The deployment of smart-metering is the key to future energy efficiency and carbon reduction – but in itself is not the solution. Whist smart metering provides the data to enable energy management that data is useless with out a means of analysing and interpreting it.

Having previously helped to deliver the technology, proposition, commercial and process infrastructure to support smart-metering, Actualise continued to work with npower project managing the design and delivery of products and propositions to add value to the core smartmeter proposition.

As the market evolves, direct customer feedback had demonstrated that turning consumption data now retrievable through smart-meters into useful information was a pre-requisite for choosing a smart provider, metering alone was no longer sufficient. A solution must enable the customer to:

• Monitor their energy efficiency across all of their sites
• Target areas where efficiency savings can be realised
• Track the benefits delivered through improvement initiatives
• Immediately be notified when there is an energy related problem

The project engaged a variety of stakeholders both within npower and with end customers to establish the detailed requirements for this product.

In parallel with this, a formal procurement was initiated, initially with a Request for Information (RFI), leading to a full Invitation to Tender (ITT) process.

A partner was selected and detailed commercial negotiations continued until a mutually beneficial deal was constructed for all parties.

Detailed product and proposition design continued, until the precise requirements were defined, baselined, and the project could enter the delivery stages.

As mentioned previously, Actualise specialise in multi-functional project delivery. The encompass project fully demonstrates this competency by enabling the delivery of the following project scope through the project team:

• Technology delivery. The design, build and testing phases of the web enabled energy management product and all of its associated interfaces.
• Sales. Product training courses
• Marketing. Marketing communications, advertising and product launch, product literature, and segment specific customer experience design.
• Operations. System and process design and implementation to support the new products and propositions.
• Process. Interfacing the new system solution with existing smart and advanced metering infrastructures.

The solution delivered fully met the customer’s requirements, and was delivered on time and within budget – delivery being within 6 months of project initiation.

Some of the headline features delivered were:

• Carbon footprint measurement
• Consumption alerts – warning a customer when thresholds are breached
• Cost and consumption forecasting
• Portfolio reporting – league tables showing relative cost effectiveness of each customer’s site

The encompass product is now central to npower’s energy management proposition set – for more information on this product and npower’s energy management portfolio please click here.

Take a look at our most recent projects involving energy management:

• First to Market With A Smartmeter Proposition