Data governance: A central component of the energy transition

The digitalisation of our energy system includes introducing infrastructural requirements as well as the development of clear and effective data governance. This describes how data-driven exchange relationships can be monitored and regulated in the future.

A digital infrastructure is required to capture, transfer and process data in order to create a partially or fully automatically controllable energy system that accounts for the decentralised generation and volatility of renewable energies. Among others, manufacturers, grid operators, metering point operators and suppliers are being asked to implement the various requirements from the legal amendments with the right prioritisation and within the given deadlines. They are also being asked to raise the issues with the companies’ top management as being in their own interest in order to proactively promote the transformation of the energy system. Of course, these responsibilities go far beyond the smart meter rollout. The introduction of new and the revision of existing market processes as well as the procurement and integration of hardware and software solutions for network controls, digital (network) twins or CLS management are also in demand, just to name just a few examples.

With over 750 exhibitors, E-World in Essen has once again impressively demonstrated in 2024 that the market for digital solutions and thus for the development of infrastructure is available. All the more reason why questions that can only be answered by clear and effective data governance in line with the objectives of the energy transition are taking centre stage. This is necessary to ensure that such important data is not just stored in data silos at individual companies, but is shared and processed in suitable locations. In order to achieve this and guarantee quality and security, politicians and the market itself must develop and agree common specifications defining the necessary standardisation to make systems interoperable. Responsibilities and rights for the handling of data should be included in such a target vision, as well as an idea for an incentivised exchange of data (data economy) that benefits the common good.

With the Future Energy Lab, dena has been doing pioneering work for the energy sector for several years in this area: both for conceptual designs that make the factors influencing the value of data sets more tangible in terms of the data economy and for implementing pilot projects to promote decentralised data storage and thus put the European principles of sovereignty for handling data into practice.

This is precisely where the mandate for the new data institute to be established by the German government comes in. It focusses on the urgent task of fair data governance that benefits the common good and a flourishing exchange of data. Over the next two years, dena will work with the relevant stakeholders to identify the challenges and solutions that already exist to create a cross-sector data ecosystem that creates added value.

To this end, dena is working with a consortium (who will be involved in the coming weeks) to set up a field trial in which existing data exchange processes in the energy industry will be set up and new options such as data sharing via data spaces are trialled. Additionally, the industry will be involved throughout the duration of the project using a variety of formats such as surveys, stakeholder dialogues and workshops in order to gather experience and the technical, procedural, regulatory and economic requirements for the use of data.