Smart Grid Solutions

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 "𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗿" 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝗴𝗿𝗶𝗱 (& 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁𝘀). Prosumer is a made-up term that combines "producer" and "consumer." Energy consumers are often still connected to the central grid. However, they can produce and store energy, often through photovoltaic solar panels and #EV batteries. By generating power, consumers can reduce their monthly expenses or sell the surplus to utilities, creating a promising financial opportunity. This is a significant step towards financial independence for households and businesses, with an increasing number of entities connecting their solar panels and EV fleets to the grid. Past reports from the United Kingdom and the United States reveal dissatisfied customers with power firms. With the increase of energy suppliers and consumers, utilities must use intelligent solutions to foster improved customer involvement and satisfaction. Artificial intelligence (#AI), the driving force behind intelligent grids, is crucial in addressing energy challenges. It assesses all the specific parameters and constraints and takes action to achieve particular goals, such as integrating renewable energy, stabilizing energy networks, and reducing financial risks. This technological advancement gives us hope for a more sustainable and stable energy future. For example, AI's self-learning, flexibility, and computation capabilities have tremendous potential for addressing renewable energy's intermittent nature. An imbalance in production and consumption peaks, commonly symbolized by "the duck curve," can make these energy sources challenging to govern. The application of AI in #smartgrids will help alleviate this issue by adjusting production and consumption loads. UK distribution system operators recently launched initiatives using smart meter data to help users improve energy management, optimize network loads, and cut carbon emissions. The recent feedback from a joint survey by BMG and Ofgem demonstrates rising consumer satisfaction with using new technologies and the data they use to help prosumers save money. #energygrid #BI #BigData #smartmeters

The next UPI might be on your roof! Imagine a regular Indian terrace at 3 pm — usually just heat and dust. Now imagine that same roof quietly minting electricity, settling tiny payouts to a family’s bank account, and sharing surplus with the neighbourhood. That’s the vision Nandan Nilekani is nudging us toward: energy rails as simple as UPI, creating millions of micro-energy entrepreneurs - The Economic Times What makes this moment different from yesterday’s rooftop push? Three building blocks are aligning: 1) Digitisation — smart meters + real-time settlement; 2) Distributed assets — rooftops, batteries, EVs; 3) Open, UPI-like infrastructure so anyone can plug in. A national digital energy grid is even being scoped to cut distribution costs and make these micro-transactions viable at scale. -The Times Of India We’ve already seen early proof. In Delhi, peer-to-peer solar trading pilots let homes trade power within the DisCom Ltd sandbox . - Powerledger Now layer in EV batteries as tiny storage nodes. Battery swapping networks make those nodes abundant and always charged; virtual storage platforms can orchestrate them into a neighbourhood-scale battery you don’t even see. That’s when rooftops start to feel like a side business. Residential rooftop & financing: SolarSquare, zunroof, Oorjan Cleantech, Freyr Solutions Energy — all scaling home/Housing Society solar with simpler financing and install ops. Powerledger with TP-DDL showed how P2P settlement could work in India’s context. Storage & flexibility: Battery Smart (1,000+ swap points; pay-per-use batteries) and Sheru (cloud/V2G storage from idle batteries) point to a flexible, prosumer grid. For your building or RWA, what’s the real blocker — capex, net-metering friction, roof rights, or trust in billing/settlement? If you run a kirana, clinic, school, or café, would you join a “virtual power plant” that pays you for flexibility (e.g., letting your inverter or EV charge off-peak)? What minimum monthly would move you? If you’re building in this space — panels, finance, smart meters, APIs, swapping, VPPs — drop your model, city, and a link. Let’s map who’s ready to make “energy the next UPI” a street-level reality. #RooftopSolar #UPIForEnergy #DigitalPublicInfrastructure #ProsumerIndia #SmartMeters #NetMetering #P2PEnergy #BatterySwapping #VirtualPowerPlant #CleanEnergyIndia #SmartGrid #EnergyAPIs #DRE #ClimateAction #EnergyEntrepreneurs

Here is one opportunity in Nigeria’s power sector to watch closely in 2026. Yes, its Net Billing. Across Nigeria, thousands of solar systems are installed. But there’s a quiet inefficiency most people don’t talk about: excess power is often wasted. That inefficiency, alongside rising self-generation and the push for decentralised energy — is what has driven the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) introduced the Draft Net Billing Regulations, 2025. We  Olaniwun Ajayi LP, have in the attached newsletter unpacked the draft regulations in depth. 💢 At its core, the Draft Regulations is designed to allow consumers with qualifying renewable energy systems (50kw and above), especially solar to export excess electricity to the grid and receive energy credits in return. 💢 It formally introduces the concept of the prosumer: a consumer who can both consume and supply electricity within the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry. 💢The framework sets out who can participate, how to apply, and how systems are approved and commissioned, with clearly defined roles for DisCos, NERC and other regulators. 💢It also establishes technical and operational standards to ensure grid safety, stability and reliability — a critical issue for a system already under strain. Now to the commercial arrangement, where most developers and financiers will pay close attention to:. The Draft Regulations propose a structured billing and settlement mechanism, where: 💥 imported energy from the grid is billed at the normal end-user tariff, 💥 exported energy earns credits based on a regulated injected-energy tariff, 💥credits can be carried forward, applied against future bills, and in some cases transferred with the premises. 💥 there are also defined provisions around eligibility thresholds, metering, billing transparency, dispute resolution, and ongoing regulatory oversight. That said, the framework is still a work in progress. While some argue that Nigeria may not yet be ready, energy transitions are not designed when systems are perfect. As the saying goes: you don’t plan to be big when you are big, you plan to be big when you are small. If finalised and refined properly, the Net Billing could unlock new opportunities for distributed generation, commercial and industrial solar, financing structures, and grid-integrated renewables  while reducing waste and improving system efficiency.

The number of prosumers is growing rapidly, which is a good thing. But without the right incentives, we risk repeating the mistakes of other European markets, where explosive growth later led to complete blockages. 🗣️ That is why, as I said on Friday at the annual conference organized by InvestEnergy, it is important to encourage prosumers to use the energy they produce and to invest in storage solutions. Right now, large prosumers are exempted from paying balancing costs, but these costs end up being paid by everyone else. If a prosumer receives the same price for injected energy as for consumed energy, there is no incentive to invest in batteries. I know there is a lot of discussion about dynamic tariffs, which we at E.ON, for example, already offer. But if the prosumer law does not allow or even discourages such incentive mechanisms, we will not see the right reaction from the market. ⚡ Furthermore, according to the law, the average value paid out to prosumers is higher than the real value of the energy injected. Last summer, for example, prosumers with installations of 200–400 kW were paid 62 bani/kWh, while the actual value of the energy injected during the day was only 32 bani/kWh. The difference is again charged to everyone else. Last but not least, as prosumers consume less energy from the grid, they also pay less for the grid than before, but grid costs are rising in order to enable their connection. These costs too are covered by everyone else. I also mentioned the misleading commercial strategy of Hidroelectrica, which sells electricity below market price to final customers, with the effect that less competitive energy reaches the wholesale market. While some customers may be happy, this pushes prices up for everyone else –  especially if Hidroelectrica sells more energy below market price than it produces and then buys the difference from the market, driving it further up. Either it is a commercial strategy to attract customers with cheap prices and raise them later, or it is a poor strategy that destroys shareholder value. What we actually need is for Hidroelectrica to invest and successfully complete more power plant projects that Romania urgently needs. Here are some very concrete proposals on how to bring down electricity prices for everyone, not just for some: ➡️ Review the prosumer law by introducing incentives for storage. ➡️ Urgently introduce a binomial tariff for electricity distribution. ➡️ Ensure that no company, whether state-owned or private, artificially distorts the wholesale market with negative social impacts and lower competitiveness of the Romanian economy. ➡️ Improve the regulatory framework for distributors to allow stronger grids and better integration of renewables. Otherwise, we risk creating a completely unnecessary social problem. #energy #prosumers #pricecap #liberalization

Electrification is accelerating but our energy system still treats most homes and buildings as passive consumers. Somewhere over Canada last week, looking down at a grid of lights stretching to the horizon. Every dot tells the same story: energy flowing one way. Millions of homes, buildings and vehicles consuming electricity almost none producing it. And yet, the energy transition is quietly changing that assumption. Another shift is happening in parallel: the rise of the prosumer. Homes with rooftop solar. EVs that store energy. Buildings that can respond to price signals and system needs. Not just consumers but participants. The potential is real. Prosumers can reduce peak demand, support grid reliability, and help integrate more clean electricity — often locally, and at lower system cost. But today, the system isn’t built for them. Rules still assume one-way flows. Rates rarely reflect flexibility or timing. Selling energy back to the grid remains inconsistent or undervalued. And system benefits — resilience, avoided infrastructure, emissions reductions — often sit outside the bill. So we end up with a familiar gap: Technology is ready. The system is not. Progress depends on a few fundamentals moving together: - clear, fair frameworks to sell energy back to the grid - rate designs that reward flexibility not just consumption - incentives that reflect broader system value, not only private returns - investment in enabling infrastructure (EVs, buildings, digital systems) - better information so people understand how to participate From 30,000 feet, the energy transition looks like a supply challenge. Up close, it’s also a market design and policy challenge. If we want the grid to work tomorrow, prosumers can’t remain an edge case. They need rules that scale. Signals that are predictable. And a system that treats distributed energy as an asset not an exception. Because the future grid won’t just be bigger. It will be more distributed, interactive and local whether we design for it or not. Frederick Morency Frederic Godemel David O'Reilly Angel Pedrosa Lorne Hedges Emily Heitman Jodi Smith-Meisner Sophie C. Carol McGlogan Cherith Sinasac Stephanie Medeiros Kaliyur Sridharan Pratap Revuru, P.Eng., SMIEEE Pierre-Olivier Pineau Johanne Whitmore Marie Lapointe Nick Rinaldi Swati Vora-Patel Guy Lachance, P. Eng.