Overcoming the interoperability challenge to propel the clean energy transition

I’ll be joining the energy and industrial decarbonisation panel discussion on the Thursday morning of Tech Week, sharing my thoughts on the energy transition and the obstacles ahead. One issue that’s top of mind for me is the lack of a common standard on which to integrate the multitude of physical assets – battery storage, EV chargers, heat pumps and solar panel invertors – that are pivotal to positive change.

Colleagues here at Cambridge Consultants, part of Capgemini Invent, having been working on something we call Cloud Energy, a proprietary technology platform designed to overcome this interoperability challenge. Actually, it could be described as something of a ‘Bluetooth’ of smart energy systems. As well as enabling interoperability, the platform offers a potential answer to the supply and demand predicament that threatens to cause grid instability as more of our energy use is electrified.

Optimising energy consumption

Coordinating energy assets is an issue that involves network stakeholders at every level; individuals, communities and energy suppliers included. Currently, home energy management systems (HEMS) offer ways for users to monitor, control and optimise energy consumption behind the meter. But the need to coordinate assets before the meter, at the low voltage levels of the electricity grid, is putting pressure on a network that simply wasn’t designed for the emergence of widespread local energy generation and increasingly intensive electricity consumption.

With the drive to net zero, the electricity demand will only increase, increasing the need for demand side management (DSM) and demand side generation (DSG) at a local level to maintain balance. By addressing this challenge from the bottom up, rather than centralised top down, we can make the most of MWs of local energy storage, reducing the need to curtail the generation of electricity from offshore wind and removing the costs associated with this curtailment from utility bills. This is why sophisticated control systems are required to deliver operational behaviour that meets the needs of consumers, producers and suppliers alike.

New energy control systems

Cloud Energy has the capability to support new energy control systems for a wide range of applications. The platform would normally control electricity, but energy vectors such as natural gas, hydrogen or heat could be coordinated using the same approach.

The platform works through a hierarchy of energy agents. Each act on behalf of a user type, which could be a home or business, or a large group within the energy grid. These individuals or groups have different motivations and objectives, which are reflected by their agents.

Thanks to the ability of these agents to make decisions and issue commands and requests, they can deliver rich behaviour on behalf of their users. It means the platform is ideal for building systems that optimise energy use for different users with different objectives. Here are some examples of how the system could work to satisfy these differing objectives:

• Home occupants wanting to import electricity at a lower price and export at a higher one
• A distribution network operator (DNO) wanting to increase the grid’s average consumption without exceeding its current peak capacity
• A generator wanting to sell electricity at a higher price
• An aggregator wanting to ensure that is group does not exceed its allocated peak power consumption, which could vary with time
• In Great Britain, the National Energy System Operator (NESO) wanting to keep the grid always balanced

Smart energy integration

Already one company, Octopus Energy, is striving to establish a global consortium of hardware manufacturers to simplify the integration of smart energy devices. Interoperability and functionality that can support energy grids by balancing supply and demand are the top priority. It’s not hard to see why. Alternative solutions – such as investing in proprietary devices with common protocols – are prohibitively expensive and impractical.

On a wider scale, initiatives like Cloud Energy are the way forward if we are to deliver on the promise of smarter, more efficient energy distribution and consumption – and help create a more sustainable, secure network for future generations. Rewiring the grid at massive expense and throwing endless lengths of copper wire at the problem is a non-starter.

I’m looking forward to discussing this topic at Cambridge Tech Week, and the broader challenges of decarbonisation and the energy transition. The panel runs Thursdsay morning, from 10:30am-11:05am, and is part of the first Tech Deep Dive session: Redefining Energy Systems for Net Zero. See you there.

By Niall Mottram, VP Energy & CDR at Cambridge Consultants, part of Capgemini Invent