Data as a Commons for Smart Grid
Data is a strategic asset of the Smart Grid that can be used for planning, for decision-making and to empower citizens. It is also a key asset for transition to a carbon-neutral energy system. The following contribution draws on research from the DataCités exploration conducted by The Lab OuiShare x Chronos to discuss the use of data for Smart Grids and its challenges. It was originally published in French, in Smart City Magazine.
Putting Local Communities First
Provide data and the consumer will use it — it’s a simple and tempting promise, provided that there is clear information, consulting and money savings. However to this day, the closed business models of various smart meters (like Linky in France) are not quite meeting the demands of individual users who seek agility and lower costs. And although the IoT (Internet of Things) promises a revolution of home energy management, the reality of solutions like Nest or Withings are not as promising as they sound. They are more beneficial for its providers than for the users themselves. While the former harvest huge amounts of data, the latter get barely more than data on their energy consumption.
“The reality of solutions like Nest or Withings are not as promising as they sound”
In response, many individual energy producers are seeking more control over installations. In Brooklyn, Transactive Grid allows its members to set their own resale prices for their energy. In a similar manner, the Bangladeshi company SolShare lets users choose between consuming energy and sharing the energy they generate with others in the neighborhood. In France meanwhile, a law authorizing private individuals to consume self-produced energy (‘autoconsommation’) is offering new perspectives, catching up with the more advanced in solar energy generation and consumption.
Microgrids for Peer-to-Peer Exchange
Ever since hurricane Sandy cut off electricity for New Yorkers in 2012, network resilience has become a national issue in the USA. Microgrid projects are popping up all across the nation, offering networks that can not only function autonomously in light of a (natural) catastrophe, but which provide a local market of peer-to-peer energy exchange. TransactivGrid in Brooklyn is experimenting with this model, together with over 50 participants (citizens, businesses, schools and even firefighters) who manage the exchange through a decentralized platform that runs on BlockChain.
Besides increased resilience and accessibility, microgrids reduce electricity transmission
In places where power grids are entirely absent, projects like SolShare are building stand-alone microgrids that focus on individual energy producers. Here, the operators themselves manage the consumption and the transactions. In France and Europe meanwhile, certain neighborhoods that are providing stationary storage from second-hand batteries of electric vehicles are multiplying prospects for local optimization. Besides increased resilience and accessibility, these systems reduce electricity transmission. Expected to save up to 15% of the energy by reducing transport distance, this is a particularly promising offer for industrial compounds.
Is the Electricity System a Common Good?
Although sharing data among various different parties is essential for anticipating, negotiating and optimizing resources locally, it is also important to protect private and confidential data. Decentralized BlockChain-based solutions to exchange data and validate transactions between heterogeneous stakeholders meet these constraints.
In order to transform our economic model, microgrids must be replicable, secure and show high performance levels. They must also be able to exchange data with the global system at a regional or national level.
On top of this, technical standards, questions of ownership and control of the data, and thus their licences, will become critical matters to address. The Open Power System Data project (OPSD) offers an overview of these challenges. It aims to aggregate 200 time series on the supply-demand balance and electricity production on a European level. The difficulties to be overcome were technical (such as ensuring clean and standardized data based on the Frictionless Data framework) as well as legal, as the diversity of licenses limits the possibilities of access and effective re-use of data.
“The electricity system now extends beyond just a commodity and becomes a common good for energy transition”
The challenge for OPSD to make cold data available nevertheless may be the base for a future in which hot data is available in real time. While quite a lot of data is available for energy trading purposes, close to none (with the exception of ENTSO-E’s Transparency Platform, a nice first step in the right path) are available for the general public, cities or innovators. In light of this energy transition, public and private players as well as citizens will have to work together in the general interest if they want to ensure that the electricity system extends beyond just a commodity and becomes a common good for energy transition.
This topic will be addressed during the OuiShare Fest Paris (5–7 July)and DataCities research will be published during the summer. To stay in touch please consider following our Medium publication, and subscribing to our newsletter.
