KrakenFlex, part of Octopus Group, was founded in 2014 (originally as ‘Upside Energy’) for the Nesta Dynamic Demand Challenge and quickly gained attention for their ability to connect and control a diverse range of energy assets at scale. Funding followed from bodies such as Innovate UK and DECC Energy Entrepreneurs, with the aim of building out the Upside platform to facilitate the rapidly growing UK energy flexibility markets. KarakenFlex are leading on the development of the systems required to store, aggregate, monitor and notionally control the energy storage systems and heat pumps being installed. As part of this, KrakenFlex will define overall architecture and communications protocols between their cloud service and heat pumps and batteries. This will include a control strategy for gathering data from and sending control signals to batteries and heat pumps. They will also test and refine cloud software to support these communications protocols and control strategies to ultimately integrate the equipment and undertake ‘real world’ testing. As well as monitoring the energy storage systems, the data gathered and control systems implemented will allow consultants working for the project to compare the status of the heat pumps and batteries with the frequency of the national and local electrical network and engage with energy supply companies to enable the modelling of the likely impact, including revenue, of grid balancing and other network services offered by these aggregated energy stores.