European Utility Week 2019: insights and trends

18.000 visitors came together for the European Utility Week (EUW) 2019 in Paris to explore new tools and trends in smart energy management. Energy players from 100 countries met face-to-face with industry experts to discuss the changes affecting the smart energy sector, and to present solutions to better plan for the future. As one of the ESMIG members - a European association of smart energy providers - CyberGrid was invited to demonstrate its technology to show how smart meter data is used to enhance flexibility management. Cami Dodge-Lamm, CyberGrid’s Head of European Public Affairs and Regulation, presented the advantages of using real-time data by showcasing CyberNoc award-winning flexibility aggregation platform.

There was a great response to CyberGrid's presentations and outcomes at this year’s main energy conference. Additionally, Peter Nemcek, CTO and Co-Founder of CyberGrid, was interviewed by representatives from the media.

This is relevant to all energy players who are trying to increase revenues and decrease costs, as this use of technology helps to optimize the benefits of digitalizing data. Based on IoT, new business models are now available to energy market players because they can gain intelligent decision-making possibilities from the analysis of real-time data streams to reduce the overall cost of energy, to identify improvements to consumption, and to boost operations.

In a different session, Ms Dodge-Lamm presented “Monetizing Flexibility with Batteries: a C&I Case Study", showing how sophisticated software will help remake the grid. How can it do so? Industrial consumers are increasingly looking to replace their on-site diesel generators with battery storage. But while batteries have mostly been used to simply back-up a company’s energy requirements, they can now be upscaled to provide additional flexibility and grid services, making their investment economically compelling. Connected to a flexibility management software, such as CyberNoc, energy storage systems can help to efficiently manage and monetize flexibilities. With battery storage, grid operators, utilities and customers can now jointly benefit from distributed resources.

Peter Nemcek: “Batteries are now proving to be a reliable source of flexibility that can really help to balance the markets.”

CyberGrid's Co-Founder and CTO had various opportunities to talk to representatives of the media about the change of paradigm in how flexibility is sold and delivered, especially when related to the use of batteries in power grids. In an interview with Smart Energy International, he explained how CyberGrid’s technology supports the development of the market for sustainable energy, because it connects different flexibilities, either coming from commercial and industrial customers, distributed generation, and lately also from batteries. Referring to a recent project, where CyberGrid integrated a large-scale battery from a Slovenian aggregator into the market, Peter Nemcek said that batteries are now proving to be a reliable source of flexibility that can really help to balance the markets.

In a second interview, Peter Nemcek explained how CyberNoc software solution was updated to also deliver secondary control. In addition, several baseline methodologies are now implemented because of the different market requirements. He also recommended that the methodology for baselines should be harmonized. European markets should agree on a common methodology to evaluate flexibilities in order to improve operations for the flexibility provider.

Read more about the project FutureFlow.