Introduction
Energy System Catapult (ESC) is an independent, not-for-profit centre of excellence set up by the Government to accelerate the transformation of the UK’s energy system and ensure UK businesses and consumers capture the opportunities of clean growth. As part of their strategic objectives, ESC offers UK innovators support to test and commercialise new processes, products, services and business models for the energy sector.
Evergreen Smart Power has joined the Energy Systems Catapult (ESC) Innovation Support Programme to further develop their innovative solution – their Virtual Power Plant (VPP) Software Platform.
Evergreen Smart Power’s VPP provides services to Energy Suppliers and Energy Service Companies. The platform is a cloud-based distributed power plant that aggregates the capacities of heterogeneous Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) for the purposes of trading or selling power on the electricity market and offer a reliable mechanism to balance energy supply and demand.
The platform uses machine learning features to produce forecasts and predict behaviour to access load flexibility behind the meter in a more efficient way. By maintaining a picture of the aggregated near real time turn up/down capability of all loads in the portfolio and accurately providing control of individual domestic loads (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE), heat pumps, immersion and space heaters), the platform allows end users and stakeholders to benefit from Demand Side Response (DSR) revenues and, at the same time, contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The Challenge
The adoption of DERs in the domestic sector – such as batteries, Combine Heat Power (CHP), heat pumps, Electric Vehicles – is growing quickly, and it is driven by factors such as decreasing environmental pollution, diversification of energy resources, and energy efficiency improvements.
Evergreen Smart Power was incorporated in 2018 and, as a newly formed company, required support in prioritising which market niche to focus on in the near term, given current functionalities and resources, to maximise chance of securing near-to-medium term commercial income.
Our Approach
Building on the learnings from an independent competitor landscape review carried out for Evergreen and using our experience with the wider energy industry, our team used a comprehensive Opportunity Assessment (OA) framework that helped draw out, highlight, and weight customer value propositions. The benefits of using the Opportunity Assessment (OA) process was to help achieve business’s tactical and strategic objectives by maintaining consistency and objectivity when assessing new opportunities. This helped prioritise and focus on near-to-medium term commercial revenue-generating activities.
The process was composed of three phases:
- In the pre-work phase prepared by Gemserv, our team focussed on defining relevant target market participants and their characteristics. In addition, we analysed and presented opportunities and programmes suitable to Evergreen, and evaluated them based on technology required and potential revenue, among other characteristics.
- Following the initial phase, through a collaborative workshop with Evergreen, we worked together to produce a list of business opportunities to be assessed and evaluated by the Expert Teams, based on criteria such as Customer, Market, and Competition. The highest scoring opportunities were then taken forward for further analysis.
- A second set of criteria was used for scoring the shorter list of opportunities such as Strategy, Timing, and Partnerships to arrive at a final list of propositions to take forward.
We were able to provide an in-depth analysis of the top 5 opportunities that our client could further develop and take to market.
We produced high quality collaterals throughout the engagement on the identified opportunity areas to support with shaping a more accurate value proposition.
Through close collaboration with Evergreen, and through their active participation in both workshops, Gemserv was able to adapt the work based on the specific client’s requirements and successfully complete the assignment in the agreed timeframe.
Testimonial
By Andy McKay – Founder and CEO, Evergreen Smart Power
Benefits
- Helped develop collateral to support with due diligence
- Information from Pestle analysis was useful for investment pack
- Helped re-enforce plan within internal teams
- Filtering from a large list of opportunities with broader understanding to a short list with better understanding was useful in defining value propositions.
Impact
- Helped change the order of priorities and focus on near term opportunities
- Helped expand critical areas of thinking
- Helped re-position proposal to investors
- Gave confidence to pursue innovation funding to focus on the results from this exercise