Market Communication Made Easy

SEEBURGER MaCo Cloud Service

The challenge

As of 31. January 2018 AS4 became the standard communications protocol for the exchange of messages between natural gas transmission network operators across Europe. A unified standard is a huge step towards a single European energy market, but comes with a price. While being good, massive changes like those for market communication (MaCo) are quite common in the utilities industry. Regulatory changes often involve software changes and result in considerable implementation project costs. These projects are a special challenge in times of cost saving pressures and limited in-house capacities.

The solution

The SEEBURGER MaCo Cloud Service aims to reduce some of this external pressure. The key is to outsource the standardized communication processes to the cloud service which features automated message handling and ensures legal compliance with new regulations out of the box.

EnBW, one of the largest energy supply companies in Europe, needed to connect with fellow transmission network operators in Europe. The project consisted of connecting over ten network operators to EnBW’s systems using the cloud solution. All connections use the AS4 protocol with the required ENTSO-G profile. The use case is not limited to its initial scope since more processes, partners and communication protocols can and will be added later on.