Energy

We’re fully charged and ready to solve your software challenges. From the power grid, through energy generation and smart metering, to smart buildings, EV charging, flexibility management and distributed energy resources – we’re powered up to tackle it all.

High-energy people with a smart approach.

We’re a full-cycle development services leader combining expert software capabilities with energy experience. We design, build, integrate, transfer and support operation of complex chip-to-cloud software solutions for our clients’ next generation digital product and solution portfolios. 


Discover solutions to the major energy challenges that deliver high-quality outcomes for our customers. 

Next Generation Power Grids
From digital substations and feeder automation to distributed energy resource and flexibility management, via advanced distribution/energy management systems, we empower clients to develop next-generation product portfolios for digital-enabled power grids.
EV Charging
Supercharge your EV capabilities with our expertise in charge point systems management, offering demand-flexible solutions that keep the chargers going all the while delivering sustainability and enabling the transition to Net Zero.
Full Lifecycle Smart Assets
Be they plants, wind turbines, battery energy storage systems and power transformers: every asset is a digital asset. We can support you in creating smart assets like digital twins and remote sensing for fleet management and more.
Advanced Metering and Smart Data
Profit from our experience in smart metering and energy data to develop your next generation metering, communications and display devices, meter data management, and smart data platforms across electricity and gas, green gas, and water sectors.
Intelligent Buildings and Homes
For designers to design the building of tomorrow you must deliver the technology today. Solving the energy efficiency, security and comfort equation requires intelligent solutions blending remote management, automation and AI-based optimisation – solutions we can help you develop.
Advanced Computing
Cyber security, AI, hybrid clouds and microservices, 5G, digital twins, simulation and software-defined automation are reshaping the foundations of OT and IT base technology for energy. We can help you forge the foundations of the future of energy.
Next Generation Power Grids
The T&D grid is the backbone of the energy transition and is expanding at an unprecedented rate to tackle the carbon crisis and achieve security of supply.

To meet these goals, we would need to build or replace as much grid as is operating today within the next 20 years. Such an endeavour is both massive and demanding in terms of raw materials. 


Digital solutions can reduce infrastructure buildup by leveraging dynamic flexibility and operating the grid closer to its limits. Flexibility sources include demand response and virtual power plants, storage and flexibility in generation, chiefly power-to-X plants. New loads, such as electric mobility and electrical heating, can be deployed today with flexibility in its design and next generation software-defined digital substations and smart assets will significantly improve sustainability in new build infrastructure. 


Moreover, grids are no longer under solely the responsibility of utilities. Microgrids in buildings, industry, ports or airports and other behind-the-meter infrastructure are combining local energy sources, energy use and storage, revolutionising energy use and operating as distributed energy resources. These are digital by nature and autonomously protected, run and optimised by software. 


Digital has the potential to completely reshape our investment, and Critical Software stands ready to help industry players digitalise the world of energy. 

Advanced Metering & Smart Data
Smart metering is part of Critical Software’s DNA.

We work with Smart DCC and other meter manufacturers to develop software that helps smart devices communicate across the whole of the UK, playing a key part from the very beginning in one of the biggest infrastructure projects since World War II: the Smart Meter Implementation Programme (SMIP). We have changed the way energy is used, hugely benefiting consumers, the industry and the environment.  


Critical is also a DLMS and secure meter communications expert, working with DLMS User Association, SMITEn and SMDA labs to provide compliance, interoperability and stress testing through both on-premises and cloud-based solutions. 


Our track record in smart metering together with software capabilities from embedded to cloud and enterprise software can be a unique lever to the development of your next generation metering, communications or display device, head-end, meter data management or smart data platform across electricity and gas, green gas, and water sectors. 

EV Charging
Electrification of transportation is a game changer in tackling the carbon crisis, and demand for EV charging infrastructure has come hand-in-hand with digital-by-design solutions aimed at zero emission mobility.

The rapid change from the internal combustion engine to electrically powered vehicles is affecting the ability of electricity networks to supply power demanded by the consumer. 


As the industry matures, new semiconductor technology becomes available and charging stations integrate microgrids, we can offer you support in creating pioneering digital solutions. New remote systems software, smart charging and V2G capabilities, fleet management, and efficient charger control software will drive charging, DC fast charging, bus and truck charging, fleets, shore-power or next generation electric aviation forwards. 


Our Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) and ISO 15118 (road vehicles and V2G communication interface) libraries are examples of available building blocks empowering your charging capabilities, simplifying communication between charge points and charge point management systems. 

Intelligent Buildings & Homes
Smart devices are omnipresent in our daily lives. More than 50% of homes in the EU have some sort of smart device.

Home energy management systems and smart appliances are the next frontier in digital power, enabling efficient use of lighting, heating and AC, smart EV charging and balancing local or community storage and generation. 


Smart homes and commercial buildings – from hotels to hospitals – all have unique requirements that innovative digital solutions can cater for, from remote systems management, data and intelligent controls powered by AI. All this combined with the increased security, control, wellbeing and ease-of-use that end-users require, at the lowest cost. 


As the array of devices available becomes ever larger, cybersecure interconnectivity and interoperability are paramount. We are experts in cyber security, connectivity and integration at all levels, from Zigbee and BT through to BACNet and web-based APIs. 


Innovative solutions like our ConnectaX concept in the UK, offering near-total interoperability between smart devices including EV chargers, smart meters and smart home appliances, and Sauter’s Vison Center solution, attest to our capability to support you in building your product and services portfolio. 

Smart Assets
Solar solutions, H2 plants, wind turbines, industrial heat-pumps, BESS, offshore stations and power transformers are all becoming digital assets, and every OEM a digital company.

End-to-end digital lifecycle management through to simulation and V&V, manufacturing, deployment and commissioning is the new norm. Digital transformation is the only way to cut time-to-market, compress lead times, increase availability, reliability and sustainability, as well as to accelerate the feedback loops and learning cycles you need to remain competitive. 


We can help you create the digital layer you require, co-developing digital twins, remote sensing capabilities, fleet management and expert or AI-based solutions – pivotal for fleet managers and manufacturers alike.

Advanced Computing
Base digital technology is evolving fast. Faster than the systems and asset lifecycles in the energy industry, sometimes faster than incumbent players are able to react.

High-availability and high-performance computing has become available on-demand in the cloud. AI and LLMs have evolved more in the last two years than in the two preceding decades. Real-time virtualised CPUs are enabling software-defined automation, and secure development lifecycles are now a way of life. Simply put, it’s all change for energy suppliers, grid operators and asset managers, as well as vendors.


Data spaces and open data are the next step towards semantic interoperability set forth by standards such as CIM and IEC 61850, and the grid’s network models are today just a few of the many digital twins required to efficiently manage the energy network. The cyber security landscape now blends IEC 62443, IEC 62351, ISO 27001, NIS, NERC CIP, GDPR and ISO 30111. Data-driven AI applications will soon be applied systematically across the industry. 


We deliver state-of-the-art software development capabilities from chip to cloud as well as cross-cutting capabilities such as AI, Data and ML Ops, UX/UI, Simulation, QA and V&V, Agile delivery, CI/CD and mature processes. 


Our widespread skillset, unique culture, investment in domain knowledge, and the capability to scale sustainable software teams tailored to your needs set us apart in delivering value.

Rogério
Paulo
I currently serve as the Business Development Director for Energy at Critical Software. Before that, I held the position of Global Technology Director for Digital, T&D, and Electric Mobility Products at Efacec, where I wore multiple hats throughout my career. My expertise lies in innovation within power systems automation and smart grids.
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