Energy data more valuable than gold – But why?

At any point in your life, you’ve probably signed away the rights to your data – where you live, how much you use your phone, what you search online even what your interests are.

It’s something that has almost become second nature, to sign away data and information without a second thought. So, why is energy data treated so differently? Throughout the course of Project SHIELD, team members have reached out to more than a dozen external companies and data suppliers for assistance and access to data. After all, the purpose of The Project is to gather data from as many sources as possible in order to evaluate limits for network service providers.

But The Project has been met with roadblocks at every turn. Whether it pertains to perceived legal issues, privacy or inter-company competition, organisations willing to share data for a greater cause are few and far between. That’s not to say Project SHIELD has been unsuccessful in acquiring data from outside sources in order to better visualise our low voltage networks, but it did come as a shock to see how valuable energy data is to the organisations in possession of it.

Moving forward, data will be more freely available to consumers after the government recently announced energy providers will be required to share product information via application programming interfaces. From November this year, companies will need to provide access to usage and connection data for consumers.

The concept not only allows consumers more power and ownership of their data but is geared towards making it easier for start-ups and projects like SHIELD to create more innovative products and services.

It’s a move that will have wide ranging impacts across the energy industry, namely that data will of course be more accessible, aiding projects like ours as the industry continues to change and grow. How it all plays out is yet to be seen though.