Transcript Weather data pricing rules

European weather data pricing:
Private sector view
Dr. Pirkko Saarikivi, Managing Director
Foreca Consulting Ltd
PSI Pricing thematic meeting
Helsinki, Finland 19th April, 2007
Who needs weather services?
• Beneficial for the whole society: increases security and
well-being, industry needs info for decision-making
• Average cost/benefit factor from 1/5, up to 1/100
• Benefits in Europe at least 10 billion Euros annually
• Most important user groups: all modes of transport,
media (TV, radio, newspapers, Internet, mobile),
agriculture, power industry, construction, retail, sports
• Meteorologists are the few people who actually do
know something valuable about the future
How to do it?
• Long service chain starts
from global 24/7 observing
system
• Analysis and climate
databases
• Global long-range models
run in supercomputer
centres
• Local models and
forecasters for fine-scale
products
• Delivery automatically to
customers (e.g. ftp,
Internet)
Weather observations 24/7
• Most data comes from public observing systems run by
National Meteorological Services (NMSs)
• Dedicated global telecom network GTS
• Coordinated by United Nations / World Meteorological
Organization
• Other data sources e.g. from aviation and road
authorities
• Continuous 24/7 data flow and large climate data
archives
SYNOP surface observations
TEMP radiosonde soundings
Buoy observations to fill the gaps on oceans
Geostationary and polar orbiting satellites
Aircraft observations
Weather radars and lightning detectors
• Many kinds of atmospheric models producing weather parameters,
• 1-100 km resolution, local to global, hourly to seasonal
Weather data pricing rules
• Competition Law must be followed in EU, thus ECOMET E.E.I.G.
created 1990-95 for the pricing and delivery of weather data by
European NMSs www.meteo.oma.be/ECOMET/
• Currently weather data priced on a unit by unit basis for real time
synoptic data, climatological data, models, radar images, lightning
detection and some satellite imagery
• Price varies country to country, and also by type of customer (end user,
broadcaster, service provider excluding or including redistribution
licence)
• Other data sources: In Finland road weather data is fine, business
separated to a company and data is freely available with a permission.
In Sweden not.
Weather data pricing rules cont.
• Small part of global data is free of charge for security reasons,
European data has very high basic price.
• Volume discounts and further discounts for small service providers
available, but only for a part of data (ECMWF model and EUMETSAT
data charged on top using their own pricing rules)
• In addition to data price, delivery or transmission costs and internet
broadcast fees charged
• Thus ECOMET pricing structure overly complicated, inconsistent
between countries, prohibitively expensive and discriminatory
• Some examples of complicated ECOMET prices:
Pricing of surface observations
Country
Austria
Belgium
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
UK
No of Synops
(Chargeable)
Price per
Service
Provider
incl redistrib
6
31
50
52
155
148
66
32
30
12
83
1
41
0
29
0
112
67
113
0
0.210
0.180
0.400
0.320
0.170
0.200
0.400
0.400
0.280
0.320
0.200
0.160
0.180
0.000
0.500
0.000
0.100
0.120
0.200
0.000
Cost of Chargeable Observations
Gross Cost No of Obs
Volume
Volume
per anum
per year
Discount
Price
E
(Obs after D) Adjustment
Ratio
11,038
52,560
48,881
271,560
175,200
438,000
145,766
455,520
230,826 1,357,800
259,296 1,296,480
231,264
578,160
112,128
280,320
73,584
262,800
33,638
105,120
145,416
727,080
1,402
8,760
64,649
359,160
0
0
127,020
254,040
0
0
98,112
981,120
70,430
586,920
197,976
989,880
0
0
2,026,626 9,005,280
3,329,348
Adjusted
Price
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
0.370
4,081
18,072
64,773
53,891
85,339
95,864
85,501
41,455
27,205
12,436
53,762
518
23,901
0
46,961
0
36,273
26,039
73,194
0
0.370
749,265
Pricing of radar observations
Country
Austria - single site
Austria - national composite
Belgium - single site
Belgium - national composite
Denmark - single site
Denmark - national composite
Finland - single site
Finland - national composite
Finland - international composite
France - single site
France - national composite
France - international composite
Germany - single site reflectivity
Germany - single site reflectivity, short range
Germany - national composite 4km
Germany - national composite 2km
Germany - Europe composite 4km
Germany - Europe composite 2km
Greece - N/A
Hungary - single site
Hungary - national composite
Iceland - N/A
Ireland - single site
Ireland - national composite
Ireland - UK/Ireland composite
Italy - N/A
Luxembourg - N/A
Netherlands - national composite
Norway
Portugal - single site
Portugal - national composite
Spain - single site
Spain - national composite
Spain - national composite rainsat
Sweden - single site
Sweden - international composite (Nordrad 1)
Sweden - international composite (Nordrad 2)
Sweden - international composite (Southern Sweden)
Sweden - international composite (Middle Sweden)
Sweden - international composite (Northern Sweden)
Switzerland - single site
Switzerland - national composite
Turkey - N/A
UK - single site
UK - UK/Ireland composite
UK - European composite
No of
Radar
Sites
No of
Price per Gross Cost
Radar
SP
per anum
Images
incl
SP or
per hour Redistrib End User
4
1
2
1
4
1
7
1
1
20
1
1
16
16
1
1
1
1
12
12
12
12
6
6
12
4
2
12
4
4
4
12
4
4
4
4
3
1
4
4
2
1
1
4
4
4
1
1
1
0
14
1
1
12
1
1
1
1
1
3
1
4
4
13
13
1
1
4
4
4
6
2
2
4
2
2
2
2
2
12
12
N/A
N/A
0.900
1.500
1.040
1.200
3.720
9.850
6.250
1.650
3.550
3.550
0.500
0.150
1.000
2.000
3.100
5.250
N/A
2.500
3.750
N/A
2.000
3.000
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
0.000
N/A
N/A
0.480
1.860
1.860
1.400
4.600
4.340
3.600
3.980
3.830
0.120
0.500
N/A
2.330
4.956
4.956
Cost of Radar
National Composite Radar Costs
Sum of Western Europe
Sum of Northern Europe
Sum of Eastern Europe
Total
No of
Radar
Images
per year
Cost of
Single
Site
Radar
105,120
1,061,362
173,658
173,658
420,480
105,120
210,240
105,120
210,240
52,560
735,840
35,040
17,520
2,102,400
35,040
35,040
560,640
1,681,920
35,040
35,040
35,040
35,040
0
105,120
35,040
0
70,080
35,040
35,040
0
0
35,040
35,040
113,880
0
735,840
17,520
17,520
420,480
17,520
17,520
17,520
17,520
17,520
315,360
105,120
0
455,520
35,040
35,040
11,970,785
9,136,680
105,120
52,560
189,216
157,680
218,650
63,072
2,737,325
345,144
109,500
3,468,960
124,392
124,392
280,320
252,288
35,040
70,080
108,624
183,960
262,800
131,400
140,160
105,120
144,715
73,584
0
337,085
0
353,203
32,587
32,587
588,672
80,592
76,037
63,072
69,730
67,102
37,843
52,560
713,064
£
789,661
408,216
183,960
1,381,837
Gross Cost
per anum
SP incl
Redistrib
Ratio
57%
30%
13%
100%
Cost of
Composite
National
Radar
Cost of Zone
Composite
Int'l
Radar
52,560
189,216
157,680
218,650
63,072
2,737,325
345,144
3,468,960
124,392
124,392
280,320
70,080
183,960
262,800
131,400
140,160
105,120
144,715
73,584
337,085
353,203
32,587
588,672
80,592
37,843
52,560
1,061,362
173,658
173,658
9,780,715
1,381,837
EE
EE
WE
WE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
WE
WE
WE
WE
WE
WE
WE
WE
WE
EE
EE
EE
NE
WE
WE
WE
WE
WE
WE
NE
WE
WE
WE
WE
WE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
WE
WE
EE
WE
WE
WE
707,317
= Gross cost 11 Me per annum
Pricing of climate data
•
Archived climate data is priced by each weather
parameter (in Finland 0,16 € for service provider)
•
Accumulated data volumes very large, millions of
parameters per year
•
Thus total price of European climate data is enormous
(several hundreds of Euros, impossible to calculate)
•
Some NMSs very reluctant to sell climate data (or any
other data)
•
Climate change has had no effect to these restrictive
policies
Global weather markets
700
600
500
400
Now
Me
300
Potential
200
100
0
Finland
EU
Japan
USA
Weather business in Finland, EU, Japan and USA. Light blue: total annual
business in late 90’s, Red: five year potential relative to market size
Global weather markets
• European private weather business small and
weak. 40-50 SMEs with small turnover (<1 Me),
only very few are >1Me
• At least 300 Me business missing, society losing
some 3000 Me in direct and indirect benefits and
about 2000 new jobs not created
• Governments are losing annually at least 150 Me
in returning taxes
• Meanwhile only 0,5-1 Me returned to Ecomet
from data sales
Key problems in today’s Europe
• EU weather market weak, non-competitive,
restricted data policy vs. US and Japan open policy
and strong market
• Data prices very high, not reasonable for business.
Only fraction of data is affordable to companies
• Heavy barriers for entry to the market
• Public subsidies and predatory pricing still common
• Public and business activities mixed inside
governmental institutes, no separation, no
transparency in accounting
Key problems in today’s Europe
• Some business areas still governmental monopoly (e.g.
aviation)
• NMSs sharing regionally the market, very little real
competition
• No real competition on data sales either, private
company has only one real alternative (national)
• New data directives (environmental, PSI, Inspire) have
had no effect. Heavy lobbying to water them down
• Result: innovation potential and creation of new
services will be in trouble in the EU
Key solutions for tomorrow’s Europe
• Most important: all weather business must be
separated, legally and physically from institutes to
real business companies
• Weather information gradually openly and
unrestrictedly available as in the USA
• Before that we need more reasonable pricing
rules
• Delivery efficient, on-line. We need a centralized
organization and public data server for
environmental data as in the USA
Key solutions for tomorrow’s Europe
• New carrot to NMSs: success measured by the
increased weather business sector, quality of
providing and quantity of use of basic weather
information
• Secured financing from the state for public needs
• Private companies join decision making and quality
control
• New data policy rules must come top-down from the
governments and ministries to avoid personal
conflicts of interest
PRIMET for private weather data policy
PRIMET Association (formerly AEDUE) of 32
weather and environmental companies acting for
open environmental data policy in Europe
www.primet.org
General secretary since 1.4.2007: Richard Pettifer
[email protected]
Forecast for EU weather services?
• Some positive development is going on, especially
in the Netherlands, the UK, Norway and Spain
• Some negative development recently on internet
and broadcasting rules
• Inertia in the governmental organisations very
strong
• EU global competitiveness getting even worse if
politicians do not take action
• Long-term forecast thus: we need a good data
policy storm first to get the sun eventually shining
Contact for more information
Foreca Consulting Ltd
Helsinki, Finland
www.foreca.com
tel +358 9 6689 6466, fax +358 9 6689 6411
[email protected]