ABeam Consulting collaborating with iGrid Solutions & Innowatts,
Helping retail electricity providers improve profitability and efficiency with SaaS smart meter data integration & analysis platform
Validation of usefulness in Japanese market begins

Press Release

Jul 20, 2022

ABeam Consulting Ltd.

 ABeam Consulting Ltd. (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Tatsuya Kamoi, President) has begun a collaboration with iGrid Solutions, Inc. (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Tomokazu Akita, President) and Innowatts, Inc. (Texas, U.S.; Siddhartha Sachdeva, CEO) to study the feasibility and usefulness in Japan of a SaaS smart meter data integration and analysis platform that helps retail electric power providers improve profitability, increase business and reduce costs through the use of smart meters.
 Through this validation study, we aim to develop new services that will help retail electricity providers improve their business profitability and transform their whole value chains.

■Background & overview
 The business environment for electricity retailers in Japan is changing dramatically due to the growing need to introduce renewable energy in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, as well as the rising cost of procuring electricity in response to soaring fossil fuel prices on a global scale. Under these circumstances, strengthening business profitability has become a top priority, including more precise management of profitability by customer, review of rate menus to improve profit margins, and development of value-added services. In addition, it is important to differentiate from competitors by providing value-added services and strengthening customer engagement based on customer electricity usage and customer attributes, such as proposing the introduction of storage batteries to solar post-FIT customers and requesting customers to save electricity when the supply-demand balance is tight.
 It is in this context that the use of smart meter data is attracting global attention as a way for retail electricity providers to improve their profitability and efficiency by analyzing customer attributes and understanding their needs based on customer data. This helps improve the accuracy of electricity demand forecasts to reduce electricity procurement risk, and enables providers to offer strategic rate menus based on profitability analysis of different customer clusters.

 This joint initiative by the three companies will integrate the abundant knowledge and proven experience of ABeam Consulting, which has long provided consulting services to both customers and suppliers in the energy industry, with iGrid's R.E.A.L. New Energy Platform®, a new distributed/intensive power management system, and Innowatts Platform, a smart grid data enabled Energy Analytics software with more than 45 million installations globally. We have reduced system development costs associated with CIS modification, which had been a major barrier to utilization of smart meter data by retail electric utilities. We will verify the usefulness sophisticated profitability analysis based on smart meter data in the Japanese market by providing strategic rate menus, strengthening customer engagement by value-added services such as energy-saving programs and storage batteries, and improving business profitability.

value-added services based on profitability analysis for existing customers.

 I-Grid's R.E.A.L. New Energy Platform® is a new distributed/intensive power supply management system utilizing AI, IoT, cloud, and digital technologies that networks renewable energy, mainly solar power, and links it to storage batteries and EVs to circulate renewable energy. It is a new distributed/intensive power supply management system utilizing AI, IoT, cloud, and digital technologies. By collecting smart meter data from transmission and distribution companies via the R.E.A.L. New Energy Platform®, retail electric utilities can link smart meter data without having to modify their existing CIS systems.

 Innowatts' scalable, configurable, and secure SaaS platform leverages best-in-class AI and machine learning capabilities to help energy providers unlock grid edge opportunities, enhance customer value, and accelerate their energy transition. These market-leading capabilities ensure unparalleled accuracy to deliver more precise customer insights, while reducing energy providers cost and improving their gross margin.

 ABeam Consulting will integrate the two companies' systems and technologies based on the needs of the retail electric power companies, and promote the SaaS smart meter data integration and analysis platform. This seamlessly realizes everything from smart meter data linkage to optimal system construction for procurement risk reduction to 1-to-1 marketing for enhanced customer engagement. ABeam Consulting will improve responsiveness to Japanese market requirements and help verify effectiveness.

 This validation will not only reduce procurement risk in the retail electric utilities' procurement departments, but will also substantiate the benefit to marketing departments in enhancing efficient customer engagement, thereby improving business development in terms of profitability and operational transformation throughout the value chain.

 Validation testing will be conducted with the cooperation of several new electric power companies. After the usefulness and feasibility of the system, including compliance with the Personal Data Protection Law and other laws and regulations, are confirmed for each company's business, we aim to officially release the system in October 2022 as a SaaS smart meter data integration and analysis platform for retail electric power companies in Japan.

About iGrid Solutions, Inc.

iGrid Solutions is an energy service provider offering one-stop decarbonization solutions through virtual power plants (VPP), energy management, and power supply businesses.  We aim to realize a sustainable world where green energy revolves around the community by promoting green tech.  Since its beginning in 2004, our business domain has been "creating," "connecting," "reducing," and "utilizing" energy.  With ITOCHU Corporation and The Kansai Electric Power Company, Inc as shareholders, the company supports GX (Green Transformation) of mainly retailer and logistics facilities across Japan to realize a decarbonized society.  We are committed to the practical application of a distributed rooftop solar power supply network (R.E.A.L New Energy Platform®) that utilizes AI, IoT, cloud, and digital technologies, both clean and disaster-resistant, and allows green energy to be used anywhere, anytime.
Website: https://www.igrid.co.jp/

About Innowatts, Inc.

Innowatts is the leading energy SaaS platform that utilizes best-in-class artificial intelligence to help electricity providers unlock grid edge opportunities, increase customer value, and accelerate the energy transition by leveraging insights from more than 45 million meters globally. Outcomes enable users to analyze multiple data sets, gaining a better understanding of their carbon footprint and intensity for each site. The Innowatts platform delivers real-time, customer-centric energy analytics with unprecedented accuracy. With clients and operations across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, Innowatts is a global leader, enabling energy providers to become truly customer-focused and fully leverage the power of data to transform their businesses.
Website: https://www.innowatts.com/

About ABeam Consulting Ltd.

ABeam Consulting is an integrated management consulting firm that provides global services tailored to each country and region through its worldwide network centered in Asia. The wide range of consulting services it provides include strategy, BPR, IT, organization/personnel, outsourcing and other domains of specialized expertise. Roughly 6,900 richly experienced professional ABeam consultants advise in the areas of finance, manufacturing, distribution, energy, information communications, as well as industry, and organizations in the public sector and other sectors. ABeam Consulting creates the future together with corporations and other organizations. As a creative partner leading the way reliably through change, we contribute to industrial and societal change.
Website: https://www.abeam.com/jp/

For inquiries regarding this matter, contact:

ABeam Consulting Ltd.
Corporate Communication Unit
Yumiko Yoshida
E-mail: yumyoshida@abeam.com, JPABPRTeamDL@abeam.com

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