Smart Buildings

USEF Creates Framework to Modernise the Power Value Chain

The Universal Smart Energy Framework (USEF) is set to revolutionise the power industry, and open up the smart and renewable technology markets. USEF is an industry initiative driven by: Alliander, ABB, DNV GL, IBM, ICT Automatisering, RWE-Essent and Stedin. The open framework is designed to accelerate the development of smart energy products, services and solutions for large-scale implementation of smart grids. There is, of course, a global drive to drastically reduce CO2 emissions due to global warming and a need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Growing environmental and energy awareness is also resulting in energy savings and an increased use of renewable energy. A significant share of it will be derived from intermittent, local energy sources such as wind and sun. Coupled with an increasing demand for electricity, largely driven by the large-scale introduction of electric transport, space heating by heat pumps and a growing number of local energy communities, a need emerges for […]

Stay ahead of the pack

with the latest independent smart building research and thought leadership.

Have an account? Login

Subscribe Now for just $200 per year per user (just $17 USD per month) for Access to Quality Independent Smart Building Research & Analysis!

What Exactly Do you Get?

  • Access to Website Articles and Notes. Unlimited Access to the Library of over 1,700 Articles Spanning 10 Years.
  • 10% discount on ALL Memoori Research reports for Subscribers! So if you only buy ONE report you will get your subscription fee back!
  • Industry-leading Analysis Every Week, Direct to your Inbox.
  • AND Cancel at any time
Subscribe Now
The Universal Smart Energy Framework (USEF) is set to revolutionise the power industry, and open up the smart and renewable technology markets. USEF is an industry initiative driven by: Alliander, ABB, DNV GL, IBM, ICT Automatisering, RWE-Essent and Stedin. The open framework is designed to accelerate the development of smart energy products, services and solutions for large-scale implementation of smart grids. There is, of course, a global drive to drastically reduce CO2 emissions due to global warming and a need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Growing environmental and energy awareness is also resulting in energy savings and an increased use of renewable energy. USEF A significant share of it will be derived from intermittent, local energy sources such as wind and sun. Coupled with an increasing demand for electricity, largely driven by the large-scale introduction of electric transport, space heating by heat pumps and a growing number of local energy communities, a need emerges for a ‘new order’ in the supply of energy that optimally matches the changing social context of the 21st century.
It is unknown how fast and to what extent consumers, and specifically the low-volume energy consumers will become prosumers and want to actively participate in the future energy system. Their behaviour will have a major impact on the entire energy system.
USEF will enable consumers to transform into modern, individual energy uploaders and downloaders subject to the precondition that the overall, differentiated energy system will remain safe, reliable and affordable, and will become increasingly sustainable. USEF achieves this by implementing a market mechanism for trading both capacity and commodity across the entire energy value chain. USEF provides non-discriminatory access to smart energy systems for all active stakeholders at acceptable cost-to-connect and cost-to-serve levels. The energy framework enables users to seamlessly co-create a fully functional smart energy system and provides an open and consistent framework of specifications, designs and implementation guidelines. The USEF foundation acts as the steward of the framework and has the ambition to establish it as the de-facto framework for smart energy products, services and solutions. USEF aims that by 2018, ten million prosumers use USEF compliant products services and solutions, throughout Europe and further afield. To accelerate the development of commercially viable offerings based on the framework, USEF develops a reference implementation of the framework itself. It allows the industry to develop smart energy products, services and solutions in an unambiguous way. Together these offerings allow the large-scale international deployment of smart grids. USEF will be validated and improved in a number of large-scale international demonstration projects, which will support the commoditization of these products, services and solutions. Currently two launching customers have already committed to deploy USEF in their demonstration projects in the Netherlands and many more are expected to follow soon.
The energy framework benefits both companies already involved in smart energy as well as lower barriers of entry to the energy market for new innovative players. Smart energy systems require new services, markets and roles that complement the existing energy landscape.
Frits Bliek, technical director of the USEF Foundation commented and Senior Consultant at DNV GL: “Since 2011, work on a smart energy system has been ongoing in Europe as business and users become increasingly aware of the need for better delivery of renewable energy sources. USEF will make the smart energy system a far more open market that encourages innovation and progress, which will accelerate the process of providing users with better products and services at the same time as increasing profitability for businesses”. New functions and services are crucial to unleash the flexibility that end-users and new appliances can offer to a smart energy system. Flexible and variable prices will trigger active trading of energy on various timescales, ultimately by all stakeholders in the system. Data from numerous sources become available and allow the development of insight services that can be used to optimize the energy consumption and production, but also for value added services like energy management, remote maintenance, etc. You can read more on our BEMS and Enterprise Energy Management research here – http://memoori.com/portfolio/bems-market-2013-to- 2017/
This creates a wealth of new opportunities for the smart building, smart grid, BEMS, energy efficient lighting and many other related industries. It creates those opportunities in an innovative and structured way, taking all stakeholders into account.
A business case tool has been developed that provides the essential insight in value creation in USEF compliant smart energy systems and hence allow stakeholders to evaluate their business case for their propositions. The tool allows gaining insight into the value creation that occurs when up-scaling a field trial in a fully established market. The essential parameters that describe various developments in the energy market can be modified to evaluate various market scenarios. The USEF framework has the potential to guide the energy industry into the 21st century, creating a modern, flexible system for a greener, more efficient and dynamic energy future. Stay tuned to Memoori, or sign up to our newsletter, for all the latest news on USEF, smart building and the smart energy industry.

Most Popular Articles

Net Zero Buildings Timber IHS
Energy

Net Zero Buildings Explored: International House Sydney, Australia

As the first timber structure of its scale in Australia, International House Sydney (IHS) occupies an important position in the nation’s architectural history. Completed in mid-2017, IHS gained a 6 Star Green Star for office design and achieved As Built (v3) rating, alongside many other awards for design, operation, and especially embodied carbon. The six-story […]

Subscribe to the Newsletter & get all our Articles & Research Delivered Straight to your Inbox.

Please enter a valid email

Please enter your name

Please enter company name

By signing up you agree to our privacy policy