Implementing new standards to empower consumers to shape their electricity usage and participate in future flexibility markets will enhance grid stability and help build a sustainable energy future.
The Client Brief
Our client, the Department of Energy, Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), established the Flexibility Innovation Programme as part of the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP). This programme aims to enhance electricity grids’ efficiency, reliability, and sustainability by integrating advanced technologies and practices. One key component of this system is unlocking Demand Side Response (DSR) for domestic and small business consumers. The Interoperable Demand Side Response (IDSR) Programme was established as a sub programme to test and demonstrate how DSR services can be delivered by two different technical frameworks, according to:
- Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 1878 and the principles of PAS 1879; and
- GB smart metering system in accordance with the Standalone Auxiliary Proportional Controller (SAPC) specification.
To achieve this outcome, DESNZ went to the market to procure and initiate the following streams within the programme:
- Stream 1: Development and demonstration of Energy Smart Appliances (ESAs) to deliver interoperable demand side response according to PAS 1878 and 1879 (6 Projects).
- Stream 2: Development and demonstration of ESAs to deliver interoperable demand side response via the GB smart metering system (2 projects).
- Stream 4 Lot 1: Design and delivery of laboratory testing of DSR systems, including the design of conformance testing and performance testing schemes. Conformance testing will be of individual products (ESAs) and of Demand Side Response Service Provider (DSRSP) platforms, while performance testing will cover products and platforms in combination.
- Stream 4 Lot 2: Design and delivery of demonstration of DSR systems in a setting indicative of the real world. Demonstration will be of multiple products and platforms in combination to produce a meaningful change in demand for grid control purposes.
Achievements
Engage Consulting Limited established and led a consortium with partners NMi Certain B.V. and SMS Meter Assets Limited and was successfully awarded the contract for Stream 4 Lot 1: Design and delivery of laboratory testing of DSR systems. Engage, the lead party in the consortium, mobilised the project in September 2022 and then managed it for two years, through to September 2024.
In Phase 1 of the project, we designed and developed conformance and performance testing schemes to independently test DSR solutions by breaking the PAS 1878 into detailed requirements, and developing a set of technical use cases. These referenceable requirements and technical use cases became a vital reference point for the Stream 1 & 2 projects developing DSR solutions.
The practical implementation of the testing schemes was in the form of a test plan. Designed to be agile to provide the client with as much flexibility as possible to mitigate inevitable delays to development projects. We set up a purpose-built test environment, with test stubs to emulate system components. We and continued to evolve our test approach to increase the probability of DSR solutions getting the opportunity to participate in a reasonable amount of testing to support our client’s objectives.
Phase 2 encompassed the testing activities. As development projects continued to experience delays, Engage worked with our client as their trusted advisor to create an open and transparent working environment. Engaging with development projects, creating a transparent pathway for them to enter testing via the governance wrapper Engage implemented, which allowed the client to make informed and timely decisions.
Our approach to engagement with development projects was key to the success of this programme. Engage, developed, and implemented collaboration agreements and secure communication channels, which supported collective issue resolution and facilitated cross-project working in support of interoperable demonstration events.
All development projects continued to experience delays in Phase 2, the maturity of the PAS 1878 is cited as a key contributor; those delays presented a major risk to the programme. We supported our client in facilitating extensions to the programme, but the timeline of these extensions was also challenged. Engage’s approach to engagement enabled us to continue to evolve our testing approach whilst supporting our client to make proactive decisions to:
- de-risk testing,
- ensure all six Stream 1 projects got into testing,
- supporting a review of Stream 2 projects’ conformance against GB smart metering specifications
- ensuring the learning opportunities were not lost,
- enable the programme to transition to Lot 2 testing in September 2024.
Client Outcomes
Valuable insights from multiple projects strengthened the IDSR programme’s outcomes. Engage provided the client with a comprehensive reporting suite that captured all the learnings and findings from the testing phase in varying levels of detail. This reporting suite fed into a central report that succinctly presented our findings and recommendations to support their future policy and standards development.
Our testing demonstrated that a level of interoperability could be achieved with PAS 1878 from a message exchange perspective. However, this level is insufficient for consumers to switch their ESAs to a new DSRSP seamlessly; more definition is required to reach that level of interoperability. Engage found that most inconsistencies in the development projects’ DSR solutions were in the implementation of OpenADR, the open messaging protocol endorsed by PAS 1878 to achieve interoperability. This led to our recommendation to improve the definition.
Specifically, an OpenADR profile for PAS 1878 should be developed:
- providing DSR solution developers with specific optional and mandatory features to implement,
- report naming conventions,
- payload structures,
- and applicable service rules.
This would ensure that each DSR solution development implements the same features in the same way, achieving the appropriate level of interoperability.
We observed differing implementations of the PAS 1878 architecture, in premises CEMs, cloud-based CEMs and cloud-based ESA smart function and some blurring of CEM/ESA functionality. We provided the client with a detailed assessment of the architecture implementations, making those designs more transparent in their alignment with the standard. We were able to highlight that there may be some risk and implications to interoperability and the consumer journey which may need further consideration in future policy.
We supported our client in assessing of the Stream 2 work, which involved more complex solutions and experienced greater delays. Despite these challenges, we helped facilitate a positive outcome within the available timescales. Stream 2 projects aimed to utilise the GB smart metering standard and infrastructure for DSR services. It was demonstrated that OpenADR messages could be encapsulated within smart metering messages via two different routes:
- a) over SMWAN and SMHAN,
- b) an alternative route over the internet.
However, solution “a” was deemed impractical due to network latency and bandwidth limitations. Solution “b” could work but would require changes.
Our findings supported DESNZ’s view that PAS 1878 is a good starting point with the potential to deliver domestic interoperable DSR. Nothing insurmountable was found during testing. This validated the feedback from development projects and supported DESNZ’s decision to sanction the development of a second edition of PAS 1878, incorporating all the learnings from the program and our project.