A challenge to inventors, designers and engineers everywhere:
Design a virtually universal open platform for local energy hubs
Global Design Challenge
Develop the best open - scalable - compliant - interoperable - local
Transactive energy platform
The Global Design Challenge is intended to facilitate the resolution of a small number of simple, inexpensive and easily applied design standards that will allow for easy integration of the full range of Distributed Energy Resources with micro-grids, distributors and system operators. It's an open source collaborative project designed to encourage creative thinking, prompt conversation, and shine a spotlight on the most promising ideas coming from individual contributors and companies at the leading edge of power innovation.
Let your energy innovation shine! This is your chance to become a recognized contributor to the world-wide Distributed Energy Resources transformation as it is ignited for lift-off.
Everyone with an interest in the future shape of the power system is invited to share and potentially showcase their designs for the most dependable, efficient and inclusive open access, open source distributed energy integration platform.
Building on extensive work already underway in many parts of the world, the Global Design Challenge is intended to highlight the most promising and inventive options for resolving common standards of communication between Distributed Energy Resources, power distributors and grid operators. Proposed systems must be widely applicable, suitable for use by LDCs and micro-grids, and comply with all applicable legal and technical requirements.[1]
The key purpose of the Global Design Challenge is to facilitate the resolution of a small number of simple, inexpensive and easily applied design standards that will allow for easy integration of the full range of DERs with micro-grids, distributors and system operators, while meeting all applicable standards for safety, security and open competitive markets. Proposals will be judged on their ability to integrate with consumer friendly apps, digital payment systems, and innovative business models.
The Global Design Challenge is an open source collaborative project designed to encourage creative thinking, prompt conversation, and shine a spotlight on the most promising ideas coming from individual contributors and companies at the leading edge of power innovation, including local energy hubs, micro-grids and transactive energy.
Winners will be announced at a future Canadian Power Conference event in categories such as:
- The most innovative overall design concept
- The most economical implementation framework
- The system that most easily accommodates the integration of new DERs
- The best Blockchain integration
- The best storage integration
- Ability to accommodate a full range of jurisdiction-specific regulatory requirements
- Consumer-friendliness.
To submit a proposal, follow these Three easy steps:
1. Review the terms of the Global Design Challenge (below and on our website).
2. Submit your preliminary idea to
3. Attend or watch the awards at a date TBA, and help to share the results.
Contestant contributions will be assessed by a Selection Committee composed of recognized industry experts who will judge proposals, decide on the winning submissions, and comment on the most brilliant ideas.
* Let your initiative shine – and be recognized in professional energy forums for doing so! *
Background information:
Terms and details of The Global Design Challenge for Local Energy Platforms
Invitations will go out to leading corporate players, students, industry, government, research organizations, leading academics, and on social media.
Successful applicants who meet the criteria will have their proposals published on the APPrO website and anyone who receives one of the awards will be featured in the APPrO magazine, on the APPrO website, and at the APPrO 2019 conference. Successful applicants may be invited to make a live presentation at the APPrO conference.
The first competition will be designated as Round 1. The process of comparing applications during round 1 will yield learnings that will allow the organizing committee to refine the terms of the competition for Round 2 in subsequent years.
Submission Schedule
All submissions must be filed in their final form with APPrO by the specified deadline according to the requirements below, to allow time for the judges to make comparisons.
Date 1: Initial submission deadline
- Applicants must submit a 2 page proposal highlighting basic objectives, expectations and methods
- Judges may pose questions and make suggestions to the applicants.
Date 2: Final submission deadline
- Applicants must submit a full proposal suitable for public release, along with10 slide summary PowerPoint deck
- Judges may pose questions and make suggestions to the applicants, potentially leading to “invited changes” in the submissions. Revised proposals with invited changes must be submitted by the final deadline.
Date 3: Communication with finalists
- This stage is designed in part to determine finalists’ ability to be present at the award ceremony
- Discussion with selected finalists about potentially presentations at the conference, in front of the audience and to a panel of judges who will ask questions (Dragon's Den style).
Eligibility criteria
Eligible proposals must:
a) Offer an open source solution for managing distributed energy resources in a local energy hub
b) Proposed systems must be widely applicable, suitable for use by LDCs and micro-grids, and comply with all applicable legal and technical requirements.[2]
c) Demonstrate a new innovation that is not yet widely deployed, recognizing that large parts of proposals submitted may contain components that are part of existing products, projects or previous implementations.
Permission to distribute your proposals and protection of authorial claims
As a basic condition of participation in the Global Design Challenge, all contributors must agree to allow APPrO to share and redistribute their submissions publicly.
In order to protect contributors’ ability to substantiate claims of authorship, all initial submissions should be cc’d to the original contributor at the same time they are sent to APPrO, along with a request for APPrO to acknowledge receipt and reply with a copy of the claimed work in an “original submission acknowledgement.” APPrO will not verify that the content of a submission is entirely original or that it is exclusively the work of the claimed author. However, APPrO will retain a record of all valid submissions, consistent with the content of its “Original submission acknowledgement” following a procedure that can be used to substantiate authorship. Original submissions must be 10 MB or less and submitted by email with the words “GDC submission acknowledgement request” in the subject line. Once APPrO has verified the relevance of such submissions it will forward a copy of the original submission to the original email address provided, in an “Original submission acknowledgement” message. This will allow the contributor to substantiate and protect claims of authorship.
APPrO expects that this project will use various forms of the GNU General Public License extensively. It should be noted that a significant component of the open source activity underway with the IEEE and others is developing appropriate forms of licensing for open source projects. The IEEE plans to offer a CLA or Contributors Licensing Agreement to supplement software and hardware licenses as a means of ensuring that any code that’s contributed to an open source project is signed off on by the contributor or its company. This is intended to ensure that everyone contributing content has the authority to do so, and everyone has the right to use it freely in an open source framework.
Evaluation criteria
Judges will be permitted to use wide discretion but will be asked to assess submissions on the following criteria:
- Ease of application
- Range of circumstances in which the solution is applicable
- Range of issues that can be addressed by the solution
- The ease with which add-ons from new contributors can be integrated
- Anticipated cost of deployment
- Compatibility with related software for managing DERs and interacting with the wholesale grid.
Publication of short listed proposals
All proposals short listed will be acknowledged publicly and have key elements of their submission published on the APPrO website as appropriate.
Prizes
Winning submissions will be announced at an upcoming Canadian Power Conference. Winners will be entitled to public acknowledgement and a certificate verifying their recognition by the Selection Committee. Other prizes to be determined.
Marketing and social media
APPrO will highlight the process and of course the winners using APPrO media, earned media, and social media.
Background information
Work on this field is underway all over the world and agencies like the IEEE, the IDEA and many others are assembling databases of resources. APPrO has published some background papers and collected relevant resources, many of which are summarized in the Open Power Platforms Resource Centre at this location:
https://appro.org/openplatforms
Location of this page:
https://magazine.appro.org/news/international-news/5488-global-design-challenge-1.html
[1] For details, see the program’s terms and eligibility criteria.
[2] Applicants will need to specify one or more jurisdictions as their baseline design standard for compliance. It is recommended but not essential that Ontario requirements be addressed.