Australia-based AGL Energy has partnered with Microsoft to launch a cloud-powered data platform that allows the energy provider to provide Consumer Data Right (CDR) services to consumers, ARN states . In compliance with CDR legislation, AGL leveraged Microsoft’s Cloud to develop its own platform.

Furthermore, the energy provider partnered with a number of Microsoft associates, government agencies, and external SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) providers to launch its new product. According to the Chief Technology Officer of AGL, it was critical for AGL to have such a platform in place, considering their role as custodians of customer personal information. AGL’s platform is designed to allow for secure data exchange on the marketplace enabled by Consumer Data Right.

By partnering with Microsoft and other external partners, alongside AGL’s team having experience with using Microsoft Cloud, the energy provider was able to develop a reportedly flexible, CDR-compliant, and cost-efficient platform in one year, while respecting regulatory timeframes. In August 2019, Australia’s government announced the CDR as a way to grant more control to consumers over their personal data by enabling choice over who would receive customer data and how it should be used. CDR ensured that consumer data can be transferred only between accredited industry providers (energy providers included) and accredited third parties (like comparison websites) in a secure way, by using an automated data technology system which is under the strict supervision of Australia’s government.

In July 2020, the CDR was introduced to the banking industry and soon after, the energy sector followed suit. AGL was among the first three energy providers which were required to develop an operational and compliant CDR solution by 15 November 2022. The solution was to allow requests from customers to share their data with accredited third parties.

AGL’s solution reportedly enables the company to scale to accommodate anticipated growth in the number of consumers wanting to share their energy data and compare deals in the CDR ecosystem. Also, the solution may allow the energy provider to discover potential growth opportunities if it decides to become an accredited data recipient (ADR). These opportunities include recruiting more customers to participate in AGL’s Virtual Power Plant scheme and offering customers personalised services such as machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities for bill forecasting, bill management, and bill smoothing; data integrations with Open Banking and recommendations on more efficient energy usage.

Australia and Brazil on a mission to open everything Australia is not the only country with a mission to introduce the model brought by Open Banking to other industries. In July 2022, The Brazilian Association of Electric Energy Consumers (Abraceel) decided to send the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) a letter in support of the request for a regulatory sandbox on Open Energy presented by Lemon Energia. Moreover, in August 2022, The Brazilian government and the National Supplementary Health Agency (ANS) have intended to launch a new platform for Open Health that promises to speed up portability between health plans.

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