Co-Founder & CPO
Bert Claessens
Beebop’s orchestration platform is set up for scalable coordination of decentralized flexibility, scale means:
Multi-asset (solar, batteries, EVs and heat pumps), across a range of optimization objectives, both local (e.g. grid tariffs) and system level (energy trading and balancing), all within grid constraints (congestion) in different power systems.
Sub-linear technical scalability.
Scalable monitoring, performance management and reporting, next to customer engagement.
Keeping our state of the art system takes time. Deciding what to build in a given quarter is a receding horizon process where at every step we project forward and commit to the next move. Those decisions have to rest on foundations that scale in lockstep with the strategy of our customers. Beebop Labs is where these foundations are fostered, so our platform stays state of the art for the power system of tomorrow, not just the one we operate in today.
These five fundamentals receive the most attention within Labs.
Five fundamentals
Trading integration. For small groups of assets, or for smaller utilities, it can make sense for the orchestrator itself to do the effective trading: simple day-ahead nominations, intraday repositioning, implicit balancing. At scale, that stops being the right paradigm. Leading utilities already have (algo-) trading desks with real capability, and the orchestrator is to integrate directly into that algorithmic trading stack, exposing fleet-level costs and constraints in a form that fits state-of-the-art trading algorithms without exploding their complexity or cost. Building trading-grade representations of heterogeneous fleets that can be co-optimised across local objectives and energy trading, all within grid constraints, is one of the core topics Labs spends its time on.
Orchestration and decision-making at scale. A trading-grade integration needs to be consistent with the disaggregation behind it. At the end of the loop, every individual asset still has to be controlled in a way that is technically and computationally scalable, respecting each asset's own context. Scalable disaggregation of trading schedules back to device level is the counterpart to scalable aggregation up to the trading level, and the two have to stay consistent with each other.
Universal modelling and control through Beebop’s Flex Language. For scalability and performance, we use the same modelling architecture across asset detection, load and production forecasting, and, where it applies, modelling of state dynamics. That architecture is primarily data-driven, but it can be infused with physical context where doing so improves internal consistency, interpretability and performance.
Operational performance and insights. A system that aggregates, trades and disaggregates behind-the-meter and front-of-meter assets and hums along nicely is one thing. Keeping it humming reliably at scale is a different challenge entirely: scalable and reliable modelling, performance monitoring, calculating opportunity costs, automatic ticket generation, and explainability toward the end customer (click to see how we approach this) are all necessary scaffolding.
Players of the future. Keeping the platform future-proof, congestion services, and understanding data center flexibility are two prominent examples.
Why now
With the AI economy and electrification of transport and heat accelerating, the need for reliable power has never been greater. The challenge is now to scale power coordination to millions of heterogeneous devices, operating under real physical constraints, and to smartly couple this fragmented capacity to the fastest-growing loads and production sites on the grid. These are research problems.
Inaugurating Labs is our public commitment to remaining at the forefront of this research and driving innovation towards the “great unlock”.
"One of the energy transition’s biggest bottlenecks turns out to be the largest machine on the planet: the electric grid. Our research aims to tame its enormous complexity and enable practical solutions for all of its stakeholders."
Jan-Willem Rombouts, Co-Founder and CEO, Beebop
Where next
Beebop Labs is live: beebop.ai/labs
For research collaboration: labs@beebop.ai
For open roles: careers@beebop.ai
CASE STUDIES
As electrification and renewable energy supply grows, the deep integration of consumer devices into the power system is a key success factor for the energy transition. Read more about how we make it happen.