The request, which was made by South Australia distributor SA Power Networks, energy supplier Alinta Energy and metering provider Intellihub, calls for the implementation of a framework for a universal deployment of smart meters to all customers by 2030.

In addition, it calls for the implementation of a range of measures to better support customers though this accelerated rollout, including improving the information provided to them and applying new consumer protections when they receive a smart meter.

The proposed rule change was made in a letter dated 22 September 2023 following the AEMC’s completion of its review of the regulatory framework for metering services and mirrors the recommendations therein, the letter states.

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The only material difference is that the rule change request does not include the AEMC’s recommendations in relation to customer access to real-time data, as it was unlikely the changes could be implemented by 1 July 2025 – the commencement date for the acceleration of deployment.

“We have jointly proposed this rule change request because we support the recommendations in the AEMC’s final report and consider that they should be progressed as a matter of urgency,” state the signatories in the letter.

As the AEMC is unable to self-initiate a rule change request, the intent is to enable it to commence the process, they write.

Other proposed changes include improving the meter installation process by reducing barriers to installing smart meters and enabling more efficient and coordinated deployments and implementing a new regulatory framework for metering businesses to provide power quality data from smart meters to the distribution network service providers.

This would enable these providers to improve the visibility of their low voltage networks, better integrate consumer energy resources and improve safety for customers.

The requirements for undertaking tests and inspections of meters to avoid unnecessary costs also should be clarified and improved.

Smart meters status

The proposed rule change is set to have the most impact in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland and South Australia where, at the time of the AEMC’s report, the average smart meter uptake was around 30%.

Tasmania has a programme in place to accelerate smart meter deployment by 2026, while Victoria has already achieved a near-universal uptake of smart meters.

While the number of smart meter deployments has been increasing each year it needs to increase substantially more from a little over 400,000 units in FY23 to over 700,000 units per year from FY26 to meet the 2030 universal rollout.

The proposed rule change based on a draft determination due on 4 April is open to comment until 30 May. The AEMC then expects to complete the process by 11 July.

Farrand expands on how Trilliant is supporting global utilities with their smart grid networks for a new energy future.

Watch the full video interview with Gavin Farrand below.

This interview was filmed in November 2023 at Enlit Europe in Paris, France.

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In February 2024 Cyprus’s Electricity Authority, the state-owned energy company, awarded the tender for the smart meter rollout to CyTA at a cost of €39.9 million (US$43.4 million), according to a report in the Cyprus Mail.

However, the award was challenged by one of the other two bidders, Logicom Solutions, which had put in the lowest bid at €33.6 million.

The third from New Cytech Business Solution was at €37.6 million.

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According to the Cyprus Mail report, Logicom argued that in awarding the bid, the Authority had violated essential terms of the tender.

However, the Tenders Review Authority upheld the Electricity Authority’s decision, basing its finding on reasons of public interest.

The decision is quoted as reading: “Any further delay in implementing the contract would raise the spectre of serious repercussions both for Cyprus and for EAC customers, via the loss of financing from the European Union, by no means a paltry sum…”

In presenting the case Giorgos Petrou, chairman of the board at the Electricity Authority, had suggested that delays could raise the risk of Cyprus losing funds designated in the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility.

For those, according to the Cyprus Mail, the deal with the meter supplier must be finalised by March 2024.

Moreover, the Electricity Authority must receive 50,000 smart meters of which 15,000 are installed by September 2024 and by June 2026 all 400,000 smart meters must be received with 250,000 installations completed.

According to an earlier Cyprus Mail report, the Electricity Authority had earmarked a total of €50 million for the smart meter replacements, of which €35 million would come from the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

The same report also indicated that the 400,000 smart meters would correspond to about two-thirds of the metered base, with some customers staying with their traditional meters for cost or practical reasons, such as the elderly who felt that they could not effectively be served with them.

This is not the first time the rollout has been delayed. In April 2022 the bid was awarded to New Cytech but was challenged by Ningbo.

The five-year project included the deployment of 50,000 smart meters and the connection of Itron’s distribution intelligence (DI) enabled platform with Coopesantos RL’s customer information system.

With this upgrade with grid edge intelligence Coopesantos RL now has visibility and control across its diverse rural service territory, which includes mountainous and hard-to-access areas.

“Being the first cooperative to deploy smart meters in Costa Rica and Central America marks a significant step toward the modernisation of the infrastructure and distribution of electrical energy in rural areas where we provide service to all homes, businesses and industries,” said Mario Patricio Solis Solis, General Manager of Coopesantos RL.

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“Our electrical distribution deployment has been strengthened with this investment in technology and devices from Itron, automating and optimising our operational processes. We’re thrilled to continue working together as we embark on creating a reliable smart grid to prepare for the future.”

The solution was delivered via local Itron channel partners Conelectricas RL and Itecna.

Benefits anticipated by Coopesantos RL include more rapid insight and response to power outages with Costa Rica prone to extreme weather events, a reduced carbon footprint with reduced need for meter reading and increased client satisfaction with detailed insight into energy use and early detection of technical irregularities such as theft.

Coopesantos RL, headquartered in the city of San Marcos de Tarrazú, is one of four electric cooperatives in Costa Rica.

The cooperative claims 100% clean energy generation from two hydro plants, the 13MW Los Santos wind farm and growing distributed solar PV, primarily from commercial users.

In addition to energy generation and supply the cooperative offers fibre Internet services.

In 2023 the installed base of smart gas meters amounted to 55.9 million units and at a CAGR of 6.8% is projected to reach 77.6 million units by 2028, Berg Insight’s data indicates.

The annual shipment volumes amounted to 4.8 million units in 2023 and are expected to be around 5 to 5.8 million throughout the period.

The UK, Italy and Belgium were the most active markets, together accounting for the majority of the smart gas meter shipments during the year.

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While the rollouts in Italy, France and the Netherlands are largely completed, the UK market is ramping up yearly installations to reach a peak of around 3.3 million units per year during 2024–2025.

Belgium and Ireland also are expected to contribute with significant shipment volumes in the coming years. The Spanish market is expected to reach yearly shipment volumes of 1 million units by the end of the forecast period.

Smart gas meter networking

Berg Insight highlights how the smart gas meters deployed in Europe have been networked somewhat differently from the smart electricity meters.

A common model observed in the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium is to utilise a local wireless or wired interface to transmit gas data via the customer’s smart electricity meter.

A mix of 169MHz RF and 2G/3G cellular communications has been the primary model for the largest projects in which smart gas meters have been deployed independently of smart electricity meters, such as in Italy and France.

However, with the more ready availability of new types of LPWA technologies a shift in favour of these has begun.

Italy, for example, was the first to initiate large-scale adoption of NB-IoT as a primary smart meter connectivity choice and in 2023 the installed base of gas meters with NB-IoT connectivity in that country reached more than 2.5 million.

Berg Insight anticipates that by the end of the forecast period NB-IoT/LTE-M will become the go-to connectivity option for smart gas meters in several European markets, reaching an installed base of around 13.2 million units and accounting for as much as 60% of the annual shipment volumes.

The analyst also highlights the anticipated increase in the use of hydrogen in the European gas supply, with pilots underway in the UK and Italy with metering devices capable of measuring blend of hydrogen and natural gas or pure hydrogen and that interest in hydrogen meters is likely to increase as the technology matures.

The report, prepared with EY, points to the complexity of the e-mobility ecosystem with increasing EV adoption with multiple parties including drivers and players from the charging station and energy systems and the web of relationships between them.

Underlying all of these is data and the need for data exchange not only to assure the day-to-day driver experience but also to enable the integration of EVs into the broader energy system, of which ultimately they must be an integral part.

For the driver, some key issues are charge point accessibility and payments and roaming on a seamless basis.

For the energy sector challenges include the timely connection of charging infrastructure to the grid and the grid integration of the EVs both to avoid congestion on the one hand and to draw on the battery storage potential for flexibility on the other.

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To enable these standards and communication, protocols are essential for each interaction, while any use of data also invokes sharing, privacy and cybersecurity requirements.

e-mobility activities

The report states that data interoperability promotes collaboration and information sharing between stakeholders to enable services and facilities that support EV rollout.

For example, charging station optimisation can be achieved with strategically sited stations that provide EV users with easy access and convenience and thereby reduce range anxiety, enhance the driver experience and encourage wider adoption.

Seamless integration of EV charging with the energy grid enables energy optimisation and grid services, such as frequency regulation and voltage support.

With interoperability between data systems, drivers can benefit from real-time information on charging station availability, pricing and compatibility with their vehicles, they can initiate charging sessions remotely, manage payments and track their charging history via an app.

Industry opportunities

The report suggests that while electric vehicle uptake is advancing towards mainstream adoption, to maintain momentum and keep drivers onside, every interaction must be configured around the customer journey.

“From purchase or lease, through EV usage and management, to end-of-life decommissioning, we must deliver a hassle-free and green driver experience.”

The right structural and regulatory mechanisms need to be in place across each of the relevant areas.

Moreover, by getting the mechanics of data interoperability right, connections will form across conventional demarcation lines with players exploring new commercial opportunities, crossing into adjacent services and competing to win over the customer and capture value.

For example, automotive companies, such as Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo are already crossing over into energy provision, battery services and solar solutions, while energy companies are building out charging infrastructure and e-mobility services.

Greater cross-over and innovation can be expected as the customer journey is redesigned and commercial lines are redrawn, suggests the report.

Building blocks for success

The report offers five building blocks considered for success in the e-mobility space, irrespective of industry segment.

These are:

• ‘Control tower’ to provide visibility and understanding across the commercial landscape.
• Customer proposition defined using segmentation and analytics to inform the product and service delivery.
• Dataspace acting as a centralised hub for curating, integrating and managing data from diverse sources.
• Data privacy and legal, commercial and regulatory diligence around areas such as customer consent and data sharing.
• Trust and cybersecurity taking into account the multiple connection points and extending to supply chains.

The report concludes by stating that progress is being made, but there’s a long road ahead.

“E-mobility is gaining pace in Europe. To accelerate EVs’ uptake in Europe all players across the value chain need to work together with open, interoperable and secure data to create a smooth, seamless experience for the customer,” comments Eurelectric Secretary General, Kristian Ruby.

The 30 millionth meter was connected to the network at midday on March 1 by E.ON.

With the average daily connection rate approaching 16,000, the number of connections is growing apace and corresponds to over 18 million homes, or about 70% of all homes now being connected.

“Reaching 30 million connected smart meters in over 18 million homes is another landmark milestone in pursuit of our purpose to make Britain more connected so we can all lead smarter, greener lives,” says Angus Flett, CEO of the DCC.

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Gill Baker, Director of Smart Field Connections at E.ON, says the company is delighted at having fitted the 30 millionth smart meter.

“[We] are equally proud to have fitted more than five million others before this one and are pleased to be part of this exciting milestone for Great Britain’s energy system.”

The smart meter network is considered a critical part of the nation’s energy infrastructure and an important platform for digitalising the power grid, enabling real-time data delivery to customers, network operators and suppliers.

With its use, the DCC estimates current CO2 savings at 1.125Mt/year.

DCC work programme

To advance its use, a range of initiatives are currently underway by the DCC, of which a key one is the migration of the more than 15 million first-generation SMETS1 smart meters to the network.

As of November 2023 (the last data available), almost 11.6 million SMETS1 meters were connected to the network.

Closely related is the central switching service, which is aimed to reduce the supplier switching to five working days and subsequently to 24 hours.

In particular, the ‘Enduring change of supplier’ (ECoS) programme is aimed at enhancing the security of a switch, with the essential component the replacement of a key on the smart meter. The migration from the previous programme to the ECoS is currently underway and due for completion in Q2 2024.

The third major initiative is the rollout of dual band communications hubs, which are intended to enable the smart meters to communicate in buildings such as apartment blocks or with thick walls where communication is not possible with the single band hubs – about 25% of British households.

These hubs use the 2.4GHz frequency of the single band hubs as well as a HAN frequency of 868MHz and are expected to open up the benefits of smart meters to these households.

Further updates on Britain’s smart meter rollout are expected with the release of the government’s annual review for 2023, which is included with the March release of the quarterly update.

Though the ‘edge’ has been talked about for years, it is increasingly taking central stage as more and more homes and businesses take up solar and battery systems, switch to electric vehicles ((EVs) and heat pumps and instal the smart appliances that are advertised as bringing more convenience to life.

In broad terms the edge is where the utility and customer meet and is effectively represented by the meter – the utility side in front of the meter and the customer side behind the meter.

With this growth of decentralised resources and the increasingly complex and unpredictable power flows, some of the risks include the likely emergence of hyper-local capacity constraints and that ageing infrastructure can be put at risk.

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But there has been what Itron has termed a ‘control gap’, with the challenge that whereas a typical SCADA manages approximately 1,000 assets per million customers and a typical advanced distribution management systems 10,000 assets, that to the point of service is a further two orders of magnitude greater at around 1 million points.

But that is changing, with the evolution of IT and other technologies opening the way for a variety of new products and services to provide visibility and control to address the challenges of the evolving grid.

Itron’s grid edge intelligence portfolio

A pioneer of edge intelligence in the energy sector, Itron has consolidated its offerings into a cloud-based edge intelligence portfolio combining connectivity, analytics and applications with intelligence for AMI operations and optimisers for the low and medium voltage grid, DERs and EVs, coupled to a central datahub.

To simplify the process the Itron Enterprise Edition has been made available in the Microsoft Azure marketplace, also opening the way for integrating the Azure OpenAI generative AI solution for users to expedite and improve visibility on data and operations.

Among the new solutions launched are Active Transformer Load and Voltage Monitoring (ATLM/ATVM) applications to enable visibility on transformer loading and voltage statistics in real-time along with configurable threshold-based alarms.

Key for broader uptake of the solutions is partnerships with other providers with these opening the way for Itron’s grid edge intelligence solutions to be integrated into Schneider Electric’s digital grid solutions and to GE Vernova’s new GridOS Data Fabric alongside the GridOS apps.

A further partnership is with the Mobility House as part of its Fast & Flexible Interconnect (FIX) programme for charging of EV fleets in constrained distribution systems.

Don Reeves, senior VP of Outcomes at Itron, reports that customers have advised that the company’s Grid Edge Intelligence portfolio can enhance grid capacity by approximately 20% through the optimisation of existing grid assets.

“Utilities are operating in a more complex environment than ever before and there is a real sense of urgency that change is needed to ensure grid reliability, resiliency and sustainability and improve the customer experience.”

Landis+Gyr and Span partnership

Landis+Gyr has announced a partnership with home electrification technology developer Span, with the first joint product combining their respective solutions to deliver a grid edge solution with circuit-level billing-grade metering, DER visibility and controls.

Describing the co-innovated solution as “a whole-home multi-asset virtual power plant (VPP)”, Werner Lieberherr, CEO of Landis+Gyr, says: “The partnership not only expands our flexibility management platform but also helps [utilities] reduce costly grid infrastructure investments required for electrification. We’re particularly excited to bring SPAN’s service upgrade avoidance capabilities and intuitive app experience … to drive energy efficiency and flexibility.”

While full details of the solution are still to be released, the companies promise to evaluate it in pilots with US utilities starting later in the year.

Siemens Gridscale X

Siemens has launched Gridscale X as a modular software to scale grid capacity and handle the complexity of DERs.

A key component of Gridscale X is DER Insights which is designed to unlock visibility over the distribution grid, with features including the location and behaviour of DERs, grid impact identification and digital grid mapping and modelling.

“With the electrification of everything and the exponential growth of DERs, there is an urgent need for increasing grid capacity fast,” says Sabine Erlinghagen, CEO Siemens Grid Software, pointing to the use of such software as enabling utilities to focus on critical infrastructure upgrades and reducing the impact and occurrence of grid equipment failure, outages and technical debt.

Users of these or similar softwares are invited to contact us with case studies.

Jonathan Spencer Jones

Specialist writer
Smart Energy International

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Since the deployment began in October 2022, Vodafone Spain has already connected more than 250,000 meters to its NB-IoT network and the initial target is to complete connections to over 1 million water meters during the first 5 years of the contract.

Aqualia’s goal is to offer remote meter reading and other services to its over 3 million customers in Spain in the coming years.

Daniel Barallat, director of IoT at Vodafone Spain, says the control and management of water use in Spain is a constant and vitally important challenge today.

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“With this contract, we put our most cutting-edge technology at the service of Aqualia to actively contribute to the better conservation of natural resources and more efficient water management.”

The initiative is being undertaken as part of the government’s Strategic Project for Recovery and Economic Transformation (PERTE), which is aimed to modernise the urban water systems to improve efficiency, reduce losses in the distribution systems and improve the wastewater treatment infrastructure.

Vodafone’s Water Meter solution for homes, businesses and public institutions includes the digitalisation of the meters and the reading and analysis of the data.

In a pilot currently underway in the city of Vigo, Aqualia and Vodafone are investigating the use of the remote meter read data for detection of fraudulent activities such as tampering and reverse flow and for leak detection with hourly water balance analyses, with the aim to develop a comprehensive solution.

It is also intended to provide the data to customers to enable them to become aware of their consumption and to use the data for the prediction of consumption patterns to improve water management and broadly make the cycle more sustainable.

For example, with optimised pumping in turn the energy consumption is optimised and stresses on the network reduced, which also should reduce the risk of breakage and leaks and the loss of non-revenue water.

NB-IoT is the preferred communication for water meters in Spain as many are underground or in other outdoor locations.

The company has been piloting the software 1Streetworks, which provides traffic management plans, with the finding that the average time taken to connect new or altered power connections was reduced by a quarter across approximately 300 Surrey roadworks sites where it was used.

Based on this outcome UK Power Networks is now planning to roll out the technology in a larger one-year trial in Kent to test its use in other workstreams across the company.

“Planning streetworks to the high standards we expect takes time and few have tried to revolutionise the process during my 23 years in the sector,” says Paul Dooley, streetworks performance manager at UK Power Networks.

“So, I’m excited about the potential of 1Streetworks to streamline complex traffic management plans, enable better communication with customers and highway authorities and improve the speed and accuracy of streetworks plans.”

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Traditionally a streetwork design plan for a smaller power connection, overhead line or underground cable repair usually needs a surveyor to assess the site, take measurements then plot signage on a CAD system – a process that can take hours of work, with the need to maintain high levels of safety and accuracy and to meet industry regulations.

The cloud-based 1Streetworks from the Cambridge headquartered location and geospatial data specialist 1Spatial is stated able to produce similar plans on-site in under two minutes.

Once the user plots the location of the work on a map, the software instantaneously plans site-specific traffic management, integrating layers of maps with main roads, bus stops, lane rental and streetworks rules.

Claire Milverton, CEO of 1Spatial, said the pilot has been a key milestone for the company and a culmination of many years of work and investment.

“We are delighted that our innovative 1Streetworks application has delivered such fantastic results for UK Power Networks and its customers. We look forward to roll out the software further across the network over the coming months.”

UK Power Networks has 190,000km of cables and delivers thousands of streetworks every year across London, the southeast and east of England.

On average there are over 4 million low-speed road works undertaken in the UK each year.

1Streetworks was developed initially with GB gas network operator Northern Gas Networks for expediting works on its underground pipelines.

Other top initiatives are renewable energy integration, grid modernisation and microgrids and disaster response and recovery plans.

Furthermore, the utilities are adopting new approaches to improve outage recovery times through advanced networking, with predictive maintenance analytics topping the list, followed by smart grid technologies and enhanced communications, as well as the use of drones and robotics to inspect assets.

Phil Beecher, President and CEO of the Wi-SUN Alliance, comments that extreme weather events are fast evolving from a rare occurrence to something that should be built into the risk profile of any utility company.

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“The emergence of smart grids, microgrids and other technologies, like predictive maintenance and fault finding, offers a way of controlling costs while increasing resilience and stability to help mitigate the impact of outages.”

But, he adds, “technologies like this are only as good as the underlying communications network to provide reliable and secure delivery of the data needed to deliver a truly smart grid.”

The research was conducted among more than 250 senior professionals in the US utilities and power sectors and highlights the role of new tools and technologies to help improve resilience and outage recovery times as weather events and environmental disasters become commonplace.

According to US Department of Energy data cited by the Wi-SUN Alliance, extreme weather conditions – from heatwaves to Arctic vortexes – have doubled power outages in the US over the past 20 years.

The research also founds that utilities recognise opportunities to integrate artificial intelligence technologies to address resilience, with viable use cases including energy consumption forecasting, automated fault detection and grid optimisation.

Looking ahead to the next five years building infrastructure resilience remains among the top issues, with others including security enhancement, customer-centric services, renewable energy integration and IoT integration and data analytics.

The study was conducted for the Wi-SUN Alliance by Censuswide in February 2024.

With the acquisition, energy supplier EDF is positioning itself to meet the expected take-up of solar panels as the demand increases, with projections indicating an up to 75% increase by 2030.

It also forms part of the company’s plans to provide a ‘whole house’ net zero home offering, combining solar, battery, EV charge points and heat pumps and follows the earlier acquisition in November 2023 of the heat pump installer CB Heating.

“This investment marks another important step forward in our commitment to helping our customers achieve net zero,” commented Philippe Commaret, Managing Director of Customers at EDF.

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“We know more and more people want to save cash and carbon and by acquiring a company like Contact Solar we can help them by providing better value and a truly great end-to-end solar panel install service, utilising a company whose expertise, knowledge and service is exceptional.”

Contact Solar, which was founded over a decade ago, is a specialist installer of domestic and commercial solar and battery storage systems and electric vehicle charge points and has gained an ‘Excellent’ rating for its services on the review site Trustpilot.

Contact Solar’s network of local installers across the country will work with EDF to deliver residential installs alongside solutions for local authorities, housing associations and developers in building and retrofitting homes.

EDF also intends to explore the possibility of upskilling engineers already working on home energy solutions to install solar panels, alongside other zero carbon products such as EV chargers or heat pumps.

Expressing delight that EDF had chosen to acquire Contact Solar, director Tom Taylor said: “We are excited about the limitless opportunities that lie ahead and look forward to working alongside EDF to help more customers install solar and batteries in their homes, as the country moves towards a greener future.”

Customers in Britain with ten 4kWp of solar panels along with a 5.32kWh battery could save up to three-quarters on their annual energy bill, modelling indicates.

Customers who opt for an installation will be provided with a personalised performance estimate based on their property type, size, location and household usage.

The rollout follows the regulatory approval given in September 2023, which authorised up to $153 million for the initiative and forms part of Rhode Island Energy’s grid modernisation activities to enable the integration of renewable energies to support the state’s climate goals.

The Revelo metering platform features grid edge sensing and edge computing capabilities to manage load and support grid troubleshooting, with the Revelo meter operating on Landis+Gyr’s RF Wi-SUN network.

Additionally, the advanced grid-edge processing allows for greater consumer engagement with applications such as real-time load disaggregation and pricing information.

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“The Commission’s approval to implement our advanced metering plan is an important step in modernising the state’s energy infrastructure for the benefit of all Rhode Islanders,” said Dave Bonenberger, president of Rhode Island Energy, of the approval.

With the prospect of being able to benefit from parent company PPL Corporation’s other smart meter rollouts in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, he continued: “We’ve seen the success of these new technologies across other PPL service territories, and customers should be excited about the advantages they’ll bring to their homes and businesses.”

The rollout is timely as approximately 60% of the electricity meters across the state are nearing the end of their design life and need to be replaced.

Before the start of the rollout, which is expected to begin in 2025 and to be completed over the following three years, Rhode Island Energy intends to engage customers to provide more details about the technology in advance of installation, as well as an opt-out option.

In October 2023 Rhode Island Energy was selected to potentially receive up to $50 million in federal funding from the Infrastructure Investment Act towards its almost $300 million smart grid investment programme to improve visibility and control on its grid.

Among the plans are advanced distribution management and energy management systems and a centralised asset hub data system and geographic information system to represent a digital twin of the grid.

Generative AI appears to be attracting as much interest in the energy sector as it is concerned.

New data from IBM, unveiled at DISTRIBUTECH International, indicate that almost three-quarters of energy and utility companies surveyed have implemented or are exploring using AI in their operations.

Moreover, in an earlier survey two-thirds of energy and resource CEOs felt they are more likely than their global peers to expect to realise value in the next three years from generative AI and automation.

However, an almost similar percentage expressed concerns about the sources of data used in generative AI.

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As the latest iteration of AI, generative AI is attracting much interest in the energy sector, as elsewhere, with tentative steps being taken as utilities investigate use cases where it can add value.

Itron integrates Microsoft Azure OpenAI

So far few energy solution providers have incorporated generative AI into their offerings and among the frontrunners is Itron, which ahead of DISTRIBUTECH 2024 announced what should prove a significant innovation for the sector with its integration of the Microsoft Azure OpenAI service.

Initially, the integration of the OpenAI service – which is based on the same model as ChatGPT – is with the Itron Enterprise Edition Meter Data Management system, distributed intelligence applications and Itron’s cloud-based DataHub platform, which is intended as the common access point for all data from the company’s portfolio.

This includes data created by Itron as well as that from third-party DI applications, such as load disaggregation, transformer connectivity and loading data.

With the OpenAI solution users should be enabled to get answers to questions, perform tasks, access data across the MDM and on the DataHub and for example use plain language queries to generate charts and reports as well as receive suggestions and feedback to improve data quality, accuracy and analysis.

“Through this collaboration [with Microsoft], we will enable utilities and cities to leverage the power of generative AI to boost efficiency, unlock creativity and enhance data management,” said Don Reeves, Senior Vice President of Outcomes at Itron.

IBM’s watsonx governance

While IBM’s watsonx generative AI and data platform for utilities and other enterprises was announced in May 2023, the latest addition to it is the governance toolkit that is designed to allow users to direct, manage and monitor their AI.

In particular, it is aimed to strengthen a company’s ability to detect and mitigate risks, manage changing regulatory requirements and address ethical concerns for both generative AI and machine learning models.

Casey Werth, IBM Global Energy Industry General Manager, says that as energy and utility CEOs manage their ongoing transformation efforts, they can also capitalise on the opportunities of generative AI and foundation models.

“In doing so they need to remember to focus on their own data, how it is gathered, accessed and used within their workflows along with the governance that should be baked into their tools and processes.”

The rollout, launched in 2015, has seen a J$14 billion (US$90 million) investment as part of the initiative to modernise the electricity network and improve the customer experience.

Since late 2023 the project primarily focussed on St Mary parish, to the north of the capital, Kingston.

Other parishes on this eastern side of the island, including Portland and southern sections of Kingston and St. Andrew, are due to be completed later this year.

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Smart meter customers can track their consumption with the company’s MyJPS mobile app and also benefit from other services including remote connection/disconnection and account transfers and switching between postpaid and prepaid options.

“Our ongoing future-oriented approach, underscores our dedication to providing faster, more efficient service,” said Pia Baker, Senior VP of Customer Experience and Commercial at JPS.

“We are proud of the progress we have made and the positive impact it is having on our customers’ experiences.”

Under a 2018 agreement, Itron was contracted to extend the existing Gen 5 network to support the full 670,000 smart meter deployment, while the smart meters were being provided by Aclara.

In other news, JPSCo has been awarded a US$100 million financing package from IDB Invest for its 2024-2025 investment programme for the ongoing modernisation of its grid, including the smart meter deployment and transmission and distribution upgrades, and the expansion of access to new customers.

Additionally, the funding should support JPS’s continuing digital transformation through cloud-based solutions as well as the island’s electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure development, including 17 new EV charging stations.

These are expected to support a rapid rollout of renewable energies and storage technology.

Currently, approximately 14% of Jamaica’s energy supply is renewable, primarily hydro, wind and solar.

i-DE is testing the technology on its distribution network in Vizcaya province near Bilbao in the Basque region of Spain, where Iberdrola is headquartered, throughout 2024.

If the trial’s outcome shows improvement in i-DE’s processes, including supporting its vegetation management strategy, enhancing network reliability and aiding wildfire prevention, the technology could be further rolled across the company’s network areas.

The LiveEO Treeline satellite software solution is designed to improve vegetation risk assessments, including modelling and predicting vegetation growth as well auditing previous work.

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The AI-based package is designed to identify and evaluate all forms of vegetation risks based on satellite data that is processed on a near real-time basis, to enable identification and response to emerging risks as they occur.

LiveEO, regularly named among the top 100 geospatial companies, states its Treeline solution can deliver results including a 15% reduction in vegetation-related outages, a 20% reduction in contractor cost per km and a one-year return on investment.

Other utilities that have deployed the solution include Iberdrola subsidiary Avangrid, Dominion Energy and Liberty Utilities in the US and E.DIS in Germany.

Data from earth observation satellites is becoming an increasingly important element of utility datasets, with vegetation management being a key use case and others including planning and design of new renewables projects, while other space-based data is available for positioning and timing use cases.

The roadmap is built around two pillars that are considered key, i.e. developing a power system fit for a carbon-neutral Europe while at the same time managing a secure and efficient power system for the region.

Or put another way this corresponds to ‘preparing the future’ while ‘managing the present’, to which the TSOs commit, stating: “This will require the continuous deployment of operational excellence, implementing efficient and operational market mechanisms, increasing regional coordination, and making the best use of information and communication technologies.”

Developing the power system

Starting with the power system for a carbon-neutral Europe pillar, the roadmap identifies five main areas where change is necessary to deliver on that.

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● Energy system flexibility: An accurate assessment of flexibility needs and potential is needed at national and European levels, as is a comprehensive ‘system of systems’ approach involving TSOs, DSOs and other sectors such as hydrogen to coordinate the deployment and use of the most efficient flexibility resources.

● Operating future grids: In a ‘system of systems’ approach, new approaches are needed, including enhanced real-time grid visibility, forecasting capabilities and controllability. Automation and AI will support operators in handling grid complexity while the electrification of end uses and sector coupling will require new risk-based methodologies, cybersecurity and new concepts for the coordination of operators.

● Infrastructure and investments: To accelerate the delivery of grid infrastructure both onshore and offshore coordinated planning will be required across the ‘system of systems’, as will massive investments in the transmission networks. Other requirements include reforming regulatory frameworks, ensuring fit-for-purpose financing mechanisms, developing seamless supply chains to overcome bottlenecks and enhancing engagement with local communities.

● Market design: Electricity markets will need to evolve, with strong long-term signals to enable investments in renewables, flexibility and grids, short-term markets to encourage efficient resource use and carbon-neutral flexibility and with incentives aligned with system capabilities and security, while other important aspects are transparency tools for a carbon-neutral system and potential changes to transmission tariff principles.

● Innovation development and uptake: While the TSOs are making breakthroughs in new strategic technologies by implementing ENTSO-E’s RD&I roadmap and the deployment of solutions, new measures regarding the adaptation of regulatory frameworks, the de-risking of first-of-a-kind projects, demonstrators and corresponding stakeholder engagement should be pursued.

Managing the power system

In the secure and efficient power system pillar, four main areas are identified in which the TSOs, with support and coordination by ENTSO-E, are playing multiple roles.

● Operational excellence, with support to TSOs to deliver efficient, resilient and secure system operation.

● Market development and operation, with the implementation of market mechanisms to efficiently operate the system and optimise social welfare for consumers.

● Regional coordination of national and regional actors.

● Information and communication technology, with support for the design and development of the ICT tools to manage the power system.

The roadmap document concludes that while planning and delivering the future power system, Europe needs to continue to rely on a strong, secure and efficient electricity supply.

“To ensure the balance between these two dimensions, ENTSO-E will need to manage intertwined and sometimes challenging approaches or activities while fulfilling these dual strategic goals. The strategic roadmap will focus its activities, resources and the stakeholder engagement of ENTSO-E on [these] twofold objectives.”

The new tender, with a value of €24.25 million ($26.2 million), is for up to about 300,000 smart meters, with a minimum volume of 120,000 units, for delivery over one year.

The tender includes smart meters of both single-phase and three-phase direct types as well as fully equipped data concentrators and they must use the Meters and More communication protocol.

“The resilience of networks and the digitalisation of energy infrastructure are our priorities, and smart meters are important elements in the energy circuit that help us provide customers with the necessary tools on the road to energy transition,” says Mihai Pest, general manager of the Rețele Electrice companies.

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“The resilient networks of the future, which will operate digitally to integrate both localised generation sources, such as prosumers, and new types of electrified consumption, such as electric vehicles, are based on smart meters.”

The three DSOs, Rețele Electrice Muntenia, Rețele Electrice Banat and Rețele Electrice Dobrogea (previously E-Distributie Muntenia, Banat and Dobrogea) launched their smart meter rollouts in their three respective regions, which together cover about a third of the country’s distribution market, in 2015.

At the end of 2023, the over 1.5 million installed base was comprised of approximately 713,000 units in the Muntenia region in the south, which includes the capital Bucharest, 436,000 in the Banat region in the west and 376,000 in the Dobrogea region in the southeast.

Under a decision by the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), in the period 2019 to 2028 when the full national rollout is targeted, Rețele Electrice Muntenia is required to instal a total of 775,405 smart meters, Rețele Electrice Banat 488,727 smart meters and Rețele Electrice Dobrogea 411,466 smart meters.

According to the latest ACER-CEER retail market review, the smart meter penetration in Romania at the end of 2022 was less than 20%.

Alongside the smart meter rollout, the three Rețele Electrice DSOs are undertaking initiatives to modernise the medium and low voltage grids.

Included in the just completed first stage is the implementation of a cloud analytics platform for managing and processing the smart meter data and opening up its access to customers to monitor and manage their consumption.

With the phase 2 plan, AES Ohio is proposing to continue the modernisation of its grid, which has been underway in the first phase, with a focus on the ongoing rollout of smart technologies to improve system stability and performance and the backbone communication capabilities.

At the foundation of the smart grid is smart meters and AES Ohio expects to have deployed these to 95% of customers by June 2025.

The smart grid phase 2 plan has three principal components – automation of distribution operations, advanced grid intelligence and telecommunications and cybersecurity.

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“We have a commitment to our customers and community to ensure the reliability and resiliency of our grid by making needed modernisation investments,” says Ken Zagzebski, President and CEO of AES Utilities.

“With the successful deployment of smart meters and mid-line reclosers in phase 1, customers are benefitting from fewer outages and decreased restoration times. The Smart Grid 2 plan is a critical step to an integrated grid and creating meaningful capability improvements that add value to our customers.”

The plan filings point to a number of challenges and opportunities that have driven the phase 2 vision.

These include fundamental changes in the energy industry that have created unprecedented strain on the nation’s power grid such as the rise of decarbonisation, the installation of utility-scale storage and renewables projects and the rapid adoption of customer-owned distributed resources.

In addition localised changes including more volatile weather, increasing adoption of EVs and growth from new industrial, commercial and residential customers have further increased the need for grid modernisation.

To achieve improved operational insights, AES Ohio is proposing investments in areas including dynamic network model optimisation, distributed energy resource management, the distribution performance monitoring and analytics centre and grid edge intelligence.

Regarding grid technology deployment, AES plans to continue to make investments in a self-healing grid, with a particular focus on grid automation, volt/var optimisation/conservation voltage reduction, an advanced distribution management system and field crew management.

To support the connectivity needs of the new technologies, such as the new substation and distribution devices, upgrades and expansion of the existing communication networks also are proposed, along with a strengthening of cybersecurity measures and optimising advanced threat readiness.

Positive benefits

In the filing, AES Ohio estimates a 3.6 to 1 NPV benefits-to-cost ratio of the investments over 20 years, with most indirect in the form of reduced CO2 emissions and economic impact but almost a third direct, including avoided or deferred capital spend, operations and maintenance and energy and demand savings and enhanced reliability.

AES Ohio has requested an order on the plan in Q1 of 2025 to enable smooth transition between the two phases but also in the anticipation of maintaining on-site the same contractors working on the phase 1 investments.

AES Ohio serves more than 527,000 customer accounts in west central Ohio.

Indeed the title of the session, the Energy Innovation Forum, gives it away.

But what is innovation? I and daresay many others tend to think first of advances in technologies, but ultimately it is much more than that and there is the need for innovation across multiple fronts – policy and funding to name some, in addition to technology – to be able to achieve the various climate targets as set out to culminate in net zero by 2050.

Just as the social sciences started becoming part of science policy in the 1990s so too they are now becoming part of innovation with more than one speaker highlighting the need for the human aspect to be placed at its centre.

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“It is important to recognise innovation in all its forms. It’s exciting to hear about some of the key technological breakthroughs but that is just one part of the equation and it’s good and necessary but not enough,” said David Turk, US Deputy Secretary of Energy, in his summing up.

“The human piece is incredibly important throughout … It’s not just human behaviour for the technologies that are consumer-facing but it has to work for the businesses, the incumbents, the other parts of the system as well,” he continued.

“We should be working for the betterment of fellow citizens around the world,” he said.

Another aspect of innovation that he highlighted as a takeaway from the discussions is the need to consider the full innovation cycle with the need to move from pilot to scale up but with what appears today a limited focus on the demonstration phase.

Turk suggested that AI and machine learning could play a role in shrinking the innovation cycle.

A third is “connecting the dots” between all the parties in the sector and the fourth related to this is knowledge sharing on at least a real-time basis and the tracking of progress.

“The IEA’s tracking of clean energy progress last year found that only three of the 50 technologies and sectors were on target and those are impressive but we need that across the board.”

Innovation looking ahead

Part of the focus of the meeting was to get input on areas that the IEA should focus on to advance energy innovation in the years ahead.

In her summing up, Amanda Wilson, Director-General of the Office of R&D at National Resources Canada and chair of the IEA’s energy research committee, pointed to technology priorities that arose in the discussions including needs around products and software such as AI, batteries for storage and electrolysis for hydrogen and large scale processes including industry decarbonisation, carbon capture and storage and nuclear.

The needs of emerging economies also arose as a key topic, particularly around energy access, clean cooking and digital skills.

Then on top of those inputs, numerous more were from participants in an hour long session with the general sentiment among the specifics being the need for the IEA to draw on its expertise and for example its tracking and analytical skills to address all the facets of innovation and to advise on and support the acceleration of the energy transition.

Technology advisory body

A notable aspect of the IEA’s work over the years is the broadening of its scope as reflected in the breadth of its reports, covering countries and technologies and not least the net zero pathway that forms the baseline for its future work.

In their communique from the meeting, and taking into account the input from participants, the ministers said they reiterate their commitment to support energy RD&D to reach the 2050 objectives, including through the IEA’s technology collaboration programmes.

The ministers also indicated support for further discussion towards the establishment of a technology advisory body of innovators, investors and industry and to foster synergies between international initiatives such as the IEA TCPs – of which the International Smart Grid Action Network is one – the Clean Energy Ministerial and Mission Innovation.

As these occur we will continue to report on but in the meantime let us know the innovations you are working on.

Jonathan Spencer Jones

Specialist writer
Smart Energy International

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Scott Neuman, Chief Executive Officer, and Melissa Gander, Chief Operating Officer, address critical industry challenges, discuss Kaluza’s unique approach to solving these challenges, and predict the key future trends that will shape the industry.

“To tackle the climate crisis, we must completely rethink how we supply, manage, and use energy. We are moving toward a model where customers are at the centre, producing and storing their energy. This is nothing short of a revolution in redefining what it means to be an energy company”, says Neuman.

Noting the many complexities that energy companies have to contend with, Neuman stresses that while many companies want to “champion decarbonisation” they are often left struggling to achieve the basics while being mindful of the associated costs.

Watch the full video interview below with Neuman and Gander.

This interview was filmed in November 2023 at Enlit Europe in Paris, France.

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At least half of the utilities reported increases in solar panels and electric vehicles over the past three years and just over a third an increase in batteries. Looking ahead, the majority also foresee further increases in all these resources.

But while this broad panorama is understood by the utilities, more granular details are harder to track, the survey found, with data showing a lack of clarity as they try to understand the location, size and activity of these resources.

For example, DER location information is often accessible only for resources that are either connected to grid management software such as a distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) or required to submit interconnection requests to connect to the grid – or in some cases both.

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Almost three-quarters of the respondents rely solely on interconnection requests and/or integrations with platforms like DERMS to gather location information but it remains incomplete as the majority of customers are not enrolled in DER management programmes.

Overall, the utilities estimate, they have visibility into little more than a third on average of the DERS on their grid – and this is creating operational issues with nearly three quarters citing challenges including voltage visibility and control, back-feeding, protection and control coordination, distribution transformer and conductor overloads and masked or hidden loads.

“The complexities associated with behind-the-meter DERs are a significant challenge to electricity distribution utilities in North America,” comments Marcus McCarthy, SVP of Siemens Grid Software, US and Mexico.

He points out that technology can help by providing actionable insights into the opportunities and challenges of these resources to improve grid resilience.

“The software and digitalisation tools we implement today, will not only increase capacity, but aid in reliability – laying the foundation for an autonomous and advanced clean grid of the future.”

Demand side management

That technology, DER management programmes but especially the more easily implemented demand side management programmes, is pointed to in the survey with over two-thirds implementing such programmes and planning to expand them in the next five years.

With this, more than half of the respondents expect visibility into the behaviour and location of behind-the-meter DERs to benefit their operations by reducing their SAIDI and SAIFI metrics and increasing productivity.

Based on the findings of the survey Siemens offers three key recommendations for utilities, of which one is obviously to invest in the technologies that boost visibility behind the meter as a necessity to successfully navigate the energy transition and future-proof the grid.

The others are to prioritise strategies like demand side and DER management programmes for increased flexibility behind the meter and to strengthen customer trust to enable boosting participation in management programmes.

“With a deeper understanding of their customers’ needs and preferences, utilities can develop transparent policies and practices that reduce barriers to programme enrolment, including lack of interest and hesitation to share information.”

The survey Seeing behind the meter was undertaken with Oxford Economics and was based on input from 100 decision makers from electric utilities in the US and Canada.

Specifically the holding company is named Enaon and the operating company Enaon Eda and together they will be responsible for the development and management of the gas service in Greece.

The rebranding also marks the next step of the reorganisation of the company, which has included the merger in 2023 of the three previous DSOs of Depa Infrastructure, Thessaloniki-Thessalia Gas Distribution (EDA Thess), Attiki Natural Gas Distribution (EDA Attikis) and Public Gas Distribution Networks (DEDA), into one.

“With the presentation of Enaon, we inaugurate a new chapter in our journey,” said Italgas CEO Paolo Gallo making the announcement at the inauguration of the companies’ new headquarters in the Politia Business Centre in Athens.

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“The launch of the new corporate image comes at a time when we have already successfully achieved important goals that will make us work better and more efficiently. I am referring to the migration of the IT system to the cloud, the unification of the three companies into a single operator and the choice of a new headquarters where people, previously spread over several locations, have more space and greater comfort at their disposal.”

He added that Italgas confirms itself as the ideal technological and industrial partner to support Greece in the phase-out of coal and lignite towards the EU’s decarbonisation targets.

“Our experience in the digital transformation of networks, an enabling factor for the decarbonisation of consumption, has already been made available to our colleagues and will also allow Greek distribution networks to welcome biomethane, green hydrogen and other renewable gases in the near future.”

At the same occasion Enaon signed a memorandum of understanding with HABIO, the Hellenic Association of Biogas Producers, to accelerate the development and use of biomethane in Greece.

The two-year agreement will focus on areas including the development of regulatory proposals, definition of grid connection parameters, determination of costs for the expansion and connection of plants, promotion of sustainable biomass harvesting and the use of digestate as fertilizer.

Italgas reports the name ‘Enaon’ as being inspired by the Greek word ‘Αέναος’ or Aenaos, which translates to ‘perennial’ and ‘renewable’ and which in the context of energy is intended to represent a lasting offer able to meet both current needs and that of future generations.

Moreover the company continues, ‘Ena’ is the Greek word for ‘one’ and recalls the union of the three previous DSOs and together with ‘On’ represents the commitment of Enaon to delivering continuous gas supply and working to equip the country with a state-of-the-art smart flexible infrastructure.

The objective of the ODEON (federated data and intelligence Orchestration and sharing for the Digital Energy transitiON) project is to create “an inclusive ecosystem of stakeholders characterised a mesh of data, intelligence, service and market flows”, the project brief reads – and thereby jointly enabling the resilient operation of the energy system under increased renewables integration and distributed flexibility.

Specifically, the project aims to introduce a federated technological framework, i.e. a cloud-edge data and intelligence service platform, and the corresponding federated energy data spaces and smart data/AIOps orchestrators for the delivery of a range of services in a system operating with a high degree of flexibility from distributed assets.

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Project goals include promoting connectivity, interoperability and seamless data exchange between the different stakeholders in the sector, prioritising privacy and data protection and enabling transparent energy transactions through tailored marketplaces.

The project’s innovations are planned to be validated in five large-scale demonstrators in Greece, Spain, France, Denmark and Ireland involving a diverse range of energy sources, networks, IoT infrastructure, systems and assets implemented across multi-climatic, geographic and socio-economic conditions from vulnerable customers to prosumers and local energy communities.

With this, lessons are expected for replicability and market uptake across Europe.

The ODEON project has a budget of €22.56 million ($24.3 million), of which the EU Horizon Europe contribution is €17.87 million.

The project coordinator is Spanish IT services and consultant organisation Etra and the project consortium is comprised of 34 participants from thirteen European countries.

With a four-year duration, ODEON runs to the end of December 2027.

The DIVE – ‘Digital identities as trust anchors in the energy system’ – project, which has been reported by Energy Web, is focussed on establishing secure and reliable digital identities for devices and systems within the energy sector.

These can then act as trust anchors, verifying the existence and capabilities of each system in real time.

By automating those verification processes, the electricity use cases that the devices are participating in can be changed quickly and easily to ensure grid stability and cost savings for energy consumers.

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With the large scale of expansion of renewable energies in Germany – as elsewhere – the system is decentralising and with increased consumer choice use cases such as renewable energy tracing, providing flexibility to the grid and supplier switching need seamless integration for efficient energy management.

Energy Web reports to play a central role in the DIVE project, including taking the lead in developing and implementing use cases related to electricity labelling and verification. This includes the use of digital identities in conjunction with the registry and exploring energy industry use cases and their links to the identity register.

Additionally, Energy Web intends to extend its existing open-source Green Proofs solution to connect to the digital trust anchors of DIVE and leverage the Energy Web X chain (EWX).

The Green Proofs solution is designed to enable trustworthy device identities to connect with different registers for guarantees of origin.

In the project, Energy Web will develop standardised representation and description forms for smart contracts under DIVE. This includes classification within the energy industry context, ensuring implementation-independent descriptions of inputs, outputs, conditions and logic of smart contracts.

The establishment of a ‘Smart Contract Register’ as an ‘app store’ for decentralised applications and logic devices, along with the provision of smart contracts under free licenses, should set the groundwork for an independent technology library.

Throughout, Energy Web aims to support existing standards and platforms, such as EnergyTag, the Elia Group platform Energy Track&Trace, GO, REC, I-REC and the German guarantees of origin register (Herkunftsnachweisregister, HKNR).

Energy Web also is integrating the ReBeam ‘fast change of supplier for EV charging stations’ solution with DIVE. Initially tested with Elia Group and 50Hertz Transmission in Berlin during the summer of 2022, the integration ultimately allows the consumption of self-generated PV power at public charging stations.

Other partners in the project are Forschungsstelle für Energiewirtschaft e.V, Oli Systems, KILT Protocol, Fieldfisher and Fraunhofer FIT.

The system, a first for Romania, involves the development of a set of AI-based algorithms that draw on data from sensors throughout the building to develop energy consumption patterns.

With the project driven by sustainability concerns, Electrica reports, ultimately the aim is to identify effective solutions that can support this.

Alexandru Chiriță, CEO of Electrica, commenting that the project acronym AI-AE sounds like an exclamation of success, said that energy is among the fields that are gaining enormously from AI-interpreted data.

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“We strongly believe that those companies that rely on innovation and effective data collection and interpretation systems will succeed to offer the best products and services. The system we are applying for the first time in our headquarters is another proof of the fact that we respect our commitments and want to be at the forefront of technological developments.”

Electrica is developing the project in partnership with researchers from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca and the technology startup Renergia.

In addition to the algorithms, the project involves the creation of a cloud-based infrastructure to collect and store the data and a dashboard tool for easy access to the data.

Electrica also is proposing the creation of a strategy to replicate the solution for the entire heritage of buildings in Romania.

The Technical University of Cluj-Napoca has implemented a building automation laboratory in partnership with the KNX association.

Renergia, which is affiliated with the University, has developed the first mobile sustainable app in Romania that generates a personalised home energy balance sheet and energy efficiency measures for users.

The Alliance, an initiative of London-based digitalisation professional services company Gemserv and local energy market solution provider Traxis Group, is planned to bring together market players to develop commercial solutions for local energy markets and to scale the delivery of consumer-facing local energy systems.

While there have been multiple local energy system pilots and demonstrators, there are few fully commercial developments and the aim is to redress this, with the challenge mainly commercial rather than technical.

As such the proposal is to address common market barriers and to find collaborative business solutions, which ultimately should accelerate electrification and decarbonisation.

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“Decarbonising demand is a really big energy challenge. Local energy systems will become an essential part of it so we are delighted to be working with Gemserv to initiate this really important enterprise,” says Simon Anderson, a co-founder of LEMA and CEO of Traxis Group.

Miriam Atkin, the other co-founder of LEMA and Executive Director at Gemserv, likewise expresses her delight to be working to support the development of commercially sustainable solutions through the Alliance.

“Local energy systems are a critical enabler to achieving net zero but they must be commercially viable.”

The basis for the Alliance is that the delivery of the many elements for consumers, such as the electrification of heating and transport and maximisation of rooftop solar, is highly fragmented with multiple parties and tends to lack leadership.

A programme of work has been developed for the Alliance, which is focussed initially on the creation of a network through stakeholder engagement and in the current year to identify common market barriers and develop business concepts and models to minimise their impact.

In 2025 the intention is to develop and approve common structures and contractual frameworks and thereafter to build on the experience gained to optimise delivery and support new development business cases.

The Alliance is also envisaged as an opportunity for businesses to commercialise their innovations through connecting with organisations with complementary capabilities.

The trial, named the Boston Spa Energy Efficiency Trial (BEET) after its location in the village of Boston Spa and surrounding areas including the town of Wetherby, involves the use of the so-called ‘BEET-Box’ to turn the voltage up or down, based on smart meter data, to the level that appliances need to work most efficiently.

The BEET-Box, developed with input from voltage control specialist Fundamentals, GE Digital, Siemens and the University of Sheffield, applies an algorithm to the smart meter data on a near real-time basis on which the voltage can be optimised, with reductions leading to energy savings and in turn bill savings.

Northern Powergrid has estimated that trial participants should save an average £28 ($35) on their annual energy bills along with a carbon footprint reduction of 20kg per year.

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“BEET is a fantastic example of how we’re innovating today to deliver future benefits for our customers,” comments Mark Callum, Smart Grid Development Manager at Northern Powergrid.

“We are trialling technology that can help us increase the efficiency of our network for our customers, whilst reducing their carbon footprint and overall energy consumption. It could also bring us one step closer to decarbonising the region, by enabling the introduction of more low carbon technologies, like electric vehicles and solar panels, onto the grid.”

With network operators typically running their system within the top end of the voltage range to ensure it does not drop below the lower limit if demand surges, the concept of voltage optimisation, or conservation voltage reduction, is not new.

But its implementation with smart meter data appears to be and Northern Powergrid’s investigation was the suggestion of local resident Keith Jackson, a retired engineer from the electricity industry, who has said the possible solution came to him after having suffered excess voltage at his home and his subsequent finding that the network regulations do not incentivise such voltage trimming.

With the concept particularly beneficial for vulnerable customers, Northern Powergrid is prioritising the rollout of the solution to areas with increased levels of fuel poverty.

If the trial is successful, then it could be rolled out across the majority of its network spanning northeast England, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire by 2033.

Findings also will be shared with other network operators, with a national scale-up estimated to have the potential to deliver annual carbon savings of 1.1Mt and consumer bill cuts of up to £770 million.

The HEDGE-IoT project (Holistic Approach towards Empowerment of the DiGitalization of the Energy Ecosystem through adoption of IoT solutions), newly launched with Horizon Europe support, is proposing a standardised framework for the adoption of IoT solutions to enhance the resilience of the grid.

Specifically the HEDGE-IoT project aims to deploy IoT assets at different levels of the energy system, from behind-the-meter up to the TSO level, to add intelligence to the edge and cloud layers through advanced AI/ML tools and to bridge the cloud-edge continuum introducing federated applications governed by advanced computational orchestration solutions.

With this, the HEDGE-IoT approach is planned to upgrade the renewables hosting capacity of the system and unleash previously untapped flexibility potential as well as create new market opportunities.

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“HEDGE-IoT aims to revolutionise the digitalisation of the European energy systems by exploiting the advantages of IoT technologies through an interoperable and standardised digital framework,” explains project coordinator Nikos Bilidis, a Greece-based R&D project manager at IT service provider European Dynamics.

“The bridging of the edge-cloud continuum, through computational orchestration and federated learning traits, lies at the centre of our activities,” he continues, adding: “The kick-off meeting of our project marked the start of a long and challenging journey and we are delighted to work with this multi-disciplinary and highly skilled consortium.”

The HEDGE-IoT framework is based on four pillars, i.e. technology facilitation to exploit computational sharing by offloading applications on the grid edge, interoperability to leverage on leading-edge interoperable architectures, standardisation to enable the involved platforms, systems, tools and actors to seamlessly communicate and exchange data, and digital energy ecosystem enablement to ensure the aims are met.

The project, which kicked off in January and runs for 42 months to the end of June 2027, is to be delivered by a consortium of 44 participants from across Europe, with coordination by European Dynamics.

Some of the outcomes envisaged as the project unfolds include the development of innovative solutions, contributions to standards and shaping the future of IoT, digital twin and smart energy.

Scalability and replicability studies will be performed and connections with innovators and SMEs also are intended.

The total project cost is €22 million, of which €18 million is being contributed by the EU through the Horizon Europe funding scheme.

REN is partnering with Italian EV charging infrastructure provider Atlante Energy through an MoU to develop five projects using the Speed-E grid connection solution.

The Speed-E solution, which was developed and patented by REN, enables the charging of EVs through a direct connection to the electricity transmission network.

In addition to the availability of significant power levels for the charging, offering simultaneous supply for multiple fast and/or ultra-fast chargers, it opens the way for the expansion of charging infrastructure to locations where the transmission network is available – an extension of about 9,000 km in Portugal.

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“This partnership reflects REN’s ability to develop solutions that address the energy transition, while positively contributing to the decarbonisation of society,” says the company’s COO, João Faria Conceição.

“Atlante is an obvious partner for Speed-E in Portugal, not only due to its broad experience in the charging sector but also its recognition, from the outset, of the potential of this tool to promote faster and safer charging of electric vehicles, thus mitigating future challenges related to an increased need for power availability.”

REN has not specified where the projects are to be implemented, or what others may follow, but the initiative is set to be a world first with EV fast charging directly from the HV network.

The Speed-E solution transforms the transmission high voltage to low voltage and can be implemented up to 300m from an existing overhead line.

It has been designed with a modular architecture to enable projects to be customised to customers’ needs and to be scaled over time with the increasing penetration of EVs.

Atlante is currently one of the largest EV charging point operators in Portugal in a network that also spans across Italy, France and Spain.

Giovanni Ravina, Atlante Innovation Officer and Atlante Iberia CEO, says that Portugal is at the forefront of zero emission driving.

“We can’t wait to see how Speed-E will transform the EV-charging landscape in the next months.”