On the 11th of May, we brought together some of the brightest minds that are rethinking the future of energy. At this event, we hosted 6 roundtables where topic experts could meet and share their thoughts on a specific topic. One of these topics was the Data Exchange for smarter grid planning– Leveraging the learnings from Data Safe House Rotterdam.
How do you forecast your (green) energy and hydrogen supply for the transitioning industry if your suppliers don’t share their plans? Or there is no representative number of industry company data to make such huge investments? Every company in refining, chemicals, and energy is making plans to make their operations more sustainable. This changes the demand and supply of various energy carriers, usually involving an increase in the use of (green) energy and hydrogen and a decrease in the use of oil, natural gas, and coal. As a supplier, you want to ensure that you can provide all forms of energy without overproducing while assuring companies that the required power can be delivered, especially when they need to switch their source of energy. However, suppliers face a challenge in obtaining insights into the energy usage plans of companies. As companies are reluctant to share their plans due to concerns that competitors will gain access to their exact strategies.
The Port of Rotterdam recognized this issue and devised a pilot to facilitate the secure sharing of data among industry players: The Data Safe House. Serving as a separate independent entity, the Data Safe House acts as a neutral platform for data exchange. It enables comprehensive overviews and discussions among industry and grid operators, fostering independent collaboration and trust.
By bridging the gap between industry plans and infrastructure needs, the Data Safe House facilitates the acceleration of the energy transition. It assists in planning for the future energy grid and provides real-time data for more accurate expectations and solutions.
The key learnings from the Round Table discussion including the key opportunities for the Data Safe House:
- Extending Data Safe House Throughout the Netherlands
The initiative in Rotterdam can serve as a successful pilot for other industrial areas and energy networks. Scaling the concept to similar areas and clusters can facilitate infrastructure decision-making, technology choices, windmill rollout, local solutions, and cross-sharing of data. The sharing of research results and public data can also be explored.
- Cross-Company Data Exchange
Cross-company data exchange is identified as a significant challenge and opportunity. Connecting companies within local clusters can lead to innovative solutions and optimization. The concept of a service provider for a group of companies can support data sharing and collaboration. Especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lacking expertise but with energy-related needs.
- Planning and Future Demand
The Data Safe House allows the combining of individual plans and profiles to showcase future energy demand and encourage collaboration. Bringing together SMEs, large companies, network operators and various stakeholders in an ecosystem can create an interesting environment for the development of energy solutions and technologies, such as hydrogen production.
- International Opportunities for Applying the Data Safe House Model
The Data Safe House model has been developed and successfully applied in the Netherlands. However, this concept of matching supply and demand is not limited to the Netherlands. Currently, the application of the concept is being explored for the regulation of a collaborative hydrogen network in Croatia and neighboring countries.
We believe the concept of the Data Safe House can be leveraged in many different regions where the new balance of production, distribution and usage of green energy needs to be found. Rather than a tech solution it is a platform built on trust and engagement of all key stakeholders. If you want to learn more about how to apply this concept in your region, you can reach out to Niek de Jong, Nigel (nigel@nlmtd.com) or Pieter Paul (Pieterpaul@nlmtd.com).