The energy digitalisation framework has arrived with a grand mission to make the power system more coordinated, connected and rich in data. The kettle has asked whether this means it finally gets a dashboard. Officials have not yet explained that a dashboard cannot make tea.
Energy digitalisation framework meets the kettle
The framework says digital tools and high quality data can help integrate clean technologies, enable flexibility and support consumer participation. This is sensible. It is also how a kettle might describe its ambitions after discovering the phrase consumer participation.
The document describes an increasingly complex and decentralised energy system. Electricity now moves between generators, networks, homes, batteries, electric vehicles and other devices. The framework wants these parts to share information through common standards, secure systems and something called interoperability.
Interoperability enters the kitchen
Interoperability is the policy word for making sure different systems can communicate without first requiring a committee, three passwords and a diagram explaining who owns the diagram.
The framework identifies fragmented initiatives, inconsistent standards and unclear responsibilities as existing problems. In other words, the energy sector has built several clever rooms but has not agreed where the doors should go.
Its proposed answer includes data domains and domain coordinators. NESO, RECCo and Elexon receive roles in organising different areas of information. The Government and Ofgem retain strategic and regulatory responsibilities. A digitalisation coordination function is also planned. No modern system is complete until it has a function whose job is to coordinate the people coordinating the functions.
Data gives the kettle new responsibilities
The framework says better data could give consumers more control and choice. Households may understand costs more clearly and shift energy use towards cheaper periods. Smart devices could respond automatically.
The kettle is therefore facing a difficult career decision. It may soon need to boil only when the grid considers the timing appropriate. It has accepted secure data sharing, but wants its own data kept private until it has finished judging the performance of the coordination function.
Digitalisation will not make electricity magical. It may make a complicated system easier to manage, provided the systems designed to simplify it can first agree what they are called. The kettle has requested one final concession: if it must join the energy market, it wants voting rights and a short break between meetings.
Source: GOV.UK.
