Twenty years ago, if you looked under the hood of every software business, you would find the same thing – a monolithic architecture. Google ‘monolithic’ and you’ll find it defined as ‘formed of a single large block of stone’. These types of platforms were developed to solve simple problems, but as the worlds they operated in became more complex, some limitations came to light. Due to being one large piece of infrastructure, even a small change relevant to a single aspect of the platform requires a full, system-wide redeployment of the code. Similarly, if a fault were to occur in one area, then the entire system would be affected.
A new type of architecture then evolved to allow for different subcomponents to speak to each other – and take independent action – without requiring a whole system overhaul. This ‘synchronous microservices’ design gave businesses the ability to separate their operations and run many different processes at the same time. However, as processes are highly interconnected, if one service fails then a domino effect takes place across the whole system. Actions are also not automatically recorded or reported in any way to the wider platform meaning no single ‘source of truth’ exists.
Architecture for tomorrow
Early in the development of the Kaluza platform, we recognised the enormous value in leveraging live data to its fullest extent, and that is how we designed our system.
Kaluza is a SaaS platform providing energy retailers with a real-time operating system, intelligent grid services and seamless customer experiences. We’re tackling the biggest challenge there is today: decarbonising our energy system at scale and with pace.
Today, the energy industry is in the midst of a data boom and a complete digital transformation. Energy companies whose prime focus was to serve up a monthly paper bill in kWh are now under pressure to live up to the demands of modern customers who expect real-time information and a seamless way to make changes to their account online. At the same time, energy companies are facing big carbon saving targets and are needing to innovate the smart, low carbon customer solutions that will reduce emissions and enable an energy system powered by renewables.
As a SaaS platform provider, we are here to give those retailers the ability to move quickly, turn risk into opportunity and to lead in the energy transition – not be left in the stone age. Data holds the key to all of this and that is why Kaluza has built a powerful data backbone from which the rest of our technology hinges.
How does it work?
The platform’s data-streaming architecture utilises Kafka as a core technology. Kafka is a high throughput messaging system. Think of it as a parallel set of conveyor belts, each carrying messages with a different purpose. Crucially, each conveyor belt is a “broadcast”. Any interested party (subject to authorisation) can subscribe to the messages and act on them.
Kafka is a common structural feature of some ‘big tech’ companies but never before used in energy. Individual services consume data from the pipeline and publish updates back in real time. For example, this enables Kaluza to provide energy customers with live balances of their accounts. All of the messages are also persisted to a data store (at petabyte scale) meaning that the platform can then generate near-limitless insights and analysis from historical data too.
Most individual services are separate from each other in the ecosystem but they share a common data model, ensuring that data is structured, consistent and well-designed. This system-level decoupling enables the Kaluza platform to be adapted locally to multiple regions, scale both horizontally and vertically and release new features independently. Critically, it also enables security threats to be isolated and prevented from proliferating across systems unlike the monolithic and synchronous microservices models.
This diagram shows the movement of data from different decoupled services across the Kafka stream and instant auto capture into the data warehouse.
Industry impact
This architecture allows Kaluza to leverage data in a way that enables energy retailers to evolve with the energy transition. The platform’s data core unleashes flexibility from multiple sources – including the industry, the grid, and customer interactions – enabling retailers to ensure, for example, that their billing platform will be future proof to changes in industry requirements and able to manage the immense data associated with those changes. Our data enables green energy to flow from the grid to homes and cars, and back again, helping reduce constraints on the electricity grid and allowing more renewable power to be used, all while seamlessly allowing end customers to take advantage of low-cost charging.
And our data architecture encompasses the end customer experience too. It allows millions of customers to see their energy usage data – and their resulting carbon footprint – in real time throughout the day. For retailers, the richness of this data allows them to build new propositions that extend their business model on top of or within the platform.
In addition to the depth of data available to retailers and their customers, Kaluza’s data backbone gives retailers a single source of truth for any action that either a customer or a customer support agent does. This means that when a customer contacts their energy retailer and the support agent looks into their account, the data they see is identical, although the way in which it is presented to them can be customised differently. As a result, support agents are empowered to deliver fast and effective customer service that doesn’t require navigating across multiple systems and enables agents to promote the most valuable products and insights personalised to that individual customer.
Lastly, our dynamic data architecture allows Kaluza to create a valuable platform ecosystem beyond its borders. Because Kaluza services are able to access data from third parties and combine it with its proprietary microservices and APIs, it enables ecosystem partners to build and own new standalone functionality. In this way, the business is increasing and accelerating the collective impact on decarbonisation within the sector.
We’re hugely excited for the unlimited scale and true agility our platform can bring to the world of energy, despite a rapidly-changing landscape. We believe that it’s time for energy companies to be empowered by data and leave the stone age behind.
Notes on the authors
Oliver Blackwood has over 13 years of experience in software engineering, building and delivering consumer-centric digital products in both the UK and Canada. Oliver joined the OVO Group in April 2017 to lead the software team in its retail division, responsible for the OVO Energy experience teams, web/app products and onboarding.
A passionate technical leader who has worked in engineering across multiple industries including; insurance, e-commerce, search, and utilities. He has led teams to deliver highly scalable and distributed systems as well as grown technology teams from tens to hundreds. He is currently the technical lead for Kaluza’s energy retail platform.
Marzia Zafar brings a wealth of Energy and Policy experience to Kaluza having spent over 20 years working on policies and strategies to enable the energy transition for regulators, business and not for profit sectors. In her most recent role, Marzia was Director of Insights at the World Energy Council and led a team of global energy experts on unlocking opportunities related to the energy transition.
Prior to that, Marzia worked for Sempra Energy in Los Angeles and was a policy advisor for California’s energy regulator in San Francisco. Here she was instrumental in their smart meter rollout and in the early regulatory work to help legitimise ride sharing companies including Uber and Lyft. In her new role as Kaluza’s Head of Customer Strategy & Policy, Marzia will ensure that the consumer remains at the heart of the transition to a decarbonised energy system. Marzia has a degree in Business and Accounting from San Diego University, California.
