Maingate, has announced a new contract with Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution (SSEPD), marking their first connectivity deal in the UK.
Maingate will provide a data connectivity solution for SSEPD as part of a major energy efficiency project, Solent Achieving Value from Efficiency (SAVE), which is backed by Ofgem. Maingate is already a partner in SAVE, with this deal building on the company’s role providing the cloud-based data monitoring and processing that underpins the project.
SAVE will trial a range of energy efficient technologies and incentives across 8,000 homes covering urban, suburban and rural areas. Maingate’s SIM card-based connectivity service will ensure that data can be collected from those homes that do not have a broadband connection. This information will then be integrated seamlessly with data from other homes using Maingate’s mvio™ platform and shared with all stakeholders in a variety of formats.
“We needed an advanced connectivity solution that would roam across networks automatically increasing the chance of a healthy connection and not tying us in to a single vendor,” explains Stewart Reid, head of Future Networks at Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution. “The flexible nature of Maingate’s solutions and their ability to integrate a broad range of technologies, systems and stakeholders has been a key strength in our partnership.”
The £8.3 million project is part of Ofgem’s Low Carbon Network (LCN) Fund and aims to test the contribution that demand-side measures such as energy efficient technology, consumption awareness and incentives for long-term behaviour change can make as alternatives to highly capital-intensive grid reinforcement measures. In a recent project with E.ON in Sweden, Maingate demonstrated that consumer engagement reduced energy consumption by an average of 15%.
Maingate provides M2M connectivity and information management services to more than 1,000 customers across Europe, and is particularly focused on driving innovation in the smart energy sector. Earlier this month, Maingate announced a new flexible connectivity service, Connect Flex, designed to break vendor lock-in in the energy sector by allowing utilities and other energy service providers to switch network providers without the need to change physical SIM cards.
