UK smart home energy platform Living Lab moves forward with cloud-based analytics

Living Lab 2.0 is a test environment for businesses seeking to innovate in the home energy market

Living Lab 2.0, a UK R&D smart home and energy systems project led by government-supported accelerator Energy Systems Catapult, has taken a step forward with the appointment of Kent-based cloud analytics company SysMech.

SysMech - which specialises in big data, IoT, real-time analytics and infrastructure monitoring - is to provide its "open and technology-agnostic" digital platform for the Living Lab 2.0 project to help firms trial their net zero energy innovations, Energy Systems Catapult announced on its website.

Energy Systems Catapult describes Living Lab 2.0 as a "first-of-its-kind, agile and scalable real-world test environment for businesses seeking to innovate in the home energy market, by upgrading homes across the UK to become more digitally connected and harness smart clean technologies."

The aim is to provide a shared space to trial and demonstrate energy products, services and business models with real consumers in order to de-risk and scale innovations for market, while also providing insights and evidence to inform policies and regulations towards a net zero energy system.

SysMech's digital integration platform, meanwhile, is designed to act as "the intermediary - to intake, manage and analyse huge amounts of data - between the innovations being tested and the wide range of mainstream smart home devices and energy appliances within Living Lab homes".

It comes in the wake of an existing Living Lab operated by Energy Systems Catapult, which has enabled businesses to trial low carbon heating products and services across 100 connected homes.

Energy Systems Catapult said the new Living Lab 2.0 would "significantly improve" on its forerunner, initially focusing on low carbon heating and transport, the integration of smart controls, electric vehicles, and distributed energy technologies, with scope for new innovations to be added in response to market needs.

Dr Andrew Barton, Energy Systems Catapult systems development manager, said SysMech's digital, cloud-based platform would "act like the operating system, allowing innovators to plug in their own software or utilise a Catapult option that will be interoperable - physically, digitally, and commercially - with the smart control systems and IoT devices being used by households".

"The overall goal of Living Lab 2.0 is to help UK companies to test products, services and business models that deliver low carbon innovation for a wide range of consumer homes and lifestyles, and provide insight to develop market arrangements, policies and regulations for net zero carbon future," he added.

A version of this article was first published on our sister site BusinessGreen.