Why software?

A mismatch of demand or generation can stress the grid. When renewables are unused at non-peak times, the grid can’t cope, and has to turn these assets off. When there is too much demand at peak times, dirty fossil fuel generators need to plug the gap.

Our platform shifts demand from peak to off-peak times, and schedules appliances which can be flexible to run when there would unused renewable generation.

ZUoS will control household devices to reshape energy demand in the home while still making sure your washing is done, dishes are clean and that your electric vehicle is charged for when you need them to be. We let homes move from having a spike in demand when everyone comes home from work, to a smooth steady profile. Our system even thinks about how much the wind is blowing and the sun is shining to find the optimal way to spread your energy consumption to when power is cleanest.

Our platform has the potential to unlock consumer bills savings by reducing the amount of network investment needed each year and making the most of existing wires and cables. This will also let even more renewable energy come online, and increase the amount of existing renewable energy which is used. In the future, this will allow individual households to benefit from excess generation rather than paying generators to switch off.

Paying for energy within the home cost the average UK consumer £705 for the electricity per year. Of this, around 23% (or £162) is spent just on the network used to transfer electricity. Scale this up to the 29 million domestic homes across the UK and it’s clear that our networks require a lot of investment each year.

ZUoS Simulations

The ZUoS Simulations Platform forms digital twins of local networks to model future energy scenarios at any desired time granularity (sub-second to seasonal). Data is integrated from live and record sources for networks, Distributed Energy Resource (DER) assets, generation and demand profiles, weather data and more. Agent based modelling techniques allow the operational characteristics of future scenarios to be understood as a transient, time-varying system, rather than traditional ‘snap-shot’ analyses as used in the market today. The Simulations platform additionally provides a testbed for the integrated Operations platform, allowing new control strategies, at both device and neighbourhood level, to be robustly tested within a simulated environment ahead of live deployments.

ZUoS Operations

The ZUoS Operations Platform determines predictive scheduling - based on a market unique methodology - and through cloud-based communication provides optimisation schedules and/or real-time control signals to DER assets within low voltage networks. It coordinates with inhouse (or in-device) energy management systems, to deliver three different and complementary levels of optimisation: in buildings; within communities; and at the network level. In this way, ZUoS enables the individual components of the low carbon system to collaborate like members of a team to achieve both individual and socialised objectives, providing a significant benefit over purely ‘selfish’ home based energy management systems, which as well as disproportionately benefiting those who can afford them and exacerbating inequalities, can have rebound effects which adversely affect electricity networks.

ZUoS Communities

ZUoS Communities is a first of its kind turnkey solution for Community Energy Groups, Housing Associations and Local Authorities (and others in due course) to manage local energy systems. It is how these groups will interface with the Operations Platform to access existing and emerging energy markets. It will enable them to onboard new users and assets, manage billing and payments, and receive operational insights.