Drax Power

“Energy predictions as a service” saves a client millions

Challenge

Drax came to Elastacloud in search of a data science solution to assist with the Balancing Services Use of System (BSUoS) charge. Drax, like all energy suppliers, is obliged to pay this charge to the National Grid to cover its cost of ensuring the supply of energy meets demand. The BSUoS charge is highly volatile and can change as frequently as every 30 minutes. This leaves operators like Drax vulnerable to increased costs and can impact severely on their profitability. Drax commissioned Elastacloud to investigate the feasibility of generating accurate predictions of future fluctuations in the BSUoS so that it could optimise its production.

Solution

Elastacloud deployed a version of its data analytics platform to ingest the relevant data and develop a working model that could predict future movements of the BSUoS to a compelling level of accuracy.

Our experts created a database to which predictions could be delivered, and built an API that could be used by Drax’s energy trading team. In time, our predictions were integrated into their own trading platform dashboards.

When it became clear that the model delivered valuable data to Drax, it invited us to build a service that collected data and issued predictions on a daily basis.

After three years, we came to a commercial agreement with Drax, which now operates the platform in-house.

Impact

Elastacloud enabled Drax to transform its business with the help of artificial intelligence and our data analytics platform.

It is not possible to estimate precisely how much money our solution saved for Drax over the three years during which we operated it on our client’s behalf.

However, we can say with some authority that the sum in question was several million pounds.

Results

“The machine learning model and forecasting platform has meant we can now reduce costs by minimising generation in the high BSUoS Charge price periods.”

Alex Nancolas

IT programme manager

'Energy predictions as a service' saves a client millions

Case Study Information

Client Drax Power

Industry Energy

About the client

Drax Power is a UK-based renewable energy company. It operates across four sites in England and Scotland and is the largest supplier of renewable electricity to businesses in the UK.