Update to Phase 2 of the Flexibility Markets Unlocked DESNZ competition

Global engineering and sustainability consultancy Arup, Energy Systems Catapult, and Electron in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, Piclo, and GreenSync, have joined forces to combine their expertise in digitalisation and flexibility markets, to develop solutions which will boost the flexibility of the UK’s energy system.

Flexibility markets enable price signals to be established at the distribution level to provide greater options for network operators so they can help bring down costs for consumers. These markets integrate smart meters, smart appliances, renewable energy resources, and energy-efficient resources.
This project is Phase 2 of the Flexibility Markets Unlocked competition for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), which is part of the government’s £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP).

The consortium will bring together and develop three components of the solution which will benefit organisations and consumers seeking to best utilise their flexibility by offering it into different markets efficiently. This is whilst helping to develop thorough standardisation and interoperability, with consistent data governance and a methodology for defining primacy rules:
• Universal Market Register (UMR)
The UMR creates a universal identity for Flexibility Service Providers (FSPs), enabling identity portability across multiple market platforms with ease. The UMR integrates with existing registers providing a service that shares relevant registration details seamlessly throughout the flexibility ecosystem
• Flexibility Data Standards (FDS)
FDS enables users to digitally engage with flexibility markets in a consistent and interoperable way, underpinning the FSP’s entire customer journey. The UMR requires FDS to address the challenge of information transparency through a common data model and schema within the Enterprise Data Architecture
• Primacy Rules Test Bed (PRTB)
PRTB will serve as a shared framework and digital toolkit for testing different algorithmic primacy rules and their impact. It will extract flexibility market data from data sources across the flexibility ecosystem into a cloud-based analytics platform where the primacy rules implications can be assessed.

Through collective expertise, the consortium intends to build a proof of concept and test solutions for the Universal Market Register, Flexibility Data Standards, and Primacy Rules Test Bed during Phase 2. This includes integrations with the Electron’s ElectronConnect and Piclo’s PicloMax platforms and with Greensync’s Central Asset Register for low carbon technology devices.