Welcome to the second part of the interview with Davy Michiels, Enterprise Architect at Fluvius.
If you haven’t read the first part of the second interview of Smart Talks season 4, where we
discussed the first-hand experience of a multi-utility from Flanders, Belgium, read it here. This
time, we discuss the importance of multi-utilities, why it pays off for Fluvius, and whether or not
the future is in multi-utilities.

We heard that your legislation and requirements are that each consumer has the port on the
electricity meter and via that port it can collect information on water, gas, heat, etc., and that you
also offer a web portal for consumers to see all that data. Can we say that this is the first step
towards the smart city?
Yes indeed. We enable the customer to make choices based on its personal situation. Therefor
we offer information through multiple channels. On one hand we make a local information port
(P1) available on the electricity meter itself. On the other hand we launched a customer portal
right at the start of our roll-out. This portal has been extended with API interfaces to allow
energy retailers, service companies etc. to build their own offering on top of it.
I believe that this approach and solution is important was at the time of launch in 2019 a first
step towards a truly digital and smart city offering the customer valuable information insight. We
see that today is much more awareness of energy, related to the energy crisis and this caused
an uptake in all channels which we have. The web portal that we have is very interesting, even
more than the local port, because it’s easy to access. Most consumers are in the phase where
by consulting the data on a day +1 basis, they can already learn a lot and act upon their energy
consumption. Customer more active with consumption and production tend to install home
energy management systems connected to their P1 port.
We do all of this combined for electricity and gas, thus allowing the customer to have full insight
in its energy consumption profile. The drinking water supply companies will also set up a similar
portal for water consumption
Based on that, we have developed an eco-system for energy service and energy supply
companies, to be able to process consumption data not only on the Fluvius portal but also
integrated in their own analytics tools. Of course always with privacy in mind, an only when the
customer gives its permission through a mandate, which he can revoke at any point in time.
In Flanders, we are very active in the implementation of local energy communities, and energy
trading within communities, more than 1000 energy communities are registered and active. It
can only work when you can apply it on a large scale and that’s why multi-utility is so important
for us. Only when there is a large number of customers having the right devices, then the
market starts developing products.

We see now that a goal of going 80% digital by the end of 2024, creates a large market
potential for different companies. For example, there are multiple service companies in Belgium
that can process this type of data with their analytics and integrate it in their customer offering.
Not only typical energy companies, but also new players like banks do this today
Multi-utility means that it’s not only electricity but also gas, water, and heat … Multi-utility makes
rollouts efficient, the installation work is combined and there are a lot of synergy. The data gives
you analytics possibilities both for the utility and for the consumers or the energy supplier, etc.
on a large scale.

If you have that data, you could give advice to the consumer on how to reduce consumption.
Does your portal give that kind of advice or does the supplier do that?

There is a strict separation of roles. We as a distribution company have a role of data processor.
We provide data and give some insights on trends and general advice, for example if your
consumption has increased by some percentage. But more advanced and tailored information
will be given by the market players. Their role of the energy supplier or other service companies
is to give advice to the customers.

What is your experience, what percentage of your consumers use the ports in the house?

We really see the roll-out of the smart meter as an enabler. And we are only in the early stage,
as our roll-out is ongoing and thus a lot of customers just now can start exploring this. We have
seen a significant growth in customers using our online web portal. Today more than a third of
our customers have an active account on this platform and thus are actively reviewing their
energy consumption. The usage of the local P1 port is growing steadily and is today around 7%
of the install base. We are happy because we go from inactive to active consumers. Giving
insights is the first step towards growing to a smart citizen in a smart city. This is necessary
because we will need more and more renewable energy. We are also working on flexibility of
services.
There are two types of customers who use the port. In a first step those who look for monitoring,
customers with monitoring devices through which they get insight on their energy consumption,
current and previous period. They typically start via our web portal, and in a second step also
start to use monitoring applications connected to their local P1 port.
The second and growing kind of customers are those who want to become more active and
want to increase the simultaneous use of their own energy production. We call them active
prosumers, who have their own solar panels, batteries, heat pump, and electric car for example.
They connect the home management system to the smart meter, to balance and start or stop
charging their vehicle, depending on their solar production.

Since this year we had a change in the tariff methodology for electricity. It used to be based
purely on consumption, but now a part is calculated based on peak power consumption. This to
create an incentive to keep your consumption in terms of the peak levels under control. The
goal is to optimize energy self consumption and to use as much of the locally produced energy
or to store surplus to the battery or to charge a car.
Excess energy that is produced by solar panels is sold to the suppliers. The price is market
driven and the suppliers for the consumption and production can be separated. The production
price is a little bit lower that the consumption price. We really see an uptake of offerings in this
area by the market players. For end users this is of course a change, a change away from the
pure commodity towards a more flexible market driven system which requires the customer to
become more active and aware about energy consumption.

We often hear that many utilities are not happy with so many EV charges. How do you fight
that?

Electrical mobility is a crucial part of the energy transition, and we really see that after more than
a decade the growth is really happening now. Charging EV will require the availability of
charging infrastructure both at home, at the office and in the public domain. As DSO we will
provide the necessary infrastructure so that this infrastructure can be installed. Driven by the
energy transition and the electrification not only from EV but also heat pumps, Fluvius
announced significant investment plan in 2022 for the next decade. Driven by the energy
transition, it is necessary to invest in the grid, and as an example we off now a higher standard
connection to the individual house so that it can support charging infrastructure of electric
vehicles. We count on tariff methodology incentives and market driven pricing to help customers
optimize their consumption by using a home energy system. We want to avoid people coming
home at 6 PM, plugging the car, and overpowering the grid.
Typically energy suppliers will be the ones that are active in the communication with the
consumer. Our role as DSO is to offer a stable grid, we can help the customer understand what
the cost is, but if a customer wants to pay more to have a certain comfort, we also enable that.
However, we cannot be the ones to tell customers when they can charge their cars, for
example.

You manage public lighting too. How do you do that?

Fluvius manages the public lighting infrastructure for the majority of the municipalities in
Flanders. We are now in the middle of replacing all classic public lighting with LEDs. We will
have everything replaced by 2028. We also include an interactive module, so we have a control
light management system that can control lighting. We apply different lighting schemes, for
example, change the scheme for a festival, or change it when there is an emergency. With the
energy crises, we could also benefit as those schemes provide even more decrease in energy
consumption. Thus we modernize the public lighting towards LED and making it interactive,
remotely controllable.

What are the benefits of multi-utilities for the electricity utilities and other utilities like water, and
gas?

Fluvius has always been a multi-utility DSO responsible for electricity and gas distribution
network. But over we have grown towards sewerage, telecom, and public lighting. In addition to
that also have partnerships with other companies, drinking water, for example. This was driven
by to realize benefits for all parties included.
First of all, there are synergies in the rollout and installation of for example smart meters. This is
very important because the investment is high in both labor and equipment. The synergies are
great in that way because you can go faster and be more efficient. There is also a shortage of
technical workers, so working together is also a way to address this. Additional training for
workers might be needed but technicians usually already have some prior knowledge.
This also means that we are a one-shop-stop for the customers, making installation of all of the
devices more convenient at the same moment in time.
By working together we can also share a lot of IT investments. Setups of IT platforms are costly
so by doing it together you save time and money.
The last one is the common approach to the meter manufacturer. Each utility has to purchase
the meters and by combining them, you bring together the knowledge and requirements and
you have a more market interesting volume. It is a win-win, not only for utilities but also for the
meter manufacturer.
For that reason, we established cooperation agreements with different companies who work all
over Flanders.

What about connecting all of those meters? What do you use? Wired or wireless M-Bus?

We decided to go with the full wireless M-Bus. There are challenges, but the wired connections,
in our experience, are even more complicated. It requires more installation work to run the
cables through the house and we have a lot of problems when the house owners changing their
house may cause some issues with the cables.
We spent a lot of time on verifying and improving the RF performance of the meters together
with the manufacturers. We are very satisfied with the results of the wireless M-Bus in our roll-
out. We use it both towards gas and water meters.

What do you think is the future of multi-utilities since some electricity DSOs have abandoned
this multi-utility strategy? What do you think is the reason that water, gas, and heat utilities don’t
think much about cooperation with electricity utilities as they do in your country?

We see the future as fully integrated. We have always been a multi-utility-inspired company,
and we continue in that direction. Of course, it also depends on the country’s legislation as I

explained before. Not only for the DSO, but also for the customer, for the technician and for
others involved a lot of advantages are created through this multi-utility approach.
I know certain countries have decided not to do it, but that is often based on history and the
scale of the single utilities. In Belgium being one of the smaller countries in Europe, we can’t
really separate it since the volumes would be too small to set up everything multiple times
Towards the smart city evolution, data is important, and multi-utility is a good way to bring on
data together, give data insights, etc. I think having it separated is not the right choice. I believe,
in the future, it will be even more connected, allowing insights and advanced analytics both by
the DSO and the customer.
As for why some utilities may not think about cooperation, I believe the synergies are not seen
enough, and the possibilities it offers may not be known by everybody. There is also maybe
some fear, electricity DSO’s tend to be at the forefront of this driven by the energy transition , as
electricity is much more mature in terms of data models and information you can get from it.
There are different levels of knowledge and experience so linking different goals may be scary
certainly for smaller DSO in other utilities.
We at Fluvius believe that the best way forward is to share our experiences because together,
this multi-utility approach is the best option for all.
I recommend that electricity utilities talk about it more, get in dialog with their colleagues and
explore the possibility for multi-utility setups.
We can all help each other to move ahead.

What is the most important lesson you learned throughout your career?

I think it’s collaboration. It is key to reaching successful projects. When I say collaboration, I
mean collaboration with all kinds of stakeholders not limited internally but with regulators,
manufacturers, sub-contractors and installers, and collaboration among utility companies. When
you work together, you can more successfully reach the ambitious targets, since you have a
broader impact
When you talk together and align, you have a better aligned proposal, which you can then bring
to manufacturers and later on, the regulators.
Another lesson learned is, the devil is in the details. Technology can go wrong, and the smallest
details can be the cause for stopping. That’s why standards are so important, you need to have
good use cases in there, and those should be tested and certified to enhance quality and
guarantee success.

Conclusion:

Legislation and regulation in Multi-utility can open new market opportunities for different
companies.
Advice to customers, based on the data analysis of all Multi-utility devices in one place, can help
customers better control their total household energy consumption and production.
Collaboration is very important, because by working together and sharing the knowledge,
experience, work force and expenses different utilities can develop better than when they do it
alone.

Question for the audience
What do you think, how to encourage collaboration of different utilities in order to achieve the
implementation of Multi-utility?