Elering and ESO signed cooperation agreement to pilot cross-border data exchange between Estonia and Lithuania

Cooperation of this kind will serve as one of the first ever smart meter data exchanges between two European countries. It will contribute to harmonized processes and functionalities and ensure interoperable data exchange. As the result the cross-border exchange of data and energy services can be achieved.

The pilot is one of the demonstrations of EU-SysFlex project. EU-SysFlex stands for “Pan-European system with an efficient coordinated use of flexibilities for the integration of a large share of RES”.

The purpose of the cooperation is to demonstrate business processes, functionalities and technical solutions by making Lithuanian consumers’ meter data accessible through Elering’s Estfeed platform. The method of the cooperation shall facilitate the cross-border exchange of data and energy services. Today, the markets do not support data sharing to market actors or service providers who are not legally based in the same country as the data hub.

Also currently the consumer has to access each data hub separately in case having metering points in several countries. In addition to this, the access to the data for providing the services is further hindered by manual processes and technical restrictive identification services based on diverse national solutions.

Taavi Veskimägi, CEO of Elering: “Elering is open to provide its Estfeed data exchange platform for testing the required processes and functionalities. Furthermore, Estfeed can be used to deliver some of the services needed by other parties. This approach is potentially most efficient way to develop cross-border data exchange and to provide the benefits of organized exchange of electricity meter data to both Lithuanian and Estonian consumers and other stakeholders.”

The pilot aims at enabling selected number of Lithuanian consumers to access and download their own consumption data as well as share these data with other parties (suppliers, service providers) through Estfeed platform.

Ignas Pranskevičius, Member of the Board and Director of Services at ESO: “With ESO’s smart metering program set to start already next year, we are looking for ways to create one of the most advanced metering infrastructures regionally. How we collect, send and encrypt smart-metering data is of essential importance to us and we want to understand the possibilities and opportunities brought by cross-border data exchange.”

The functionalities of the pilot involve collection of energy data, transfer of energy data, data storage, assignment of EIC codes, retrospective corrections of data, management of supply agreement, management of network agreement, provision of the list of suppliers and ESCOs, management of portfolio agreement, management of authorizations (permissions), authentication of data users,.

Elering (www.elering.ee/en) is the transmission system operator of electricity and gas in Estonia and operates the system-responsible activities incl. the development and operation of the Estonian data hub and related data access services called Estfeed.

ESO (http://www.eso.lt/en/) is a public electricity provider and a distribution operator in Lithuania with its main functions being electricity supply and distribution, natural gas distribution, guarantee supply of electricity and natural gas, installation of electricity and gas, maintenance and development of electricity and gas distribution networks, security and reliability of energy distribution assurance.

The EU-SysFlex project (www.eu-sysflex.com) is funded by the EU framework programme for research and innovation Horizon 2020 under the call H2020-LCE-2016-2017. EU-SysFlex will come up with new types of services that will meet the needs of the system with more than 50% of renewable energy sources. It will find the right blend of flexibility and system services to support secure and resilient transmission system operation.

Elering’s CEO Taavi Veskimägi and member of the management board of ESO Ignas Pranskevičius signing the agreement.