EnerGora the platform that empowers communities and energy retailers to set -up a local energy trading platform that enables everyone to become part of the energy transition T he sharing economy is here, and it is here to stay. In several sectors of the economy, platforms have sprouted up where normal people turned providers offer goods and services to their peers. This new type of economy is also known as the collaborative economy. Its popularity is due to the increasing desire of customers to regain control, desire to be part of a bigger community, and the increasing appreciation of local and sustainable goods. Thanks to technology it is now easier than ever to get what you need from each other instead of via centralised institutions. Collaborative economy in the energy world Opportunities This trend is making its way to the energy sector. A sharing economy makes a lot of sense for communities with an increasing level of self-generated renewable energy. People with an excess of, say, solar energy, can now offer it to peers in the community who value sustainable and clean energy. The buyer has energy at a better price and with the guarantee it has been produced locally and renewably, values which become increasingly important for most customers. When energy is exchanged locally, the electricity travels less distance over the grid and hence there are little losses. A new role for the utility company Yet, there is an important difference between a P2P taxi service like Uber and P2P energy exchange. Electricity needs to be balanced at every given point in time and it should fulfil certain power quality requirements. Currently upcoming P2P start-ups in the energy field, like Vandebron (the Netherlands), mainly disregard those concerns. Traditional utilities see themselves by-passed in part of the energy production, trading and consumption value chain. If they want to stay relevant in a world where collaborative platforms become more and more important, they need to embrace the trend and find themselves a place in this new ecosystem. We believe an energy retail company like Iberdrola is perfectly positioned to become the platform operator, hosting the hub which allows their clients to exchange energy between one another. Utility companies have years of experience on both technical challenges and customer service, which make them well suited for that role. Risk of social exclusion Currently, residential renewable energy production is disproportionally distributed among the population. For example, rooftop solar installations are mainly owned by middle to higher middle class families. Becoming largely independent from grid supply for their electricity, they cut their bills drastically once the upfront investment is made. In some countries like Belgium and Germany, abundant support schemes made solar installations a small goldmine for the owners. Yet, the support schemes are financed by grid tariffs paid by those who still rely on the grid as their (main) source of electricity. This way, lower-income families not only miss out in saving on their bills, they even see their bills rising. None of the existing platforms addresses the problem of social exclusion in the energy transition. This is where EnerGora s social innovation makes a difference. EnerGora The concept We envision a community energy marketplace, made possible with a cloud-based platform operated by a SESP (Smart Energy Service Provider). This could be an energy retail company or a renewable energy cooperative. The platform runs on a currency called EnerCoins (based on blockchain technology). Two separate markets are organised. In the active power market, prosumers can trade excess renewable energy with their neighbours, earning and paying with EnerCoins. In the negawatt market, the local DSO can tender for demand management offered by residents and SMEs in the neighbourhood. A small share is taken from all transactions, which goes to the EnerShare fund for lowincome families.
Social innovation: inclusion and empowerment at the heart of the EnerGora platform Via the EnerShare fund, the EnerGora platform provides low-income families with 100 kwh of electricity for free every month, as well as an accessible loan scheme to empower them to purchase their own renewable energy system. The free 100 kwh of electricity ensures low-income families have a basic amount of electricity every month and don t get disconnected from the grid when they cannot pay the bills. The 100 kwh are effectively paid for by the EnerShare fund. All consumption that exceeds the free electricity limit is paid by the family. This way the families are stimulated to save energy and participate in demand side management. Secondly, the EnerShare fund allows low-income families to get a low-risk loan to acquire, say, a rooftop solar installation. The family now becomes an active prosumer and can lower their monthly energy bills drastically. Part of the monthly savings are used to pay off the loan (see Figure 2). This loan assures low-income families don t miss out on the benefits of self-generated energy. These social inclusion measures are innovative and make the EnerGora concept so unique. Figure 1 EnerShare s free 100 kwh guarantee Figure 2 EnerShare loan system impact on electricity bill The EnerGora ecosystem The implementation of the EnerGora community trading platform is shown in Figure 3. A central cloud-based system gathers the smart meter data, trading offers and bids and hosts the market. Communication with the consumer s smart meters and the DSO SCADA system happens via secured communication, with a WAN for example. Market participants interact via their mobile device such as computer or smartphone. An intuitive application allows to monitor real-time personal energy consumption, energy production in the neighbourhood, stats and preferences. Users can set an automatic trader, by indicating their electricity mix preferences based on metrics like local production, which type of renewable, importance of cost etc. A possible interface is shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5 in Appendix 1. Figure 3 Overview of the EnerGora ecosystem. Stakeholders are the community prosumers, low-income families and the local DSO. The platform is operated by the SESP.
The EnerGora business model Note: we included the Osterwalder business model canvas that summarises the business model in Appendix 2 Target market and beachhead market The EnerGora platform will eventually be sold to energy retail companies who want to become the hub which allows their clients to exchange energy between one another, hence capitalising on the sharing economy trend and differentiating from other retail companies. Secondly, we directly address local communities, who might already work together in the field of energy in the form of a cooperative or stadtwerke (in Germany), and who want to setup a P2P trading platform themselves. This second group forms the perfect beachhead market, since these communities show already a high level of engagement in renewable energy and social inclusion, which will make it easier to introduce the EnerGora platform. Value proposition to direct and indirect customers and key partner Energy Retailer (direct customer) Low-income families (indirect customer) Avoid being by-passed in community trading by being the hub, making additional revenue by taking a share in transactions Differentiate from conventional energy retailers by profiling oneself as a social, sustainable energy provider Prosumer (indirect customer) Be able to profit more from excess energy from your installation, resulting in a lower energy bill Certainty that your energy is used locally, helping the grid and the community Contribute to social inclusion of low-income Have a secured energy provision with the security of a cap on the monthly electricity bill Have the ability to install a renewable unit oneself, becoming active in energy trading and save on the monthly electricity bills DSO (key partner) For the first time, have a market place to tender for demand side management services like energy consumption reduction or increase, voltage regulation etc Potential for your grid to be used more optimally families in the energy transition Customer relationship and channel We help our clients operate and exploit their platform in the most optimal way. We offer customisation of the platform web interface, app and trading schemes. The customer operates the community platform and it is their first and most important interface to contact us for support. We will have a 24/7 technical customer service to help with any technical or IT related issues. We further offer creative consultancy to allow our clients to use the platform to build a strong feeling of community through several activities like competitions or games. Key activities and key resources In the first years of the company that develops the EnerGora platform, the focus lies on technology development. Once the pilot project is finished and the learnings have been incorporated, we move to commercial roll-out. The focus shifts to customer acquisition, platform maintenance and customer service. Skilled personnel, trustworthy servers and other IT-infrastructure are key resources. Key Partners In the first phase, a pilot test is necessary to validate the platform in a real-life environment. A cooperative or stadwerke who want to deploy the system is needed, we also need to have the local DSO and the national regulator on board. In the later phases, it also becomes important to work more closely together with smart meter developers to anticipate technology changes which will influence the operation of the platform. Cost structure and revenue streams The cost structure is directly related with the key activities and resources. Our servers and IT-infrastructure, and salaries are the main costs. Further our promotional campaigns to reach new customers also take up some financial means. Our main revenue stream will consist of a platform subscription fee, which scales with the size of the community for which the platform is deployed. Additional one-time revenues are made from services such as platform customisation and creative consultancy to help our customers build community engagement.
Project plan Scope statement The project aims to develop a cloud-based platform enabling peer-to-peer energy trading and its integration with the local electricity grid. This requires the accomplishment of a multitude of tasks, falling into two categories: technology and business. Engineering tasks include the development of the platform and its integration with smart meter infrastructure, while business oriented tasks focus on market research, partnerships and customer acquisition. Scope and cost baselines The activities of each category are decomposed into a set of minor tasks that must be achieved within the specified time frame. The whole project is divided into three parts: the development phase, the validation phase and the commercialisation phase. To monitor the progress of the project, several milestones have been defined. Those phases are discussed in the text below, the reader finds a detailed breakdown in the Gantt chart in Appendix 3. The successful accomplishment of the project requires securing appropriate budget. The fixed costs, that are present during the duration of the whole project include workspace rent, a salary of four engineers and a remuneration of an employee responsible for marketing. Further expenses which fluctuate based on the phase of the project, include server costs, lab equipment, travel arrangements and promotions. A detailed breakdown is shown in Appendix 5. For the first two years, a budget of 373 250 is needed. Development phase [9 months - 135 700] The first phase of the project starts with interviewing stakeholders and researching the regulatory framework in the beachhead market. Every stakeholder must be heard: the concerns of low-income families, the expectations of current prosumers, community representatives, DSOs and energy retail companies. The outcomes of those interviews will influence in the future the development of the UI, trading algorithms, contract model and pricing strategy. After the preliminary research, a laboratory facility is developed. The tests simulate the electricity production and exchange in a microgrid set-up and allow to examine the integration configuration of smart meters with the platform. Simultaneously, the online trading platform and the mobile applications for computers and smartphones are being developed. Once the cloud-based platform and the laboratory microgrid have been integrated successfully, the project can move to the next phase. During the development phase, variable costs include payments for the laboratory space and equipment. Part of the budget should be secured to cover expenses of the travels, which are necessary during stakeholder interviews and setting up partnerships. Technology milestone Successful validation of the IT-platform with the simulation of the microgrid during laboratory tests. Commercial milestones Finding & interviewing stakeholder representatives, Successful translation of interview outcomes to corresponding business activities: trading mechanism, contracts, pricing, Securing a first pilot site, securing local DSO partnership. Validation phase [7 months - 118 350] The second phase of the project involves running tests in a first pilot site, investigating the real-world performance of the platform and the user response. This aims to improve both front-end and back-end of the platform. The major task among the business oriented activities is starting up the process of customer acquisition. The first target group includes energy retail companies and renewable energy cooperatives. An advertising campaign will be set-up and the platform is promoted during fairs and conferences to raise awareness about the unique idea of EnerGora and attract the first customers. Variable costs include costs of performing tests in the pilot site and the server payment. Some part of the available budget is used for the product promotion during fairs and marketing campaign. Technology milestone Successful compatibility of the platform with smart meters and user behaviour in pilot site. Commercial milestone Successful launch of customer acquisition process via promotional campaign and fairs.
Commercialisation phase [8 months - 119 200] This phase encompasses commercial roll-out of the product in the low-voltage grids of the first participating communities, including setting-up contracts and a back-office for customer service. During the commercialisation phase, costs of promotion campaign and server payments continue. The roll-out of product in customer s grid results in the necessity of additional business trips and part of the project budget should be secured to cover travel expenses. Technology milestone Commercial milestone Successful roll-out of platform in customer s grid. Secure first customer contract. Appendix 1: EnerGora app mock-up Figure 4 EnerGora UI - energy stats Figure 5 EnerGora UI - electricity mix preferences and selling and buying price limits
Appendix 2: EnerGora business model canvas
Appendix 3: Gantt chart Appendix 4: Cost evaluation
Appendix 5 Cost breakdown ( /month) Year Year 1 Year 2 total (2 years) Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 salary 2 x IT engineer 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 6k 144,000.00 IT infrastructure office space development tests promotion operational costs 2 x energy/electrical engineer responsible for contracts, PR, administration 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 120,000.00 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 48,000.00 servers costs 50 50 50 50 50 50 50 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 1,150.00 IT-equipment (computers) 4k 4,000.00 co-working space for startups Laboratory experiments ( equipment, space) 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 700 16,800.00 1k 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 2,600.00 Pilot site tests 1 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 2k 14,000.00 fairs, conferences, advertising travel arrangements (stakeholders, pilot site, customers, conferences etc) 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 7,500.00 600 600 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 600 600 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 10,400.00 unforeseen costs 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 4,800.00 GRAND TOTAL 373,250.00 1 assuming that some cooperative will allow us use their data from smart meters, costs are related to the necessity to change the work location