EDF Energy has been awarded almost £50,000 by the government to develop a smart tariff comparison tool for non-domestic energy customers.
Launched earlier this year, the Non-Domestic Smarter Tariff Comparisons Innovation Programme provides up to £800,000 to support projects that develop and test products that leverage smart meter data to provide tariff comparisons, while also addressing wider consumer engagement barriers in the non-domestic market.
The programme consists of two phases, with the first awarding up to £250,000 for feasibility studies along with proposals for the design, development and testing of prototypes.
Phase 2 meanwhile will provide up to £550,000 for the development and testing of prototypes to ready them for commercialisation and market by the end of the competition.
In an announcement on Monday (11 September) the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero revealed that EDF’s R&D UK Centre had been awarded more than £49,500 to develop a digital platform which uses half hourly consumption data to recommend the most cost-effective time of use tariffs for businesses.
The platform, being developed under the company’s Project STAR initiative, will also suggest consumers change their consumption behaviour to further reduce costs while also “exploring additional flexibility options”.
“By using machine learning and data-driven approaches, the platform provides customised, industry-specific advice based on analysis of historical and real-time consumption data, filling a market gap for specialised tariff analysis tools,” the project’s description adds.
Project STAR is one of five projects awarded funding by the government under the programme.
Other schemes include one by energy platform Utilidex, which is working with SSE. It has been awarded more than £46,000 for its non-residential energy tariff analysis and research initiative.
Future Energy Associates meanwhile has been awarded almost £27,000 for its Bundled Business Led Tariffs project which aims to create a “dynamic marketplace for energy tariffs”.
“The platform leverages the power of data science to match businesses’ consumption profiles with suppliers’ tariff offers, enabling a more efficient, transparent, and competitive market,” the description said.