On the 18th we convened the April Open Energy Steering Group meeting. The Steering Group is comprised of a wide range of industry leaders and subject matter experts, representing a cross-section of private and public players with a unique contribution. The Steering Group plays a critical role in Open Energy’s development, providing us with a sector perspective that ensures that Open Energy is designed for and with the energy industry.
We discussed the interplay between various initiatives and consultations that are going on within the sector currently, and the risk of fragmentation and/or duplication, and whether further action or intervention was required as a result.
These included:
- Smart metering roll-out and how it is progressing;
- The market-wide half-hourly settlement programme (MHHS) and its importance in unlocking flexibility in the market;
- The Data Integration Platform “middleware” service that is being developed in the context of MHHS to process messages to and from market participants;
- The platform where this data will be held (as referred to in the IB1 SODA work);
- The work on the Digital Spine;
- Ofgem’s recent Call for Input on the future of distributed flexibility (which made a case for a public interest intervention on the form of a common digital infrastructure); its Consultation on the future of local energy systems governance, and Consultation on updates to Data Best Practice principles (dealing with the treatment of aggregated smart meter consumption data and an industry wide data catalogue, amongst other items); and
- Overlaying all this, what might happen in the market as a result of the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA)
We highlighted that the draft Data Bill includes building on the Trust Framework model, the new Smart Data Council that launched on Monday, the recent updates to the Data Best Practice Guidance and the updated IB1 Trust Framework overview.
We also heard from across industry on the progress being made and where there are still gaps. There is a desire to create momentum across organisations despite different levels of maturity and readiness.
Key insights from the Steering Group:
- The continued focus is ‘how do we go far together’. We looked at what is / isn’t contributing to cohesion rather than fragmentation
- The need for simple, fast and coordinated action in order to move together sits with government and Ofgem, but with some onus on industry also
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