Opinum

Opinum, founded in 2014 by Loïc Bar, operates as a specialized data management and software provider focusing on the energy and environmental sectors. The company was established in Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium, to address the growing need for digital tools to monitor and analyze energy and water consumption. Loïc Bar, who serves as CEO, brought previous experience as a team lead for McKinsey & Company and a passion for entrepreneurship to the venture. A key milestone for Opinum was its acquisition by Itineris, a technology company specializing in software solutions for utilities, in November 2021. This strategic union was intended to bolster the growth of both companies and enhance their collective capabilities in the energy transition market.

The core of Opinum's business is its cloud-based platform, the Opinum Data Hub, designed to help clients track, analyze, and manage their consumption of assets like electricity, gas, and water. The business model is centered on providing this platform to utilities and energy service companies (ESCOs), enabling them to offer enhanced digital services to their end-customers. The platform functions by aggregating time-series data from diverse sources such as smart meters, IoT sensors, and SCADA systems into a unified structure. This centralized data allows for advanced analysis, visualization, customized reporting, and the creation of alerts. Clients include prominent names like EOLY, Total, and EDF Luminus.

The Opinum Data Hub is a product-oriented solution that acts as a data orchestrator, allowing users to apply data science and machine learning capabilities to their datasets. Its key features include advanced data visualization through intuitive dashboards, algorithms for energy forecasting and CO2 emissions calculation, and billing calculation functionalities. A significant selling point is the platform's accessible API, which permits clients to develop their own tailored web or mobile applications. For water utilities, the platform aids in improving grid operations by facilitating tasks like water leakage detection. For power utilities, it provides the agility needed to adapt to the rise of electric vehicles and distributed renewable energy sources. By providing these tools, Opinum aims to empower its clients to optimize resource usage, improve operational efficiency, and support their customers in making informed decisions about energy consumption.

Keywords: energy data management, utility software, water data management, environmental data analysis, Opinum Data Hub, Loïc Bar, Itineris, smart meter data, IoT data platform, energy consumption analytics, data visualization, resource optimization, renewable energy software, utility billing, CO2 calculation, energy forecasting, water grid management, SCADA data integration, energy service companies, asset management software