Grid modernisation and data security are of focal points as Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolutionises infrastructure performance and business insights.

The Executive Order from the White House on the “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence” signifies a crucial step towards establishing trust and security guidelines for rapidly advancing AI technologies.

This initiative is particularly vital for the digital energy sector, where AI plays a central role in critical infrastructure projects such as Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) and Energy as a Service (EaaS).

Looking ahead, the future priorities for AI in this industry revolve around ensuring productivity, authenticity and security.

AI’s role in digital energy productivity

Beyond content generation, AI serves as the driving force behind automating decision-making processes in the digital energy sector, notably in projects like Virtual Power Plants and Energy as a Service.

VPPs leverage AI to optimise energy generation and distribution, ensuring a balanced supply and demand. EaaS, powered by AI, provides consumers with flexible, adaptive energy services. These innovations have the potential to transform energy production and consumption, making it more sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective.

Ensuring data provenance and authenticity

Critical to AI’s success in the digital energy industry is the assurance of data provenance, authenticity and transparency.

The Executive Order aligns with the establishment of a universal data, IoT and AI trusted interoperability standard. This framework sets clear provisions for governing and tracking content and decisions made by dispersed AI platforms.

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Key aspects include:

• Training AI Algorithms: AI algorithms rely on authentic and unbiased data for training, directly impacting their effectiveness in optimising energy processes. A layered trust stack ensures the security of data provenance and device authenticity.

• AI-Driven Decision-Making: Authentic, authoritative, and policy-compliant data is essential for AI-driven decision-making in critical infrastructure projects. An interoperable standard must be future-proofed to handle evolving cyber threats, including quantum computing.

• Verification and Authentication: The order emphasizes verifying AI compliance with policy criteria, requiring authentication of verifier credentials. A universal secure interoperability standard necessitates a stack of verification algorithms adaptable to diverse layers.

Transparency in AI-generated content

In the digital energy sector, AI-generated content influences people’s actions, demanding transparency to build trust and ensure responsible AI use. Transparency provisions are effective when assuring entity authenticity and authorisation across diverse technologies and statuses.

An authoritative and authenticated web is being designed to address:

• Provenance of Data and Content: Tracing and recording the origins of data and content are crucial for reliability in energy information. In a VPP, a well-managed software platform is essential for administering all aspects, from monetisation to compliance reporting.

• Credential Authentication: Verifying data providers’ credentials and sensor properties ensures the legitimacy and trustworthiness of data sources, crucial in systems like Energy as a Service.

• Interoperability for Assurances: Interoperability is crucial for applying assurances effectively in distributed systems. TEIA, the Trusted Energy Interoperability Alliance, founded by Intertrust, answers the call for AI regulation, integrating security and interoperability within a flexible standard.

Policy and data in trustworthy AI operation

The executive order stresses the need for using both policy and data to manage trustworthy AI operations. With AI influencing decision-making in various automated systems, recognising its roles is crucial.

Trust management and adaptable policy frameworks are necessary for:

• Reasoning About AI: Transparency, trust management and agile policy frameworks are vital for reasoning about the provenance and authenticity of AI inputs and outputs.

• Security Infrastructure: An efficient security infrastructure must ascertain data and AI provenance, providing tools for authentication by both people and automated applications.

• Real-Time Responsiveness: Security infrastructure and policy frameworks must be self-adaptable to meet the real-time requirements of decision-making in the digital energy industry.

• Resilience to Attack: Interoperable security measures across IoT and data processing fabrics ensure resilience against malicious attempts, safeguarding energy infrastructure.

• Integration with the Web: Seamless integration ensures broader, comprehensive security, crucial in the digital energy sector where VPPs and EaaS rely entirely on digital platforms.

The Executive Order on AI development and use is a significant milestone for the digital energy industry, emphasizing the importance of AI in optimising energy processes.

Intertrust’s TEIA aligns with the order, ensuring AI-driven decisions comply with accurate data and policy criteria. Industry stakeholders should actively engage with the proposed mechanisms and TEIA solutions, contributing to a secure and dynamically adaptable digital energy future. This collaborative approach will foster efficiency, reliability, and sustainability in the evolving landscape of AI in the energy sector.

About the Author

Hebberly Ahatlan is product marketing director, energy at Intertrust Technologies and has 15 years of experience in the tech industry developing go to market strategies.

The large-scale digitalisation of the energy system, key for the delivery of a fit-for-purpose grid for net zero, is bringing with it new demands for cybersecurity, which must cover the whole value chain, from production and transmission to distribution and the consumer, including all the digital interfaces along this path.

As the number of connected resources grows – and they are rapidly with the fast-increasing uptake of distributed energy resources – so too do the number of interfaces and the number of involved parties. And with that the challenges to achieve a cyber secure system.

The EU’s new network code on cybersecurity, one of the 25 key deliverables of the energy system digitalisation action plan, is focussed primarily on the cross-border electricity flows that form a central component of the single market and was widely consulted in development.

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In its 60+ pages, it covers a breadth of topics, prefaced with a ‘General’ section covering such issues as the need for national competent authorities to carry out the tasks assigned in the regulation, cooperation between parties at national level, the important cooperation between ENTSO.E and the DSO Entity, which is at the heart of its implementation, and cooperation with ACER.

A key foundation for the network code is the establishment of a recurrent – every three years – process of cybersecurity risk assessments in the electricity sector at national and regional levels, aimed at systematically identifying the entities that perform digitalised processes with a critical or high impact in cross-border electricity flows and their cybersecurity risks, and then the necessary mitigating measures that are needed.

For that, the network code establishes a governance model that is aligned with existing mechanisms in EU legislation, such as the revised Network and Information Security Directive, with ENTSO.E and the DSO Entity required to propose the risk assessment methodologies.

‘High impact’ and ‘critical impact’

This notion of ‘high impact’ and ‘critical impact’ is fundamental and depends on the degree of impact of possible cyber attacks in an entity’s processes or operations, with those entities primarily those that have a direct impact on cross-border flows of electricity in the EU.

A second key component is the establishment of a common electricity cybersecurity framework with minimum and advanced controls respectively for ‘high impact’ and ‘critical impact’ entities.

Cybersecurity procurement and the broader supply chain are another key area, with recent cyber-attacks show that entities are increasingly becoming the target of supply chain attacks.

The TSOs are required to develop non-binding procurement recommendation for ICT products, services and processes – again differentiating whether the entity is deemed of high or critical impact.

Information flows and crisis management in the wake of a cyber attack also are crucial and the network code establishes rules around reporting and information sharing.

Finally, the regulation sets out rules for the undertaking every three years by critical impact entities – and on their request also critical service providers – of a cybersecurity exercise including one or more scenarios with cyber attacks affecting cross-border electricity flows directly or indirectly and related to the risks identified during the cybersecurity risk assessments.

The template for this is to be developed by ENTSO.E and the DSO Entity, with the involvement of ACER and ENISA.

Under the EU rules of procedure, the delegated act is subject to scrutiny by the EU co-legislators, i.e. the European Parliament and Council, each for 2 months with a possible 2-month extension.

Jonathan Spencer Jones

Specialist writer
Smart Energy International

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Whenever I think back to 2023, one major sentiment that comes to mind is the urgent need for investment in Europe’s power grid system.

Interconnected renewables are coming online at a pace that the current grid infrastructure wasn’t built to withstand. And although the ramifications of this have started to show, investments seem to be able to bring relief.

Over the last week, this notion has been reinforced as some of Europe’s top utilities have released their financial results for the 2023 fiscal year.

The key takeaway, you ask?

Europe is finally investing heavily into its grid infrastructure with “record levels of investment” a phrase placed on repeat. The adage is sometimes followed either optimistically with “record investment plans” or more somberly with “it’s not enough.”

So, what does this tell us about the investment landscape within which grid business stands?

‘Plans’ are translating into action

Over the last week, utilities have released their financial results and laid out their investment plans for the coming years.

Germany’s 50Hertz is looking to invest €20.7 billion ($22.6 billion) in overhead power lines, on- and offshore cables, substations and other technologies, a three-quarter leapfrog compared to €4.8 billion ($5.2 billion) from the past half-decade.

E.ON is planning a €9 billion ($9.8 billion) increase to its 2024 to 2028 investment plan from €33 billion ($36 billion) to €42 billion ($46 billion), focusing on energy networks and energy infrastructure solutions.

And TenneT, which operates both in Germany and the Netherlands, is expecting to grow its investments to at least €10 billion annually.

Although very much welcomed, one tends to look towards ‘plans’ with a drizzle of scepticism. But what has been surprising is that these utilities and others are simultaneously announcing record investments in their 2023 results.

In Germany, E.ON invested €5.2 billion ($5.7 billion) in network expansion, modernisation, and digitalisation and 50Hertz invested €1.7 billion ($1.9 billion) in grid infrastructure.

TenneT invested €7.7 billion ($8.4 billion) between Germany and the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands, utilities Alliander, Stedin and Enexis each stated record levels of €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion), €1.214 billion ($1.327 billion) and €832 million ($909 million) respectively.

Penning an action plan and moving from paper to implementation are two very different challenges. It is encouraging to see this transition being made.

However, these statistics then beget a follow-up question:

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Is it enough?

In the Netherlands, it is not.

Alliander states that despite their record investments and upward plan, bottlenecks will be recurring on the power grid for at least the next decade. Even though this has been a repeated news item in recent years, it still warrants worry.

A case study to illustrate this is that of Dutch-owned TenneT, which has been mulling sale of its German operations to Germany’s Federal government for months now.

According to Handelsblatt reportage, the Federal Ministry of Economics is very interested in the German TenneT subsidiary, as the company is responsible for important north-south electricity highways.

The Netherlands, on the other hand, want to sell because they are afraid of the billions of euros in investments that will be needed over the coming decade to make the power grid fit for purpose.

Additionally, although TenneT reported healthy financial results for 2023, underlying revenues decreased for the utility by €600 million ($655 million), driven by a decline in ancillary service costs.

Said costs originate in lower market prices for costs incurred by TenneT to compensate for grid losses, maintain energy balance in the grid and pay for alternative electricity routes in case of congested or unavailable grid sections, as is the frequent case in the Netherlands.

Grid congestion and outstanding customer connection requests in the Netherlands, states TenneT, are being addressed through the National Grid Congestion Action Plan (LAN) and “unorthodox measures”, such as flexibility mechanisms, with which TenneT operates the grid at its limits.

Grid congestion has been hampering the utility not only in the Netherlands but also in Germany, where numerous bottlenecks in the grid on land cause large wind farms in the North Sea to be curtailed and redispatch limits the generation of offshore wind power.

This not only affects the amount of electricity fed into the grid, but also impacts its price development.

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What more do we need?

In its Electricity Grids and Secure Energy Transitions report, the IEA states that globally we need to add or replace 80 million kilometres of power grids. Global investments in grids, which has otherwise remained stagnant, now needs upwards of $600 million annually a year by 2030.

Additionally, citing data from 2021, the report finds that grid-related outages impacted the German economy by up to $3.6 billion, highlighting the role of the grid in minimising economic loss.

Illustrated by the cases of the Netherlands and Germany, Europe is clearly seeing its fair share of hurdles to be overcome, but positive signs can still be found if you know where to look.

Take for example the EU Grid Action Plan, which will improve access to finance for grid projects. The action plan is also expected to identify tailored financing models and increase visibility on opportunities for EU funding programmes for smart grids and distribution modernisation.

Although much more, both in terms of euros and cabled kilometres, is needed to reach a grid fit purpose, we can still be hopeful as plans are pushed into action.

How much are you investing into the grid now and do you think it will be enough to enable the energy transition? Let me know.

Cheers,
Yusuf Latief
Content Producer
Smart Energy International

Follow me on LinkedIn

Opening the discussion, organised by the Future Energy Leaders of the World Energy Council (WEC) in the Netherlands, Rene Peters, Business Director Gas Technology at Dutch technology organisation TNO and Board Member of WEC Netherlands, pointed to the importance of the North Sea and the Netherlands’ role within it for the energy transition as it expects to grow its offshore wind to around 20GW in the next few years from less than 5GW currently.

“That’s the electricity part and it’s relatively simple as there is already an electricity market,” he said.

“But now hydrogen is coming and that’s different as there is no hydrogen infrastructure or market yet and we need to build a full value chain,” he continued, noting that it is also an area where the Netherlands can be a frontrunner with an existing gas infrastructure than can be retrofitted for hydrogen use – up to 85% it is believed.

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“We’ve started doing that, actually taking the lead and I think we are one of the few countries in the world with a gas infrastructure becoming available for new functions like hydrogen,” he commented, saying that while that refers to the onshore infrastructure, the offshore infrastructure could similarly be available for hydrogen transport.

“It’s a huge investment we need to make and we also will need the new technology for offshore production of hydrogen.”

The Netherlands’ advantage

Maria van der Hoeven, Special advisor on energy literacy at the WEC and a former executive director of the IEA, reiterated that the Netherlands with its gas infrastructure has an advantage compared to other countries.

But three areas need to be addressed, she said – the planning around the transitioning of the existing pipelines with the need to continue to supply gas, the need to move away from the ‘colouring’ issues of hydrogen with a certification based on origin and the development of the marketplace.

“Why not see to it that there is a marketplace in the Netherlands? The demand is going to change as there are companies that want to have hydrogen to decarbonise their operations. If one is starting on the supply side one also needs to start at the same time to build enthusiasm for the demand side.”

An example cited of such an uptaker is Thyssenkrupp in Germany, which is being incentivised to ‘green’ its steel production if its stated target is met and its loss if not.

Skills and labour

Another challenge alongside the need for investment is that for skills and in particular attracting young people into the sector, with currently only about 1 in 10 of the Dutch workforce believed to be working in the ‘green sector’.

Aniek Moonen, co-chair of the Board of Trustees of the NGO ‘Women Engage for a Common Future’, said she was excited by the prospect of being able to attract more young to the sector as she had observed many examples of young people going into businesses and asking critical questions about sustainability.

“We have seen cases of young people going into businesses that have used sustainability to promote themselves but leaving shortly afterwards because they don’t actually live up to those statements. I think this is a driver for change and companies can say they are being sustainable but they need to ask if they are actually doing it.”

On the wider issue of general labour shortages, she said that while attracting talent from outside and encouraging more people to work full-time might help at best to a limited extent, more important is to consider the demand side of labour.

“It’s about what sectors we want to have in the future and then to boost jobs in those sectors. There may be certain sectors that need to be rethought that are performing inefficiently and need subsidies.”

The concept is controversial but it’s a discussion that is needed, she stressed, pointing to the “creative destruction” of industries as something of all times.

“It always happens and sometimes we just have to let that frame of destruction happen.”

Originally published on enlit.world

As I was thinking about the content of this week’s tech talk, an article appeared in the popular press about a proposed plan to sheath the edge of the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica with a 100km long curtain to protect it from melting and potentially raising sea levels up to a suggested three metres.

The argument is that while a slow melt occurs as the warmer undersea current comes into contact with the edge of the glacier, as the climate warms so the undersea currents get warmer and the melting accelerates.

Moreover with that warming also the winter refreezing results in less ice recovery.

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Such geoengineering, or ‘engineering’ of the climate, is increasingly being talked about as scientists look for ways to slow or halt global warming.

Indeed, it is already being practised in the form of carbon capture from the atmosphere.

John Moore, professor of climate change at the University of Lapland’s Arctic Centre in Finland, is said to be on a mission to save the Thwaites glacier and quoted as expressing confidence the Antarctic Treaty countries will foot the $50 billion bill.

Cool Earth

So too is Yoram Rosen, director of the Asher Space Research Institute at the Technion Israel, who also has been in the news recently with a different type of geoengineering mission – in this case by placing a large shield out in space between the Sun and Earth to reduce the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth.

The Institute, which claims to be developing a demonstrator in collaboration with the National Centre for Space and Science in the United Arab Emirates and the Israeli geospatial company ImageSat International, believes that a large-scale initiative has the potential to contribute significantly to the reduction of global warming by up to 1.5^oC.

The ‘Cool Earth’ proposal is to place the satellite at the first Lagrange point – a distance of about 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth towards the Sun where the gravitational forces of the two bodies cancel each other allowing a satellite there to remain in essentially a fixed position.

In practice, the satellite would exhibit a slight back-and-forth motion by controlling the shading sail, which also could be used to alter the amount of solar shading according to global climate needs.

“This ground-breaking project offers an original way to cope with the global climate crisis and perhaps even stop its destructive effects,” asserts the Institute’s website.

“Controlling the amount of energy that reaches the earth from the sun may even allow humanity in the future to directly control the desired climate over areas of interest on the earth and possibly prevent droughts and other climate-related natural disasters.”

The Asher researchers have estimated that to achieve the desired temperature reduction, the shade would need to be around 2.5 million km2 in extent – for perspective, in size between the areas of Saudi Arabia and Argentina.

The researchers haven’t stated when they expect the demonstrator to be ready to fly but there are numerous hurdles to be overcome before a large-scale initiative such as this – or any other large-scale geoengineering proposal – could be put into practice, not least the moral with the potential unknown side effect that could occur.

In a recent paper, modelling solar geoengineering – such as the Asher Institute proposal – and carbon dioxide removal, Moore of the Thwaites glacier proposal and the co-authors suggest that combined with the standard mitigation measures they could help to limit global warming.

However, they conclude more cautiously: “Scientific uncertainties surrounding the effectiveness, scalability, and long-term impacts of solar geoengineering and carbon dioxide removal techniques necessitate comprehensive research, rigorous modelling and robust international collaboration to mitigate the risks inherent in unintended consequences and to inform responsible decision-making.”

What are your views on solar geoengineering and should it pursued?

Jonathan Spencer Jones

Specialist writer
Smart Energy International

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If there’s one place where generative AI has the ability to make a tremendous impact, it’s the energy sector. AI could help streamline energy production and distribution, increasing efficiency and cutting carbon emissions from the vital processes that enable us to keep warm, travel and live our modern lives.

While businesses all over the world are investing in generative AI and the talent needed to implement it, the energy sector is facing its own talent issues when it comes to generative AI.

For example, data shows that 40% of businesses in the energy sector find it difficult to hire data scientists with the skills they need. Without the right combination of talent and data necessary to accurately and quickly utilise foundational models, many energy companies will not be able to leverage generative AI fully. They will therefore be at a disadvantage compared to competitors for the future of energy — one that entails a global transition that will likely occur at an increasingly rapid pace. 

So what do you do when there’s a talent shortage but your business needs to add more skills? You train the talent you already have. In 2024 and beyond, as energy demands grow on a global scale, the energy sector will find combining generative AI with proper upskilling to be extremely valuable.

Generative AI’s effect on enterprise talent

For many organisations, a successful approach to upskilling will begin with an understanding of how generative AI can affect almost any position within an organisation.

Some employees will see generative AI agents augment their current position and give them access to more relevant data. Other staff members may collaborate side-by-side with generative AI agents that sit either upstream or downstream of a human in a business workflow. Then there’s the software engineers, or those who will be charged with creating or fine-tuning generative AI agents.

Ultimately, each company will have to assess which new roles will be required (i.e. prompt engineers) and which ones will change materially (i.e., software developer). They’ll have to train each employee on how to use the technology — even if that training is at a basic level.

Generative AI and the energy sector

There are already growing use cases where generative AI is making an impact in energy and, as energy consumption increases, those use cases will expand.

For example, generative AI is currently playing a key role in safety procedures at various energy companies around the world. Historically, before any operator at an energy company begins a job, they’d receive a standard, but often generic, safety briefing. Traditionally, the safety analysis has been completed manually, which can leave out a more comprehensive view of all the necessary safety measures.

With a generative AI agent trained on the right safety data, operators will have access to insights on near misses, extensive safety records, weather conditions, etc. Operators can receive briefings that are specific to their role, job site and team.

Generative AI is also accelerating the rate at which energy employees can access data. With a generative-AI powered enterprise search, enterprises now allow their employees to find pertinent data as soon as they start a job. Through retrieval augmented generation, the generative-AI agent will learn which data is most relevant to the right staff members as they search. This will allow employees to access the right data such as log data, geographical data, information on local culture and much more.

For the energy sector to reap these benefits they’ll need to apply sound, repeatable upskilling practices at the right scale and to the right employees.

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Upskilling talent — Who? How? Why?

Like other industries, the energy sector is competing for talent that can match their plans for generative AI implementation. This is why external hiring of data scientists isn’t occurring at the rate energy executives would like to see. Also, the energy sector requires a specific set of expertise, which further commodifies generative AI-related roles at energy companies such as data scientists, prompt engineers and software developers.

Since finding data scientists and other roles with the right expertise hasn’t been easy, certain energy companies are instead looking to the experts already within their ranks. This translates to upskilling initiatives for as much talent as possible in generative AI, which helps close the gap in external hiring. Some of the upskilling will be for roles such as data scientists, enterprise architects and data engineers.

There are already examples of energy companies taking intentional approaches to upskilling. For example, as Duke Energy continues its cloud journey, it has built a framework that allows many of its employees to access relevant training content and engage in learning that aligns with Duke Energy’s cloud computing and clean energy goals.

Other avenues are available to energy companies who want to upskill their talent on generative AI. Some companies may choose to turn to cloud and foundation model providers to support internal employee training through formal class or online learning. This is another reason why it’s important to develop relationships with the partners who are developing the generative AI technology that companies are trying to use.

Other upskilling approaches include providing free sources of consumable training content through sites such as deeplearning.ai. Further, there are some enterprises that are creating opportunities for experiential learning through proof of concepts, hackathons and workshops. These experiential opportunities in particular are great ways to train talent on scenarios that extend past technical skills.

One energy company AWS worked with recently leaned into an experimental upskilling initiative to better leverage radio communication transcripts. The radio communications team and edge team worked together to develop a generative AI agent that combines radio communication transcripts with asset IoT data to produce daily job status reports. The radio communications and edge teams did not typically work together. However, joining forces to create the prototype helped them develop the required relationships to take generative AI to the next level.

Breaking silos and bringing different departments together — like the example above — is a major reason to invest in the right generative AI training. However, getting buy-in from boards of directors and participating in responsible AI practices are also good reasons to practice upskilling.

Upskilling promotes responsible AI

Despite some of the benefits generative AI brings, there are still many leaders, particularly in the energy sector, that have concerns about the introduction of generative AI into their companies. For example, many energy/utility companies have access to customer information and confidential internal data that can be introduced to foundational models. Board members and c-suite leaders want to be sure this information remains secure. From a financial standpoint, today’s enterprise leaders want to make sure investing in generative AI issues an adequate return on investment.

In each scenario, training all members of an organisation on responsible AI practices should be a part of any upskilling approach. This includes understanding responsible AI tenets such as fairness, explainability, robustness, privacy and security, governance, and transparency. With proper responsible AI training, enterprises can safely power innovation, mitigate stakeholder concerns and see continued ROI.

Keeping pace with innovation

The current hiring landscape suggests that energy companies won’t be able to hire generative AI talent at the expected (and necessary) pace of innovation.

This talent and recruitment landscape likely points to a world where energy companies will not only have to begin investment in upskilling their own talent, but possibly double and triple down on investment initiatives.

With energy consumption on the rise, organisations will have to place greater focus on empowering the talent they already have to train generative AI models, analyse subsequent data and leverage that data to create the solutions necessary for the future.

About the Author
Joseph Santamaria is director of WW Energy and Utilities Solution Architecture at AWS.

In his role, he works with the largest utilities, oil and gas and energy producers in the world to utilise the cloud to solve the most complex problems in the energy transition and operations.

With opinions ranging from AI to electrification and renewables, as well as plays made by non-traditional entrants, this edition of Smart Energy’s Power Playbook lays down how experts analyse the evolving energy market.

Digital adaptation

According to Brad Johnson, director of solution management for tech company Bentley, a key talking point has been blending in automation, from AI – the core focus during the DISTRIBUTECH conference – to machine learning and augmented reality.

“One of the trends we’ve noticed professionals talking about is how to blend all these technologies into utility practices in a way that’s approachable for professionals.”

To do so, he adds, human assistance will be crucial as a “first step into automation. Rather than just pushing the button and trusting the output will match, it means keeping close supervision on the technology.

“AI and ML technologies will offer that ability to peer into the process, provide supervision and remove barriers to adoption.”

Hitachi Energy’s Steven Kunsman and Tanya Wright also highlighted this push into the digital environment.

Wright, a vice president of marketing and communications, comments on Hitachi’s moves to “transform itself as a global conglomerate and become more digital, because they see that the world is transforming and changing and moving toward digitalisation across all industries, including energy.”

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Referencing combined capabilities from Hitachi Energy, Hitachi Ventara (an IT services management company) and GlobalLogic (a digital engineering company acquired by Hitachi in 2021), the two reps comment that digital transformation has been a key thought in the mind of companies looking to grow.

Says Kunsman, head of global product management: “There’s competition and companies are looking to answer the question of (how to) position themselves…Utilities will be going through a huge transformation with their operational technology, including substations, where digitalisation and connectivity will lead this change.

“Increasing levels of renewables penetration and distributed energy resource (DER) plants are connecting to grids that traditionally were not designed for DER interconnection.

“For these changes, companies need to review their portfolio and solutions offering to identify gaps and develop strategies to either fill those gaps through various acquisitions or develop those capabilities within the organisation.”

Kunsman adds: “The biggest trend right now is the transition to clean energy and deployment of EV infrastructure. And from that perspective, every utility will have a role in this major transformation to be able to support this type of change in the marketplace.”

Electrification and the EV era

Kunsman’s commentary on digitalisation and EV interest came as no surprise. Utilities have increasingly recognised the increasing urgency of consumption management on the power grid as a high priority.

However, says Garret Fitzgerald of the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA), although its importance is clear, this clarity is a recent phenomenon.

Fitzgerald, a senior director of research and industry strategy for transport and electrification, says that its importance only came onto the table over the last four to five years:

“I’ve been in this market for about 15 years and 10 years ago I started talking to utilities and advising them on the upcoming load growth from EVs and the subsequent planning that will be needed. But for five of those 10 years, most utilities said ‘It’s not a big deal. If they come, we’ll manage it.’”

Citing European policymaking and mandates for vehicle electrification, Fitzgerald says that signals are now being sent to OEMs to “invest billions and billions of dollars in battery manufacturing and EV lines.

“With all of that coming together at a global scale, utilities are recognising that the EV wave is here.

“When you see some of the sales figures for EVs – 25% in California and 10%, across the US – we see that it’s real.

“The biggest trend I’ve seen is that transition from three or four years ago of utilities being unsure of the EV transition to now acknowledging the need for load planning from their uptake and what this means for the distribution system and what it will require of regulators.”

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Renewable integration and non-traditional players

Of course, it is not only EVs that represent a significant load management challenge.

According to S&P Global analysis, clean energy technology investments in 2024 will rise by 10%-20% compared with 2023, with renewables continuing to take the lion’s share. This uptake was repeatedly cited as a key market focus.

“There is a much greater interest in integration of renewables than in the past and it’s growing all the time,” commented Phil Beecher, president and CEO of Wi-SUN Alliance, a California-based consortium of global corporations in the smart utility, smart city and IoT markets.

“Storage and EV charging continue to be areas of interest … However, we’re seeing huge growth in renewable activity in emerging countries, such as India and Latin America, where it seems to be taken very seriously.”

Echoing Beecher’s sentiments was Bryan Sacks, global CTO and solution leader for energy, environment and utilities at IBM, a tech company focusing on hybrid cloud and AI solutions.

“What I’m finding really interesting is non-traditional entrants into the energy market – for example, traditional oil and gas players – who are starting to invest heavily into technologies, such as batteries, EV charging stations and renewable generation.

“For example, we’ve started to see companies like Walmart, which has massive roof space for solar, looking at deploying this type of technology.”

According to Sacks, it is also worth watching how the energy market will evolve to take advantage of these new entrants.

“What impact is that going to have on the traditional energy regulated components of the marketplace that don’t necessarily have the same flexibility?

“The evolving interplay between the regulated market and other growth markets, as well as how utilities invest in non-regulated areas to take advantage of those spaces, will become fascinating to watch.”

Were you at DISTRIBUTECH International? What were your key takeaways and what are some of the most interesting trends you’ve seen emerging?

Let me know.

Cheers,
Yusuf Latief
Content Producer
Smart Energy International

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Both engineers became interested in electronics around the age of 14. When Magda’s brother, four years her senior, took up mechanical engineering, she thought it would be a good career option for her too, especially as it would allow her to use mathematics.

Meanwhile, a 14-year-old Manjula started playing with free coding language programmes and quickly became hooked. Her curiosity led her to develop a love of coding and to become the first person in her family to attend university.  

Magda switched from being a teaching assistant to her first engineering job. Meanwhile, Manjula was recruited at university. Interestingly, most of her peers went into IT roles and earned more in their early years than Manjula. Bravely, she decided to tread the lesser-known and, at the time, lesser-paid path of electronic engineering due to her childhood passion, which is now in demand and equally well paid.

Women make up 16.5% of all engineers, compared to 10.5% reported in 2010, so there is still some ground to make up. Both engineers stressed the importance of introducing engineering early on. Magda stated that “science and maths are important at an early age as well as showing girls successful female engineers to encourage them to consider engineering as a career.”

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Manjula has already been introducing her daughter to engineering toys to spark her imagination. She continues, “We need to break the stereotype that boys and girls play with different toys now. My 9-year-old daughter loves the coding game and circuit board that I’ve given her.”

When it comes to career role models, Manjula cites a senior manager during her time at GE. She recalls how she was “the only woman at leadership level in her company who had her career and children” and inspired Manjula to believe that she could have it all too.

Magda hasn’t encountered a senior female in an electronics engineer role but hopes that future generations will turn the tide. However, she also found role models in Professors Alison Noble and Eleanor Stride, whom she encountered during her time doing her PhD at Oxford University. Magda admires their success in academia and the startups that they’ve since launched.

While an interest in engineering is one part of encouraging more women into engineering, Magda and Manjula cited that there were particular skills and attributes needed to succeed. Magda stated that being confident in one’s ability and attention to detail were valued. “It’s crucial to double-check everything and understand how every decision you make as an engineer may impact the overall product. For example, you may put in a component that consumes too much power and sucks the device battery. With engineering, the devil is in the details.” Thirdly, she speaks of getting on top of technical advances. 

Manjula agrees. The tech industry is so fast-paced that programmes become obsolete straightaway. “Software that I worked with last year will not exist in a couple of years. It changes rapidly and so upskill, upskill, upskill is my advice. There are so many available sources for upskilling such as Udemy and YouTube – you don’t even need to register at a formal institution anymore.” 

Looking back at their time in the industry, and if they would do things differently, Magda speaks of her PhD stating that when she returned to hardware engineering, she had to take on a junior position but does not regret her experience gained in the biomedical world. Manjula had to take a career break due to a move to Paris.

She was very aware that it would be difficult to re-enter the professional world if her break took too long, and so after a year, she put her efforts into securing a job in France while juggling the demands of her family. As it transpired, it would be another seven years and a move to the UK, a returner-friendly job market, that led to her landing her present job with Versinetic. “Had I known I would land a great job again in seven years, I would have not felt so much guilt and concern about my prospects and enjoyed Paris more.”

Manjula says that there is still a stereotype in India where in a previous role, managers were reticent to give women important projects or hire them into demanding roles as they felt their focus may be on their families currently or in the future rather than their work. Positively, Magda has not encountered these obstacles or stereotypes at work because of her gender. 

Manjula believes that while these perceptions still exist, they are shifting and improving now. “At one point, women had to choose career or family,” she says. Covid has helped with career flexibility that women, often still the main caregivers in a family, need. “They can now consult, and work more flexible hours in engineering than previously,” she continues. 

From her own experience in the UK Manjula now sees a place where females that take career breaks and return to work are now accepted and welcomed back. To this end, she is always very upfront about her seven-year CV gap, wanting to demonstrate to her peers that taking a break is nothing to be ashamed of. She advises anyone in the same position re-entering work to “never give up, keep forging ahead – get a mentor and upskill if you need to; but above all, believe in yourself.”

For young women considering a career in software engineering, Manjula says “It’s a deeply demanding job and it keeps you on your toes. Every day is different, one day nothing makes sense and the next day, it all falls into place. If you are prepared for the challenges, then go for it!” 

Magda advises “not pigeonholing yourself and having the mindset of always learning new things. This way you can pivot and change as your career prospects and circumstances change. As an electronics engineer, I can work with C and Python language test scripts. I know enough to use them to do it myself and not have to ask someone else to do it. This has diversified my daily work.”

Manjula says, “I love that the impossible is at my fingertips, I can create anything with engineering. We can imagine and programme everything to do what we want. It’s extraordinary how a simple microprocessor can do so many things – the possibilities fascinate me and keep me going.”

Magda concludes that “engineering is the profession that builds daily life, from food appliances,  communications and complex medical devices like pacemakers that help people to live. Every device relies on engineering – I’m excited to be a part of that.”

Originally published on powerengineeringint.com

Though the ‘edge’ has been talked about for years, it is increasingly taking central stage as more and more homes and businesses take up solar and battery systems, switch to electric vehicles ((EVs) and heat pumps and instal the smart appliances that are advertised as bringing more convenience to life.

In broad terms the edge is where the utility and customer meet and is effectively represented by the meter – the utility side in front of the meter and the customer side behind the meter.

With this growth of decentralised resources and the increasingly complex and unpredictable power flows, some of the risks include the likely emergence of hyper-local capacity constraints and that ageing infrastructure can be put at risk.

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But there has been what Itron has termed a ‘control gap’, with the challenge that whereas a typical SCADA manages approximately 1,000 assets per million customers and a typical advanced distribution management systems 10,000 assets, that to the point of service is a further two orders of magnitude greater at around 1 million points.

But that is changing, with the evolution of IT and other technologies opening the way for a variety of new products and services to provide visibility and control to address the challenges of the evolving grid.

Itron’s grid edge intelligence portfolio

A pioneer of edge intelligence in the energy sector, Itron has consolidated its offerings into a cloud-based edge intelligence portfolio combining connectivity, analytics and applications with intelligence for AMI operations and optimisers for the low and medium voltage grid, DERs and EVs, coupled to a central datahub.

To simplify the process the Itron Enterprise Edition has been made available in the Microsoft Azure marketplace, also opening the way for integrating the Azure OpenAI generative AI solution for users to expedite and improve visibility on data and operations.

Among the new solutions launched are Active Transformer Load and Voltage Monitoring (ATLM/ATVM) applications to enable visibility on transformer loading and voltage statistics in real-time along with configurable threshold-based alarms.

Key for broader uptake of the solutions is partnerships with other providers with these opening the way for Itron’s grid edge intelligence solutions to be integrated into Schneider Electric’s digital grid solutions and to GE Vernova’s new GridOS Data Fabric alongside the GridOS apps.

A further partnership is with the Mobility House as part of its Fast & Flexible Interconnect (FIX) programme for charging of EV fleets in constrained distribution systems.

Don Reeves, senior VP of Outcomes at Itron, reports that customers have advised that the company’s Grid Edge Intelligence portfolio can enhance grid capacity by approximately 20% through the optimisation of existing grid assets.

“Utilities are operating in a more complex environment than ever before and there is a real sense of urgency that change is needed to ensure grid reliability, resiliency and sustainability and improve the customer experience.”

Landis+Gyr and Span partnership

Landis+Gyr has announced a partnership with home electrification technology developer Span, with the first joint product combining their respective solutions to deliver a grid edge solution with circuit-level billing-grade metering, DER visibility and controls.

Describing the co-innovated solution as “a whole-home multi-asset virtual power plant (VPP)”, Werner Lieberherr, CEO of Landis+Gyr, says: “The partnership not only expands our flexibility management platform but also helps [utilities] reduce costly grid infrastructure investments required for electrification. We’re particularly excited to bring SPAN’s service upgrade avoidance capabilities and intuitive app experience … to drive energy efficiency and flexibility.”

While full details of the solution are still to be released, the companies promise to evaluate it in pilots with US utilities starting later in the year.

Siemens Gridscale X

Siemens has launched Gridscale X as a modular software to scale grid capacity and handle the complexity of DERs.

A key component of Gridscale X is DER Insights which is designed to unlock visibility over the distribution grid, with features including the location and behaviour of DERs, grid impact identification and digital grid mapping and modelling.

“With the electrification of everything and the exponential growth of DERs, there is an urgent need for increasing grid capacity fast,” says Sabine Erlinghagen, CEO Siemens Grid Software, pointing to the use of such software as enabling utilities to focus on critical infrastructure upgrades and reducing the impact and occurrence of grid equipment failure, outages and technical debt.

Users of these or similar softwares are invited to contact us with case studies.

Jonathan Spencer Jones

Specialist writer
Smart Energy International

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This was the consensus of panellists who participated in a discussion at the Africa Green Economy Summit in Cape Town, South Africa.

According to Marketsandmarkets, the global Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) market is expected to grow to $17.5 billion by 2028, and while Africa is looking to tap into this growing market, the continent first needs to overcome challenges to building a home-grown battery supply chain.

Mitigating cost through partnerships

Setting up a battery precursor facility is costly and one panellist who knows about that risk is Deshan Naidoo, managing director of Afrivolt.

Afrivolt is developing Africa’s first lithium-ion cell manufacturing facility with a 5GWh installed capacity. The gigafactory will likely be located in Cape Town, South Africa.

According to Naidoo, it will require about $100 million per GWh installed, which indicates the significant foreign direct investment needed to unlock this opportunity.

The good news, explained Naidoo, is that there is a lot of capital available from local and international investors and even though the cost of localising these production facilities is high, there is tremendous economic value added by localising this technology.

The key is partnerships, he said.

Naidoo explained: “We are not going to achieve this energy transition or localisation of the value chains unless we are able to achieve international technology partnerships,” adding that Africa has never been a leader in terms of technology development so an emulation strategy makes sense.

“Afrivolt has built up these partnerships around the cell manufacturing side and on the battery precursor side,” such as US partners that can tailor the cathode chemistry based on local mineral deposits.

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Current opportunities and challenges

Panellists agreed on the importance of partnerships but identified several challenges hindering progress.

Nathan Fredericks, Industry Development Planner: Office of the COO at the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa, stated that for an international OEM to consider partnering, policy support, evidence of supply chain, and capital must be evident.

And while the continent, and more specifically South Africa, is making headway in this regard, there is still work to be done, they agreed.

To encourage investment and development, special economic development zones are being established across Africa. These zones, according to panellists, are focus areas for investment designed to establish the infrastructure and logistics needed for effective supply chain functioning.

Maidei Matika, chief investment facilitator at GIDZ, emphasised the importance of these zones but explained that to develop facilities within them, power, water, sewage etc. are needed – and in South Africa, for example, there is a big problem with a lack of power generation capacity.

This makes it tricky, said Matika, because they are promoting investment opportunities while simultaneously finding solutions to the local challenges that ultimately hinder investment. “It’s two sides of the same coin, you are wanting a green economy and renewable energy solutions…and without that, you can’t promote the production you want to see”.

The fact that the battery value chain runs through several sectors and other value chains also brings a unique set of challenging dynamics said Fredericks, not to mention the role of geopolitics, the lack of political will and competition with China.

In terms of South Africa, added Fredericks, the country has a vibrant energy sector, good industrial roots, and demand pathways. And even though the battery industry is still nascent and skills still need to be developed, it’s possible to leverage the country’s deep industrial base to maximise local supply chain development.

A working partnership

There are examples of successful partnerships spurring the development of Africa’s battery supply chain.

Zitto Alfayo, head of project preparation at Afreximbank UK, highlighted the partnership between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), home to lithium and cobalt resources, and Zambia, which is well endowed with manganese and copper.

Around 2021, explained Alfayo, as discussions about electric vehicles gained momentum across the continent, Afreximbank started exploring opportunities to start manufacturing locally, rather than merely exporting minerals abroad.

Ultimately, Afreximbank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia formed an agreement and established a special economic zone for the production of battery electric vehicles and related services.

This was a first on the continent, said Alfayo, adding that “through this kind of intervention, the cost of producing and setting up a battery precursor plant on the continent was three times cheaper than in the US or China”.

“This makes a lot of sense from an economic perspective,” he said.

Setting up a fully-fledged industrial plant via a special economic zone allows Africa to be strategically positioned up the value chain and positions the continent strategically to produce batteries for the continent and globally.

And thus far, the partnership is proving successful in that regard, said Alfayo, adding that they have recently secured international partnerships with the likes of China.

Panellists agreed that the cost and challenges are evident but the opportunities for Africa are transformational.

Concluded Alfayo: “We have all the ingredients that can power the energy transition…there is an opportunity to reimagine, reinvent and reposition how Africa goes about the energy transition.”

Graphene is often described as the ‘wonder material’ and it has a name for it but that is for applications such as energy storage.

But another candidate for the moniker is the less high-tech sounding perovskite that is expected to bring the next step change for solar photovoltaics, with new levels of efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Perovskite, which is named after the Russian mineralogist Lev Perovski following its discovery in Russia’s Ural Mountains in 1839, is a naturally occurring mineral of calcium titanium oxide (CaTiO3).

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Despite being so long known it is only in this century that perovskites, i.e. not only perovskite itself but also other materials with a similar chemical structure that occur both naturally and can be synthesised in the lab, have been found to have a range of unusual physical properties such as superconductivity and ferroelectricity.

This makes them suitable for a range of applications, of which solar cells have emerged as the most prominent, with the potential to offer a low-cost, high-efficiency product – around at least 20% more than that of traditional silicon cells – that could boost the global renewables revolution.

But that potential has also come with challenges, in particular the stability of perovskites to the day-to-day environmental factors to which they must be subject, such as moisture, light and temperature.

No surprise then that the development of perovskites has seen, and is seeing, considerable investment and research interest along with the entry of new startups with the prospect of a major market opportunity.

Commercialising perovskite solar cells

Though they have yet to become fully commercialised, that day is not far off with Oxford PV, a spin-off from the University of Oxford in the UK, at the forefront after over a decade of developing the technology.

Oxford PV, founded in 2010 to advance solar PV but only latterly focussing exclusively on perovskites has pioneered the ‘tandem cell’ approach in which perovskite is added on top of conventional silicon solar cells to enhance their performance while maintaining the standard cell footprint.

In May 2023 Oxford PV recorded a record 28.6% cell conversion efficiency and in January 2024 a record panel efficiency of 25% compared with the averages for standard silicon cells and panels around 22 to 23%.

Moreover, Oxford PV’s theoretical maximum efficiency for its tandem cell approach is more than 40% compared with less than 30% for the standard cells.

“This new world record is a crucial milestone for Oxford PV, proving that our tandem solar cells can deliver record-breaking performance when assembled into solar panels,” said David Ward, CEO of Oxford PV, commenting in the January announcement that it is a first step in what should be a “transformative 2024”.

While R&D is continuing to improve the efficiency of the technology with a roadmap to go well beyond 30%, Oxford PV has reported starting production of its tandem cells at its Brandenburg-an-der-Havel site near Berlin in Germany – an acquisition of a former production site from Bosch Solar.

These are then expected to start coming to the market later in 2024, not directly but through their integration into modules of manufacturers in the market.

At the same time, Oxford PV is searching for a new high-volume manufacturing site with a particular eye on the US, where a subsidiary has been registered.

Perovskites in space

Just as perovskites are expected to become the solar PV product of choice for the next generation rooftop and utility-scale deployments, so too they are being eyed for use in space as an alternative to the go-to gallium arsenide cells.

Solar PV is essential in space for providing on-board power to orbiting satellites and for example the International Space Station. Gallium arsenide cells have become the technology of choice for their high absorption but more importantly, their ability to withstand the harsh space environment.

However, the main challenge with their use is the manufacturing costs primarily resulting from the scarcity of gallium and the more complex manufacturing process.

That is where perovskites are expected to have the potential to come in, because of their simpler manufacturing. Another key benefit is their versatility for diverse applications, from lightweight to bendable solar panels – a key factor for the proposed kilometre-scale satellites proposed to deliver solar energy to the Earth from space.

An understanding of the behaviour of perovskites in space is still ongoing, however.

In the Caltech space-based solar demonstrator which ran for most of 2023, the perovskite cells were found to exhibit marked variability in performance, whereas the low cost manufactured gallium arsenide cells had consistently performed well overall.

An earlier 10-month demonstration on the International Space Station also revealed some unusual properties about their absorption characteristics with varying temperature, with both a ‘self healing’ quality and enhanced light absorption that could make them particularly suitable for long-duration missions.

“A lot of people doubted that these materials could ever be strong enough to deal with the harsh environment of space,” said NASA research engineer Dr Lyndsey McMillon-Brown announcing the findings in May 2023, adding: “Not only do they survive, but in some ways, they thrived.”

With space technology developments often spinning off to Earth-based applications, this is a space to also keep watching.

And if you are involved in the development of perovskites, be sure to keep us updated with your findings.

Jonathan Spencer Jones

Specialist writer
Smart Energy International

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According to Market Reports World, the global Home Energy Management Systems Market is expected to witness substantial growth from 2022 to 2028, reaching $3.5 billion by the end of the forecast period, up from $1.7 billion in 2021.

Fuelled by the increasing importance of intelligently managed energy efficiency for our power systems, the forecast for its growth is no surprise.

The potential of under-utilised sources of demand response within the residential sector has been a growing business interest as countries investigate newer, smarter ways of managing grid congestion.

What this has led to is a business battleground and, until recently, a largely fragmented market.

In one corner stand the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of clean tech assets, such as Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, EVs and their charge points, as well as heat pumps and solar PV panels, to name some of the most popular.

In another are the optimisers and integrators, those companies who coordinate the flows of energy for optimal consumption, at times running interface with grid operators for demand response and flexibility services.

Then finally, we have the energy retailers, who buy electric power from generators at the wholesale level on behalf of their customers.

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For all these players, key to gaining market share will be convincing their customers that their products or services within the space are the most seamless.

For some, take market leaders such as Tesla or Octopus Energy, doing so largely on their own terms has been a very viable course of action.

But for others, whether HVAC providers, smart thermostat manufacturers or PV specialists and energy optimisers, more strategic footwork has been necessary, calling for acquisitions and strategic partnerships to consolidate their positions.

“The real war is about who will take ownership of being the ones that will convince the end customer to use their assets or their services.” So stated George Husni, LCP Delta’s head of business development.

Industry edge

According to Husni, in the battle between smart thermostat manufacturers and HVAC players, the former innovated user interfaces earlier giving them an edge, whereas “HVAC players lagged behind in developing the mobile application for end customers.

“We believe that within five years’ time integrated PV specialists, like 1KOMMA5°, as well as energy suppliers are expected to gain market share by offering a suit of solar-related offerings and innovative business models; smaller installers will be acquired and will phase out of distribution because they will not own the relationship with the final customers.”

Husni referenced key partnerships, acquisitions and strategic moves from the last quarter. Including a consolidation by emobility giant and Texas-based OEM Tesla, who has long dominated the EV realm, in 2023 they integrated the Powerwall system with their EV solar charging infrastructure.

In essence, Tesla owners using Tesla software, namely the Charge on Solar programme, can charge their vehicle using only excess solar power generated by their panels, alleviating stress from the grid of charging the EV and leading to a more energy-efficient home.

Tesla can thus be said to be a go-to case of an OEM leading the market on their own terms, consolidating their business across the Home Energy Management segment while maintaining their position as the EV leader.

Dominance in the realm also brings to mind the case of Octopus Energy, an energy supplier which, under its own retail brand, delivers customer service and energy products to 7.7 million households globally. Add in the influence of Kraken Technologies, Octopus’ tech arm and customer platform, and it is no wonder that the British player has been at the forefront of news headline the past few years.

According to Husni, there is a certain level of ‘concern’ about retailers in the market, about if and when they would decide to properly engage, as they already have an advantage from data and relationships from their customer base; a point made more pertinent by Octopus Energy’s stature.

But, of course, not everyone can be a Tesla or an Octopus.

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 Strong grid tech props up Siemens Energy in Q1

Home Energy Management: Consolidatory moves

Husni stressed key moves that have been needed by PV specialists in Europe, such as 1KOMMA5°’s acquisition of solar installers Zonduurzaam to enter the dutch market and experta solar to consolidate in Spain, as well as SolarEdge’s partnership with European heating manufacturer Vaillant to integrate Vaillant heat pumps into the SolarEdge Home ecosystem.

Further cases include the GridX and Sense partnership, focused on leveraging smart meters to provide consumers and utilities with better insights into energy usage and costs, as well as Sonnen integrating Nibe heat pumps into their virtual power plant programme.

On the energy supplier side, states Husni, Heatio partnered with E.on to provide its Energy as a Service solution through a home subscription product. The solution will integrate E.ON Next energy tariff and incentivises homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.

Take also Samsung’s smart home platform SmartThings, which partnered with energy related companies, such as Eve Systems in 2023 and British Gas earlier this year in January, to integrate products and track consumption.

In the partnership with Eve, SmartThings users will have the ability to reduce power consumption by monitoring individual devices that are connected to Eve’s smart plug, reducing utility bills by creating automation routines and setting timers to optimise energy usage.

The partnership with British Gas, described by British Gas’ parent company Centrica as “the exciting first step in a long-term venture”, sees British Gas’ PeakSave demand flexibility scheme integrate with SmartThings Energy, informing customers on the best times to use appliances to save money.

An energy integrator here, Samsung’s moves further cement its position in the market as an energy flow coordinator, interfacing both with energy companies and utilities to oversee consumption.

Such cases demonstrate the moves market players make to cement their position in the home energy management as it continues to consolidate. What are some of the key acquisitions and strategies you’ve witnessed within and think should be on our radar?

Let us know.

Cheers,
Yusuf Latief
Content Producer
Smart Energy International

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Indeed the title of the session, the Energy Innovation Forum, gives it away.

But what is innovation? I and daresay many others tend to think first of advances in technologies, but ultimately it is much more than that and there is the need for innovation across multiple fronts – policy and funding to name some, in addition to technology – to be able to achieve the various climate targets as set out to culminate in net zero by 2050.

Just as the social sciences started becoming part of science policy in the 1990s so too they are now becoming part of innovation with more than one speaker highlighting the need for the human aspect to be placed at its centre.

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“It is important to recognise innovation in all its forms. It’s exciting to hear about some of the key technological breakthroughs but that is just one part of the equation and it’s good and necessary but not enough,” said David Turk, US Deputy Secretary of Energy, in his summing up.

“The human piece is incredibly important throughout … It’s not just human behaviour for the technologies that are consumer-facing but it has to work for the businesses, the incumbents, the other parts of the system as well,” he continued.

“We should be working for the betterment of fellow citizens around the world,” he said.

Another aspect of innovation that he highlighted as a takeaway from the discussions is the need to consider the full innovation cycle with the need to move from pilot to scale up but with what appears today a limited focus on the demonstration phase.

Turk suggested that AI and machine learning could play a role in shrinking the innovation cycle.

A third is “connecting the dots” between all the parties in the sector and the fourth related to this is knowledge sharing on at least a real-time basis and the tracking of progress.

“The IEA’s tracking of clean energy progress last year found that only three of the 50 technologies and sectors were on target and those are impressive but we need that across the board.”

Innovation looking ahead

Part of the focus of the meeting was to get input on areas that the IEA should focus on to advance energy innovation in the years ahead.

In her summing up, Amanda Wilson, Director-General of the Office of R&D at National Resources Canada and chair of the IEA’s energy research committee, pointed to technology priorities that arose in the discussions including needs around products and software such as AI, batteries for storage and electrolysis for hydrogen and large scale processes including industry decarbonisation, carbon capture and storage and nuclear.

The needs of emerging economies also arose as a key topic, particularly around energy access, clean cooking and digital skills.

Then on top of those inputs, numerous more were from participants in an hour long session with the general sentiment among the specifics being the need for the IEA to draw on its expertise and for example its tracking and analytical skills to address all the facets of innovation and to advise on and support the acceleration of the energy transition.

Technology advisory body

A notable aspect of the IEA’s work over the years is the broadening of its scope as reflected in the breadth of its reports, covering countries and technologies and not least the net zero pathway that forms the baseline for its future work.

In their communique from the meeting, and taking into account the input from participants, the ministers said they reiterate their commitment to support energy RD&D to reach the 2050 objectives, including through the IEA’s technology collaboration programmes.

The ministers also indicated support for further discussion towards the establishment of a technology advisory body of innovators, investors and industry and to foster synergies between international initiatives such as the IEA TCPs – of which the International Smart Grid Action Network is one – the Clean Energy Ministerial and Mission Innovation.

As these occur we will continue to report on but in the meantime let us know the innovations you are working on.

Jonathan Spencer Jones

Specialist writer
Smart Energy International

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V2G systems have until recently been a technology in need of depth and exploration before fully coming onto the market as a widespread source of consumption management.

The systems involve electric-powered vehicles communicating with the power grid to sell demand response services, usually overseen by a third party, such as energy retailers or aggregators.

With increasing demand on the grid stemming from sources of variable renewable energy, it would be no exaggeration to call V2G a crucial component of the global energy transition.

According to IndustryARC, an analytics and consulting company, the global V2G market size is forecast to reach $28.12 billion by 2026, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.28% from 2021 to 2026.

Additionally, bidirectional charging – when electricity flows from the EV battery to the grid and then back to the vehicle – is a core component of this system and was analysed by ARC to grow at the fastest CAGR of 5.12% among the entire segment of charging types for electric vehicles over the forecast period.

Development of the tech surged in 2023, although companies seeking to invest in the market should still be selective about where they choose to do business.

According to AFRY Management Consultants Steffen Schaefer and Xavier Sichert in Market attractiveness for Vehicle to Grid, the ideal market for V2G would be one with a high share of intermittent renewable energy sources, a low share of interconnections with other countries and a high penetration of smart metering in private households and at corporate buildings.

In the meantime, as the market continues to develop, tech companies, automotive majors and utilities have been making moves.

This is what has caught our eye.

Octopus Energy launches first V2G tariff in the UK

Octopus Energy, the UK’s energy wunderkind, has launched the UK’s first mass-market V2G tariff, called Octopus Power Pack. The tariff uses V2G technology and Octopus Energy’s tech platform Kraken to balance charging and discharging when it’s best for the grid.

According to the company, the tariff works as a bolt-on that separates charging from the rest of the home and runs alongside each customer’s regular import tariff. Customers can also stack the benefits of payments for solar generation on top of this.

For eligibility, drivers need to stay below the usage limit of 333kWh per month and plug in their electric car for 170+ hours monthly (roughly six hours daily) to receive free charging. The rest of the process is automated.

Calculated under the assumption of 10,000 miles (16,093.44km) driven each year, the British energy giant claims that an average electric car driver will be able to save more than £850 ($1,070) a year in charging costs on the Power Pack, compared to charging on a standard variable tariff.

Octopus Power Pack is available to drivers with V2G-compatible electric cars, chargers and a smart meter available in the UK. Although there is currently only a limited number of car models that have this capability, car manufacturers such as Volvo, states Octopus Energy, have made commitments to release V2G-ready models soon.

The tariff also follows Octopus’ recent announcement of passing 200,000 customers signed up to its EV-optimised tariffs – Intelligent Octopus Go and Octopus Go – making up roughly a fifth of electric car drivers on UK roads.

The company clearly sees where the V2G segment is going and is preparing to be a key player.

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V2G revenues

In the US, Nuvve Holding Corp. reported recurring revenues from its proprietary V2G services.

The tech company’s intelligent, cloud-based software, Nuvve GIVe, is a platform that transforms electric fleets into mobile storage resources, providing electric grid resilience while also generating recurring revenues to offset fleet operation costs.

In essence, multiple EVs would provide enough “smart load” energy to sell back to the market, providing a revenue stream and lowering the cost of owning the EV in the first place.

In its Q3 financial results, announced December 2023, the company’s CEO, Gregory Poilasne, said the company is on pace to increase its revenues by more than 50%, resulting from orders, sales and deployments of charging stations connected to the GIVe V2G software platform.

Additionally, in January, Nuvve announced a $16 million project win with Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission’s (EOC’s) 50-shuttle fleet, to electrify the fleet and implement its Nuvve GIVe software.

Nuvve assisted Fresno EOC, which is one of the largest nonprofit community action agencies in the US, in securing grant funding through the Carl Moyer Memorial Air Quality Standards Attainment Program and Pacific Gas & Electric.

OEMs & V2G

Tech companies, however, are not the only ones with claims to stake in the market. EV original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), for example, are arguably the most poised for market penetration as they are in the starting position of the race – they manufacture EVs, which are the backbone of the system.

Two weeks following Nuvve’s project win with EOC, Nissan announced the launch of a new service – Nissan Energy Share – in Japan, coming March 1, 2024.

The new service features Nissan-unique energy management technology that controls the charging and discharging of EV batteries.

The service comes after conclusion of the Japanese auto major’s research into the most efficient ways of managing energy through EVs. Specifically, Nissa conducted different studies and field tests in locations such as Fukushima, validating its proprietary technologies for autonomously charging and discharging EV batteries.

Offered primarily to companies, businesses and municipal governments, Nissan said that the service is designed to enable optimal energy management in line with the needs and circumstances of customers; a ‘one-stop service experience’, from planning and system build-out to maintenance operations.

In addition to the system itself, the auto major says users will be able to apply for different subsidies, although details have not yet been released.

Also of interest:
Power sector measures key for smart charging in emerging economies states IEA
Sweden’s Polestar launches vehicle to grid and virtual power plant projects

Time pressure

Although tech and automotive companies are making moves in the right direction, there is a palpable time pressure that we also need to be cognizant of.

The market is clear, but the problem of managing increased loads from soaring rates of renewables coming online and EVs coming onto the road will not be going away anytime soon.

In the Netherlands for example, the problem of renewable energy causing grid lock has given grid operators headaches for years already, causing them to increasingly turn to flexibility as a solution.

The compact country is expected to have over 10 million battery-electric cars on the road by 2044; but with a grid at capacity, managing this demand will continue to be a pain point, perhaps mediated by V2G.

Add to this the upcoming deadlines for bans on internal combustion engines (ICEs) – both Europe and the UK angling for 2030 – and the weight of this demand only increases.

Surely then, it only makes sense that we tap more into the market, which provides lucrative opportunities alongside a clear route to managing these critical demand spikes.

The pressure to rev up the V2G market has been gaining urgency and clearly top industry players are responding. But what do you think? Who do you see as leading the market and what more is needed, whether from policy or from technology, to propel the market forward?

Let me know.

Cheers,
Yusuf Latief
Content Producer
Smart Energy International

Follow me on Linkedin

With cyber attacks on the rise, organisations need to be doing everything they can to meet the growing challenges these more common cyber threats present. The seemingly obvious fix would of course be to recruit those with the necessary cybersecurity skills to protect against these threats.

However, many companies are also contending with the wider cybersecurity skills gap, making this potential solution to growing cyber risks a dead-end road, particularly for those without the budgets and investment needed to beat other competition to hiring the best talent.

Take the UK for example. In the government’s latest report, 50% of all UK businesses have a basic cybersecurity skills gap, with cybersecurity leads unable to deliver basic tasks such as setting up firewalls or detecting malware. Meanwhile, 33% of UK businesses are also experiencing an advanced cyber skills gap, in areas such as forensic analysis of breaches or implementation of security architecture. To make things worse, these figures are similar to 2022 and 2021, with over 160,000 cybersecurity job postings in the last year.

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So, if recruiting new talent to meet these evolving threats is not a viable option, what is? To start, it’s recognising how the roles and responsibilities for cybersecurity best practice have changed.

Looking beyond the cyber skills gap hurdle

In the past, cybersecurity was a specific job function. Now, it has developed into a problem, that can only be dealt with by integrating cybersecurity responsibility into line functions and staff functions across an organisation.

If we apply that thinking to the power sector specifically, it paints a concerning picture. Ten years ago, C-suite level personnel from grid operators would predominantly be engineers, with a thorough understanding of grid technology and operations, and a level of knowledge of potential cyber risks and threats. However, it should also be noted that this was primarily on the operational technology (OT) side, rather than information technology (IT), so the understanding of how the two interacted from a security perspective was still in a relatively immature phase.

Today though, C-suite level employees of grid operators predominantly have consultancy or financial backgrounds, due to the change management and financial challenges for grid operators, imposed by the energy transition.

Whilst this can perhaps be understood from a business perspective in terms of financial prudence, it poses cybersecurity challenges. A widely chosen solution for this problem has until now been to create the chief information security officer (CISO) role and to delegate the cybersecurity responsibility to the CISO. However, this is increasingly becoming insufficient as a standalone solution.

CISOs are usually not board members, meaning they lack the board level budget and decision-making power, which can therefore create barriers to implement the changes needed across the business to boost their cybersecurity defences.

As such, it is now incumbent upon all employees across the company to do their bit on the front line in the war against cyber. With the cyber threat landscape having evolved so much, including the exponential growth of touchpoints that cyber hackers can exploit in the everyday tech we use in our working lives, this is now more important than ever.

Building out accountability and empowering CISOs

To bring cybersecurity strategies up to date, in the face of an ongoing skills gap and regulatory restraints in the energy market where justifying the return on investment in skills can be challenging, two aspects are now critical.

First, cybersecurity responsibility and accountability must be appointed across organisations with external third-party support where needed. Second, security specialists must be empowered to independently develop and provide input to decision-makers, or even block decisions affecting cybersecurity when necessary, to maximise scrutiny of their cybersecurity decisions to ensure best practice.

Whilst still limited in its impact in Ukraine, cyber skills have developed into weaponry for war, and power grid operators are already being caught in the crossfire. The investments in knowledge and skills development by nation states can clearly not be matched by grid operators, but nonetheless will still be exposed to their attacks.

To create the knowledge and skills required to deal with the complexity and scale of these attacks, new collaborative ways of working are needed to build and maintain this knowledge and skills level. Operational teams are responsible for performing risk analysis within their scope of responsibility.

More specifically, responsibilities and decision-making authorities need to be clearly assigned. For each job function, dedicated security knowledge and skills requirements should be identified and addressed in clear and pragmatic training and development programmes.

At the European Cyber Security Network (ENCS), we have identified the need for operational functions, staff functions and management functions, as well as developing a dedicated training portfolio for grid operators, to reflect the holistic approach to meet modern cyber threats. We have also seen demand for this training from other critical infrastructure sectors including gas, water and transport too.

OT cybersecurity specialists, who are key to the knowledge and skills building process, should not necessarily have responsibility for security, but need to be sufficiently empowered.

If cybersecurity specialists in a staff position are assigned responsibility for certain security functions, they still do not have the decision making power or budgets that sit with C-suite level colleagues; they cannot make things happen, incentivise desired behaviour and ultimately create the scale of change required.

As a result, unless they are empowered, we may see many colleagues with all the right intentions getting frustrated and looking for other opportunities, having a knock-on effect on retention of cybersecurity experts in the power sector especially. Instead, we need career paths and incentives, including financial, for OT experts similar to IT security experts.

Maximising expertise, empowering retained talent

There are always ways in which we can be nimble to adapt to growing threats, despite competition for employers to recruit top cybersecurity talent, especially for many European grid operators.

However, beyond the four walls of the grid operators themselves, we must also see regulatory changes and utilities must continue to pressure for change, both individually and through membership groups like ENCS.

At the same, this doesn’t diminish the importance and urgency of doing everything they can in the meantime to improve existing security through a more collective, collaborative approach and empowering existing talent.

About the Author

Anjos Nijk is managing director of the European Network for Cyber security (ENCS).

Nijk is also a member of the steering committee of the smart grids task force of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy (DG ENER) and a member of the network and information security platform of the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content & Technology (DG CNCT).

2G/3G network sunsetting is one of the biggest challenges the IoT industry faces, and energy is one of the sectors that could be impacted by the switch-off.

A consumer affected by a cellular technology change would probably upgrade their device or opt for a new SIM. However, when it comes to IoT applications, the volume and complexity of devices in the field mean this can be far more challenging.

Even if 2G will be around for several more years, the 3G switch-off is imminent and businesses need to respond quickly. In the UK, Vodafone communicated its final phase in January, EE is aiming to have closed its 3G services by the end of March 2024 and Three is targeting the end of 2024.

Companies impacted by the switch-off will need to design new planned deployments with an alternative technology in mind. As they do, they should consider how secure, resilient and flexible they can make their installations.   

While the switch-off may bring about some challenges for the sector, smart metering, through IoT connectivity, offers benefits for customers and suppliers. It helps with accurate energy consumption recording and data transfer to energy suppliers.

Cellular connectivity for smart meters means there is no need to provide communications infrastructure, and it offers scalability for providers continually adding to their IoT estate.

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2G/3G sunsetting and smart meters

For homeowners and facilities managers, smart metering means greater control of energy usage and therefore costs. For energy firms, it supports accurate bills and the ability to optimise energy distribution when and where it is needed.

However, a recent Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report found that the smart meter rollout in the UK has been too slow, and the government has been criticised for moving deadlines back and not gaining enough public support.

To add further to these challenges, it is estimated that seven million communications hubs, which form part of the electricity smart meters, will need replacing because they will lose functionality when 2G and 3G networks close.

Connected smart meters support energy management

Smart meters change how consumers and organisations use energy, for the better.

The green agenda has raised awareness and made consumers more conscientious of unnecessary wastage and high energy appliance overuse. Smart metering equips consumers to make informed decisions to reduce consumption and play a role in saving the planet.

Meanwhile, energy companies need to address the dynamic demand for power. By investing in smart meters, they enhance grid resiliency, help reduce the risk of energy blackouts and grid failures. Data from smart meters enables them to monitor, analyse and control energy production and detect and resolve anomalies faster.

Alternative connectivity solutions

IoT solutions are becoming more widespread in the energy sector as it transitions to a modern era of intelligent energy production and management. Smart meters are an example of this. Cellular is a logical choice to connect solutions reliably as it doesn’t need on-site communications infrastructure and is scalable as companies continue to rollout smart meters.

For companies grappling with network sunsetting, there are a number of cellular technology alternatives to consider. Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technologies use very low power to provide long-range cellular connectivity, using a small portion of the mature and reliable LTE bandwidth to connect devices that rely on battery technology.

Protocols like LTE-M and NB-IoT enable cellular IoT modules to not only save power when not in use, but also to transmit relatively small amounts of data with minimal power usage. They are designed to offer years of operation from a battery-driven power source.

Since data throughput is limited, but often more than enough for small data usage, simpler signal modulation schemes and less complex radio modems are needed, hence diminished power requirements. Advances in wake/sleep modes on modern hardware also contribute to these benefits.

Building a ‘smarter’ future

To build a smarter future, the security of energy networks is paramount.

Energy networks are critical national infrastructure and are often targets for cyber criminals. As new and additional devices are deployed, they could present more pathways for potential cyberattacks. That is a significant risk and safeguards are therefore needed to protect against unauthorised access to devices, networks, management platforms and cloud infrastructure. Any weaknesses in any of these is a security problem.

Given this, and the ever-present threat of cyberattacks, connectivity providers play a fundamental role in securing the connections of energy infrastructure. They must authenticate device identities and connect to grid infrastructure, IT systems and cloud destinations securely.

Cellular IoT connectivity solutions can offer flexible, reliable and scalable connectivity to meet the demand of diversified, distributed energy provided they are designed to defend against, detect and react to cyber threats.

In a cellular IoT context, security begins with the SIM, as the root of trust to authenticate devices using ‘IoT SAFE’, and extends to secure two-way communication and data through, for example secure private access point names (APNs) and encrypted virtual private networks. Security AI and automation are likely to feature heavily with capabilities such as automated anomaly detection to identify and isolate security breaches should they occur.

Next steps and considerations for smart meter companies

As well as network technology, smart meter companies should also think about the long-term, smooth running of their installations. They may need to change network operator in time, or need a more reliable network due to poor coverage or performance issues. eSIM technology enables this, offering  flexibility with remote SIM provisioning so that ‘over-the-air’ profile changes can be performed if required.

Energy companies affected by legacy network sunsetting should work with their connectivity partners to understand the alternative technologies and their suitability for smart meters. At the same time, they should assess their security provisions, resilience and level of flexibility. Energy infrastructure is transforming to provide intelligent, connected systems and cellular IoT supports this so that companies and customers can make informed decisions to optimise usage and supply. 

About the author

Paul Bullock is the chief product officer of Wireless Logic, managing the strategic partnerships across their global network.

With over 20 years of experience in the communications and internet of things (IoT) space, he has worked across a number of respected brands, including the likes of EDJX as its director of Business Development and ARM, the connectivity and device management specialists.

When one thinks of professionals in the electricity sector one tends to think first of engineers as a key role, be they electrical or mechanical.

But a new study by Britain’s Institute of Physics (IOP) highlights the important role of physics and physicists in delivering the energy transition and net zero – and perhaps no less important.

For example, physics has played a uniquely important role in the development of climate science which uses physics modelling techniques to help understand our world and its biosphere.

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Equally, most clean technologies are built on physics discovery and innovation and need physics skills for their continued development.

Tellingly, the study reports, since 2006 almost three-quarters of the £2.4 billion UKRI research council R&D investment in five of the central green economy technology areas – nuclear, renewables, hydrogen and clean fuels, energy storage and carbon capture, usage and storage – has been for research topics classed by the IOP as ‘core physics’ and ‘strongly physics’.

In particular, the greatest investment has been into less mature research topics, such as energy storage and newer areas of nuclear such as fusion, while hydrogen has seen a slight increase in growth over the last five years.

Conversely, the better established technology areas such as wind have seen lower levels of funding across the two decades, reflecting the maturity from an R&D perspective.

Green technology advancement

The report Physics powering the green economy states that investment in physics R&D over the last two decades has enabled a dramatic transformation in the energy system, reduced the amount of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere and supported the development of significant numbers of low carbon businesses.

However, the scale of change still required cannot be overstated – as indeed IOP members believe, with 83% of those responding to a survey not thinking the UK is on track to net zero in 2050.

The report continues that each of the five technology areas are crucial to growing the green economy, but none will achieve this alone and they need to work in concert to successfully replace fossil fuels.

For example, the non-constant nature of renewable electricity generation from solar and wind means that energy storage is vital to their effective deployment.

Aside from fossil fuels, only nuclear energy or gas turbines/combined-cycle gas turbines powered by hydrogen or alternative fuels, and/or with carbon capture and storage, can provide the constant baseload power.

Alternative fuels are needed to power aircraft and heavy vehicles for which battery power is not enough.

Meanwhile, carbon capture, usage and storage is vital as a mitigating technology while fossil fuels continue to be used in conjunction with alternative fuels.

From its analysis, the IOP identifies no less than 41 key green technology advancement areas and 158 physics dependencies underpinned by a wide range of physics disciplines that are still needed to unlock their potential as drivers of change.

For example, for renewables the development of materials is a recurring theme to enable improvements in performance and scaling.

For solar energy high priorities are advancements in both solar electrical and solar thermal, while for wind energy storage and grid capacity as well as alternative wind turbine designs are named as short term priorities.

Similarly improvements in energy storage are needed with optimised lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries short-term priorities, while hydrogen as a national-scale storage solution is in the mid-term.

For nuclear the priority is seen as its ability to deliver flexibility to the system.

Building the business base

The report also points to the need to build on the business base – currently numbering 1,653 and 119 unique green economy companies across the UK and Ireland respectively – to drive sector growth and international competition.

However, there are challenges. Skills shortages was highlighted as the top one for growing the green economy, with others the lack of infrastructure and public attitudes.

In conclusion – and while focussed on the UK situation but undoubtedly applicable in numerous other countries – the report calls for public and private investment in physics R&D to remain a high priority and for policies to support business innovation.

“Physicists, trained to tackle complex systems through data analysis, have a vital role to play in developing solutions. A healthy physics ecosystem is therefore essential to the continued development of the green economy (in the UK and Ireland).”

Physics-trained professionals working in the electricity sector? – we would welcome your insights.

Jonathan Spencer Jones

Specialist writer
Smart Energy International

Follow me on Linkedin

Also on the radar are virtual power plant (VPP) provider Swell Energy’s acquisition of Renu Energy in Carolina, US, and Second Foundation’s acquisition of a Nano Energies brand in the Czech Republic.

Siemens Energy’s strong Q1

Revenue came in at €7.6 billion ($8.2 billion) reflecting a 12.6% increase, four months after the energy major reported a $5 billion loss and safety net from the German federal government.

In a release, the company said that, while all segments contributed to growth, the increase was particularly strong at Grid Technologies.

Exceptionally high orders exceeded an already outstanding level in prior year’s quarter, mainly driven by Grid Technologies’ product business and high-voltage direct current transmission system orders in Germany.

The company is further planning to achieve comparable revenue growth of 18% to 22% within the grid portfolio.

“The solid first quarter is encouraging, in part also due to project shifts, which are normal in plant engineering, especially with the market dynamics we are currently seeing,” said Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch in a release.

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Swell Energy acquires Renu Energy Solutions

Swell Energy Inc., an energy management and grid solutions provider, has acquired Renu Energy Solutions, a Carolinas-based company that offers customised residential and commercial solar and energy storage solutions.

The combination brings together a complementary set of operational and technological capabilities as well as a bi-coastal presence to enable the deployment of VPPs in key energy markets.

With the combination of Renu’s seasoned project development capabilities and Swell’s financing and VPP technology platform, the combined company says it is now well positioned to expand its footprint across the Southeast and mid-Atlantic market, and contribute to the strong growth in residential and commercial solar and storage capacity in the region.

Since 2010, Renu has offered residential and commercial energy solutions with an emphasis on installations and energy monitoring services. The acquisition includes Renu’s solar and storage maintenance subsidiary, Sun Service Specialists, which serves both Renu and non-Renu customers with thousands of distributed energy resources (DERs) across the East Coast.

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With Renu serving as a regional hub, Swell’s channel partner programme provides other residential and commercial solar companies access to customer acquisition resources, fluid supply chain, critical software tools, financial products, grid services offerings and the opportunity to become VPP co-developers alongside Swell.

“With rapidly growing energy demand, favourable policies, and high solar potential, the Southeast is quickly becoming one the most attractive markets in the country for solar and energy storage systems,” said Jay Radcliffe, President of Renu.

“Swell’s robust technology portfolio combined with Renu’s full-service in-house team and unique expertise will drive innovation and ensure clean energy solutions are not only accessible but also efficient, reliable and tailored to the individual needs of our customers.”

Second Foundation acquires DES Holding

Czech-based technology group Second Foundation has signed an agreement on the acquisition of DES Holding, a flexibility aggregator and member of the Nano Energies group.

The agreement was signed on behalf of Nano Energies by its owner Petr Zahradník. The transaction marks the next step in Second Foundation’s strategy to gradually shift from focusing purely on financial algorithmic trading towards reaping the benefits of energy flexibility and smart management in renewable and other sources of energy.

Under the new owner, DES Holding will continue to use the Nano Energies brand with which its customers and partners are familiar.

The transaction does not involve the Nano Green division, an energy supplier active in managing power generation and consumption in smart households. Rather, Nano Green will be acquired by current managers David Brožík, Jan Hicl and Lukáš Beneš, the owners of the S9Y software studio.

The three managers have been at the helm of Nano Green for the past year and a half and will acquire Petr Zahradník’s shareholding to become the sole owners of Nano Green.

“In early 2024, we plan to launch a new service for our customers. It will enable fully automatic management of electricity generation and consumption. By offering the service, we will open the door for owners of smart homes and small businesses to participate in balancing the grid. In other words, they will be able to earn money by shifting their power production and consumption across time segments,” said Jan Hicl, chief product officer at Nano Green, in a release, unveiling the company’s plans.

The acquisition by Second Foundation is already the second such transaction involving subsidiaries of the Nano Energies group. Second Foundation acquired Nano Energies Trade in early 2022.

The transaction is still to be approved by the Czech Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS). It is expected that the transaction will be closed in the first quarter of 2024.

For the latest finance and investment news coming from the energy sector, make sure to follow Smart Energy Finances Weekly.

I will also be attending Distributech International in Orlando Florida later this month. Will I see you there?

Cheers,
Yusuf Latief
Content Producer
Smart Energy International

Follow me on LinkedIn

To fully utilise all the potential that VPPs can offer in the next few years, we’ll need a major strategy overhaul. While COP28 agreements to transition away from harmful fossil fuels and triple our collective renewable energy production by 2030 are noble, it will take intentional and strategic goalposts to help us get there.

To reach the targets set forth at COP28, we must accelerate global energy capacity and make progress as soon as this year in order to more than double our renewable capacity by the end of this decade. But here’s the good news: VPPs are one of the most effective—and as yet, largely untapped—tools that we can use on this journey.

In 2024, progress for VPPs will mean stakeholders taking initial steps towards promoting VPP adoption by both Programme teams and Energy Procurement teams, fostering customer engagement, developing supportive policies and regulations, and leaning into open standards.

Down the line, I see an increased adoption of devices and smarter homes, leading to a smarter grid, smarter cities, and ultimately smarter communities.

Making 2024 count – First steps

Climate conversations are now mainstream. With this increased attention to the energy transition, regulators and lawmakers will continue to push utilities to take faster action.

Announcements like Michigan’s targeting of 100% clean energy by 2040, while critical, are just part of what is needed for true progress.

We need each utility and load-serving entity to participate more fully in the energy transformation. This will require engaged, progressive utilities to see the potential behind flexible energy technologies like VPPs that bring reliability, cost savings, and increased integration of renewable distributed energy sources.

This shift can promote a solid foundation for meaningful participation in the evolution of the energy landscape more broadly. 

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Incentivising community engagement 

Propelling utilities to increase VPP adoption also requires bringing customers along on the journey. Promoting this engagement requires education, so we need to focus on helping individuals understand the direct impact of their actions.

Regulatory bodies like rate makers are working to communicate these differences effectively. Major players such as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are also engaging with users in a meaningful and contextualised way, contributing to the development of an ongoing educational journey. Especially noteworthy is the shift towards more personalised incentives that resonate with customers. These incentives are designed to speak the customer’s language and address concerns that are genuinely meaningful to them.

Importantly, customers receive immediate value through their participation in VPP programmes. Benefits are both fiscal and societal, as participating customers can gain financial incentives through VPP solutions by sharing assets with the grid or reducing their usage. This not only provides communities with financial benefits but also aids utilities in effectively handling our growing electrical demands. 

As VPPs are more widely adopted, the frequency and duration of their dispatch will increase with only minor added costs for operators and utilities.

The grid is constantly balancing many things, be it frequency capacity, energy demands, or emergency events. Those value streams create a direct benefit to utilities by better balancing their cash flow and providing ratepayers with greater returns. This is also the best cost option for utilities since the cost of incentives is lower than non-VPP alternatives to meet energy strain.

The equation is simple: To meet demand, utilities can either build and turn on more peaker plants, or they can pour those same dollars through VPPs into the hands of communities and customers.

Open standards are not optional

Beyond customer engagement, the industry also needs standardisation of protocols. This involves creating streamlined communication threads, allowing devices to seamlessly interact with each other and connect with grids through a software middle layer.

Simplifying these interactions reduces friction in our infrastructure, leading to accelerated device adoption, improved affordability and streamlined execution of programmes like virtual power plants.

This approach will also lead to the enhancement of products and services in the energy sector. Although work is already underway on these protocols, their widespread implementation is vital for enhancing the overall efficiency of the industry’s energy transition.

Interoperability and open standards are essential for multi-asset, multi-vendor VPPs—and are critical for scaling VPP adoption. While lack of standardisation presents challenges, companies are navigating these obstacles.

Despite hurdles, companies like AutoGrid work to promote VPP adoption, accelerate the energy transition, and improve widespread access to sustainable energy. I see even more consolidation happening in this space, leading more technologies and players to simplify steps for users.

For example, Uplight’s recent acquisition of AutoGrid will help expand the existing ecosystem of participating devices, along with other benefits.

Net zero within reach

As I think about how we’ll reach 2030 net zero goals, embracing VPPs is essential. From my experience spanning the energy sector, I know it may be hard, but we can do hard things.

It will just take the right partners, incentive structures, engaged customers and cutting-edge technologies. With these goalposts as our blueprint, we can work to unlock the full potential of VPPs for 2024 and beyond. It’s only then that we can take those lofty goals set forth during COP28 and make them achievable.

About the Author

As Autogrid’s VP of VPPs, Gisela Glandt leads AutoGrid’s Virtual Power Plants business and oversees the growth and health of Autogrid’s Distributed Energy Partner ecosystem. Prior to AutoGrid, Gisela led Nest’s Smart Home and Energy Partnerships at Google, with a focus on formulating and executing growth strategies for cutting-edge products and cultivating strategic partnerships.

Enacting change across deeply entrenched systems has proven difficult. The interwoven infrastructure that underpins society introduces daunting and complex coordination hurdles. This friction has made the path toward fully sustainable, decentralised grids slow and choppy.

I believe we are at an inflection point where artificial intelligence and advanced analytics are perfectly poised to help us navigate.

The decentralised, decarbonised grid of the future will rely heavily on augmented capabilities to unlock its potential, efficiently and equitably.

Everything I want to discuss here comes back to a simple, critically urgent focus – making sure tomorrow’s energy supplies remain secure, equitable and environmentally sustainable for all communities.

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Pressures overwhelming traditional utility infrastructure

The rapid proliferation of distributed energy resources (DERs) (i.e. residential solar, electric vehicles and battery storage) is driving a dramatic shift from centralized electricity grids to decentralised, democratic “smart” grids. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced data analytics will play a critical role in assisting utilities in managing this complex transition while ensuring equitable access.

US renewable energy capacity is projected to double by 2025, and double again by 2030 as the adoption of assets like rooftop solar explodes (Yale Climate Connections). This distributed clean energy boom introduces greater variability and unpredictability in generation and usage patterns, overwhelming aged utility infrastructure.

Investor-owned utilities in the US already spend over $130 billion annually on grid upgrades and maintenance, but trillions more are required in coming years just to address accumulating infrastructure deficits, let alone facilitate the integration of variable renewable energy sources (EEI).

Fundamental shifts in consumer behaviour are accelerating the transition, putting pressure on traditional systems of customer engagement with a wide variance in energy consumption patterns.

Tech-savvy energy consumers also expect low rates, service reliability, and opportunities to earn incentives for selling excess renewable power back to the grid. 

Overcoming these multifaceted pressures requires a coordinated evolution of infrastructure that harnesses the interconnectivity of AI and advanced analytics.

The role of AI and multi-sensing technology

Utilities sit at the epicentre of this transformation as grid operators and electricity providers. They face acute challenges in accurate forecasting, infrastructure upgrades, and balancing the priorities of diverse stakeholders.

However, a core infrastructure element, underground grids and conduits, present immense potential yet require high investment, and so, are underutilized despite clear stakeholder preference given superior resilience and aesthetic benefits.

The opacity of underground infrastructure severely constrains future-proofing a renewable grid. Without accurate mapping of buried cables and conduits, adding variable generation from solar and wind, risks overloading grid visibility.

Always-on, advanced sensor technologies and analytics help power diagnostics on existing underground networks. Integrating real-time sensor data with AI/ML capabilities empowers grid simulation, risk detection and predictive maintenance as the waves of distributed resources swell.

Enhanced underground mapping unlocks immense clarity for utilities – helping to optimize capital planning to advance system modelling amid disruption.

A diversity of emerging approaches, from satellite imagery analysis to drones and even autonomous underground inspections, make surging progress tangible. As infrastructure transparency improves, so do the prospects for balanced, sustainable decentralized grids.

Realising the smart grid vision

“Smart grids” leverage connectivity, automation and intelligence to optimize power delivery while enabling broader decentralised renewable energy integration.

Key features like advanced customer usage analytics, self-diagnosing and self-healing network architectures, and interconnected microgrids have the potential to profoundly reshape the utility landscape. But to fully reap the benefits of these technologies, infrastructure must keep pace through strategic investments powered by advanced mapping data and grid modelling algorithms.

Sensors and asset analytics can guide targeted grid upgrades while machine learning and artificial intelligence inform load forecasting, outage prediction and even automated control mechanisms to balance real-time supply and demand more efficiently.

Future-proofing for equitable access

In addition to infrastructure demands, equity issues must also be addressed within the disruption to traditional utility models that tend to exacerbate existing gaps across reliability, affordability, and access for disadvantaged groups.

However, advanced technology also provides the ability to safeguard inclusivity and access. Resilient, distributed grid architectures help minimise disproportionate infrastructure threats facing lower-income communities lacking alternatives.

Mapping, modelling and software analytics directly combat bloated energy bills, unlocking efficiencies as consumption habits evolve. Access to real-time integrated data, improving decisions across capital planning, customer engagement and regulation, serves as a powerful equaliser.

The way forward

Technology that serves all interests; policies that reflect shared priorities; and collaborative roadmaps that value collective needs.

These technologies and techniques demonstrate the invaluable role of artificial intelligence in upgrading critical infrastructure and building reliable decentralised energy integration as we future-proof the grid. As utilities navigate this period of complexity, ethical technology partners are positioned to drive immense societal impact.

But technology alone cannot drive this transition. Progress relies on coordination across the entire symphony of stakeholders – all united behind the acute priority of safeguarding resilient, affordable and sustainable energy futures.

Utilities must convince reluctant regulators of critical upgrades needed; policymakers must incentivise consumer participation; and technology partners must design solutions that drive equitability and accessibility across the entire socio-economic strata of society. 

With consumer habits, business models and climate realities all evolving swiftly, the onus rises on utilities as the linchpins of power generation to ensure our most fundamental needs remain met.  The clean energy transition will never fit neatly into quarterly earnings calls.

Yet visionary utilities who see the writing on the wall will harness technology advancement not just to protect the status quo, but to drive decentralised grids where customer and climate needs seamlessly align.

In this frame, artificial intelligence offers more than just incremental improvements. Configured conscientiously, augmenting human capability through leading technology promises to unlock the very best within ourselves and the tools we build – a more resilient, equitable and sustainable future for all.

About the author:

Bret Simon leads US utility and energy partnerships at Exodigo, a non-intrusive, multi-sensing subsurface imaging platform.

Before Exodigo, he spent 12+ years working with electric and gas utilities companies, such as Arizona Public Service, Entergy, Duke, PG&E, and others.

Digitalisation is very much front and centre in the energy sector currently and it is too in other sectors as they look to harness the benefits.

While key enablers of digitalisation, such as data centres and artificial intelligence are of concern as their number and the level of activities grow, a new study from Capgemini’s research institute indicates that the implementation of the digital technologies themselves can yield savings.

According to the study, through their implementation organisations have reduced their energy consumption by almost a quarter over the past five years, while also a 21% decrease in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has been delivered.

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Moreover, further reductions are in prospect, even as digital footprints expand.

The use of technologies to reduce the carbon footprint, coupled with advances in energy efficiency within the digital landscape, suggest that the benefits are expected to outweigh the environmental costs, affirming the significant positive impact of digital technologies, the report states.

The eco-digital era

The report projects that the eco-digital economy – i.e., that delivers economic value and environmental and social value – will grow at a rate of 15% annually to double in size over the next five years.

Digital platforms and software drive this, 5G comms and emerging technologies such as generative AI, digital twins and quantum computing, with outcomes expected to boost innovation, productivity and decision-making and drive the emergence of new revenue streams.

Based on the five-year emissions reductions of the organisations, growth scenario modelling by Capgemini Research Institute indicates that over the next five years, digital technologies could deliver a net emission reduction of between 8-12%, significantly outweighing their associated 2% footprint.

For example, tools such as augmented and virtual reality reduce the need for travel.

Energy consumption can be optimised with digital solutions and they can be used to aid informed decision-making to mitigate environmental impact.

A case cited is LG Electronics in Changwon, South Korea. It achieved a 17% productivity boost, 70% higher product quality and a 30% energy consumption reduction by converting its assembly-line simulation into a digital twin integrated with real-time data.

Another is Schneider Electric, which at its Le Vaudreuil site has implemented IIoT sensors and real-time digital twins of plant installations, resulting in a 25% reduction in energy consumption and a 25% reduction in emissions as well as a 17% decrease in material waste.

Additionally, a zero-reject water-recycling station connected to cloud analytics and monitored by an AI model at the company’s smart factory has led to a 64% reduction in water usage.

The research also indicates that organisations have only scratched the surface of the current technological landscape, harnessing around 25% of the overarching potential of mainstream digitalisation technologies such as AI/ML, robotics, automation and the Internet of Things.

This indicates immense untapped possibilities in digital innovation – and with digital investment as a proportion of revenue expected to double in the next five years, these will undoubtedly result.

For reference, the top investment priorities are scaling mainstream technologies such as data and the cloud, cybersecurity and privacy measures and reskilling of the existing workforce.

Capgemini’s research institute also provides some recommendations on how to harness the opportunities of the eco-digital era.

These include identifying efficiencies across the business to drive cost savings, striving for a balanced blend of short-to-medium-term successes and reinvesting savings into digital transformation.

Sustainability and accessible performance metrics also should be embedded into the product and services lifecycle.

The study was based on a survey of 1,500 senior executives at large global organisations and high-value start-ups, and so it is not energy sector-specific. Nevertheless, it highlights not only the internal benefits your company can achieve but also the external with a further recommendation to tap into the industry and supplier ecosystem, i.e. of you the reader, to accelerate improvements.

Jonathan Spencer Jones

Specialist writer
Smart Energy International

Follow me on Linkedin

As part of their commitment to green development and reducing energy consumption in China’s aluminium industry, Chalco initiated a digital demonstration project for their Zhongrun Aluminium Factory.

They retained SAMI to apply digital twin technology throughout the design, construction, operations and maintenance of the plant.

The data and multiple disciplines spread across 52 sub-projects presented data integration and coordination issues. To accurately link 300GB of design and construction data with a 3D model to manage the facility, SAMI needed open modelling technology and a connected data environment.

SAMI selected Bentley applications to develop an enterprise digital factory management platform and build the aluminium industry’s first plant-wide digital twin. Bentley’s integrated applications reduced modeling time by 15%, saving more than 200 workdays.

Digitised factory operations reduced annual management costs by CNY 6 million (approximately €775,684; $820,000), unpredictable equipment failures by 40% and environmental emissions by 5%.

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When the project started, what were some of the challenges it wanted to address?

The design time for the project was very short, we’d need six months and there were many units, 52 of them, as well as 15 areas of specialisation that we needed to synergise.

This brought into question the first issue we had to address – how do we use this digital technology to design a complete factory model?

Additionally, the construction time for the project, 18 months, was very short, especially in China. This was the second challenge – how do we improve construction efficiency and quality with digital twin technology?

The third challenge came as a result of how, being such a huge project with so many production units, there was a lot of documents and immense amounts of data.

Which brought the questions – how do we integrate these data and the models and create a digital outcome for the owner, so that the property owner can check this for operations and maintenance later.

What were some of the systems that were implemented during the project and what were their results?

We used all of Bentley’s professional modules, software that was customised to resolve specific issues we may have had. The 3D design is useful in that it can involve all the disciplines.

We have our own database with data that is automatically generated so when we do the modelling it is fully attributed.

Thirdly, we have a dedicated engineering designer use the Bentley power PID software, which we use to match codes to assets, this programme’s code is like a person’s ID. This code is not created by a human but rather by the Bentley software, because the amount of data that needs to be coded is incredibly big.

During construction, we made use of software to control our progress very precisely.

With the 3D modelling, we conduct reviews and inspections and optimise our design solutions. This is done to reduce space used, which will be needed later during upgrades. This efficiency allows for more space for operations, equipment and maintenance.

With digital technology, we developed an unmanned system for hidden facilities inspection, including an underground pipeline, which allows us to very quickly identify which part of the pipeline might have issues.

We integrated with VR technology to provide training for emergency response and emergency evacuation. The VR proved a very intuitive way of doing these tasks, which can otherwise take more manpower and time than necessary.

Lastly, we have a digital twin of the full factory model where we can quickly look at the factory, the main facilities, the status of energy consumption, the environment’s status and the positioning of people and vehicles. The company’s ERP (enterprise resource planning) can also be inputted into this as well.

What do you see as the future of digital twins in the sector?

To completely remove the necessity of having human beings physically be in the factory to operate.

This could be done through a display console and terminal where we can read and access key data of the factory. And in the future, as AR technologies evolve, this could also allow for more precise forecasting of production, allowing for us to more accurately control conditions and materials to make sure that my output is consistent.

This is a big future goal – full remotely controlled operations. Right now, in the key areas, it can already be done.

What do you think would be a timeline for making that happen?

Let’s look at it this way: To get from traditional 2D designs and drawings to 3D, it took us three years.

From 3D to digital construction and deliverables, we took approximately five years.

But getting to the next stage, where property owners of the plant can take this tech and use it, where everything can be remotely controlled, it still depends on the development of artificial intelligence.

I’d like to say five years but it depends.

But, like I said before, in key areas, it can already be done. It can be done in terms of equipment, where we can already do unmanned, remotely controlled inspections to observe a lot of key information about the factory and its operations.

And this alone has already disrupted our traditional ways of factory management.

Shenyang’s Liu and his team won the award within the power and process generation category during the Bentley Year in Infrastructure and Going Digital Awards 2023, hosted in Singapore.

Other categories included transmission & distribution, bridge & tunnels, subsurface modelling & analysis, surveying & modelling, water & wastewater, structural engineering, roads & highways, rail & transit, construction, enterprise engineer and facilities, campuses & cities.

Data centres, crypto mining and AI are ultimately different sides of the same coin, requiring banks of processors churning away often on a 24/7 basis with their need for energy for operations, cooling and other associated tasks such as communications for the in and out data flows.

In scale, the traditional data centre sector is the largest from the energy perspective, while the crypto sector has garnered the most criticism and publicity driving a rapid shift towards more sustainable – but in some locations still controversial – operations.

But AI remains something of an uncertainty with its accelerating growth. While already widely used but still growing in business applications it is yet to take off at the consumer level – and as it is made more accessible that use is likely to be massive.

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Currently, most consumers are likely to be largely unaware of AI directly, although it contributes to many aspects of daily life.

For many ChatGPT introduced in November 2022 was probably their first ‘hands on’ experience.

Subsequently, over the past few months, Microsoft has been piloting its Copilot, which is built on the ChatGPT technology.

But now AI is entering the mass market with Samsung’s new S24 range of Galaxy mobiles full of AI-powered features.

With mobiles the ‘aways to hand’ device and a selection of what on paper at least appear compelling applications – real-time translation to other languages and wallpaper picture generation to name two – AI is likely to rapidly become part of the daily usage of these devices and others that follow suit, not to mention the possibility of Google’s Bard getting more prominence in the Android OS.

Energy consumption

The IEA’s Electricity 2024 review released last week reports data centres, cryptocurrencies and AI – of which there are more than 8,000 around the world – consuming an estimated 460TWh of electricity globally in 2022, amounting to almost 2% of the global demand.

Of this, the majority, almost three-quarters, was from traditional data centres, with almost all of the rest from cryptocurrencies.

Within three years by 2026 that demand could double and potentially exceed 1,000TWh, the IEA estimates from its modelling.

In particular, AI’s energy demand is projected to grow exponentially to at least ten times its 2023 demand level, which would put it in the range of 70-100TWh.

As an example of how demand could increase the IEA points to search tools such as Google, which could see a tenfold increase of their electricity demand with the full implementation of AI in the process.

The current average electricity demand of a typical Google search is 0.3Wh of electricity compared to ChatGPT’s of 2.9Wh per request, and scaling that up to 9 billion searches daily amounts to an almost 10TWh additional electricity requirement in a year.

Energy challenge

One approach to the energy challenge is greater efficiencies in the data centres themselves.

Currently, the servers and cooling systems are each responsible for about 40% of the demand, with the remaining 20% consumed by the power supply system, storage devices and communication equipment.

More efficient cooling, currently at least, offers the greatest benefits but the move towards hyperscale data centres with upwards of 2,000 racks is achieving energy savings and in the future quantum computers potentially could replace the traditional servers.

Temporary time and location shifting of data centre workloads to regions with lower carbon intensity also is considered to have potential.

Arguably the most significant approach advocated in a conversation with Bloomberg at the World Economic Forum meeting by Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, is for a breakthrough with more climate-friendly sources of energy such as nuclear.

“The two important currencies of the future are compute/intelligence and energy and I think we still don’t appreciate the energy needs of this technology,” he said, stating that those energy needs will “force us to invest more in the technologies that can deliver this”.

One nuclear option is SMRs, with their potential for an onsite power supply, but closer to Altman’s heart is fusion, in which he has invested $375 million in the private US company Helion Energy.

Helion Energy, vowing to be first with fusion, already has a power purchase agreement in place to supply Microsoft from a plant deployment in 2028 and is targeting 2030 to start supplying baseload power to a Nucor steelmaking facility.

With fusion under development for well over half a century and AI playing an important role in its ongoing advancement, there would be a nice sense of ‘circularity’ if its energy demands were, even indirectly, to impact in finally delivering that breakthrough.

As a user of AI, particularly generative AI in its emergence as a distinct sub-genre, let us know how you are applying it in your utility.

Jonathan Spencer Jones

Specialist writer
Smart Energy International

Follow me on Linkedin

Three case studies illustrate how the ‘grids of the future’ emerge in different contexts and locations. Widespread clean and renewable energies and the electricity systems built on digital and other technologies to carry them are the basis for the ‘grids of the future’.

The smart plant – smart energy operations for business success

A recent report from CB Insights found that 80% of industry manufacturers believe smart factories are crucial to their future success. However, while industries face specific challenges in smartening plants due to their complexity and scale, the process may be simpler than it appears.

With smart automation technology and energy technologies such as onsite renewable generation and green hydrogen production, plant operators have the tools to readily modernise, automate and optimise their energy use and other plant operations.

As an example, a global manufacturer of pumps and pump systems, Wilo wished to decarbonise its activities by becoming energy-independent and centralising the management of the different processes and energy flows involved.

The solution included a 3MW rooftop solar installation powering a 300kW electrolyser to produce green hydrogen with a 500kg tank for its storage. A 150kW battery energy storage system was integrated for peak shaving and emergency power supply via a 75kW fuel cell. An exchanger also was implemented to enable the use of waste heat for cooling applications.

With the integration of all the processes in a single digital platform the automation of the launching of green hydrogen production and the use of the available energy resources for peak shaving, the solution responded fully to Wilo’s needs.

Green hydrogen – how AI can accelerate the energy transition

While all the potential uses of green hydrogen in the future energy mix are open to debate there is agreement that it will have an important role, in decarbonising sectors that are hard to electrify, such as heavy transport and in an industry where hydrogen has been used as a feedstock for decades.

A major challenge, however, is scaling up the production, with decisions on where to site electrolysers and infrastructure such as storage taking into consideration the need for renewable energy to create green hydrogen and the demand requirements.

A new analysis from the ETIP SNET initiative argues that electrolysers should not be treated merely as a new load on the grid but should be addressed as a part of the system architecture so that the growth of the hydrogen ecosystem is matched with that of the associated renewables.

The analysis suggests that most electrolysers are likely to be grid-connected. While smaller MW-scale electrolysers should be able to rely on grid power when renewables are not available, larger GW-scale electrolysers will have a significant impact, requiring transmission system operator positioning and solutions such as microgrids for their operation.

Electrolysers and the wider hydrogen ecosystem also are expected to play an important role in delivering demand flexibility to the grid, both short term of seconds to minutes and long term up to months with storage of excess renewable generation.

With this, they offer the potential to support resilience on the grid and to control electricity prices for consumers by avoiding the need for other more costly grid management options.

Data centres – the renewable energy opportunity

Data centres are a growing and key component of the IT infrastructure, enabling the cloud and software as a service. They are energy intensive, due both to the number of servers they need to run and to the associated cooling requirements. Often, they have the added challenge of delivering 24/7 availability, necessitating a backup power requirement.

A key consideration in evaluating solutions for data centres is the level of emissions that are assessed as Scope 3 (i.e. indirect, across the value chain) as these become increasingly important for reporting.

Depending on the carbon intensity of purchased electricity, Scope 3 emissions can be the largest contributor to the total carbon footprint. The main action proposed to reduce Scope 3 emissions is to use more renewable and clean energies, such as solar, wind or hydro.

The use of clean energies also is a key step for more sustainable power backup. Traditionally diesel generation has served as the backup and a first step is to introduce a mix of biodiesel or a green renewable diesel.

Another key technology is battery energy storage, with the dual function of enabling participation in day-to-day demand response opportunities to alleviate congestion on the grid and serve as a backup in the case of an outage.

For example, if the grid is subject to very high power demand, such as during a heat wave, data centres can use their microgrid systems to reduce load on the grid, improving overall grid flexibility. When this battery system is charged with renewable energy, it emits zero carbon during operation. When there is a surplus in renewable supply, instead of curtailing the production, this surplus can be used to charge the battery storage.

Energy efficiency is another area of opportunity for data centres. As an example, waste heat is being used increasingly to help heat nearby buildings or to supply industrial heat users, reducing the energy use from other sources. For efficient data centre operation, all energy flows should be managed from a central automated platform.

These are three of the many examples of how the latest digital innovations and other technologies are delivering the grids of the future to accelerate the integration of clean and renewable energies and large-scale electrification across sectors.

Read Part 1 of this 3-part series: Renewable energies for the grid of the future
Read Part 2 of this 3-part series: Renewable energies – the transmission and distribution enablers

The concept of capturing solar energy in space and beaming it down to the Earth had its origins with the well-known science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in an early short story from his student days during the Second World War.

While it attracted limited attention in the following years, since the turn of the century with the increasing move to renewables, interest has grown and subsequently accelerated, with several initiatives emerging, including in the US, UK, Europe, Japan and China.

The fast-falling costs of satellite launches with their proliferation has given impetus to the proposal. However, while conceptually it is straightforward, technologically it is still very complex – to place solar panels several square kilometres in extent in space and then to deliver the energy via conversion to microwaves and reconversion on the ground with sufficient efficiency.

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Nevertheless, several studies, most recently one from NASA, have indicated that cost parity with ground-based renewables should be possible by 2050, if not before.

With this space-based solar can become a viable addition to the renewables mix, with one of its prime benefits its ability to deliver solar energy on a virtually 24/7 basis – something that earth-based photovoltaics are unable to match, currently at least although not to be ruled out in the future.

For example, the CASSIOPeiA design proposed in the UK with two 1.7km diameter solar collectors is calculated to be able to deliver 2GW to the grid via a 5km diameter rectenna ground station.

Caltech’s space solar power demonstrator

Key to the development of space-based solar is the ability to test the technologies in space where they can be subject to the effects of space weather such as the solar wind.

Last October researchers from the Universities of Surrey and Swansea reported demonstrating the potential of a new solar cell technology based on thin-film cadmium telluride deposited directly onto ultra-thin space qualified cover glass material.

After six years in space, the cells were observed to show no signs of delamination and no deterioration in short circuit current or series resistance but the power output had decreased, which is attributed to an aspect of the cell design and is to be altered for the next generation.

Arguably the most advanced initiative is that at Caltech in the US, which was launched over a decade ago and is seeing investment of over $100 million on a largely philanthropic basis.

Read more Tech Talk

One year ago the first space solar power demonstrator was launched into space and while it ceased communication in November, one year on all three of the technologies carried, all fundamental for the delivery of space-based solar, have now been confirmed to have been successful.

These have shown that a flexible mesh material can be carried into space and deployed, that low-cost manufactured solar cells show potential for space use – particularly those with high-performance compound semiconductor materials such as gallium arsenide – and that energy beamed from space can be detected on the Earth.

Reflectors in space

Another option being considered is one that was proposed back in the early 1980s for nighttime illumination of cities – having giant reflectors in space that reflect the sunlight down to Earth, in particular at dawn and dusk when demand is peaking and the output from solar farms is weakening.

In a 5-year project that was started in late 2020 at the University of Glasgow, a reference architecture has been published recently for ‘Solspace’ as a constellation of five hexagonal-shaped reflectors with a combined area of about 1,000m2 – their size dictated by the available other technologies required for example, for attitude control.

With constant solar facing, these are estimated to deliver approximately 280MWh of solar energy daily to large solar farms, around 10km in extent to match the size of the solar beam at the proposed altitude of almost 1,000km, across the Earth.

With an operational lifetime of 20 years, the cost of the electricity is estimated at $70/MWh.

Further results are yet to come from the project, which also was proposed to look at issues such as the use of 3D printing methods for the reflectors, which are proposed to be made from aluminised Kapton and gossamer thin.

These findings and those from the other initiatives are early stage and much work still needs to be done to evolve the technologies and to implement a commercial-scale operation.

But in one form or another, it will happen, and perhaps as early as 2035 if the UK’s Space Solar venture meets its timeline.

The year 2023 was a record-setting year for investment and growth in clean energy, with the International Energy Agency projecting over 500GW of new renewable capacity to come online by year-end globally. Energy storage, a critical component of a fully renewable grid, also saw record growth in 2023 and Bloomberg New Energy Finance has forecast a 27% compound annual growth rate to 2030 to enable renewable growth.  

These trends were supercharged at COP28, where over 100 countries committed to a tripling of renewable energy capacity by 2030. As these bold commitments trickle down to the state and local level, specific policies and roadmaps will emerge to accelerate the deployment of wind, solar and energy storage technology. 

These policies and roadmaps will not be developed in a vacuum. The world at the end of 2023 is an increasingly challenging one, with geopolitical instability, lingering supply chain uncertainty and broader concerns for global environmental justice influencing policy and investment decisions.

These considerations will shape the growing clean energy sector as countries seek solutions that reduce carbon emissions, increase energy security, and ensure environmental sustainability and economic opportunity for their citizens.

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Looking ahead to 2024, we anticipate:  

Concrete policy commitments for clean energy deployment 

In 2024, countries will promulgate specific plans and targets to accelerate policy momentum and achieve the ambitious targets set at COP 28. In the United States, the Inflation Reduction Act is already providing substantial funding for new clean energy projects at the federal level while individual states set ambitious deployment targets. Just last month, the state of Michigan set an energy storage deployment target of 2,500 MW by 2030, joining 10 other states with concrete storage targets. 

This is not limited to the U.S. In Australia, the government of New South Wales has set a goal of 2 GW of long-duration energy storage installed by 2030, and the state of Victoria is committed to 2.6 GW of storage online by 2030. Similar targets are being implemented or considered in Europe and elsewhere globally. In 2024, the race to set and achieve bold clean energy targets will intensify.

Energy security will remain centre-stage

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, energy security became one of the top considerations of policymakers, energy companies and consumers worldwide. Instability in global oil markets served as a reminder of the risks associated with reliance upon globally traded energy commodities controlled by a small group of countries.

Fortunately, an economy powered by renewable energy is potentially much more secure and resilient than one reliant upon fossil fuels. As the clean energy transition accelerates, expect that policymakers will pay close attention to both security of energy supply and security of technology supply: 

• Security of energy supply: Decentralized energy generation reliant upon wind and solar energy is inherently more resilient than large-scale, centralized power grids. In 2024, deployment of these decentralized models will accelerate as utilities and regulators continue to see the advantages. For example, ESS technology is powering a solar + storage microgrid at an industrial recycling facility in Pennsylvania which enables the company to operate seamlessly during grid outages, while also significantly reducing carbon emissions.  

• Security of technology supply: Chokepoints in the global clean energy supply chain are beginning to emerge. Today, energy storage = lithium-ion and the supply chain for lithium-ion batteries runs through a small number of countries, creating supply chain risks. In contrast, new alternatives such as iron flow battery technology, are able to leverage broad supply chains thanks to Earth-abundant materials and commonly available components, mitigating supply chain security risks.

The security advantages of renewable energy will continue to shape energy policies and accelerate the clean energy transition in 2024. 

Circular economy principles will factor into decision making 

In addition to security considerations, in 2024, the environmental, social, and economic impacts of clean energy technology will increasingly factor into procurement decisions. Growing attention to resource and carbon-intensive supply chains and concerns about end-of-life disposal will favour technologies with superior environmental profiles over those which require intensive mining, manufacturing and recycling processes. 

Emerging iron-based energy storage technologies offer one example of an inherently more sustainable alternative. Earth’s abundant materials and commonly available mechanical components can be readily recycled or repurposed at end of life. Additionally, iron flow batteries have approximately one-third the carbon footprint of Li-ion technology, further reducing sustainability risks.  

Emerging technologies will come of age 

In response to these broader trends, over the next year, new clean energy technologies will become established and grow from megawatt-hour to gigawatt-hour scale.   

This trend is already beginning. In Australia, ESS technology will enable the retirement of large coal-fired power stations. An initial iron flow battery pilot project is currently being developed at the Stanwell Power Station in Queensland, Australia, to be followed by a 150 MW installation with options for a further 200 MW per year beginning in 2026.

In Europe, the continent’s largest clean energy hub is in the early stages of development by LEAG, a major German energy generator. When complete, the hub will include 7-14 GW of renewable generation paired with 2-3 GWh of long-duration energy storage to provide green baseload energy and effectively replace coal generation. ESS is partnering with LEAG to supply the long-duration storage component and engineering work is already underway, with delivery of the first 500 MWh iron flow battery system expected in coming years.  

Going forward, these early large-scale projects will provide a blueprint for the clean energy transition and demonstrate how to deliver resilient, clean, baseload energy without fossil fuels.

2024 promises to be an exciting year in the clean energy industry as commitments from COP take shape and renewable deployments accelerate. At ESS, we look forward to continuing to build and deliver safe and sustainable long-duration energy storage solutions and working with our partners to deliver the paradigm-shifting projects which will be the blueprint for the clean energy future.

About the author
Eric Dresselhuys is the CEO of ESS Inc. and joined the long-duration energy storage company in 2021. Dresselhuys has over 25 years of leadership experience and is an accomplished technology and market development pioneer with a demonstrated background in growing both public and private companies.

EV chargers use immense power; writes Ijlal Ullah Khan, analyst at PTR Inc. thus, installing them on-site could strain the property’s electrical system.

And electricity supply and power loads are generally overlooked unless there is an incident.

However, power is essential to any EV charging infrastructure as a standard AC charging station consumes between 7.4 and 22 kW, depending on the model. As power is necessary for EV charging infrastructure, it is crucial to implement EV charging strategies that minimize incidents and prolong existing grid infrastructure.

With the growing number of EV charging stations worldwide, it is vital to adopt load management strategies specific to location requirements to ensure the most efficient charging of EVs.

Load management

EV charging load management requires finding the right balance between daily energy requirements.

Load management optimizes EV charging and reduces grid load by minimizing energy usage during peak demand hours.

On a grand scale, it creates power demand equilibrium across numerous sites, such as individual charging ports, fleet depots, residential buildings, and public parking lots. On a small scale, load management adjusts the charging schedule for a single charge point to a time when energy is affordable.

When several charging stations are in use, load management ensures harmonious power distribution, leading to vehicles being charged efficiently.

There are three load management techniques: unmanaged charging, static, and dynamic load management.

Unmanaged charging

There is no active management of charging loads in unmanaged charging. Due to a lack of control, EVs can charge at full power, leading to high energy peaks and potential blackouts. This unmanaged charging method is only suitable for places with fewer charging points.

Static load management

Static load management is a simple but rigid approach to managing electricity. It divides the total available grid capacity into set portions for base load and EV charging.

However, it is ineffective in certain situations because it does not adjust to real-time load fluctuations. The best places to incorporate static load management are sites with stable base load.

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Dynamic load management (DLM)

Dynamic load management is the most advanced and flexible load management method. It continuously adjusts EV charging capacity based on real-time grid conditions and optimizes charging power without causing unnecessary peaks or overloads.

Moreover, this method allows more charge points to operate on existing grid infrastructure without needing a significant upgrade. It works intelligently to support sophisticated prioritization logic for customized charging strategies.

DLM is applied in large residential complexes to oversee numerous charge points effectively. It finds application in commercial settings and destination charging, such as office buildings, hotels, retail spaces, and hospitality and fitness centers. Additionally, DLM proves advantageous for on-the-go charging, supporting EV charging along highways.

The importance of load management

EV charging load management is essential as it offers various benefits for the existing grid infrastructure.

Inadequate management of EV charging may strain the grid, potentially causing blackouts. Load balancing guarantees that all EVs can charge simultaneously without burdening the grid excessively. This optimization enhances the efficiency of EV charging sites by ensuring swift charging for all vehicles. Moreover, load balancing proves cost-effective by avoiding the necessity for expensive grid upgrades.

Load management is also crucial in commercial settings due to businesses’ unique and diverse electrical demands. Companies can enhance their energy efficiency and reduce costs by optimizing energy consumption patterns, steering clear of peak demand charges.

Businesses can bolster energy resilience by integrating backup power sources. Furthermore, load management aids in prioritizing critical loads and meeting energy-related regulations and standards, contributing to compliance.

Businesses can support grid stability by actively participating in demand response programmes through effective load management strategies.

Types of EV charging strategies

Multiple EV charging strategies can be incorporated at the charging stations in the load management process, keeping the user’s needs in alignment.

Priority charging

Priority charging is helpful for locations where some EV drivers have special needs, such as employees who work in the field or delivery vehicles that need to make trips at short notice.

Balanced charging

Balanced charging distributes the available charging power evenly to all connected EVs. It is suitable for most locations as it is a fair and efficient way to charge EVs.

Series charging

Series charging gives priority to EVs that are plugged in first. It is a good option for locations where EVs typically arrive and depart at different times, such as hotels, restaurants, and supermarkets.

Proportional charging

Proportional charging allocates charging power based on the individual needs of each EV driver. It is best suited for locations where EV drivers have different departure times and required ranges, such as workplaces and fleet depots.

PV surplus charging

PV surplus charging is a sustainable and cost-effective way to charge EVs as it uses surplus solar power, but it is only possible in locations with solar panels.

Scheduled charging

Scheduled charging enables EV charging during off-peak hours to avoid high grid tariffs. EV drivers with flexible schedules can benefit from scheduled charging.

The best EV charging strategy for a particular location depends on the specific needs of that location. Some important factors to consider are the number of EVs that need to be charged, availability of solar power, grid capacity, parking duration of EVs, and mobility needs of the EV drivers.

The power distribution of EV load management

EV load management provides power to EV chargers in two ways: equal distribution and first-in, first-charged.

In equal distribution, each EV charger gets the same amount of electricity, regardless of when it starts charging. Fleet managers who want to charge all their vehicles at the same time find equal distribution to be useful.

In first-in, first-charged, the EV charger that begins charging first gets the most power, and the other chargers receive whatever power is left. This method is handy at public charging spots where people want to charge their vehicles quickly.

The best type of load sharing for a particular application depends on the user’s need. The figure below shows both types of load sharing.

Way forward

When properly maintained, EV charging infrastructure enables load balancing, ensuring the energy grid’s stability and efficiency. Using innovative charging capabilities, charging stations may optimize charging schedules based on grid conditions, demand changes, and available energy capacity.

The solutions alleviate grid stress during heavy demand by evenly dispersing the load among charging stations, fostering a more stable and robust energy infrastructure.

Load management is essential for a sustainable and efficient EV ecosystem. It prevents grid overloads, ensures optimal charging for each EV, balances energy consumption across sites, and allows for customizable charging strategies.

This leads to reduced environmental impact, enhanced grid resilience, improved cost efficiency, and a better experience for EV drivers. Future research and development should focus on interoperability, integration with smart grids and renewables, cybersecurity, and data standardization to ensure success in optimizing EV charging strategy.

A data space for energy in Europe is a key element of the EU’s digitalisation action plan and indeed the concept of open data and the platform or ‘space’ to deliver it is gathering momentum in other sectors and countries.

The energy sector presents specific considerations. The sector is largely regulated but non-discriminatory access to the grid and to markets is a key principle that needs to be maintained in a data space setting.

Moreover, European and national regulatory bodies are imposing rules and guidelines that impact data management and exchange, which also must feed into the design and governance.

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In practice, there will be a multiplicity of data spaces and there will be need for alignment with other data spaces such as mobility – another requirement set out in the digitalisation action plan – and thus interoperability will be key.

Interoperability approaches in data spaces

The EC states that “a common European data space brings together relevant data infrastructures and governance frameworks, in order to facilitate data pooling and sharing. It will include the deployment of data sharing means and services, data governance structures, and will improve the availability, quality and interoperability of data.“

Several initiatives are approaching interoperability from different angles, which form the focus of a new position paper from the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA).

The IDSA itself has defined and developed mechanisms focussed strongly on technical and semantic interoperability and, with the IDS Rulebook, offers guidance on how to achieve organisational interoperability.

Technical interoperability deals with the applications and infrastructures linking systems and services in the data space, while semantic interoperability guarantees the preservation and understanding of the precise format and meaning of the data and information exchanged.

Organisational interoperability, in practice, involves documenting, integrating or aligning business processes and the pertinent information exchanged.

The approach of FIWARE is to foster interoperability with the use of defined open APIs and a growing set of open standard-based so-called ‘smart data models’.

The Gaia-X initiative has defined the Gaia-X Trust Framework to provide a worldwide set of rules and specifications to support data space authorities and federations seeking interoperability.

Reference architectures

Alongside these, a number of reference architectures are being developed with EU project funding support.

The OMEGA-X architecture, for example, is comprised of four main components – a marketplace, federated infrastructure, connectors enabling the flow of data and services and compliance services.

The ENERSHARE architecture draws a distinction between ‘local’ and ‘horizontal’, with the local building blocks facilitating the functionalities local to a use case and the horizontal building blocks allowing participation in the data space.

Others are the Data Cellar architecture, with similarities conceptually to OMEGA-X and the SYNERGIES architecture with two main conceptual layers comprised of an energy data space ecosystem and energy services marketplace.

The EDDIE architecture is prioritising an overlying data sharing interface with the first use case focussed on in-house smart meter data.

Policy issues

In a separate policy paper, ETIP SNET addresses energy data space policy, reviewing specific use cases including the optimisation of transmission and distribution systems operations, the instantiation and operation of energy communities and inter-border EV services.

These are considered as depicting precise situations in which data sharing allows, on one hand, to generate value without necessarily exchanging the data itself and, on the other hand, to foster optimisation via data-enabled analytics solutions.

Several key challenges are identified, with technical challenges including the accessibility of data from smart meters and DER devices, the role of the identity management component and the harmonisation of data models and components.

As these challenges are strictly related to the need of create the conditions for a wider customer involvement, data spaces are in this respect a great opportunity to make clear the central role of the customers in terms of data provisions, the paper points out.

Challenges

The ETIP SNET paper states that in general, regulatory and technical challenges have to be addressed together to avoid further late issues.

From the organisational viewpoint, the measures to federate different initiatives in the ecosystem and its long-term maintenance have the foremost importance to avoid the possibility of data silos.

Another challenge corresponds to the entire re-thinking of business processes in the energy sector, with generation and grid control having both decentralised and centralised aspects and to ensure interoperability, regulation must be effective.

The IDSA paper points to the “fundamental” role of standards for interoperability to avoid vendor lock-in, enhance scalability and ensure data protection and cybersecurity.

Regarding technical interoperability, for successful federation of different data spaces, compatibility among different data connectors, services and trust frameworks must have the highest priority.

For semantic interoperability, the main challenge for the energy domain is the enormous variety of devices, assets and applications. It is therefore necessary to place additional effort on the harmonisation of ontologies and data models.

Next steps

The various architectures being demonstrated open the way for sharing of experiences and both papers call for collaboration with the potential to identify common ground for use cases for a European data space and to guide regulation.

The development and rollout of a common European energy data space is in the hands of the European Commission, with the digitalisation action plan stating that deployment starts no later than 2024.

However, it is likely to be potentially delayed. Key industry development input, including a portfolio of high-level use cases and their implementing details and deliverables needed for data exchanges to deliver on the objectives of the Green Deal and the Digital Decade, are expected from a ‘Data for Energy’ sub-group of the new still to be formed Smart Energy Expert Group.

In the plan, the Smart Energy Expert Group was scheduled for set up by March 2023, but was delayed until the second half of the year with nominations closing in November 2023.

In the meantime, the Commission has awarded a contract to a consortium led by digital solution company Eviden Belgium to develop ‘Simpl’ – a middleware platform to enable cloud-to-edge federations and support data access and interoperability among the European data spaces.

Simpl is planned to be an open source stack with modular structure and a secure approach to give data providers full control over who accesses their data in such data spaces.

While the contract runs over three years, to end of 2026, a proof-of-concept is expected to be released by summer 2024 and a minimum viable platform released by the end of 2024.

As we venture into 2024, here are my top three predictions of what will change in the energy industry this year:

Retailers will tackle transformation

This year, energy suppliers globally will confront crucial decisions on how best to transform their business for net zero, with those who fail to modernise fast enough, at risk of falling behind agile challengers.

We saw this happen in the UK market and are now witnessing it in other parts of Europe and Australia.

According to EY, 94% of energy providers say their ability to move quickly is a challenge and 62% of customers have experienced a problem using their energy provider’s digital service.

This year, retailers must ensure agility is built into the core of their technology platforms to enable innovation at speed – else high-value customers will vote with their feet as competitors rapidly launch increasingly targeted and tailored propositions.

There’s a phenomenal opportunity today for retailers to truly engage customers in their energy by creating a unified and easy-to-use experience that encompasses every device – from their EV to solar PV – and shows customers exactly how much they’re using, spending and saving, all in real time.

However, incumbent retailers can’t just bolt on these innovative offerings anymore. True transformation can only be unlocked once retailers take stock of their current digital infrastructure, strip back the hundreds of products and tariffs that are slowing them down and deploy the technologies that allow them to test and iterate as they scale.

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Energy is about to get a lot more personal thanks to AI

Customers will continue to tune into their energy use as bills are likely to climb once again this winter. High prices and engaged customers will prompt retailers to develop new propositions and personalise their offerings. Through AI tools, retailers will receive a more holistic view of the customer and what they need.

For example, establishing whether a customer has certain smart devices like an EV and solar panels. This can unlock solar matching – an AI technology that automatically charges an EV when there is excess energy available from a connected solar system. Solar charging is groundbreaking because it is essentially free, sustainable and produces zero carbon.

Through personalised recommendations, customers will feel more valued and in control of their energy use and costs.

Whilst energy costs remain top of mind for consumers, cost to serve remains top of mind for retailers in an environment where margins are still squeezed. This is where AI also plays a key role. Through deploying AI to support agents in serving customers, or even using AI to directly respond to customer queries; operational costs can be reduced, response times slashed and, if the AI is truly intelligent, customer satisfaction can increase. 

Getting back to basics – fixing the smart meter issue

Before retailers can think about real-time data and personalisation, we need higher smart meter penetration to gather these insights. Although not a novel tech, smart meters are absolutely critical to global sustainability and energy management. They play a vital role in managing the integration of distributed energy resources like solar panels and EVs.

In Europe, 13 of the 27 EU countries are moving along on their smart meter goals, however, 11 countries have barely started or don’t have any plans at all. In the UK, we’re also seeing challenges in the roll out with adoption rates at a stubborn 58% as of June 2023, below expectations. And with 11% of smart meters in Britain not working properly, it’s clear we need to get back to basics. I predict that smart meter penetration will exceed 70% in the UK next year as the industry doubles down on getting this foundational tech in place for our future energy system and as customers see the value of participating in smart meter-dependent demand response schemes like the National Grid’s Demand Flexibility Service.

As the energy industry braces for the challenges and opportunities that 2024 holds, rapid digital transformation, a boom in AI-driven personalisation, and smart meter advancements will take us a step closer to net zero.

About the Author
Melissa Gander has more than 15 years of experience in the energy industry. She became OVO Group Chief Operating Officer in 2019 and joined Kaluza in 2021 as Chief Operating Officer.

Connected home appliances are proliferating as interests in smart homes grow with consumers becoming more energy conscious and manufacturers bringing ever more advanced models and control systems to the market.

As a barometer of this trend, no less than 13,000 industry attendees at the 2024 CES (Consumer Electronics Show) have listed smart home and appliances as one of their business interests and almost two-thirds of the attendees from the smart home industry are senior level executives.

And as a favoured opportunity for new product launches, as an example Samsung, long at the forefront of the trend, is expanding its SmartThings Energy home energy management platform with a service integration with Tesla as well as harnessing latest generation AI in new products including the next generation family hub smart refrigerator and robotic vacuums.

Home appliances

For flexibility and energy management in the home a range of appliances can potentially be involved, ranging from smart lighting and white goods to heating and cooling technologies such as HVAC and space and water heating and increasingly with their growing uptake rooftop PV, battery storage and electric vehicles.

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Coupled with these is the need for control systems such as sensors and smart plugs and thermostats, along with a management platform with algorithms either locally or in the cloud.

Clearly the success of such delivery is related to both the capabilities of the home appliances as well as the ability to approach and exploit these capabilities, with a common form of control across a broader range of appliances allowing wider deployment of energy management systems and increasing the available flexibility – in short, that there is interoperability among appliances and systems.

Interoperability status

What then is the status of achieving interoperability of home appliances?

To investigate this the European Bridge project surveyed 18 projects (the number that responded) on the use of the appliances and their energy related features. Of these HVAC was the most common appliance type (in 11 projects), followed by white goods, PV inverter, energy storage and EV charger, and all but one of the projects involved two or more appliance categories.

Moreover almost all the appliances were from many manufacturers and the majority of them, over three-quarters, are available in the market.

When it comes directly to addressing interoperability, there are many different approaches followed by the projects, although most tend to create a form of interoperability layer, the Bridge survey found.

This is for instance realised by using as many as possible available standards, using data concentrators, creating custom gateways, using drivers/(interoperability) adapters, or relying on an existing solution – approaches that focus on the interaction down to the appliances.

There are also other approaches for achieving this layer that seem rather to focus on the energy management and the interfaces offered. These include proposing a canonical information model, implementing a semantic interoperability framework and developing a common information model (CIM).

Other approaches again seem to follow a more monolithic approach, where the control algorithms are simply adapted to the protocols offered by the appliances.

On the question regarding the specific framework used by the project to achieve the interoperability goals, the answers tended to mention projects’ own solutions. Some of these were developed over some project generations, while also there were some commercial and open-source solutions.

Another notable finding was that the most common aggregation was at the local level, followed by the cloud then the building and the neighbourhood. Some projects also combined some or all of the levels.

Project scopes and next steps

Overall, the survey found that the projects are on different stages of addressing the issue of home appliance interoperability, mainly as a result of different project scopes and different stages of progress.

Not all of the projects are focussed mainly on interoperability, however, but for those that are it is crucial to investigate their outcomes and make them available, so that the interoperability clients can benefit, the BRIDGE report states.

It is also important to identify and approach the stakeholder groups relevant for the interoperability of home appliances, such as manufacturers and energy managers. The requirements of and for these groups should be named and evaluated.

Specific actions the BRIDGE initiative plan for the coming years are:
● Identification of relevant outcomes/products from the projects, creating a library/repository with the products generated by the projects related to home appliance interoperability, including descriptions for comparison, potential reuse by others, etc.
● Identification and monitoring/supporting activities towards harmonisation/standardisation in this area
● Identification and monitoring of relevant standards and solutions, including creating a list and description of standards related to home appliance interoperability, together with their characteristics
● Creating a multi-class smart appliance database with list of energy related features and interfaces.