Piclo

Transforming Bid Review for System Operators

Product design

Background

Piclo is a global digital marketplace that connects energy flexibility providers (such as owners of renewable energy sources, batteries, and electric vehicles) with system operators who manage the electrical grid. This platform allows these providers to earn money by adjusting their energy consumption or production to help balance the grid.

The problem

Bid review is a critical step for System Operators (SOs) at the end of competitions. Previously, the process was designed for long-term competitions, allowing SOs to download bid information for offline analysis. However, this approach is impractical for next-day competitions, where SOs have only a few hours to review bids.

Understand the users’ perspective

After conducting desk research on various UK System Operators’ bid selection principles, I organised a research session with the National Grid control room. Three key insights emerged:

  1. Benchmark price against another market.

  2. Be assured the right bids have been accepted.

How might we reduce the bid review time to minutes while ensuring the suitable bids have been accepted?

Ideation

The stepped approach

Step 1: Reduce the effort of clicking buttons
Create “Clearing Algorithm” v1 - price filter
Get feedback

Step 2: Visualise the before and after
Data visualisation
Summary stats
Get feedback

Step 3: Display information for on-screen decision-making
Explore adding company names

Challenges

Piclo lacked graphing capabilities, and we needed to launch the feature in one sprint, prioritising the most important features.

Brainstorm data visualisation

Things we considered:

  • data points to be visualised

  • visualisation to use

  • level of detail shown

Design explorations: navigation and summary stats

Considerations:

  • How do users access the graphs?

  • How would it work for users who don’t want to use the graphs?

  • What data points need to be in the Summary leading to the right actions from the users?

Design explorations: graphs

Considerations:

  • What data points do users need to complete the task?

  • What is best shown at a glance? What can be displayed on hover?

  • What data is realistic?

  • What bias or misinterpretation might the graph cause?

Impact

Winning a new client for Piclo Energy

This was the first time Piclo running a daily market end-to-end. System Operator users provided enthusiastic feedback, praising the intuitive design and valuable insights offered by the graphs.

Launching a pioneering new market for National Grid

This project marked the first instance of Flexibility being utilised by a UK control room, expanding its application beyond traditional procurement teams.

This breakthrough demonstrates the potential for real-time flexibility management in grid operations, paving the way for more dynamic and responsive energy systems. Read more here.

Created new features and gained experience in running daily markets to benefit future clients

A set of reusable features were created and ready for the next client who wants to run daily markets.

“This is spot on! Even if we don’t accept any bids, it only took us minutes, no time wasted.”
— Olympia Siolou, National Grid, Power System Engineer

My reflection

  • What’s the best way to prototype graphs?

  • Design with real or realistic data.

  • The power of collaboration with users and engineers.