September 9th, 2022
Open call for IO.Energy Ecosystem 3.0
IO.E 3.0 wants to empower today’s citizens in accelerating the energy transition, so that they can adapt to the increasing variability of a world powered by renewable energy sources.
With this in mind, IO.E V3.0 will clearly focus on building solutions where the added value, financial benefits and opportunities are tangible, understandable and available to every citizen. So that they too can participate in the current energy transition.
Such a realization is only possible if cooperation is stimulated and co-implementation goes hand in hand with today’s citizens, but also with the IO.E participants. Hence the call to everyone (companies, citizens) to participate in IO.E 3.0.
If you want to be part of something bigger, you can click below to join IO.E 3.0 or know more about this new edition!
June 24th, 2022
IO. Energy Ecosystem CoDev Closing
During the CoDev closing event, participants had the opportunity to present their use-case in front of their peers, regulators and management of the system operators. As well to discuss the overlap and impediments the use-cases are currently facing.
The main learnings were the following:
- It is important that all end-user cost variables can be addressed in a transparent and dynamic market approach, meaning that (localized) supply/demand determines the supply price. Therefore, the legislation ought to be revised so tariffs can also be applied dynamically under specific conditions and without creating discrimination.
- Exchange of energy volumes between access points and/or parties could be increasingly facilitated. For example, if energy is directly to be delivered from RES-producer to an (EV)-consumer, data exchange will have to be facilitated to open the market for new services/actors and alternative billing and pricing solutions.
- We believe that the use-cases would benefit from regulators and policy makers playing a greater role as a sounding board for innovative and technical development.
- In all cases, the presence of the digital meter is a requirement to guarantee the operation of the innovative solutions towards a consumer-centric energy transition which will benefit the society as a whole.
October 9th, 2020
IO. Energy Ecosystem Sandbox Closing
On October 9th, 2020, we closed the Sandbox phase of the IO.Energy Ecosystem. We were pleased to share the lessons learned from the IO.Energy Ecosystem Sandbox phase and announce the IO.Energy Ecosystem 2.0 starting ideation in January 2021.
Together Elia, Fluvius, ORES, RESA and Sibelga, are calling for new partners to develop innovative energy services with the same important vision: put the consumer in the center.
What is new in IO.Energy Ecosystem 2.0?
In order to accelerate consumer-centric innovation even faster, in IO.Energy Ecosystem 2.0, we are currently co-defining the use case topics/challenges with experts and potential active members as well as developing a consumer panel of 100 to 150 households with digital meters.
The challenge of the energy transition cannot be met by 1 company, that is why it was very interesting to connect to the IO.Energy.
Have expectations been met?
IO.Energy Ecosystem was the first T/DSOs ecosystem of its kind.
What are the lessons learned according to the system operators experts?
Chris Peeters, CEO Elia group, Guy Cosyns, Director Data Management Fluvius, Inne Mertens, Director Market & Client Department ORES and Catherine Gaudissart, Chief Client Officer Sibelga.
David Zenner, Head of Consumer Centricity Elia, Luc Decoster, Head of Regulation Fluvius and Luc Warichet, Director Strategy and transformation RESA.
June 24th, 2019
IO. Energy Ecosystem Ideation Closing
On June 24th, 2019, we closed the Ideation phase of the IO.Energy Ecosystem at Flagey.
It was a very important day for the participants of the 8 groups which have been retained and given the green light to proceed to the sandboxing phase:
- CLEF | Clean Energy Forecaster, Consuming local and clean energy as a smart community? Here is your guide.
- Community Forecaster, Sunny or windy? You consume when needed.
- Enleash, Unlocks and valorizes the energy potential in large commercial real estate.
- Flexity, Delivering plug and play Smart Energy Home.
- Maka, Reducing your consumption is fun!
- Sensa, Define your comfort, we take care of the rest
- Soteria, We unlock your residential flexibility in a grid-secure way.
They pitched their project and focused on what their ideas mean for the user and what the user will get out of it. They all contribute to the success of the IO.Energy initiative by unlocking the value potential of e-mobility, energy communities, flexible assets & smart building for consumers.
Pioneering consumer-centric energy services was the key message of this innovative journey where we had the chance to listen to a panel gathering small & large companies, as well as academic experts, but also Georg Rute – Digitalisation manager and Head of the Smart Grid Unit Estonia, Anna Colucci – EU, Head of retail Markets, Coal and Oil Unit – Directorate-General for Energy, Peter Hinssen – Serial entrepreneur, advisor, keynote speaker and author, and Marie-Christine Marghem – Minister of Energy,Environment and Sustainable Development.
And last, this event allowed us to look back at what we have achieved so far with IO.Energy and the concrete next steps of the initiative.
March – June 2019
IO. Energy Ecosystem Ideation Phase
Since March 14, 2019, 12 groups have built use cases from scratch during the five workshops of the ideation phase, all pioneering consumer-centric energy services.
After 3 months of hard work considering the problem exploration and concept ideation phase, they were ready to find out if their ideas were well received or not by the Internet of Energy.
On May 29, 2019, they pitched their ideas in front of experts – from academic world, regulators, the system operators themselves. They received valuable output to bring their use cases to the next level and move forward to the sandbox phase.
March 14th 2019
Start of the Innovation Program
To bring consumer-centric use cases to life, the IO. Energy Ecosystem will take part in the Nova Reperta Open Innovation Program.
The program provides a structured approach to build new perspectives, capture value and grow.
To do so, some consortia, composed of various members of the ecosystem, have proposed use-cases which they would like to co-develop. The selected consortia will participate in various Design Sprint days which will boost the development of their use cases from the validation of the user/prosumer problem statement to a validated pre-totype.
March 1st 2019
Deadline for members’ application
To achieve their ‘consumer-at-the-center’ vision, Elia, Fluvius, Ores, Resa, and Sibelga are convinced that collaboration between energy market parties is crucial.
That’s why they have called for members to join the initiative. By joining the IO.Energy Ecosystem, members are taking part in an open innovation ecosystem to share knowledge and boost innovation in the energy world. It’s also an opportunity to create the environment to build, test and learn from new energy applications for consumers and new digital tools for more efficient system operation.
The call ended on March 1st with more than 90 members registered.
Feb 21st 2019
Kick-off the IO.Energy Ecosystem
On Feb 21, we successfully celebrate the kick-off of the IO.Energy Ecosystem facilitated by Elia, Fluvius, Ores, Resa, Sibelga and operated by Nova Reperta Innovation.
Key energy market players were gathered to develop, all together, a brand new initiative aiming to co-create a consumer-centric system. The energy though-leaders discussed their ambition and common objectives, together with government representatives.
“The focus should be, on the one hand, on the end consumer, the affordability of this energy but also on changing the whole system. There, innovation, new solutions, knowledge sharing have to play a role and come up with solutions for the future.” Philippe De Backer, Minister of Digital Agenda
January – February 2019
I.O. Energy Ecosystem creation
The IO.Energy Ecosystem is built to facilitate the development of new energy services by market parties to drive the power system towards consumer centricity.
The IO.Energy Platform is an “Open and Secured near Real-Time Communication Platform”. This platform will ensure secured direct routing and exchange of information (e.g. consumption/injection at access points & market signals) between authenticated energy actors, ranging from market parties and system operators to the consumers themselves.
Enabling information exchange with more refined granularity and frequency will create the foundation of a system where the consumer will have access to a vast offer of competitive energy services that are tailored to their needs.
The IO.Energy Ecosystem is an open innovation ecosystem to share knowledge and boost innovation in the energy world. But also, create the environment to build, test and learn from new energy applications for consumers and new digital tools for a more efficient system operation
It is an ecosystem built and facilitated by system operators for market parties to develop the energy services of tomorrow.
These services, the consequent digital tools and market design elements will be developed in an iterative and progressive approach from ideation to sandboxing, through demonstration towards industrialization.
End of 2018
Founding Members’ Vision: Consumer-at-the-center
While Europe is committed to decarbonizing its society with a target of 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, consumers want to decrease their energy bill, increase comfort and benefit from the technological investments they made in solar panels, heat pump, boiler or (car) battery.
Providing energy as-a-service is both an opportunity and a challenge.
As stressed by the European Commission in its communication ‘Clean Energy for all Europeans’, Europe sees consumers as active and central players on the energy markets of the future.
To realize the social welfare and economical country potential of the energy transition; digitalization and open innovation are crucial.
Digitalization progress has been made through flexible assets in the system and a sharp reduction in the cost of power technologies – cloud computing, Internet of Thing (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). However, the system to ensure that these assets and intelligence can be translated into high-value energy services is not yet there. Indeed, leveraging these opportunities require interactions amongst various energy and technological players.
That’s why we decided to create an ecosystem where key players can explore, test and co-build new energy services through a consumer-centric approach.
