On June 22 Energysense participated in the TransFuture Festival – a summer get together for entrepreneurs, businesses, governments and other interested parties on the topic of new energy and innovation at Zernike Campus Groningen.

Our ‘Barn Talk’ was focused on the business side of energy innovation – the case at hand dealt with dynamic pricing of energy and the flexibility of consumer households.

The floor was for respectively Qurrent on smart meter-contracts for consumers, University Groningen on Demand Side Management and Enexis presented their project ‘Jouw Energiemoment’ (Your Energy Moment).
The need for all energy market parties to adapt to a changeing reality is quite obvious, necessary and the smart thing to do – it involves major research as well as trial-and-error processes. Some conclusions and unanswered questions in the matter of this Barn Talk were as follows:

• Automation of demand/supply-flexibility seems the way to go: consumers donot seem tob e willing to shift their energy usage individually.
• Energy innovations emphasize financial benefits, whereas saving energy is profitable as well
• The plug in-car will be increasing the role of consumer households in the energy transition (usage, storage, distribution)
• Demand side management based on 6 to 8 appliances: could it be more extensive and far-reaching?
• Any Energy innovation process, trial and experiment will always be a balancing act of best practice and best price.

Want to know more about the cases in this Barn Talk? Or about energy innovation cooperations? About the Barn Talk calendar? Please e-mail Guido Aris at g.aris@rug.nl – he knows all about energy, research and business.