Global clean energy software company, Smarter Grid Solutions (SGS), and SSE's Distributed Energy business have signed a landmark partnership to develop an innovative 'Energy as a Service' platform.

The new system will bring together SGS's distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) software and SSE Enterprise's capabilities in distributed energy generation, EV infrastructure, private electricity networks and heat networks under a single platform.

This platform will be designed to optimize energy usage to generate revenue, deliver enhanced security of supply and meet carbon reduction targets, building upon SGS's existing smart grid platform, ANM Strata, which controls energy assets and load to manage constraints in the underlying network to which they are connected.

The capabilities will be enhanced, in time, to provide functionality to generate revenues from opportunities in a number of UK markets including wholesale, balancing, and ancillary services, as well as enabling behind the meter and building energy optimization. The platform's algorithms and control capability will be further enhanced by the experience and expertise of SSE's Distributed Energy business.

Stephen Stead, Director of Digital Services and Strategy for SSE's Distributed Energy arm, said: "Real time control of local energy generation and consumption is playing an increasingly vital role in decarbonizing our economy. As energy demand increases through the electrification of services, such as transport and heat, so too will the need for responsive energy asset control to manage the growth in variable renewables.

"This exciting new SGS-SSE partnership is a huge step in our 'smart cities' vision and will support local authorities, large energy users, and building and estate owners to deploy and manage low carbon technologies in order to meet the UK Government's net-zero target by 2050. It will also help consumers to minimize both energy costs and exposure to energy price uncertainties while maximizing security of supply."