“Thanks to an increase in the stability of the energy network, prosumers have the possibility to turn their power supplies on and off, resulting in a lower black-out risk.”
EDF Luminus is a Belgian producer of electricity and provider of both energy and energy services. They play a central role in securing energy supplies in Belgium and represent about 10% of the total installed capacity in Belgium.
The Technology
Business Process Management Suites like OpenText (Cordys) are a collection of tools to support the implementation of BPM initiatives. The goal is to bridge organisational and technological silos. Business process automation is achieved through executable process models and integration capabilities. Moreover, BPMS platforms contain functionality to monitor these end-to-end processes.
Challenge
A balance in the electricity net is of utmost importance. The bigger the imbalance between production and consumption, the higher the risk a black-out occurs. Energy companies dispose of several back-up production units they can activate when necessary. However, the start-up of these units takes a while and they are rather expensive to run.
Prosumers (= professional customers of EDF Luminus), who were already delivering power to Luminus, could decide to turn their machine on or off, which would be quicker and cheaper, by using the tool ‘Flexibility’. This is a web-based tool enabling professional customers to decide whether to buy electricity or to produce it themselves. Thank to this ‘Flexibility’ project, EDF Luminus can automatically, remotely and temporarily turn these units on and off on request of Elia or of their own traders.
Approach
BDO Digital helped translating the functional requirements and business rules into the technical requirements. Moreover, we assisted EDF in the implementation of several processes. With a clear link between Business and IT, ‘Flexibility’ integrates more than a dozen back-end applications, including invoicing and a link with the Elia-systems. This innovative project allows to tune the energy demand to the offering at a certain moment in time.
Results
The project was delivered on time and below budget. Now it is possible to:
- allow the prosumers to view and edit the availability of their production units and the price they request for enabling their machines;
- send all information received from the customers to the ‘Flexibility’ application that steers the units;
- send notifications to the prosumers;
- calculate the invoices based on data received.
Moreover, the prosumers will now earn money by saving some capacity. Whenever they are activated, they will earn another fee for the power they delivered.
All other customers from EDF Luminus and people in Belgium will benefit from the increased stability of the net and the lower black-out risk.