Building a Custom Data Platform to Catalyze the Energy Transition

We implemented a data platform for Flo Energy, an electricity retailer based in Singapore. Their mission is to switch everyone to clean, renewable energy by making renewable energy as cheap as conventional energy. How? By leveraging the perks of modern technology and automating processes. And that’s where we come into play!

Our task was to design and deploy a custom data platform for Flo Energy, focusing on scalability and maintainability. A multidisciplinary team of data experts worked on this project to quickly deliver a scalable solution that meets the needs of this growing company. Additionally, we made sure the platform was easily maintainable, enabling Flo to manage the platform themselves.

While building a custom data platform, we follow our own standardized process to make sure the requirements and functionalities align perfectly with the needs of the customer. It is important to meet the complex demands while not over-engineering, thus preventing unnecessary costs. We implement the solution incrementally to speed-up the first delivery of business value and maintain flexibility when requirements change, as can be found in the process flow below:

Our multidisciplinary team efficiently created business impact through this streamlined process. Initially, our Cloud Solutions Architect conducted research by interviewing stakeholders and reviewing the tech stack to understand the current and desired situations. This led to proposing a new architecture focused on scalability, reliability, and cost-effectiveness.

In the implementation phase, we set up a Stitch SaaS solution for TimescaleDB, utilized an existing S3 data lake, integrated with Snowflake, and established version control, a scalable data model, orchestration and transformations with dbt. We set up Snowflake databases and schemas to facilitate progressive improvement of raw, source-specific data into clean, business-ready tables.

Key deliverables in this process were among others: leveraging dbt for code reduction. Original files that were more than a 100 lines long could be reduced to 5 lines, giving the exact same outcome while improving readability and maintainability. Another deliverable was enabling self-service dasboarding, making Flo Energy’s data accessible for their employees to make informed, data-driven decisions.

The final stage involved iterative platform improvements. We refined the data model, enhanced the data quality, optimized the infrastructure, included cost control and implemented data governance and security. Most importantly, we onboarded the internal employees to enable them to maintain the data platform themselves.

We provided a user-friendly, cost-effective and scalable data platform that enables end-to-end data processing and reporting. Since Flo Energy is a growing company, we created a product that is easily scalable. Not only for their growing current office, but also to easily scale to foreign markets. Through our efficient process and innovative architecture, we delivered a robust, data platform that enhances data-driven decision-making. The successful integration of state-of-the-art tools, coupled with a focus on scalability and cost-effectiveness, resulted in a sustainable solution for our client that they can maintain themselves.