Our latest Open Energy webinar, held on Thursday 23 October, brought together Distribution Network Operators (DNOs), regulators, and key stakeholders from across the energy sector to explore a pathway for alignment on energy data.
Sara Vaughan, Co-chair of the Open Energy Steering group, framed the start of the session by pointing to a lack of alignment in the sector which might be hindering progress. At the same time, she highlighted what sets Open Energy apart from other initiatives: the involvement from regulators, who are brought into the process to support and provide continued feedback.
This collaborative approach sits at the heart of Open Energy, as it brings the sector together to co-design the rulebook for data sharing and develop Trust Frameworks that unlock the value of energy data.
The data sharing landscape
As we progressed through the webinar, Chris Pointon, Product Manager, Trust Services, reflected on what Open Energy can build upon as it evolves. Themes included wider governance areas such as assurance, common identity services, and shared data infrastructure. Key to exploring these themes are actionable use cases. These give us a tangible grasp on user needs, and allow us to develop solutions that accurately address industry and consumer pain points.
Harmonisation over Standardisation
The focus on workable use cases also made up a large part of discussion in the Q&A segment and helped attendees to understand why harmonisation, not standardisation, is needed to guide the sector forward.
“While data standardisation focuses on uniformity, data harmonisation is about making disparate data sets interoperable”
Michael Glass, Data Governance and Information Manager at SSE posed a critical question:
“DNOs all have different internal definitions and languages that they use. How do they agree on a common language?”
The answer is to pick a use case that is supported by working groups and centre collaboration around it. By starting from real-world use cases, we can reduce cost and friction for everyone.
“That’s how we harmonise. Psychologically and operationally, it’s a much easier approach.” Gavin Starks, CEO, IB1.
The results are in
Towards the end of the webinar we conducted a poll asking our participants questions such as: ‘Which of these barriers affects your confidence’ to better understand whether uncertainty around data licensing, data access, data maturity, legal risk or alignment with the rest of the sector is holding them back.
Uncertainty about alignment with the rest of the sector made up a large portion of the vote, and echoed our previous discussions on the need for harmonisation.
What’s next?
We’re at a critical moment in the UK’s history around data sharing. Government departments now have significant budgets dedicated to designing smart data schemes, signalling real momentum.
But amidst this progress, we need a coordinated effort to ensure we navigate towards the low-cost, low-friction future we’ve all set out to achieve – one where collaboration across the sector shapes the future of trusted energy data sharing in the UK and beyond.
Looking ahead, we’re encouraging continued discussion through upcoming Open Energy Working Groups. The first session will take place on Wednesday 26 November, and will aim to develop a single, DNO-backed approach to align on the language and decisions discussed during the webinar.