Utility Octopus Energy has launched ‘Project Mercury’, an alliance established to set global standards for the integration of clean technologies with smart energy systems.
Octopus aims to establish a global consortium of hardware manufacturers who will work on new technical guidelines, known as ‘Mercury Enabled’, that will certify device interoperability and functionality to support energy grids balancing supply and demand.
According to Octopus, about 200 million clean tech devices are predicted to be in use by 2030. Project Mercury will also encourage industry collaboration to drive adoption, promoting consumer participation in global demand flexibility schemes and the uptake of smart energy tariffs.
Analysis from Aurora Energy Research has emphasised that flexible power demand is essential if the UK is to gain any substantial benefit from its goal of having 50-60GW of offshore wind capacity online by 2030.
Greg Jackson, founder of Octopus Energy Group, said: “Just as Bluetooth set a global standard for tech devices, we need a similar approach for energy – allowing millions of smart energy technologies to seamlessly integrate with each other.”
He invites the smart energy industry to join the project to create common standards for the smart thermostats, heat pumps, EV chargers and batteries, to “bring us closer to a fully connected, sustainable and affordable energy ecosystem”.
The project comes after a report for the Household or Microbusiness Energy flexibility (HOMEflex) Project by nonprofit compliance company Flex Assure found that the majority of flexibility service providers supported the creation of a compliance scheme for the domestic sector.
Participants in the domestic flexibility sector supported the implementation of a compliance scheme that builds on the existing HOMEflex Code of Conduct.
Octopus’ portfolio includes various smart tariffs and technological supports for flexibility. Intelligent Octopus Go, Octopus Energy’s electric vehicle (EV) tariff, manages a cumulative 1GW of EV batteries. Through the tariff, 150,000 EV batteries are combined into virtual power plants (VPPs) through Octopus’ Kraken platform. According to Octopus, in the last two years it has built the “world’s largest” VPP.
Further, to encourage the uptake of smart, low carbon homes amongst consumers, Octopus has set an ambition of partnering with construction companies to build 100,000 ‘Zero Bills’ homes by 2030.
The Zero Bills smart tariff, launched in 2022, means Octopus customers with low carbon devices, optimised by Octopus technologies, do not have to pay for energy. The houses are fitted with heat pumps, batteries and solar panels; the utility promises zero energy bills for at least five years because the homes generate more energy than they consume.