Currently fossil fuel power stations provide the majority of flexibility in the UK energy system, meaning they respond to short-term changes in demand by increasing or decreasing generation output. This flexibility is vital for maintaining system balance and therefore to keeping the lights on.
With the planned closure of UK coal power stations by 2025, a large proportion of flexibility will need to be provided instead by commercial energy customers participating in demand-side response (DSR).
DSR is an energy programme that compensates energy consumers and generators for their flexibility. Commercial customers, empowered by Reactive Technologies’ Tradenergy® DSR service, are set to benefit financially from the transition to a new energy system while enabling a more sustainable, low-carbon energy mix and contributing towards improved security of supply.
Reactive Technologies is an energy tech company based in the UK with a presence in France and Finland. Reactive Technologies has considerable experience in the energy sector, partnering with retail giant Carrefour Hypermarchés in France to deliver mass-scale DSR services. The company also collaborates with National Grid UK on cutting-edge innovation projects, utilising its deep communications and software engineering heritage.
This merging of telecoms and energy means Reactive Technologies’ approach to solving energy system challenges is very different, implementing innovative technology previously used exclusively in telecoms for the first time in the energy sector. “We are applying the internet of things to the energy system and therefore enabling new value for all participants,” says Dr Jens Madrian, chief financial officer and chief commercial officer at Reactive Technologies.
In many ways, today’s energy system transition resembles the reinvention the telecoms industry experienced in the 1990s. At that time, the telecoms sector underwent a drastic move away from fixed-line telephony systems to new internet protocol or IP-based technology, expanding the limits of what was previously thought possible and forever changing the way we communicate.
Similarly, Reactive Technologies’ Tradenergy® platform is set to change positively the way commercial customers interact with their energy, enabling them to not only lower their energy costs through integrated energy management but also to earn new revenue streams for being flexible with their energy usage and generation.
Commercial energy customers using Tradenergy® earn new revenue streams for their flexibility and materially lower their energy bills
Reactive Technologies’ Tradenergy® platform delivers an ultra-fast, future-proof energy management and DSR optimisation service. This next generation of sophisticated DSR control connects to commercial customers’ electrical consuming and generating equipment via a secure, cloud-based platform interface. This extracts the inherent flexibility within customers’ assets, managing them within a wider flexibility portfolio and intelligently optimising them across the highest-value DSR opportunities from within the energy system.
Tradenergy® delivers accurate and safe control of customers’ equipment in line with pre-agreed operational parameters, ensuring customers stay in control of their assets at all times. Tradenergy® also enables commercial customers with energy storage devices or back-up generators to flex these assets for DSR while ensuring they are available when needed for their primary purpose.
Most importantly, Tradenergy® is totally future-proof as it has been built to adapt to any new assets or energy mechanisms that may arise in future, ensuring it will always be fit for purpose.
To summarise, commercial energy customers using Tradenergy® earn new revenue streams for their flexibility and materially lower their energy bills by benefiting from fully integrated energy management.
Tradenergy® also helps commercial energy customers boost their sustainability credentials because by decreasing their energy usage at peak times, they offset the need to call upon fossil fuel power stations to increase generation.
And now for the best bit – Tradenergy® comes at no cost to commercial energy customers. Reactive Technologies pays you for your flexibility. Get in touch today to find out how much Tradenergy® could earn your business.
For more information please visit www.reactive-technologies.com
