Actility, innovator in smart grid applications such as demand response, is the first company to be declared compliant with the majority of requirements of USEF.

USEF is an open standard intended to accelerate an integrated smart energy future that is efficient, sustainable, and cost effective. The audit of Actility’s services was carried out by DNV GL, founding partner of the USEF Foundation. DNV GL found that Actility was compliant with the requirements relevant for existing flexibility products, and was sufficiently agile to be able to address requirements on future flexibility products.  As Actility’s products are now proven to be fit for the emerging smart grids ecosystem, the company is ready to create significant value for all stakeholders in the flexibility market

“We see USEF as a great next step to further unlock the value of flexibility at our current and upcoming smart energy customers and projects,” comments Actility CTO Olivier Hersent. “The use of the standardized and harmonized processes drives open innovation, lowers entry barriers for other partners and directly supports us in our large scale roll out of flexibility services throughout Europe. We’re happy to learn that our current processes resemble the USEF methodology so closely, showing we are a front runner in the market, and we’re looking forward to our first official fully USEF compliant project in the near future.“

The energy market is undergoing a massive transformation as new ways to manage and store energy, and increasing capacity in renewable resources comes on stream. This creates a third dimension in the market, beyond energy supply and demand: flexibility. Instead of generating more power in response to peaks in demand, a smart grid can actively manage energy usage instead, time-shifting non-critical energy use. Actility, as an aggregator offering a demand-response service to national grid providers, is a pioneer of flexibility, and is fully aligned with the USEF Foundation’s goals to deliver the foundations of one integrated system which benefits all players – new and traditional energy companies and consumers.

Hans de Heer, Principal Consultant at DNV GL, says: “We are very pleased that Actility is the first company to be assessed on USEF compliancy. This gives Actility not only new possibilities in the energy market but also proves the worth of the Universal Smart Energy Framework. We foresee that market entry barriers will be significantly reduced if the flexibility markets and processes are organized throughout Europe in a harmonized and standardized way. Adopting the USEF framework will improve the quality of the market processes, ensuring flexibility can be unlocked in a reliable and efficient way.”

The Universal Smart Energy Framework is an open standard which clearly defines different roles in the energy ecosystem, the processes and interactions between them, and the business and contractual agreements for those interactions. Specifically, USEF identifies three possible customers of flexibility: the Transmission System Operator (TSO), the Balance Responsible Party (BRP) and the Distribution Sytem Operator (DSO). 

USEF is paving the way for a Distribution Network Operator (DNO) to develop into a system operator, actively managing its network by utilizing flexibility for congestion management and voltage control purposes. Actility was audited at the request of a leading DNO which expects its partners and suppliers to be USEF compliant in the future. Passing such a test gives competitor advantage;  in this market, and beyond, the audit also put the USEF Framework and review process through its first real test case.

Hans de Heer as well as other DNV GL and Actility experts will be available at the European Utility Week 2016 (DNV GL booth #3D131) to answer your questions in Barcelona, Spain November 15 to 17.