The global electricity grid is undergoing a transformation, which is reshaping energy.
Just as the Internet reshaped communication.
What does this mean?
This evolution includes a migration from legacy consumer devices to smart, zero-carbon alternatives, enabling optimized energy consumption and management. Higher energy bills are being addressed through dynamic balancing of supply, generation, storage, and loads.
The traditional utility-centric grid is giving way to microgrid-based architectures that facilitate a two-way exchange of energy and data, replacing the earlier one-way energy flow model. These advancements are supported by the deployment of cutting-edge information technology and communications systems, complemented by the use of advanced analytics and artificial intelligence to manage the complexity of this modernized energy ecosystem.
It is estimated that $10 Trillion investments into smart grids will be made by 2040
With many technologies & products in which the investments will be made yet to be conceptualized, created, pilot and scaled up. The growth drivers will be technology/product innovation and consumer/utility savings/revenue streams. The risks include policy changes, solution obsolescence, grid instability, cybersecurity, and several others. To be successful in the rapidly evolving smart energy landscape, consumers and utilities must be able to
1. Adjust to rapid policy changes
2. Manage electricity assets off a flexible (software) platform
3. Work with many types of new or emerging devices and systems
4. Avoid lock-ins to any single-vendor for generation/storage/load systems.
Opportunities & Challenges
1
Distributed generation systems like solar, wind, geothermal, gensets, small modular reactors, etc.
2
Intelligent transmission and distribution systems like SCADA & RTU systems, capacitor banks, etc.
3
Behind the Meter loads likes smart ACs/heaters, HVACs, BMS systems, EVs, plant machinery, etc.
4
Electrical energy storage systems like batteries, fuel cells, thermal storage, charging stations, etc.
5
Residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural Microgrids for consumer energy optimization.
6
Client engagement applications that provide consumers the ability to monitor/control energy use.
7
Analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence tools for consumers to optimize energy use.
8
Energy trading markets for utilities and consumers to buy/sell energy to optimize costs/incomes.
1
All solutions are point solutions with custom applications/data, delivering sub-optimal outcomes.
2
Deployment of new solutions frequently take months for consumers, and often years for utilities.
3
Consumers and (even more so) utilities are resistant to change, especially if it involves complexity.
4
The vendors/products available for smart energy solutions are limited in choice and capabilities.
5
The fixing, upgrade or replacement of existing systems with smart system is lengthy & expensive.
6
On deploying a specific vendor/product, consumers and utilities get caught in expensive lock-ins.
7
Devices’ hardware/communication/software interfaces are incompatible with backend systems.
8
Consumers & utilities are not shown an ROI via simple data on energy, cost, and carbon savings.
9
And finally, even if everything else is done right, solution pilots can’t scale to millions of devices.
