Why is the code of FlexMeasures open for everyone?

According to the mission of Seita Energy Flexibility, every organization in the world should be able to achieve the positive effects of energy flexibility management. Even if they cannot pay for an internal data science & engineering team or buy an energy management startup.

This can happen when everyone can find the code and try it out. The code of FlexMeasures is here, take a look. Open source also creates transparency and trust, which we believe will help us create as many partnerships as possible.

The FlexMeasures project has been donated to the Linux Energy Foundation, to create a stable governance and open invitation to other partners.

Read here how LF Energy describes what open source can do in the energy sector, and here how the original maintainers, Seita Energy Flexibility, argue why open source makes sense.

Here are two explicit values we find crucial to mention:

Autonomy

We know that energy service companies are reluctant to let third parties own the algorithms which generate a strategic customer-facing feature (energy flexibility advice). With FlexMeasures, you can self-host or subscribe at your-company.flexmeasures.io and provide your algorithms as plugins ― in any case, you will retain your autonomy.

Prosperity

If you choose to become a paying customer with a company hosting FlexMeasures for you, you pay only for what you use: The hosting and maintenance of the platform, and/or for custom advice or algorithm development.

The real benefits of open source kick in when the community around FlexMeasures grows. When developers contribute to its code base, or when other companies pay for a feature they need urgently ― most of these improvements will benefit everyone.