European Energy Data Access Pilots kick-off events

On May 28th representatives and technical staff of the Energy Data Access Pilots gathered in a virtual meeting to take the first steps together towards carrying out their pilot projects. The public kick-off of the European Energy Data Access Pilots 2020 took place on June 10th. 

On May 18th, Elering announced ten companies as the winners of the European Energy Data Access Pilots 2020. The purpose of these pilot projects is to demonstrate the value of data access across Europe and to show the innovation that can happen thanks to consent-based access to private metering data of private consumers and enterprises, both within countries as well as internationally.

As the projects are to be implemented by the end of this year, the first technical kick-off meeting was held on May 28th. In that meeting Georg Rute, the Digitalization Manager of Elering AS stated that by 2023, energy retail and services companies should access meter data of homes, businesses and industry, with the owners’ consent, of course, in all European countries that have ratified GDPR.

Together with other European grid operators, Elering is looking to establish a European Energy Data Bridge Alliance, with the aim of lowering data access barriers and harmonising energy data access throughout Europe.

“Energy companies should be able to access this data using a single platform across Europe and hence enter new national markets without additional IT investments. This way, thanks to more competitive energy markets, people and businesses will have more choice, greener energy and better prices,” Rute summarised the general vision and mission. 

The pilots are the first attempts to carry out this mission. In order to succeed, Elering offers the pilots consultation and technical support, as well as access to Estfeed Pilot Environment with mock metering data and test users. The partners are given the chance to demonstrate their pilot on a European scale and enter new markets, collaborate with European DSOs and TSOs and be noticed on the European level. Besides, also receive communication and marketing.

In the kick-off meeting that took place on May 28th, the pilots were already introduced to anonymous data based on real smart meter consumption profiles of the Baltics and Denmark. They were also given a more precise overview of Estfeed’s architecture, which is the so-called backbone of consent based energy meter data exchange in the pilots, and given details on how to interface with the Estfeed platform.

The public kick-off of the European Energy Data Access Pilots 2020 took place on June 10th. In that meeting, the 10 winning pilot projects – Critical Software, DEXMA, Elertis, FlexiDAO, Greenbird, re.alto energy, R8 Technologies, Siemens, Sunly and WePower – introduced their solutions and user benefits. Also, Morten Stisen (Energinet) talked about the relevance of the European Pilots 2020 to European Grid Operators, Georg Rute (Elering AS) introduced the European Energy Data Bridge Alliance and Kaija Valdmaa (Elering AS) gave an overview of the metering data project.

The final outcomes and case studies about the pilot projects will be published in December 2020. Meanwhile, the overview of the pilots is available here.