UKRI’s £2m Modernising Energy Data Access (MEDA) competition, which saw three rounds of increasingly competitive requirements to design and build a data access solution for the energy sector, completed the beta-stage build in July 2021. Icebreaker One, the competition winners, have developed Open Energy a non-profit service that provides data search, data access control and has been designed through collaborative industry groups.
Managed by UKRI as part of the MEDA project, Icebreaker One will deliver a pilot phase of Open Energy over the next 6 months to the end of February 2022. The aim of the pilot phase is to carry out further research and development activities that will prepare the product for public launch. This phase will include developing capabilities that enable organisational and data onboarding, developing further use-case(s), and delivering an operational pilot programme.
The Open Energy initiative has already delivered value in improving visibility and access to data in the sector. It aims to act as a key enabler to innovation, help to drive down costs for consumers and support an open data landscape.
UKRI, BEIS and Ofgem are supportive of energy data sharing solutions and we will work with industry over the coming months to ensure that these solutions can operate within the energy market.