The Open Sustainability Policy Summit

Access to raw smart meter data is essential to a rapid and successful energy transition. Yet little of this data is available for research and modelling purposes, largely because of consumer privacy protections. Synthetic data can solve this problem.

We want to liberate global access to smart meter data for research and innovation purposes, by creating an open community of synthetic smart meter data contributors and users.

Centre for Net Zero is already engaged in work that advances these ambitions. Our generative AI model, Faraday, outputs synthetic half-hourly consumption data for specific household archetypes. These are adapted for user-specified inputs, such as low carbon technology, property type and season, allowing users to simulate the entire distribution of load profiles of a bespoke population. The model is designed to help grid operators, innovators and researchers understand the impacts of electrification, and optimise the design of the future energy system.

In this session, we will be exploring what “good” looks like for synthetic smart meter data, as well as some interesting real-life and proposed use cases for the data.