Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 1ST - 7TH NOVEMBER 2019 | 27 Customers Brought to you in association with As we move towards net zero there will be "many data- sharing opportunities and challenges", said Energy Systems Catapult's Jake Verma. And to enable an energy system that combines clean growth in keeping with the industrial strategy, it's important to now start consider- ing data as "infrastructure that we manage", not an ancillary part of operations. On EDT's key recommendations: • Energy needs "To enable future - exibility markets, new data will need to come from the energy system and enable things such as scenario planning, and cost avoidance through smart reinforcement of networks." • Accessing advantage "We know there is a lot of data out there but the way in which it is used is 'a little dysfunctional'. To maximise its value, it needs to be discoverable and accessible. And not just within utilities, but for innovators and small companies." • Guiding principles "The 'presumed open principle' is that data should be as open as possible. But the report's recommendations around 'data triage' o† er four key considerations which in- uence if data can be open, shared or closed. They look at whether it is commercial in nature; has privacy implications, could create negative consumer impact or has security issues." On EDT's project recommendations: • The data catalogue "It's not a data lake but more of an index, which lets industry understand what data is available. It could lead to the creation of new business models." • Co-ordinated asset registration strategy "It enables the sector to understand what energy assets are out there and what infrastructure is needed to create future - exibility markets, or to get local areas to net zero." • Digital system map "All utilities are exceptionally important in creating a national digital twin. In a matter of seconds, you could ‰ nd out coverage, access to the transmission network, and planning rules to connect back to the grid." Report reaction: "There has been a very positive reception to the report and discussions about the way data becomes infrastruc- ture across utilities. "We didn't want to prescribe how industry gets to that stage. This is a call to action, for industry to start doing some small things, like publishing metadata to populate the data catalogue, so we can ‰ nd out what data is already out there." Next stage: • Collaboration "The Energy Systems Catapult has recently won an award to develop data best practice guidance. We will be facilitating a number of collaborative workshops to test and develop what 'good' looks like." • Innovation "Innovate UK is running a competition on modernising energy data access, which cites the EDT report as the foundation. This starts with three projects, which will be narrowed down until one supplier delivers an open source beta solution for industry." • Strategy "Ofgem wants networks to include a digitalisation strat- egy as part of RIIO2. We may not know what that looks like, but Ofgem is clear it wants to help industry get to a digitalised future. So it will be a collaborative e† ort to ‰ nd out what digitalisation looks like for utilities." Pushback: "Some utilities have asked 'who pays for this?'. But we've discovered utilities have a lot of data already, it's about making it accessible. There is a marginal incre- mental cost in moving it from a computer underneath someone's desk to accessible web services. Data is infra- structure, it's a way to manage your estate in the same way you manage physical assets. That's an investment key to the future of the energy networks, regardless." Customer and privacy impact: "It is for you to look at your data and start making deci- sions about categorising it. "Even with the presumed open principle, it's abso- lutely ‰ ne not to publish where there are privacy issues. But there are system data maps which are very useful to share around operations, capacity, plant reinforcement. "When it comes to a competitive marketplace for energy suppliers, we need to start making decisions, like how we can bring renewables on to the grid while protecting consumer privacy. "We don't have all the answers, but we are here to support, to move on to the next stage and help utilities discover what they need to do." Jake Verma, of Energy Systems Catapult and part of the Energy Data Taskforce (EDT) team, shared further details with the council on its recommendations for an integrated data and digital strategy, how they were being received by industry, and next steps. "The report is a call to action, for industry to start doing some small things, like publishing metadata to populate the data catalogue, so we can fi nd out what data is already out there."

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