The Parallel: Why Energy Needs Its Own Standards Body

The parallels between the challenges faced by the mobile telecommunications industry in the 1990s, the internet community in the 1980s and 1990s, and the UK energy sector today are striking. In each case, a complex, multi-stakeholder sector faced the challenge of achieving interoperability across a diverse and rapidly evolving technological landscape. In each case, the solution was the establishment of an independent, authoritative, and open standards body.

7.1 The Structural Similarities

The table below maps the structural similarities across the three sectors — mobile (pre-3GPP), internet (pre-IETF), and UK energy today — across six key dimensions. The parallels are not superficial; they reflect deep structural similarities in the nature of the coordination challenge.

7.2 The Key Difference: Energy as Critical National Infrastructure

There is one important difference between the energy sector and the mobile and internet sectors: energy is Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) in a way that mobile and internet were not, at least in their early stages. A failure of the digital energy system could have immediate and severe consequences for public safety and national security.

This difference reinforces, rather than undermines, the case for an EnergyOS governance model. The CNI status of the energy system means that the stakes of getting the digital architecture wrong are extremely high. A fragmented, insecure, or poorly designed digital architecture could create systemic vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malicious actors. A well-designed, open, and secure architecture, governed by an authoritative and independent body, is the only way to manage these risks effectively.

7.3 The Open Banking Parallel

A more recent and domestically relevant parallel is the Open Banking initiative in the UK financial sector. Open Banking, introduced in 2018 in response to the EU's Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2), mandated that the UK's nine largest banks open up their customer data to third-party providers through standardised APIs. The result was a flourishing ecosystem of fintech innovation, with thousands of new products and services built on top of the open banking infrastructure.

The Open Banking model demonstrates that mandated open standards can drive innovation even in a highly regulated sector. It also demonstrates the importance of having an independent body — the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE), now Open Banking Limited — to govern the standards and ensure their consistent implementation.

The UK energy sector is now at a similar inflection point. The Data Use and Access Act and the government's smart data initiatives create the legislative framework for an "Open Energy" model, analogous to Open Banking. The challenge is to establish the governance structures and technical standards that will make this vision a reality.