Since selecting Solace’s EDA platform as the data distribution foundation of their IT infrastructure, Drax Group has used it to accelerate decarbonization efforts, improve customer service, and introduce innovative electric vehicle solutions based on renewable energy.
Decarbonization
Having converted two-thirds of Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire to use sustainable biomass instead of coal, Drax has become the largest decarbonization project in Europe, and the biggest single site renewable power generator in the UK. Doing so also paved the way for the company to become carbon negative by 2030 by deploying negative emissions technology bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) – permanently storing millions of tons of CO2 a year.
To achieve that goal, Drax needed a unified, real-time view of its data to maximize the efficiency and minimize the environmental impact of its supply chain and energy production. Solace’s EDA platform is a key element of Drax’s Data and Integration Hubs, which enable easy access to data sources and distribute data between applications and devices in real-time, across divisions, datacenters, and public clouds.
“Having efficient IT infrastructure is key to delivering our purpose of enabling a zero carbon, lower cost energy future for our business customers. Solace’s services have enabled us to improve user experience and drive operational efficiencies – we can access, transform, and utilize our data wherever and whenever we want through the integration hub.”
Electric Vehicle Solutions
Drax Group also uses Solace’s EDA platform as the foundation of its industry-leading electric vehicle (EV) solutions, powered by renewable energy. Supply chain disruptions are bringing to the fore the importance of balancing power, demand and supply, especially in the wake of wild energy price fluctuations. To maximize energy efficiency, providers and consumers demand real-time updates of commodity prices, which ultimately influence purchasing decisions.
To generate and deliver renewable power in the most efficient way and remain compliant with the program, energy providers need real-time, event-driven data. Drax has chosen Solace, as the market-leading enabler of EDA in the UK energy sector, to orchestrate real-time information sharing with the MHHS Data Integration Platform.
Getting more electric vehicles on the road is key to decarbonizing the UK. At Drax, our EV experts can help fleet managers by doing the hard work for them when it comes to looking at the data to understand which EV solutions would benefit their business. Event-driven architecture is the key to making energy production and consumption resource-effective and therefore limit waste and make life easier for UK homes and businesses.”
Benefits
By distributing data between applications and devices across Drax’s enterprise, Solace’s EDA platform ensures that information across the enterprise is up to date, all the time. This will help Drax to dynamically manage demand fluctuations, storage, and energy delivery across the UK. Drax’s use of Solace PubSub+ Event Portal is helping the company gain better visibility and control of its system by giving them the ability to design, catalog, visualize and govern its event streams.
Drax’s use of EDA will benefit EV users and producers by effectively turning electric vehicles into de facto storage batteries, ready to be used at home in lieu of peak energy price consumption levels, or even sold back to the grid. Drax’s first EV customer, SES Water, made an initial investment in 16 new charging points and replaced 10 of its 120 strong fleet of diesel vans with electric vehicles. This small step is saving SES Water an estimated 43 tonnes of CO2 per year.
Drax Group is a renewable energy company engaged in renewable power generation, the production of sustainable biomass and the sale of renewable electricity to businesses.