Version 1 Delivers One Digital Platform for Energia Group

Energia Group are a leading independent energy company in Ireland, operating under the Energia brand in the Republic of Ireland and the PowerNI brand in Northern Ireland.

Established in 1998, Energia Group is a customer-centric utility focusing on renewable technology. Leading the energy industry across the island of Ireland, they currently supply over 750,000 homes and businesses with energy and gas.

Key Challenges

The energy sector is experiencing a major evolution, driven by three primary factors:

1. Energy technologies, such as battery storage and home generation, are improving rapidly and their adoption is growing accordingly.
2. The increasing prevalence of IoT and Smart Meters is giving consumers more control over how they use electricity.
3. Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, voice assistants, and analytics provide suppliers with opportunities to interact with customers in new and creative ways.

These drivers have meant that energy companies need to evolve and develop services to support new consumer capabilities and demands. For instance, this may mean giving customers the ability to identify electricity being consumed within the home instantly, supporting the use of battery storage to store excess electricity, and facilitating electric vehicle charging at the most opportune time.

To meet these consumer requirements, Energia needed to find a digital solution that would enhance its services whilst integrating with its existing IT systems.

Solution

Version 1 has partnered with Energia for many years on key digital projects and was tasked with helping to get the company digitally ready to meet the future needs of energy consumers.

The first step was a series of Version 1 facilitated workshops with Energia to challenge the value and viability of potential new digital services. From here, an agreed shortlist was taken to the ‘build, test and deploy’ stage using the Microsoft Azure platform. Version 1 and Energia set about building a single platform to capture all required digital interactions from the web, mobile, voice assistant channels, and smart meters, to enable Energia to research, test, and launch the new shortlisted energy services.

Version 1, working on-site with Energia’s in-house team, rapidly delivered its cloud-based digital platform using Microsoft Azure within three months. The platform was designed to support and integrate with existing IT systems, simplify the testing and development of new digital services for Energia and improve data analytics from a wide range of sources.

Real Differences…

…Delivered.

Having a single, integrated view of its data estate in the cloud gives Energia the ability to gain insights that were previously not available.

Traditionally, developing new products and services was an intensive exercise for Energia. It can now respond swiftly to the changing needs of consumers, testing ideas quickly and cost-effectively without major investment at the testing stage. Energia can then engage with start-ups and tech entrepreneurs to develop digital solutions that will keep it at the forefront of the energy industry.

Importantly, Energia is letting data guide its decision making, helping it engage with its customers in a more personalised way and influencing its future investments.
Ultimately, the project has future-proofed Energia by empowering it to drive a pipeline of new, modern, digitally-led products and services within an ever-evolving, competitive marketplace.