jensmadrian-blog

[jensmadrian-blog]

Reactive Technologies’ approach to solving energy system challenges is very different

Reactive Technologies’ Tradenergy® platform delivers an ultra-fast, future-proof energy management and DSR optimisation service. This next generation of sophisticated DSR control connects to commercial customers’ electrical consuming and generating equipment via a secure, cloud-based platform interface. This extracts the inherent flexibility within customers’ assets, managing them within a wider flexibility portfolio and intelligently optimising them across the highest-value DSR opportunities from within the energy system.

Tradenergy® delivers accurate and safe control of customers’ equipment in line with pre-agreed operational parameters, ensuring customers stay in control of their assets at all times. Tradenergy® also enables commercial customers with energy storage devices or back-up generators to flex these assets for DSR while ensuring they are available when needed for their primary purpose.

Most importantly, Tradenergy® is totally future-proof as it has been built to adapt to any new assets or energy mechanisms that may arise in future, ensuring it will always be fit for purpose.

To summarise, commercial energy customers using Reactive Technologies’ Tradenergy® earn new revenue streams for their flexibility and materially lower their energy bills by benefiting from fully integrated energy management.

https://www.raconteur.net/sponsored/tradenergy-dsr-heralding-a-new-era-of-empowered-commercial-energy-customers

[jensmadrian-blog]

Heralding a New Era of Empowered Commercial Energy Customers

With the planned closure of UK coal power stations by 2025, a large proportion of flexibility will need to be provided instead by commercial energy customers participating in demand-side response (DSR).

DSR is an energy programme that compensates energy consumers and generators for their flexibility. Commercial customers, empowered by Reactive Technologies’ Tradenergy DSR service, are set to benefit financially from the transition to a new energy system while enabling a more sustainable, low-carbon energy mix and contributing towards improved security of supply.

Reactive Technologies is an energy tech company based in the UK with a presence in France and Finland. Reactive Technologies has considerable experience in the energy sector, partnering with retail giant Carrefour Hypermarchés in France to deliver mass-scale DSR services. The company also collaborates with National Grid UK on cutting-edge innovation projects, utilising its deep communications and software engineering heritage.

https://www.raconteur.net/sponsored/tradenergy-dsr-heralding-a-new-era-of-empowered-commercial-energy-customers

[jensmadrian-blog]

CFOs Need To Become Champions For Sustainability

Finance is no longer the domain of number crunchers. CFOs need to become champions for sustainability, being catalysts for positive change in their respective businesses to reflect its strategic importance. The new generation of CFOs need to be Renaissance men and women who string threads of understanding across various business departments and weave sustainability into the day-to-day operations of businesses. This requires them to take both short and long term views of financial and societal impact. We CFOs cannot continue to only think within the confines of a quarterly transactional window – we need to be able to measure the benefits sustainability brings to the business and, perhaps more importantly, understand the cost of business inaction. 

Continue reading http://www.ssonetwork.com/finance-accounting/cfo-catalyst-for-sustainability

[jensmadrian-blog]

Utilities Have To Act Now To Change Their Customer Relationship

How can utilities respond? Survey responses highlighted the example of the telecoms revolution as a model, but warned that to be successful companies have to be consumer-led and innovative, not follow the pack. Jens Madrian, chief financial officer, Reactive Technologies, said, “If we look at the rate of technological innovation in telecoms over the last decade, that is the sort of trajectory the energy industry should be on. The companies that were successful through this tech boom didn’t just replicate what competitors were doing, but instead sought to create a product that would meet future needs and wants, based on completely new functionality people could integrate into their daily lives.”

Continue reading http://www.newpower.info/2017/01/the-internet-of-things-utilities-warned-they-may-lose-the-customer-relationship/

[jensmadrian-blog]

Becoming a Catalyst for Sustainability

As with any industry, there is an undeniable reticence in finance to move away from the tried and true. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to deny that the traditional role of finance, and particularly of the CFO, is in need of a refresh in order to keep up with the changing business climate, evolving customer requirements and moving expectations from society.

I (Jens Madrian) was recently speaking with a CFO colleague of mine who told me about a recent board meeting where his company’s energy manager was invited to report on energy efficiency initiatives. “I understand that it’s good for PR, but it doesn’t exactly make financial sense, does it?” he asked. My colleague’s statement echoes the sentiment shared by many in the finance industry who still regard sustainability as being at odds with business objectives and with being able to contribute to the bottom line.

Continue reading http://www.ssonetwork.com/finance-accounting/cfo-catalyst-for-sustainability

[jensmadrian-blog]

UK Firm Achieves A World First In Smart Grid Innovation

Connected devices send and receive data across the electricity network through minute and subtle changes made to the grid frequency by modulating the power consumption of transmitting devices. These ‘on’ and ‘off’ or frequency changes create a unique code. Receivers, embedded in the plugs of devices, such as freezers, hot water tanks and air conditioning equipment, are programmed to detect these frequency changes. Receiving devices then identify and decode the messages, which automatically tell the device to carry out a particular instruction, for example, to tell the device to take action such as turn down or turn off according to a schedule, or based on grid frequency changes.

GDMS allows for faster, automated responses from assets so they can be used for higher value, system-critical, load-balancing services like frequency response.

Project Samuel was the code name for Reactive’s demonstrator project with National Grid and SSE that started in April 2014 and ended successfully in March 2016. Ofgem funded project Samuel under its Networks Innovation Allowance (NIA) fund.

National Grid signed up to the scheme as part of its work to support innovative ways to help balance supply and demand and also provide benefits to customers. Technology that allows devices to communicate quickly will help encourage ‘demand side’ solutions that encourage efficient use of energy and will increasingly become part of the way the grid is managed.

Cordi O’Hara, Director of UK system operator, National Grid says: “At National Grid we are keen to support innovative products that can bring a real benefit for customers. We are proud to be part of this groundbreaking project…..”

http://www.engineerlive.com/content/step-forward-smart-energy

[jensmadrian-blog]

A step forward for smart energy

One of the UK’s leading smart grid and demand-side response (DSR) company has recently demonstrated a world first in energy communications technology, following a successful nationwide project with National Grid and SSE.

Traditional approaches to communicating with assets require a reliable internet or mobile communication connection in addition to an individual meter, which can prove financially prohibitive and limit the viability of DSR schemes that incorporate thousands of smaller assets. Many assets are excluded from existing DSR arrangements due to a lack of remote connectivity. GDMS provides an alternative, cost-effective solution to this by using the frequency of the electricity network to carry data.

National Grid signed up to the scheme as part of its work to support innovative ways to help balance supply and demand and also provide benefits to customers. Technology that allows devices to communicate quickly will help encourage ‘demand side’ solutions that encourage efficient use of energy and will increasingly become part of the way the grid is managed.

Cordi O’Hara, Director of UK system operator, National Grid says: “At National Grid we are keen to support innovative products that can bring a real benefit for customers. We are proud to be part of this groundbreaking project, which has demonstrated the successful transmission of data through the electricity grid over long distances, critically passing through transformers and with a broad coverage. It represents another step forward in the development of the smart grid technologies that are going to play an increasingly important role in the energy systems of the future.

Continue reading the article:  

http://www.engineerlive.com/content/step-forward-smart-energy

[jensmadrian-blog]

Digitalisation Will Change The World

It’s not a question of “if” but how it will impact your business.

Responding to digitalisation isn’t just about new IT sophistication; we need to change our whole physical and operational approach. Finance’s response to these changes will entail structural and systematic future proofing, adjusting the whole underlying finance model to accommodate new business models we haven’t even thought of yet

It means we will need a new mind-set and language to cope with the new economies, and to lead the transformational change. We cannot afford to outsource judgment on data warehousing, cyber security and data insight to technologists. We will require additional capabilities and expertise, or the opportunities presented by digital will be missed. We need to maintain and adapt the diligent caretaker role to protect the business, but it is the business partner role that will add the most value.

Read more: http://www.accaglobal.com/ng/en/technical-activities/technical-resources-search/2016/september/digital-finance-function.html

[jensmadrian-blog]

Frost & Sullivan recognizes Reactive Technologies with the 2016 European Frost & Sullivan Company of the Year Award

Article Source:

http://ww2.frost.com/

Published Date: November 07, 2016

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

Reactive developed the revolutionary Grid Data Measurement System (GDMS), a communications platform that can cost effectively send and receive digital messages throughout transmission and distribution networks. Without GDMS, small-scale assets would need an internet or cellular connection and an interface to participate in DSR, which can be financially prohibitive. This is particularly the case for hard-to-reach assets as well as those connected at the domestic level. GDMS opens up DSR opportunities to all network connected assets by enabling them to communicate remotely through existing electricity network infrastructure with no cost to asset owners.  

Reactive’s business model is also ground breaking in that it encourages a wider adoption of demand response by not imposing long-term, locked-in contracts, which are commonplace in the market. Its business model is instead based on remuneration-on-a-revenue share basis with zero or minimal capital investment, thus minimizing financial risk for customers.  “Our solutions transform complex data and operational flexibility into tangible benefits for end customers, network operators and the energy system as a whole,” said Dr Jens Madrian, CFO and CCO at Reactive.

Continue reading the article: http://ww2.frost.com/news/press-releases/frost-sullivan-commends-reactive-technologies-staying-ahead-technology-curve-energy-management-market/

[jensmadrian-blog]

Potential of smart technology and the possibilities arising for the power sector

Article Source:

http://www.powerengineeringint.com/

Article By:

By Diarmaid Williams

The technology has been hailed as another leap forward as it facilitates transmission of data through the electric grid, something that had not hitherto been possible. On paper at least, it threatens to further marginalise the need for development of grand-scale conventional power plants While much effort is being put into energy storage as the holy grail of solutions to doom fossil fuels to irrelevance, could GDMS, coming in under the radar, be more likely to transform the global power infrastructure in the short to medium term? “Our Grid Data Measurement System has the potential to go very far and only time will tell what the total scale of the impact of this technology will be. GDMS certainly has the potential to fundamentally transform how we manage the energy system and how to take advantage of latent flexibility within it,” says Jens Madrian, Reactive’s chief financial and commercial officer. GDMS is a new communications technology. It uses the frequency of the electricity network to transport data through it and can cost-effectively send and receive digital messages through electricity networks, over long distances and importantly through network transformers. It can be used to communicate with any enabled device connected to the electricity network be that a point of demand, generation or indeed storage. “GDMS is particularly suited to enabling hard to reach assets and customer segments such as the residential sector to participate in demand side response programmes and delivers a secure fit-for-purpose energy communications system removing the need to rely on the internet or other technologies such as cellular systems,” says Jens Madrian. “GDMS messages can travel to wherever power travels, therefore it benefits from extensive coverage using existing, secure infrastructure in terms of the electricity network. This coverage is wide, corner to corner of the country (UK) but also deep – messages reach all the way to individual assets at the end of the electricity line.”

One of the most vital feature of GDMS is that it can be used to remotely measure and verify the status of assets connected to electricity networks such as energy consuming assets, like freezers, and hot water tanks (demand), embedded generators or storage assets and offers the potential to generate a wealth of insightful data about how electricity is generated and consumed at the distribution network level. Such information is essential for operators tasked with balancing electricity networks which are becoming increasingly complex with the increased variety of assets connected to them such as distributed and intermittent generators like solar along with electric vehicles and batteries. The technology can generate valuable data about the make-up of demand on the electricity system which is important to National Grid and other network operators as assumptions on the make-up of demand are used to calculate how much reserve and balancing services are needed at any given point in time. GDMS can create new datasets on demand which can be used to improve the accuracy of their forecasting models and procurement decisions, ultimately driving down prices for consumers.

“When Power Engineering International spoke to Jens Madrian earlier this year he was enthused about the potential of smart technology and the possibilities arising for the power sector. We caught up with him again this week when Reactive Energy’s Grid Data Measurement System was unveiled” - Diarmaid Williams. Read the complete interview here http://www.powerengineeringint.com/articles/2016/10/smart-technology-a-no-brainer-for-an-optimal-power-sector.html

[jensmadrian-blog]

How can finance harness the power of digital in the function itself?

Digital in finance has been a hot topic in recent years, fuelled by patterns of traditional industries being flipped on their heads, and the collapse of global brands – sometimes astonishingly quickly. In fact, digital disruption has been identified as one of five megatrends shaping business and society today. As a result, a transformation in businesses and our wider society is taking place as we speak – and finance must respond with speed and with relevant solutions, or it will be left behind. 

Bringing the three unique perspectives of PwC, the ACCA (represented by Jamie Lyon) and the CFO community (represented by Jens Madrian) together has highlighted the key considerations for CFOs in the digital age. Where once finance was seen purely as the accounting function (in the role of score keeper/diligent caretaker), producing financial and management accounts, world class finance teams are re-shaping themselves to take on a much more prominent role in daily commercial activities of the organisation. Continue reading…

[jensmadrian-blog]

Frost & Sullivan Commends Reactive Technologies for Staying Ahead of the Technology Curve in the Energy Management Market

Article Source:

http://ww2.frost.com/

Published Date: November 07, 2016

Based on its recent analysis of the energy management market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Reactive Technologies with the 2016 European Frost & Sullivan Company of the Year Award. Reactive’s visionary strategies for energy management and ground breaking communications technologies are revolutionizing the energy industry. “Our solutions transform complex data and operational flexibility into tangible benefits for end customers, network operators and the energy system as a whole,” said Dr Jens Madrian, CFO and CCO at Reactive.

Reactive’s demand side response (DSR) solution, Tradenergy®, boasts a smarter, zero-carbon approach to energy management, rendering the traditional model involving heavy investments in hardware and uncertain returns redundant. Tradenergy® is based on a secure, cloud-based platform that uses mass communications technology to maximize end-users’ inherent operational flexibility. It can remotely optimize and aggregate energy-consuming assets, such as refrigeration, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC); as well as energy-generating assets, such as solar arrays; and energy storage.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in terms of growth strategy and implementation. The award recognizes a high degree of innovation with products and technologies and the resulting leadership in terms of customer value and market penetration.

Continue reading the article: http://ww2.frost.com/news/press-releases/frost-sullivan-commends-reactive-technologies-staying-ahead-technology-curve-energy-management-market/

[jensmadrian-blog]

Digital Disruption And Sweeping Changes Challenge Finance Functions

Digital disruption and sweeping changes challenge finance functions as we know them today. How do we transform ways of working, improve efficiency and develop value-add skills? ACCA, alongside PwC and CFO, Jens Madrian,   explore the challenges that digital disruption brings to the finance function. This is the first article in a joint series that will help senior finance professionals respond to the issues and opportunities the digital revolution presents. Continue reading…

[jensmadrian-blog]

Smart technology a ‘no brainer’ for an optimal power sector

The technology has been hailed as another leap forward as it facilitates transmission of data through the electric grid, something that had not hitherto been possible. On paper at least, it threatens to further marginalise the need for development of grand-scale conventional power plants.

While much effort is being put into energy storage as the holy grail of solutions to doom fossil fuels to irrelevance, could GDMS, coming in under the radar, be more likely to transform the global power infrastructure in the short to medium term?

GDMS is a new communications technology. It uses the frequency of the electricity network to transport data through it and can cost-effectively send and receive digital messages through electricity networks, over long distances and importantly through network transformers. It can be used to communicate with any enabled device connected to the electricity network be that a point of demand, generation or indeed storage. Continue reading…

[jensmadrian-blog]

Technology To Send Messeges Through Electricity Cables To Any Device

The new data system, created using telecoms technology by Reactive Technologies (RT) and now successfully tested on the UK's National Grid, could allow the optimum use of intermittent renewable energy, an important feature given the fast-rising proportion of green energy on the grid.

Unlike the smart meters being rolled out by the UK government, the new system is anonymous, with no data on household energy use being collected and therefore avoiding concerns about privacy.

The system uses new technology to send messages through national electricity cables to any appliances with a smart plug connected to the mains, asking it to adjust its energy use. In the home, this could mean allowing the temperature of a freezer to increase by 0.5C to cut demand or turning up a water heater at 1am to utilise spare renewable energy.

"The old mindset would be, we need to build more power stations," said Jens Madrian, at RT and former CFO at "big six" utility RWE npower. "We disagree with that. There are other ways of managing electricity, one of which is carrying knowledge from the telecommunications and software engineering side into the energy sector."

[jensmadrian-blog]

Reactive Technologies reinvents smart grid communication

With technological advances, many industries evolve over time, traditional business models are more and more disrupted. The time is now for the energy industry as we’re about to enter a smart energy revolution with smart grid technologies poised to play an increasingly important role in our future energy systems.

The traditional approach to ensure the lights remain on has been for centralised fossil fuel-powered generation plants to produce and supply electricity to meet the continuous rise and fall in demand from industrial, commercial and domestic consumers. Continue reading

Checkout the article published on “The Guardian” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/11/energy-first-as-uk-successfully-transmits-data-via-national-electricity-grid  

[jensmadrian-blog]

Potential grid game changer developed in the UK

Reactive Technologies have successfully transmitted data across the UK electricity grid, the first time this has been done on a national electricity grid.

The development is in line with a growing trend towards replacing centralised fossil-fuel power stations with decentralised renewable energy and smart grids.

To test the new technology, RT set up a handful of devices Continue reading…