Alliander stands for high-quality knowledge of energy networks, energy technology and technical innovation. At Alliander, we are active in the area of digitalisation, in connection with which we use open source and participate in open source projects. But what is that exactly, open source?
What is open source?
Open source software is software of which the source code has been made freely available to the public, meaning it can be used, changed and shared by anyone. In open source projects, developers from different companies work together on a project, jointly making changes or acting on tips with the aim of improving the results of the project. With this way of working, you share costs and knowledge while helping each other to improve and accelerate. For Alliander, participation in open source projects is a way of meeting the challenges of the energy transition.
Open source approaches
There are several ways to work with open source. You can simply make use of it, for example, or you can collaborate on an existing open source project, or you can create, publish and manage your own open source project. At Alliander we take all three approaches. Besides using open source, we also work with several companies on projects, at OperatorFabric for example, and we manage several open source projects ourselves, such as Grid eXchange Fabric (GXF) and the Weather Provider API. By building an open source ecosystem, we contribute to a digital and sustainable energy system of the future.
Collaboration
We enjoy working with other parties on projects that advance us both. You can read more about this below, or contact us via OSPO@alliander.com
One of the projects Alliander is working on is the Weather Provider API. We can’t keep it from raining. What we can do, however, is change how we do things when it rains. There is a lot of meteorological information available, information we can use to forecast the weather, determine the historical effects of the weather on what we do, and even create models that can predict the best steps for us to take when it starts to rain. In short, there is a lot of information that can help us get the best out of the weather.
Would you like to know more about the Weather Provider API and how you can contribute? Check out our open source project page.
Would you like to learn more about the projects in which we contribute to open source?