. Despite short-term recovery as restrictions on movement were eased, the longer-term impact of Covid-19 on demand continues to ripple through the energy market. In the last week of July, electricity demand was still 5% below 2019 in all EU countries bar Italy, while global energy demand Is expected to contract by 6% in 2020, the largest drop in more than 70 years.
A combination of lower lockdown demand and surging RES generation has caused electricity prices across Europe to consistently dip into the red. At the same time, demand for non-renewable sources has significantly dampened. During this period, wind delivered 17% of Europe’s electricity, producing 241 terawatt-hours of electricity , while at one particular point in early April, renewables accounted for a record 70% of UK electricity demand. Coal consumption in the UK, on the other hand, fell from 50 Mtpa to 5Mtpa.
Covid-19 and the disruption it has caused should not be seen as the prime cause of this shift in the power mix, but rather an important contributory factor in the acceleration of an ongoing industry transition. Social and political factors have too played their part, in particular, a decline in oil production in light of the Russia-OPEC price war and political volatility in the Middle East. There is no doubt that the energy industry is currently in flux and Covid-19 is helping to further shake up the status quo. While the major European RES generators are experiencing their highest profit margins in years, low wholesale electricity prices mean that energy suppliers continue to struggle to maintain profit margins with their single KW/h revenue stream. Grid operators are encountering greater technical challenges in balancing erratic RES generation, demanding more advanced demand-side management and the increased flexibility that comes from a decentralised system.
One particular benefit of the unique combination of decreased non-renewables production, the rise in RES generation and the worldwide restrictions on mass movement is a reduction in global carbon emissions, which have temporarily plunged by 8% to the lowest recorded levels since 2010. As promising as as that sounds, a rebound in emissions levels is inevitable in the long-term without sweeping intrinsic strategic change across the energy industry and beyond. Growing social and political pressure to reduce CO2 emissions has made decarbonisation a core objective for all energy companies, with an ever increasing sense of urgency as we fight to head off irreversible climate damage, caused in no small part by decades of fossil fuel burning and car exhausts.
The Covid-19 crisis has helped to create fertile ground for rapid innovation. The upheaval presents an opportunity to accelerate the development of new digital solutions which drive both long-term low carbon transition and industry growth in the face of economic stress.
II. The data-led opportunity
Digitalisation is the enabler of both growth and decarbonisation. Fuelled by data, it is the key to overcoming the dual economic and environmental crises of Covid-19 and climate change that we are now facing. Energy data is the very foundation stone of digitalisation in the industry. As we have explored in our previous ebook ‘Understanding how APIs drive the digital transformation of energy’ data is already recognised and valued as a crucial building block in the creation of a smart energy system. It goes beyond simple consumption metrics, spanning the value chain from SCADA data to market pricing and weather forecasting.
Harnessing the power of this data should be a key objective in any digital strategy of an energy company looking to scale. Data connectivity enables innovation on a scale previous unachievable in energy as well as the creation of new customer-centric business models. It is a powerful driver of growth in the sustainable energy sector.
The Obstacles to Capturing the Growth Market
There is a recognition across multiple sectors that electrification is a clean route to a sustainable future, and there has already been a noticeable shift towards a decentralised renewables system with significant technological developments. But while a proliferation in open data combined with increasingly advanced algorithms and availability of real-time processing capability is revolutionising sectors such as telecoms and insurance, the energy industry is failing to keep up. As such we are not yet seeing the widespread evolution of commercial models which adopt the required data-led digital collaborative approach to unleash innovation and take decentralisation and decarbonisation further still. The smooth exchange of data which we see in other industries, a critical element of digitalisation, is hindered in energy by two key barriers to change: firstly, the relative immaturity of the industry in realising the potential of available data. Secondly, the costs associated with data acquisition and, for traditional incumbents in particular, the issues involved in integrating data streams with existing legacy IT infrastructure.
Barrier 1: Realising the potential of data
The energy industry remains fairly rudimentary in its understanding of the value of data and in particular its role in developing new digital products and services quickly and at lower cost. Given this, it is hardly surprising that many organisations within energy still fail to therefore recognise the importance of web based APIs, a standard means of making an organisation’s data and services digitally available to external developers and partners.
The perception remains that APIs belong only within the IT domain, used for internal processes at best. As such, much data exchange nowadays still uses the approach of sending large CSV files to an FTP server, a remarkably outdated method of enabling the communication between two systems. Moreover, CSV files only allow for data in its simplest form while using an FTP server prevents any real-time response or error handling, which significantly restricts the possibility of any sophisticated data interaction between two parties.
Over the last decade, APIs have evolved and scaled in volume, and their worth as a technological interface to facilitate agile internal processes and improve operational efficiency is well recognised. But without a basic understanding of the value of the vast streams of data at its disposal, the energy industry simply will not be able to fully recognise the commercial value of an API as a revenue source in its own right.
Barrier 2: Data acquisition and integration (access and cost)
If understanding the value of data is the first step to digital connectivity, access to data is the crucial second step, or in the case of the energy industry, a hurdle. There is currently no central search engine for energy API discovery as most energy data remains siloed, and navigating the jungle of companies, services and products in search of data in web-based API format is challenging. As the industry further diversifies into new sectors such as smart mobility, data is likely to become even more fragmented. Moreover, a significant lack of transparency around pricing and availability within the market makes it difficult to even benchmark the monetary value of data.
With smart meter data in particular, there is added complexity around the handling and user consent to consider. Unlike data generated by smart phone or social media usage, data generated by smart meters legally belongs to the end user and requires explicit consent before it can be accessed. Data protection obligations may restrict what customer and systems data can be shared, and it requires an awareness of the implications of data security as well as potentially the development of specific IT architecture to support privacy requirements.
Beyond access, the costs associated with integration and ongoing maintenance can be an obstacle. For larger incumbent energy organisations, onboarding each individual API from a new supplier can bring higher than necessary costs around compliance, procurement and security – far outweighing the far smaller basic cost of the API licence – as well as administrative costs stemming from disparate contractual documentation, largely non-standardised and all from separate sources. Each API subsequently also requires significant resource in ongoing management. API providers will regularly update the APIs with new features, security fixes and product improvements, but unless monitored closely, these have the potential to cause backward compatibility issues – and a break in critical business processes – when third-party endpoints are removed or relocated. The more APIs that are integrated, the more prohibitive the level of resource and cost required for initial technical set up and ongoing maintenance. It is unsurprising therefore that data acquisition costs can easily soar, transforming what should be a cost effective and quick solution for rapid product development into a significant investment and budget drain.
Incumbents in particular face a second barrier to digital transformation beyond the cost of data acquisition. A lack of experience in cloud computing and real time processing technology often leaves them incapable of creating or accessing the technology platforms required to deliver big data processing capability. Complex and inflexible legacy IT architecture and a scarcity of technical skillsets ensure that the integration of multiple disparate data sources is prohibitively difficult. For new smaller industry players, the disruptors for whom digitalisation already lies at the very heart of their business model, the challenge lies less in legacy technology and more in the availability of resource and their own limited budgets. They may be forging the innovation path by maximising the value of their own data to offer digital products because they recognise their power to add value to customers. But their internal business processes and offline B2B sales activity remain remarkably analogue in nature and operationally inefficient. These digitally minded companies encounter the same challenges as the incumbents in being unable to devote the required resource to discover, integrate and maintain multiple API integrations as part of a long-term API-led strategy. They simply struggle to fully exploit the value of third-party data internally as well as externally, and as a result cannot efficiently streamline their operations into a cost-effective end-to-end digital pathway.
Chapter 4: Exploiting the Growth Opportunity
Within energy, digitalisation has been a disruptive force for years, but progress has remained painfully slow.
We have now explored the principal challenges faced by both traditional organisations and new industry players around the acquisition of energy data, a pre-requisite for digital transformation. If the future lies in enhanced data connectivity, bringing businesses across the industry together through the technically simplified and cost-efficient provision of such data is the answer, and it comes in the shape of an API marketplace.
Seen in a less comprehensive form in other industries as API management platforms but not translated to the energy sector until now, an API marketplace connects the providers and consumers of data in API format.
It facilitates the connection between parties, simplifying the exchange of data and digital services by amassing them in one place in a standardised form. As a broad high-level outcome, this API economy allows organisations to create and interact with a much broader ecosystem of service providers and consumers, increasing market visibility and opening up new revenue streams with agile product development.
In much the same way as the traditional energy business model of a single centralised supply and a passive consumer is becoming obsolete, so too is the market model of single party transactions – that between one buyer and one seller – which make scaling slow and cumbersome. In today’s connected world, this is being displaced by the more collaborative model of flexible multi partner ecosystems, leveraged through the channel of a digital marketplace and the exposure it brings.
The benefits of an API-led approach
Taking a deeper dive, the API marketplace offers operational and cost efficiencies on a technical level which make a key difference in streamlining day-to-day data-led business activity. In light of the stresses placed on the global economy by Covid-19 and downward trends in spending and investment, these benefits which deliver growth and revenue in times of crisis become increasingly attractive. Put simply, a digital marketplace for energy APIs is the nexus that the energy industry needs to unlock the unrestricted flow of information across the entire value chain in the most technologically sophisticated, cost-effective and operationally efficient manner possible.
The standardisation of data transfer technology in the form of web-based RESTful APIs facilitates integration and allows for faster cross-sector collaboration and digitalisation at scale. It is the modern replacement for the CSV/FTP approach. The importance of having structured data in a standardised format that consumers can easily identify and subscribe to has already been realised across other industries. We already know that there are enormous quantities of fragmented and diverse energy data across the industry; making it available to third parties in standardised API format with standardised contractual documentation improves the quality of the information exchange and reduces friction.
Centralised digital transaction management
As we’ve seen, a data-led approach raises the need for the structured management of a myriad of disparate APIs, which can be time and cost-heavy. Standard API management platforms, much like developer portals, tend to focus on the basic transactional nature of an API subscription – a means to solely find and subscribe to the API. Some enable evaluation of the utilisation of the product, any service disruptions, and the technical adequacy of a setup. This delivers data, yes, but does little to mitigate the hefty resource requirements for setup and ongoing maintenance. A digital marketplace however delivers a full API management package in one integrated system. It not only provides a discovery mechanism for a full range of API products (and not simply a vendor-specific set), but also offers an array of online tools which span discovery, centralised governance and standards, security, user consent management, contract management, centralised billing and settlement and usage analytics, all designed to maximise the value of the APIs.
Let’s take the example of a utility requiring the subscription of five separate APIs in the development of their own digital app aimed at improving customer experience through usage tracking and digital billing. At least one of the APIs will comprise smart meter data. Acquired separately, the utility would need to spend a significant amount of time sourcing the APIs, negotiating the contracts and obtaining all required documentation, managing the initial set-up and performing all ongoing monitoring and maintenance. Consider firstly that the entire initial B2B sales process of finding and subscribing to the APIs will likely take place offline as there are unlikely to be any digital processes in place with each of the five API providers. Secondly, consider the added complexity brought by the integration of smart meter data from residential end users – aggregated and anonymised, but still requiring user consent management and throwing up privacy and security considerations which cannot be ignored.
And finally, consider the time that will be required to monitor and maintain each of the five APIs in the long-term to ensure that any updates or fixes from the provider do not interrupt the functionality of the utility’s own new digital app.
Now, let’s take that example and translate it into the resource and cost savings of performing the same transactions and long-term management of the five APIs on one integrated API marketplace. All discovery, subscriptions, standardised documentation and user consents (where needed) can be taken care of in one place in a fully digitalised online sales journey, while all ongoing maintenance can be bundled together to leave the API consumer one update to perform rather than five. The increased efficiency of an outsourced fully end-to-end digital process on a digital marketplace is staggering.
Chapter 5: Digital Transformation in Action Today
USER-CENTRIC SERVICES PUTTING THE CUSTOMER MORE IN CONTROL
USE CASE 1: E-MOBILITY AND SMART CHARGING
Following an initial fall of 25% in the first quarter of 2020 , global sales of electric vehicles (EVs) are still expected to rise this year as the transport industry turns to electrification to achieve decarbonisation targets. Europe continues to show the strongest market growth despite the impact of Covid-19, expanding its market share overall to 26%. Regulatory changes around emissions standards, iterative improvements in battery storage and postCovid government stimulus packages are likely to further drive the shift towards this more sustainable form of transport. In France, for example, the government has now increased the incentive from €6,000 to €7,000 for purchasers of EVs, while in Germany the incentive has been upped to €9,000.
As the market scales and EV technology matures, e-mobility now plays a key role in the connected energy IoT ecosystem and demonstrates the vast potential for digital synergy between the energy and transportation sectors in the pursuit of a greener future. Through smart charging and Vehicle to Grid (V2G) technology, there is an opportunity for EVs to provide a digital solution to the challenges of grid balancing as RES generation increases. Although still in its infancy, V2G technology enables the discharge of electricity stored in EV batteries back into the national grid to help balance supply during consumption peaks, enabling dynamic multi-directional electricity flow. Integrating EV data with real-time tariff, market pricing and smart meter data from a home energy management system (HEMS) creates a smart charging opportunity from which the EV company, the grid operator and the vehicle owner all benefit. By controlling the time and rate at which the EV is charged based on local demand and electricity market prices (while still adhering to the minimum charge levels set by the owner), the EV company can open up new revenue streams such as the provision of balancing services to the grid operator as well as wholesale arbitrage opportunities based on the bulk buy of electricity. The vehicle owner is incentivised by the possibility of low-cost or even free charging, while the network operator is able to balance the local grid with greater flexibility. Cross sector communication and the smooth exchange of real-time data is the key here, and the sustainability gains are vast.
USE CASE 2: ENERGY COMMUNITIES AND DISTRIBUTED GENERATION
Local energy communities (LECs), where generation is dispersed across smaller local plants, have previously attracted much support, largely thanks to how they empower consumers to play a far more active role in the green energy transition. Over recent years, LECs have become increasingly prevalent, particularly across Europe, as consumers now demand a more active role in their own supply. Pioneering digital technology is accelerating the move towards this decentralised system where renewables play the starring role. Virtual power plants (VPP), for example have been described as the ‘internet of energy’ and are showing promise in taking power aggregation to a new level and driving virtual generating capacity to take pressure off centralised assets.
Aligning grid balance at a local level through technology-enabled demand response solutions offers up far greater flexibility to flatten the load curve and integrate volatile sustainable sources. It has been forecast that digitally enabled demand response combined with increased storage could reduce the curtailment of PV and wind power from 7% to 1.6% by 2040 in the EU alone, cutting a possible 30 million tonnes of CO2 emissions[1]. Continued advances in storage solutions are likely to take this decentralisation trend even further. It is an evolution of a new collaborative business model, turning a previously centralised system on its head with clear cost benefits to the consumer – no longer a system designed on the economies of scale as with behemoth fossil fuel plants, distributed generation drives down costs instead through the economics of small-scale and volume. But in order to thrive, digitalisation is vital to coordinate the more granular nature of distributed generation and ensure that the power supply remains consistent, reliable and secure.
USE CASE 3: UTILITIES AND DATA-DRIVEN PROFILING
Energy data, such as that from smart meters and HEMS, provides utilities with two valuable insight streams: consumption metrics and behavioural patterns. Following in the enormously successful footsteps of Amazon and Netflix, utilities are now beginning to realise the value of the millions of human behavioural big data points – such as how and when customers interact with services – and understand how it underpins the ability to understand and engage on a more meaningful level with the customer. In particular, it offers the opportunity to add value by delivering personalised services and apps based entirely on data-driven preferences. Digital flexible billing and visibility over real-time variable tariff information are just two examples of such user-centric services which put the customer more in control and help to avoid annual bill shocks. For the utility, these services not only enhance customer loyalty but also could in theory shorten the settlement cycle – delivering an accurate invoice directly to a customer over a digital channel is shown to speed up payment, cutting the risk of bad debt.
Chapter 6: Conclusion
Integrating a seamless end-to-end user journey on a single digital platform is a paradigm shift in customer engagement for the utility sector, moving from product to service delivery with a new Energy-as-a-Service business model. The agile development required to deliver this digital service is made technically possible by the integration of data from multiple sources in an API-led approach.
The First Open Data List of European Electricity Suppliers
The most comprehensive open data list of European energy suppliers ever compiled in API format is now available for free via re.alto-energy. For the first time, users will be able to integrate and browse a full database of more than 1700 electricity retailers from across six European countries.
The European Electricity Suppliers API was created in less than a day by a team of specialists from energy tech start-up re.alto. Experts in the market, they had identified that energy supplier lists were only available on a fragmented country-by-country basis, usually assimilated by national regulators in the form of licensee lists and sometimes sold by market research firms. What’s more, for countries such as Germany without a supply licence framework, these lists had been even harder to source and often had to be compiled through time-intensive inefficient web scraping.
The energy suppliers database is available with a free-to-use licence on the re.alto API marketplace here. It currently covers electricity suppliers from:
- Belgium
- France
- Germany
- Ireland
- United Kingdom
- Netherlands
The database contains information on each supplier including the country or regions it serves, whether it offers a domestic or non-domestic supply, availability of any dynamic tariff products and website information. Alongside standard providers, it also includes green energy suppliers such as Ovo and Ecotricity in the UK, Lampiris in Belgium and Greenchoice in the Netherlands.
This is the first cross-border list of its kind to be made available in API format. It is also the first step towards the development of an energy API which not only offers the full list of European energy suppliers but also includes energy price data – technically challenging to date due to the dynamic nature of electricity tariffs.
The API format of the database ensures that the data remains current as, unlike more traditional CSV files, APIs can be automatically refreshed and maintained without the need for regular manual updating. In such a competitive electricity retail market with a constantly shifting landscape of incoming challenger brands and more established players, this streamlined efficiency is vital. Such an API-led approach also enables straightforward integration which bypasses the legacy infrastructure, so often a barrier in the past to digital change across the energy industry.
To get free access to the full dataset of European electricity suppliers, visit the re.alto API Marketplace portal.