Open Energy, meet Open Finance

This article is part of a series exploring the potential for analytics professionals and open data enthusiasts from a variety of sectors to contribute to the open data aspirations of the Energy sector. AxiaOrigin is a data analytics consultancy working with UK Power Networks to facilitate open data discussion and explore the benefits for customers.

Open Energy, meet Open Finance

Emulating open finance could spell a major shift in customer empowerment for the energy sector. Let’s seriously think about how a Distribution Network Operator like UK Power Networks could share with open finance.

If the recommendations of the Energy Data Taskforce were packaged under the name, "Open Energy," perhaps we would more easily make links to open banking and open finance. we know data has revolutionized finance and healthcare, but what does that specifically mean? How could electricity network operators to the same?

These are some of the questions we are posing within this article, aimed at our financial services sector peers. We would love to hear your ideas for use cases, and your prompts for the lessons learned from the evolution of open finance, that we can use in the energy sector.

 A call for input…

A couple of weeks ago the Financial Conduct Authority closed their 'call for input' (CfI) on open finance. Reading the CfI from a DNO perspective does make you think about whether companies like UK Power Networks will be writing documents in response to something like this in the future. You get a ‘find and replace’ sensation reading it - simply substitute “energy” into the sentences and you can see the similarities.

In less than five years, what started as open banking, with major regulatory reforms, has evolved into open finance – with the accompanying development of a professional discipline and a sector mega-trend. At the heart of all this is customer value and service innovation.

In its CfI, the FCA asks which data should be shared. the FCA lists examples of savings, mortgages, consumer credit, investment, pensions and insurance data types that might be shared as part of open finance. In the same way, UK Power Networks is actively seeking to share its network and asset data and metadata types presented as a list to unlock benefits for all.

The FCA captures the opportunity for shared data in use cases that are organised in buckets labelled “cross-sectoral”, “investment”, “pensions”, “non-investment savings”, “general insurance”, “consumer credit and mortgages”. Each set of use cases lists three to five current issues that Open finance might address, followed by a collection of single-sentence use cases that map many-to-many with the pain-points.

The applicability to energy is striking. At random, here’s one of the use cases from the ‘Investments’ bucket that links back to data sharing:

“Help consumers better understand their investments and consider whether they continue to meet their needs by providing up-to-date information on costs, tax treatment, performance, risk, and other factors (e.g. asset mix, exit fees, etc.).”

Substitute ‘investments’ for ‘energy bills’ and remove the ‘tax treatment’ reference and the sentence is exactly applicable:

“Help consumers better understand their energy bills and consider whether they continue to meet their needs by providing up-to-date information on costs, performance, risk, and other factors (e.g. domestic bills mix, etc.).”

What are the respective roles for the energy and financial services sectors to participate in each other’s open data ambitions?

Reading through the use cases, you reach a clear follow-on question: is there a role for the secondary uses of asset and network information in open finance? It may seem unlikely at first, but is that because we are unhelpfully and unconsciously biased through our work and experiences? And what is the role for the secondary uses of open finance data in what we might call ‘open energy’? Maybe there is no role, but UK Power Networks’ respective focus on customer empowerment surely offers something very meaningful that could be shared? How can the DNOs ambitions and actions align for support and inspiration with open finance for a shared destination of empowering customers? 

We need your thoughts - starting with network and asset information

We are keen to hear from our financial services sector colleagues with ideas for use cases and prompts towards your lessons learned that could be used in energy. What are some of your instinctive thoughts for the potential of the energy sector to emulate open finance?

For data and analytics professionals in open finance teams, financial services and other DNOs, what questions could we help you explore if you had access to our data about…

• The network assets network operators have.
• Where those network assets are located.
• Who’s responsible for those assets.
• The capacity of those network assets.
• The level of utilisation and available capacity of those network assets.
• The level of performance and reliability of those network assets.
• Planned development on the network, what that will deliver and when.

We’re keen to learn the lessons from the journey from open banking to open finance, and what the financial services sector would do, if anything, with UK Power Networks’ open data. Please share your thoughts with us in the comments below or by emailing opendata@ukpowernetworks.co.uk.