Empowering the digital energy economy

Mutually trusted organisation

“Our main focal area right now,” Jan continues, “is energy intelligence, and this is geared to finding services and solutions for the energy sector whereby the participants can outsource their functions to us while focusing on their core business strategy and strategic decisionmaking processes. This is quite unique because we are a mutually trusted organisation and so we facilitate these processes in which we have no vested interests. We have developed three major systems: customer information, energy data management and energy management. We are responsible for metering and billing for around half of the customers in Finland. In fact, Finland is the only country in Europe where smart metering and billing runs throughout the entire value chain. What Empower has done is to take the smart metering a step further and to digitalise the whole process. What’s more, because we use our own software, we can be much more pro-active in enabling service solutions for our customers, helping them in their strategic objectives. It is evident, then, that software innovation is an important topic for us.”

All about software

The role that software plays in Empower is crucial. “Everything’s about software,” Jan emphasises. “Just take the commercial processes. They are all tied to real-time and time-dependent information, and it is the software innovation that enables the companies operating in the energy market to gain a strategic edge. Especially now in the era of an energy mix that involves not only renewables and more traditional sources but also sees a much broader palette of suppliers, from large utilities to private consumers. So, the need to get the mix and the supply-demand powermatching right is key to an efficient and fair energy market as well as onboarding renewables to help us lower the carbon footprint. At Empower we are working on innovative solutions for these challenges.”

Where disciplines meet

Jan is clear about the added value of an interdisciplinary approach towards innovation. “In a Community like ITEA, one of the most inspiring aspects is the way that projects involve different disciplines, partners, cultures, ideas and so on. And sharing it all. This gives us a much better chance of leveraging all the expertise that is available than if we were relegated to a kind of lower-league player confined to a single domain. ITEA has brought us new insight into the digital opportunities that come about when domain competencies meet. And being part of an industry-led collaborative effort provides very valuable input for us in trying to gain a better handle on the future for the good of society.”