Transforming processes in response to a rapidly changing energy landscape
This Flemish gas and electricity distribution grid operator operates physical assets in over 200 towns, cities and municipalities. As a market facilitator, the company manages the information exchange between energy market players. Additional responsibilities include grid maintenance, flux management and the role of social energy supplier. The company is part of a collaboration effort to define and roll out the 6th version of the Market Implementation Guide (MIG6). Working closely with the client, irex is managing the impact of these changes.
The current energy landscape is rapidly changing. We are experiencing a continued growth in the number of local production units, the introduction of smart metering and an increase in energy awareness amongst consumers. The new market configuration aims to respond to these exciting challenges and address cost pressures. In close cooperation with other energy players in Belgium, agreements have been made on the optimization of data exchange, which is facilitated by the new federal Clearing House Atrias. The 'Smart Users Program' is a consumer-oriented transfor-mation of the MIG4 to MIG6 that will result in an explosion of data capture, storage and exchange. The data will be leveraged to improve billing correctness and timing, to create data-based services, to reduce barriers to market entry, to provide insights in energy usage and to improve grid maintenance and expansion. The benefits are shared by all market players – suppliers, consumers and grid operators.
The MIG 6 project is a large long-term collaboration project between the Belgian energy market players. The first outlines were written in position papers. A first phase of the project is to deliver qualitative business requirements, starting from these position papers. As there are a lot of stakeholders involved, the creation process is organized through frequent meetings, feedback moments, and validation cycles.
In line with its size and authority, this grid operator plays a key role in shaping the market transformation. As project collaborator, we are analyzing the different market processes in close collaboration with key business users. We participate in strategic discussions and key decision-making sessions with other market players. We are involved in the validation cycles of the different releases by gathering feedback from all key collaborators on the business requirements documents. We will be managing, organizing and supporting the next phases of the project, which include testing, design and development. Besides the definition of the business requirements, we are tasked with ensuring consistency across the different MIG6 projects and the different business domains. One of the deliverables is the description of the end-to-end information streams regarding the MIG 6 and the MIG DNB. These consist of all the use cases gathered from the different key business users and cover all new interfaces and processes that will have to be implemented. The results will be used as a basis to start describing the test cases for implementation.
A deep knowledge of the MIG4 market processes and MIG6 fundamentals is necessary to participate in the MIG6 discussions. Leveraging expertise in business analyses and scenario building, we act as a key representative for our client. We gather, communicate and defend their position during discussions with other market players. This is a long-term project, results and deliverables will be expanded whenever significant progress is made.
irex Consulting is a straightforward business engineering consultancy specialized in the energy industry.
We are experts in energy market dynamics and processes, consumer challenges and energy technologies.
Further to our consultancy activities, we are actively building energy management and control software.
Energy market players - Our consultancy services range from strategic advice over business operations engineering down to energy technology design.
Large energy consumers - As experts in energy engineering, we adopt a fully integrated approach and assist our clients from idea sizing to project implementation.