Data is the single biggest enabler of a decarbonised, decentralised and digitised energy future. It’s the tool that will bridge the gap between where we are now vs. where we need to be to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050.
In June 2019, the Energy Systems Catapult published the Energy Data Taskforce: A Strategy for a Modern Digitalised Energy System report, which advocates for energy data, asset and infrastructure visibility. In this report, we outline the three relevant building blocks to support the realisation of this vision:
Collectively the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), energy regulator Ofgem and Innovate UK performed an initial analysis and endorsed the recommendation of enabling these building blocks in the form of a Common Data Architecture.
As part of the Prospering from the Energy Revolution programme under the Industrial Strategy, Innovate UK launched the Modernising Energy Data Access competition, designed to enable energy data to be open-sourced for the benefit of society.
The Energy Systems Catapult have been working on a variety of deliverables through the project lifecycle, initially working with Siemens and the National Innovation Centre for Data to deliver ‘Your Online Data Architecture’ and then being commissioned by Innovate UK to deliver on a further three deliverables.
Your Online Data Architecture will deliver a ‘digitally integrated energy system’ which supports a Common Data Architecture concept. Underpinning the vision is an implementation of the open-data platform, constructed upon the requirements of the users and employing a sector specific metadata standard to drive commonality, enabling data-exchange.
The platform will be constructed upon the three relevant building blocks identified within the report ‘Energy Data Taskforce: A Strategy for a Modern Digitalised Energy System’ – incorporating an asset registration strategy, data catalogue and digital system mapping.
The MEDA project was delivered in three phases, with each phase publishing three reports below.
In phase one of the project, we developed Your Online Data Architecture to help deliver a ‘digitally integrated energy system’ which supports a Common Data Architecture concept. Underpinning the vision is an implementation of the open-data platform, constructed upon the requirements of the users and employing a sector specific metadata standard to drive commonality, enabling data-exchange.
The platform will be constructed upon the three relevant building blocks identified within the report ‘Energy Data Taskforce: A Strategy for a Modern Digitalised Energy System’ – incorporating an asset registration strategy, data catalogue and digital system mapping.
The Energy Data Taskforce was able to make 5 key recommendations in the movement towards ‘A Modern Digitalised Energy System, with the aligned integration points of the YODA project being:
To download this file, we would be grateful if you could tell us a little about yourself.
We use this information for internal research purposes to help us better understand which energy sector stakeholders are interested in which areas of our work. We do not share your details with any third parties.
If you do not wish to complete the form, please email communications@es.catapult.org.uk to request a digital copy.
Data Licences are essential to ensure that both data providers and data consumers understand what data can be used for and are protected from legal ambiguity.
Within this section we discuss the licencing and associated warranty statements / liability wavers which are currently in use, what standards exists and what has been identified as a core user need from stakeholder workshops.
To download this file, we would be grateful if you could tell us a little about yourself.
We use this information for internal research purposes to help us better understand which energy sector stakeholders are interested in which areas of our work. We do not share your details with any third parties.
If you do not wish to complete the form, please email communications@es.catapult.org.uk to request a digital copy.
The data best practice guidance which was developed as part of the Modernising Energy Data programme, has specifically called out Metadata and Supporting information as key parts of Data Best Practice.
In the following report, we will discuss the investigation which has been conducted during this discovery phase and make some clear recommendations for challenges which must be addressed in the Alpha project.
To download this file, we would be grateful if you could tell us a little about yourself.
We use this information for internal research purposes to help us better understand which energy sector stakeholders are interested in which areas of our work. We do not share your details with any third parties.
If you do not wish to complete the form, please email communications@es.catapult.org.uk to request a digital copy.
In phase two of the project, we furthered our research into the ways in which data could be more cohesively integrated into a Common Data Architecture. We continued to actively engage with the stakeholder community and share our workings, in order to gain feedback as we developed them. We produced three deliverables in this phase; an Energy Data Glossary of Terms, a deep dive into data licensing options and an Insights Arena. From this we produced three reports.
A key enabler for more accessible and knowledgeable data sharing is clear and concise licensing. From the Data Licensing and Standardisation report, it was established that there was a significant gap in the licensing landscape for shared licensing, for when data is unable to be openly available, that provides clear conditions to the user and remains beneficial to the data owner.
This report outlines nine licences, which range from open to a restrictive shared licence, and outlines the requirements of each.
To download this file, we would be grateful if you could tell us a little about yourself.
We use this information for internal research purposes to help us better understand which energy sector stakeholders are interested in which areas of our work. We do not share your details with any third parties.
If you do not wish to complete the form, please email communications@es.catapult.org.uk to request a digital copy.
One of the main goals of the Common Data Architecture, was to establish methods to improve information sharing across the energy sector, and to make this information more interoperable across various organisations. Within the first phase of MEDA, we discovered that one of the factors which limits the usefulness of data is a lack of understanding of the terms used.
With information coming from many different sources, there is an increased requirement for the information provider and user to have a clear understanding of the information provided, along with its key terms and definitions. A popular solution to the above problem, is for organisations to create their own glossaries; however this gives rise to the risk of siloed workings and further perpetuates the use of inconsistent terms. In order to address this, we decided to bring together a large range of glossaries from across the energy sector and find out which terms they define and to what extent they agree or disagree with each other.
To download this file, we would be grateful if you could tell us a little about yourself.
We use this information for internal research purposes to help us better understand which energy sector stakeholders are interested in which areas of our work. We do not share your details with any third parties.
If you do not wish to complete the form, please email communications@es.catapult.org.uk to request a digital copy.
In order to develop a system which meets user needs and develops an eco-system of potential data users, Siemens and Energy Systems Catapult developed the ‘Insight Arena’ concept.
Within the Insight Arena we invited innovators from across the energy sector and beyond to explain how they wanted to use energy data and how it needed to be combined and presented to meet their needs. In order to maximise the impact of this work we chose to conduct it in the open for all to contribute to and benefit from. This approach has been commended by multiple stakeholders across the sector and elicited input from a wide range of stakeholders big and small.
Within this document we describe the approach and some of the key highlights from the work.
To download this file, we would be grateful if you could tell us a little about yourself.
We use this information for internal research purposes to help us better understand which energy sector stakeholders are interested in which areas of our work. We do not share your details with any third parties.
If you do not wish to complete the form, please email communications@es.catapult.org.uk to request a digital copy.
In phase three we worked alongside Ice Breaker One, to further develop the ways in which data could be integrated into their beta Common Data Architecture solution. We continued with the MEDA Energy Glossary, developing it into a machine readable resource, to ensure that it provided longevity as a solution, and was universally accessible.
We also continued to develop the Energy Data User Needs Arena, creating thirteen energy data use cases, as well as developing two MVP data interface solutions; LSOA Energy Consumption Dataset and Embedded Capacity Register. We also produced the following three reports.
For a common data architecture to be successful, it will need to be able to integrate with some of the most commonly required data sources. However, many datasets which exist within the energy sector are non-standardised or not accessible in a machine-readable format, which can ultimately make them incompatible within the common data architecture.
We have created two Minimum Viable Product Data Interfaces, hosted on the USmart Data platform, which are able to both visualise complex energy data and integrate with the overarching MEDA solution.
To download this file, we would be grateful if you could tell us a little about yourself.
We use this information for internal research purposes to help us better understand which energy sector stakeholders are interested in which areas of our work. We do not share your details with any third parties.
If you do not wish to complete the form, please email communications@es.catapult.org.uk to request a digital copy.
Within the alpha phase of MEDA, we worked alongside Siemens to produce an Insights Arena, where organisations could help to contribute towards creating rich data use cases sources to provide insight into some of the most common data needs within the energy sector.
Within this beta phase, we have continued to work on this as a shared resources, adding in new use cases and insights based on Stakeholder engagement, both within MEDA and wider projects. The overarching goal of this activity is:
To download this file, we would be grateful if you could tell us a little about yourself.
We use this information for internal research purposes to help us better understand which energy sector stakeholders are interested in which areas of our work. We do not share your details with any third parties.
If you do not wish to complete the form, please email communications@es.catapult.org.uk to request a digital copy.
‘Metadata is the backbone of digital curation. Without it a digital resource is irretrievable, unidentifiable or unusable’. One of the main goals of the Common Data Architecture was to establish methods that would aid in the improvement of data sharing across the energy sector, and with this comes the requirement for robust metadata standards.
Technical supporting information exists throughout the energy sector, and a full understanding of these terms is key to ensuring metadata can be used and interpreted correctly, without adding confusion or disparity between workings. A solution to the above problem is using glossaries, and often organisations create their own to give explanations and definitions to key terms and principles. However, whilst this solves the immediate problem of giving explanations for some key terms used by individual organisations, it further perpetuates the use of inconsistent terms when numerous glossaries exist with varying definitions given.
Within the second phase of MEDA, we worked on amalgamating existing glossaries to form one authoritative sources for definitions and we have continued to work on this during this phase. The focus of this phase of the glossary creation, we have focussed on ensuring the glossary is fit for longevity, by maintaining the online hosting space for the glossary, and also transferring it to a machine-readable format, which can be used by all organisations.
To download this file, we would be grateful if you could tell us a little about yourself.
We use this information for internal research purposes to help us better understand which energy sector stakeholders are interested in which areas of our work. We do not share your details with any third parties.
If you do not wish to complete the form, please email communications@es.catapult.org.uk to request a digital copy.
Independent thought leadership and practical expertise that harnesses digital and data innovation to tackle the hardest challenges on the way to Net Zero
Find out moreFind out more about how Energy Systems Catapult can help you and your teams
Find out more about how Energy Systems Catapult can help you and your teams