Open Energy is being built by the sector, for the sector. We have garnered significant institutional support to underwrite the costs of initial development, but are given the project’s direction by its Advisory and Steering Groups, which are composed of domain experts from across industry.

The Advisory Groups are directed by the Steering Group who support the overarching strategy, ensure the delivery of our objectives, and help disseminate the work.

The current groups have been meeting monthly since March, with July being the final meeting for this phase of the project. 

We focused the work of the Advisory Groups on two tracks; Membership and Delivery. Each month we have published our summaries in the open on the Latest section of the Open Energy website, EnergyData.org.uk. 

This post summarises the key developments agreed in each month’s meetings, but for more detail on the work in progress from month to month, those monthly summaries are linked below.   

March

In March’s meetings (summary) we agreed the roles and responsibilities for each of the two groups as follows: 

Membership Advisory Group: 

  • Membership contract
  • Key policies; conditions for participation, roles, responsibilities and liabilities
  • Pre-emptive licence
  • Funding model
  • Ongoing governance

Delivery Advisory Group: 

  • Operational guidelines
  • Data production, flows and usage
  • Authorisation process and audit
  • Ensure that the Governance Platform and Data Search capabilities meet user and sector needs 

April

In April’s meetings (summary) the Membership Advisory Group approved:

  • Open Energy Terms of Reference for the Advisory Groups and Steering Group
  • Standard definitions, acronyms and terminology to be used in Open Energy (Section 2 of Operational Guidelines)
  • Consultation on data sensitivity classes (closed 30-April)
  • Amends to Introduction (Section 1) of Operational Guidelines
  • Roadmap for future Membership Advisory Group meetings (May, June, July)
  • Membership charging principles: not-for-profit, proportionate, inclusive

The Delivery Advisory Group approved:

  • Open Energy Terms of Reference for the Advisory Groups and Steering Group
  • Standard definitions, acronyms and terminology to be used in Open Energy (Section 2 of Operational Guidelines)
  • Consultation on data sensitivity classes (closed 30-April)
  • Users and key players within the Open Energy ecosystem – Data Providers / Service providers / Dual roles

May

In May’s meetings (summary), the Membership Advisory Group concluded:

  • Data sensitivity classes – Open Energy will handle data of varying levels of sensitivity and this final policy document presents a system of five data sensitivity classes, from closed, through shared, to open.
  • Also shared an architecture overview

While the Delivery Advisory Group similarly concluded:

June

In June’s meetings (summary), the Membership Advisory Group:

  • Concluded the work on Data Access Conditions, building on the previous work on Data Sensitivity Classes. The Data Access Conditions determine the types of conditions that Data Consumers might be required to meet in order to gain access from Data Providers for different datasets.
  • Reviewed the proposed Licensing approach. Together with the Data Access Conditions, the Licensing Model creates flexible options for determining who can access a particular dataset and what can be done with that dataset.
  • Discussed the refined OE value proposition and the proposed membership tiers and pricing structure.

The Delivery Advisory Group:

  • Concluded work on Data Access Conditions for Data Consumers and the Guidelines for Data Providers.
  • Discussed the beta testing results and the lessons learned from the process – both from a Data Consumer and Data Provider perspective. The next session of beta testing is scheduled for July.
  • Reviewed Licensing and Access Control conditions which included Authorisation Flows, Licensing Model and Access Rules.
  • Discussed the Metadata publication specification which details the content required from the Data Provider for the Metadata files, the technical access specification (API) and data representation best practices.
  • Feedback from the Advisory Group on gaining traction included developing further Use Cases, upstream and downstream in the energy value chain, to enable further engagement and enhance user base.

July

July’s meetings will wrap up the Advisory Group process and report back on what we have achieved during this six month phase of the project. 

Through the process of designing, convening, holding, and above all, listening to the Advisory Groups, Open Energy has made great strides in developing its infrastructure, to the point of opening the beta service to the public (apply to join the beta here).

We have significantly developed the Open Energy Standard, and are well on the way to making Open Energy the Open marketplace for energy data.

The Advisory Group process has been extended with the new Data Standards Advisory Group, which had its first meeting on 16th June.