Headed by Devrim Celal, the fulfilment platform has announced a multi-year deal with municipal utility Saint John Energy, (SJE) in New Brunswick on Canada’s east coast, licencing Kraken’s end-to-end customer service platform.

As Kraken’s first partner in the North American energy market to license its customer platform, SJE can now use Kraken to support its progress towards a decentralised, decarbonised grid for its 36,000 customers.

SJE will adopt Kraken’s end-to-end utility operating system, enabling it to create & brand new green energy-focused services, deliver advanced customer care through relentlessly efficient processes, and flexibly manage its distribution network.

Kraken, which is part of Octopus Energy Group, will import and integrate all of SJE’s residential & business customers onto its all-in-one customer service, billing, optimisation, and asset management platform.

As Canada’s oldest incorporated city, Saint John on the 45^th parallel has been a test bed for electrification. Its 70,000 or so inhabitants face average January temperatures of minus 12 Celsius, and 167 days a year when temperatures do not rise above freezing point.

So the municipal power provider has had to come up with energy innovations, deemed among the most forward-looking in north America. More than 75 percent of the city’s customers have homes & premises heated by electricity. More than 70 percent of customers rent water heaters, and more than 20 percent of residents rent heat pumps.

In 2019, SJE became the world’s first utility to deploy a Tesla Megapack to store power, cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and reduce grid strain.

As the utility continues to employ solutions to reach Net Zero, the partners say Kraken’s end-to-end management platform will be critical in supporting the utility’s future energy transaction needs while easing emerging grid constraints resulting from new technologies in renewable generation and consumer low-carbon behaviours.

Greg Jackson, founder of Octopus Energy Group, said: “Around the globe, Kraken partners with some of the most trusted energy brands to decentralise, decarbonise, and above all, modernise the grid.

“Saint John Energy’s track record as an innovative early adopter makes this partnership a natural fit for us as we look to drive the energy transition worldwide. As our first utility and distribution partner in North America, we are excited to support Saint John Energy in bringing more affordable, reliable solutions to its customers in Canada.”

Ryan Mitchell, president and CEO of Saint John Energy said: “We’re proud and excited to partner with Kraken, which not only has a transformative platform but an international reputation for best-in-class solutions tailored to the energy industry.”

“Implementing its solutions will give our customers more information and control over their energy needs” Mitchell added.  “It will allow Saint John Energy to pursue more innovative solutions in clean energy and the transition to Net Zero.”

The Canadian deal follows Kraken’s recent pilot partnership to reduce grid constraints in Connecticut, its successful U.S. launch of SmartFlex, and a licensing agreement with a Texas-based energy asset manager, Tenaska.

Kraken currently looks after 54 million utility customers across the globe. Managing around 155,000 domestic devices— or over 38 GW of contracted power, it stands as one of the largest residential virtual power plants in the world.

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The DSO has committed to saving customers £410m by 2028 and has delivered £60m worth of savings in 2023 alone, by utilising flexibility as an alternative to the traditional approach of delivering network capacity by building more infrastructure.

EPEX SPOT says it is Europe’s leading power spot exchange, with the highest total traded volume and widest range of innovative products, counting over 140 members and exceeding 8TWh traded monthly in Britain.

EPEX SPOT was appointed as the new flexibility market platform provider after a competitive tender. As the leading European short-term power exchange, it has a strong track record in delivering innovative market design and brings together a community of UK energy trading companies with opportunities to benefit from UK Power Networks’ flexibility market.

As the only independent DSO, UK Power Networks has already awarded contracts for more than 1GW of flexibility. Working together, the two companies are confident they have the ingredients for a highly scalable, innovative and coordinated flexibility market.

As part of the deal, EPEX SPOT will adopt the industry-standard processes and products defined through the Open Networks programme. While the Localflex platform offers a full set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), these will be reviewed in the context of industry developments to simplify participation for flexibility providers and maximise interoperability with other market platforms.

Flexibility providers will be supported to register on the EPEX SPOT Localflex platform and will have the opportunity to help shape priorities for platform development.

In December 2023 UK Power Networks began a trial of day-ahead flexibility procurement in East Anglia. This process will be migrated to the Localflex platform from April 2024, followed by UK Power Networks’ long-term flexibility tenders from May 2024.

Sotiris Georgiopoulos, director of DSO at UK Power Networks said: “EPEX SPOT offers the opportunity to exceed our commitment to avoiding £410m of infrastructure investment between 2023 and 2028. We’re looking forward to working together with EPEX SPOT and our market participants to deliver a world class customer experience and contribute to a more joined up British flexibility market.”

Ralph Danielski, chief executive officer of EPEX SPOT, said: “The pioneering partnership between UK Power Networks and EPEX SPOT for the market-based procurement of flexibility marks an important milestone in facilitating Net Zero. The project serves as a lighthouse towards the entire energy sector, and we are very looking forward to further shape the future of flexibility markets.”

Local flexibility markets are playing a key role in minimising the need for additional grid infrastructure to accommodate the growth of low carbon technologies such as electric vehicles, heat pumps and renewable generation. It is widely accepted that flexibility will be an enabler of a timely and low cost Net Zero transition.

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Starting in the UK next year, its new Piclo Max endeavour will offer sellers and buyers of flexible electricity a one stop shop for all electricity markets internationally.

The platform is designed to match flex sellers, those commanding quantities of surplus power, up with system operators, enabling an increasingly thriving flexibility market.

The firm says Piclo Max is its response to widespread calls from flex sellers to tackle barriers to market entry. It could constitute a significant step towards a fully flexible electricity system.

 Piclo CEO James Johnson said: “The launch of Piclo Max will be a crucial step in our mission to decarbonise grids.

“We are incredibly excited to take electricity and flexibility markets to the next stage, building on our track record in the UK, Europe and the US. We’ve already seen strong commitments from industry leading flex sellers, who, like us, want to make real strides towards a more aligned UK electricity market.

“Flexibility is a tangible, viable tool for decarbonisation, today. It is a proven tool for efficiently balancing the grid and reducing the cost of future grid reinforcement, globally, delivering immediate value for our customers and wider society.”

Flex buyers in the UK include National Grid ESO, responsible for national system balancing and resolving transmission grid constraints, plus six DNOs managing “last mile” distribution of electricity delivery, a need encompassing the flexibility to overcome bottlenecks on the local grid.

Flex sellers typically own and operate ‘distributed’ energy resources such as renewables generation, batteries and EVs, able to respond to system operators’ requests to modify their generation or consumption often at short notice.

According to the service provider, electricity markets’ often opaque natures mean flex sellers face many barriers in optimising revenue for their assets, each with different sets of systems and protocols.

It cites its flagship product, Piclo Flex, as providing an independent marketplace for local flexibility. More complicated however, are the different platforms for wholesale, capacity and balancing markets. This  places a huge time and cost burden on flex sellers, limiting participation and competition across the industry.

Johnson intends the debutant Piclo Max to smile on flex sellers with cost and time efficiencies as well as access to new and existing income via revenue stacking.

He estimates that, from operational assets already registered on the Piclo Flex marketplace, Piclo Max could unlock over £750 million a year in revenue stacking opportunities.

At the same time, flex buyers, including SOs at both transmission and distribution level, will gain access to a wider selection of vetted flex sellers and increased market liquidity, ensuring uninterrupted development of flexibility services.

Johnson says Piclo Max is aligned with the ambitions of policy makers and regulators, including those of UK regulator Ofgem, which in its May 2023 strategy set out ambitious plans for a flexible UK electricity system.

“The introduction of Piclo Max represents a pivotal point in the UK’s continued global flexibility leadership. The platform will transform existing electricity markets, providing flex sellers with access to all electricity market opportunities, services and insights – from capacity, wholesale, distribution flex, and local constraints markets – in a single place”, said Johnson.

The platform has already generated significant interest, he added,  across the UK’s transmission and distribution, and flex seller space.

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Most members of the concern’s Performance Fund operate in energy intensive sectors such as data centres or engineering. They often manage complex energy purchasing across several sites, including in hospitality, retail or sports.

Striking the right balance between spending and buying energy has never been more important, says OEM.

The company specialises in utilising data and insights to inform their experts in risk management, trading and sustainability, bringing cost savings and control to clients in volatile markets.

It expects maintaining control of rising energy costs, alongside developing investment cases centred on renewables, will continue to predominate in its clients’ concerns, as debate continues in the run-up to the 2024 general election on energy prices, decarbonisation and Net Zero commitments.

OEM recently announced the launch of True, its proprietary purchasing platform, which unites an organisation’s real energy procurement costs and Net Zero strategies.

Chris Maclean, the platform’s CEO said: “With energy costs and consumption remaining top of mind as a volatile purchasing landscape intersects with our climate crisis, it’s understandable that large businesses are looking for more understanding and confidence in their costs and net zero investments.

“There are so many complex moving parts to building and maintaining the right commercial energy strategy. I’m pleased with the tangible, positive results which our expert teams consistently deliver for hundreds of energy intensive businesses through our flagship fund and data-driven platform.”

For more information, see here.

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The company sells power and management services to around 24,000 industrial and UK commercial customers, across 237,000 sites.

Businesses can choose from three options to help them trade energy on the wholesale market, as well as three levels of support from nBS’ hedging experts, all of which are tailored to cater for different levels of expertise and risk appetite.

The resulting market intelligence helps businesses better manage their energy positions, understand risks and take advantage of market opportunities.

After almost two years of turmoil in energy markets, nBS believes that offering its solution will help businesses build a successful hedging strategy

Gemma Eagle-Bruce, the supplier’s optimisation desk manager, said: ““Over past months, the energy market has been particularly challenging to navigate. And when it comes to implementing an effective energy strategy, there is no one-size-fits all solution for businesses.

“Facing a variety of complex energy needs, many organisations simply do not have the time or expertise to effectively trade on the wholesale energy market to achieve the best outcome for their business”.

“At nBS, we firmly believe that our role is to demystify energy for our customers. By offering a range of flexible solutions that can adapt to a business’ needs, we are helping them to stay in control of their hedging strategy, save time, and maximise their energy spend.”

More on the service here.

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Soaring demand for PV installations has pushed employers’ demand for skilled staff up more than fourfold since 2020, an assessment from online recruitment platform Indeed claims.

The skilled, green-collar trade pays an average salary of £ 33,613 to a qualified UK technician.  That’s among the lowest pay in the recruiters’ ranking of those 20 most attractive roles this year.

But Indeed’s method balances pay against quality of working environment, long-term viability of the sector and social utility guarantee workers’ sense of worth.

“Indeed’s 2023 best jobs list clearly highlights trends within our society”, Danny Stacy, the firm’s senior manager for talent intelligence commented.

“Solar Installers claiming the top spot for the best job in the UK reveals the increasing importance of sustainability, driven by the cost-of-living crisis and the climate emergency”.

Connecting, commissioning and maintaining systems now accounts for 87 solar installer jobs per million UK workers.  Around one in six work remotely, the researchers found.

Other green collar jobs featuring in Indeed’s top twenty for 2023 include sustainability consultants, ranked at No 3. Average salaries are just over £40,000, with 137 jobs per million of the working population.

At No 17, around 419 workers per million are environmental managers, earning just under £37,000 per year. One in six work from home.

More details here.

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