BP has acquired UK-based digital energy business Open Energi. The company’s digital platform uses real-time data to optimize the performance of energy assets. It connects customers to power markets with the goal of providing flexibility at times of low renewable-energy generation and during price peaks.
The share of primary energy from renewables is projected to increase from around 5% in 2018 to 60% by 2050 in the net-zero scenario set out in BP’s Energy Outlook. However, because generation from these sources depends on weather conditions, the growth will also bring increased market and price volatility. Digital platform technologies, such as Open Energi’s, can be vital to maintaining the stability of global electricity energy grids. Its efforts to connect assets with the power grid efficiently aim to help flexibly balance supply and demand and maximize the performance of low-carbon energy resources.
Open Energi will join BP’s Launchpad portfolio, which focuses on providing multiyear funding and accelerating startup growth. BP also will explore how Open Energi, which is currently focused on the UK market, can work internationally across its trading and shipping business and low-carbon portfolio, both of which play an important role for its net-zero ambition.
“Open Energi’s technology helps manage the intermittency of increasing global renewable capacity, creating both energy saving and revenue opportunities,” said Sam Skerry, BP’s senior vice president for Launchpad and ventures. “The acquisition will help BP develop digitally driven integrated energy systems and deliver innovative, efficient, and flexible energy solutions for customers.”
Open Energi’s products and services are used to optimize the performance of a network of energy assets with a total capacity of more than 80 MW. Its platform, Dynamic Demand 2.0, applies artificial intelligence to minimize electricity costs by analyzing and optimizing assets and through reducing energy consumption at peak price periods as a result. It also accumulates data and learns how best to further optimize the energy use of different assets over time.
“For the growing renewable energy capacity the world needs to meet global carbon-reduction targets, we will need efficient energy optimization. As such, Open Energi is fantastically positioned to grow, and we could not be more excited to be partnering to deliver that growth with BP Launchpad,” said David Hill, Open Energi’s commercial director.