Getting onboard the 5G era

As energy and utility companies move towards Industry 4.0 era, they need to quickly adopt industry standards for cloud platforms, 5G, and IoT-based systems.

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5G PREPAID PLANS

As energy and utility companies move towards Industry 4.0 era, they need to quickly adopt industry standards for cloud platforms, 5G, and IoT-based systems.

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By Piyali Guha

With the emergence of digital era and increasing uptake of disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, data analytics, cloud, internet of things (IoT), machine learning (ML), robotic process automation (RPA) among others, organizations across sectors are undergoing major business transformations globally. The energy and utility sector too is rapidly realizing the disruptive roles these new age technologies can play in enabling business growth and process efficiency, and how they have become the key accelerator of this transformation story.

For the energy and utility sector, service continuity and operational efficiency are paramount. Fueled by digitization and automation, industries across the globe are witnessing massive shift in consumer bahaviour, and the way businesses are functioning to cater to the changing market dynamics and demands. With enterprise digital competency becoming the core of an organization, emergence of new operational and business models that are leading to transformational delivery capabilities and improved performance, is becoming the new norm. Recognizing the need of the hour, the energy industry in India is also rapidly adopting automation and digital technologies and is going though massive transformation and redesign.

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Digitization for the changing business needs

While a combination of socio-economic factors and technology innovation is driving the energy and utility organizations to transform into digital enterprises, it is important to evaluate the emerging technology trends and implement an effective digital transformation roadmap that is reliable, scalable, secure, and can enable the utilities to deliver enhanced customer experience and improve performance. These solutions are also expected to achieve desired business objectives, gain competitive advantage, as well as, meet regulatory compliances. This is not an easy task!

As the digital journey of the energy and utility sector advances, the companies need to device and execute an effective and innovative digital business platform that will help to deliver operational excellence while ensuring a smooth transition from legacy technologies. “Since many utilities still use legacy applications with proprietary standards, it becomes a challenge to enforce integration of different solution components. This has to be addressed by upgrading certain solutions to conform to open standards,” explains Bragadesh Damodaran, Director, Energy, and Utility Industry Hub, Capgemini.

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A combination of socio-economic factors and technology innovation is driving the energy and utility organizations to transform into digital enterprises.

Bragadesh-Damodaran

“Since utilities use legacy applications with proprietary standards, integrating different solution components is challenging. This can be achieved by upgrading certain solutions to open standards.”

Bragadesh Damodaran, Director, Energy and Utility Industry Hub, Capgemini

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Today technology is driving the way energy is sourced, delivered and consumed. In addition, factors like increased adoption of renewable energy, battery storage, distributed grid edge generation (prosumers), rise of electric vehicles, decarbonization and decentralization are disrupting the energy and utility landscape like never before. “The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has further stressed the need for digitization and business continuity through strengthening IT infrastructure and deploying innovative solutions that will result in optimized business processes, differentiated delivery models and create new business capabilities.”

Keeping in pace with this global trend, India too is rapidly adapting itself to be a frontrunner in this digital transformation story. Adoption of new age technologies like AI, advanced analytics, cloud, IIoT is witnessing great traction and is likely to gain momentum as companies are transmuting their business processes. Chatbots and voice assistance, RPA and blockchain too are evolving as strong technology growth drivers in near future.

“India is very much in the forefront of this global transformation. Aligning to its Paris agreement commitments, the country has set an ambitious target of renewable energy (RE) generation of 450GW by 2030, a substantial reduction in fossil fuel dependence by 2030, a Go-Electric campaign, and incentives for faster EV adoption,” highlights Martin Hauske, Energy Segment Leader for Asia Pacific and Japan, Nokia Solutions & Networks.

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While there is a fast-emerging market for IoT in the Indian power sector for applications like planning and forecasting, utility asset monitoring and predictive maintenance, opportunities are rising in mobile computing front to enhance digital experience, workforce management, SaaS, and technology-on-the-go. A growing market is also foreseen in India for hyper-personalization solutions, using real-time communication systems and RPA to enhance the user experience.

“Indian power sector is contemplating different solutions to meet the energy demands in the most sustainable way, with focus on long-term energy security and sustainability,” points out Damodaran, adding that, “The need is to ensure adoption of industry standards for smooth migration to new platform on cloud, 5G compatibility and IoT-based systems.”

Emerging trends, and technologies too

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The combined impact of energy transition and the pandemic have set the stage ripe for this digital reform for the energy and utility sector and it is pushing them to think afresh and innovate. Advent of new technologies, both at grid and utility levels are not only forcing organizations to restructure business models but address the changing consumer behaviour and consumption patterns effectively. On the other hand, by leveraging new technologies, the companies can monitor and distribute assets in a more efficient and cost-effective way and gain competitive advantage.

If digital technologies were crucial for modernizing extractive industries, their role is now getting redefined for above-the-ground energy production, transmission and distribution. As energy companies are moving towards adopting Industry 4.0, the role of network and communication technologies has become more important. Moreover, trend towards electric cars and subsequent recharging infrastructure creation accentuates the need for network technologies aligning with smart grid and EV info ecosystem.

Experts also point out that renewable energy technologies, that were till recently considered threat to conventional oil and gas (O&G) companies have now become a part of their own portfolio. The industry as a whole is refocused on carbon management, making the goal of decarbonization part of their fundamental strategy.

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Martin-Hauske

“Private LTE and 5G will play crucial role in management of future grids by enabling grid edge automation and real time asset management through drone, VR/AR, and teleprotection.”

Martin Hauske, Energy Segment Leader, Asia Pacific & Japan, Nokia Solutions & Networks

Radical changes in the energy mix is leading to several challenges for utilities, central transmission grids and the state transmission/distribution grids – from managing the intermittency and variability of generation, to maintaining grid stability, and responding to new and surging demands from moving electric loads (EVs).

“Potential revenue erosion with growing prosumer generation and energy-aware and energy-efficient consumers is forcing many utilities to redefine their business models for survival and growth. This is driving higher levels of instrumentation using industrial IoT or IIoT for primary distribution grids. This provides utilities with the ability to sense, respond, and react in real time to manage the supply and demand balance and stability challenges of the future grid. Digitalization and automation will be an essential imperative in managing grid operations and market transactions among grid participants,” states Hauske.

There are several players that are engaged with utilities globally in enabling their future grid transformation with end-to-end communication network technologies like private LTE, 5G, optical, IIoT platforms and digital automation cloud. Besides, there are also technologies that helps utilities plot a path to Industry 4.0, by providing a framework for controlling and managing assets and field resources everywhere; and the adoption of digital value platforms to manage and control the generation, distribution, and operation of energy services.

Exploring new energy sources and fuel alternatives are high on the agenda for the Indian market as well. This includes solar-thermal, solar-wind hybrid, smart battery storage, green hydrogen and carbon sequestration, as well as use of AI/ML to manage the distributed energy resources to optimize generation is the new norm.

There is also a growing trend in India to add more intelligence and improve communication and security in the humongous rollout of smart metering in India. The need for creation of robust and secure communications (e.g., 5G), smart bots and energy data analytics (using AI/ ML), and solutions like load management, energy efficiency management, network health monitoring, predictive analytics and customer services are on the rise too.

The Indian energy and utility sector is also looking to use the new age technologies and solutions to measure asset performance and enhance its life while obtaining a better overview of the diverse assets, and take “retain or retire” decisions of its enormous burden of ageing infrastructure. These needs are pushing the adoption of cloud-based services on software-as-a-service (SaaS) model in the Indian power sector. The solution will further boost the demand for enabling technologies like 5G, edge analytics, cloud computing and cybersecurity. Use of AR/VR and digital twins are other technologies which will dominate the Indian market space in the future.

As many leading Indian power distribution companies are setting up the infrastructure to develop EVs as potential source of clean energy powering the grid, India is also witnessing growing demand for EV infrastructure solutions that tracks grid parameters, energy demand, pricing and weather predictions, using AI/ML, to enable EV owners to make informed decisions on charging their vehicles and exporting power to the grid. “Manufacturing of EVs in large numbers and gradual phase-out of petrol and diesel vehicles will spur the demand of charging infrastructure, which is essential for a healthy growth of EVs in the Indian market,” says Damodaran.

There is a growing trend in India to add more intelligence and improve communication and security in the humongous rollout of smart metering.

Pramod-Paliwal

“As traditional energy companies add renewable to their portfolio, network and communication technologies will need to keep pace with the phenomenon.”

Dr. Pramod Paliwal, Professor & Dean, School of Petroleum Management, PDEU

The new road ahead

The energy sector in India is expected to reform in multiple ways as it’s looking up positively to far-reaching transformation and progress the sustainability agenda to achieve near net-zero targets by 2050. As the country continues to adopt clean technologies, there will be a growing penetration of renewable energy into the grid, and more independent microgrids – solar, wind, biomass, battery energy storage, waste-to-energy, will continue to power communities.

It is estimated that by the middle of the century, India can expect four times as much renewable energy generation as what the country has today. “The scenario in India presents a very interesting case study. As the world strives towards cleaner energy, the country’s hunger for energy is set to overtake EU by 2030, making it third-largest energy consumer of world,” informs Dr. Pramod Paliwal, Professor, and Dean, School of Petroleum Management, PDEU.

“The country will continue to see three times increase in import by 2040. It is fair to argue that India finds itself in an unusual position of having to pioneer a new low-carbon economy while also striving for growth. If India is able to achieve this, it will be a role model for other developing economies, especially in the African continent,” he says, stressing that as traditional energy companies add renewable to their portfolio, network and communication technologies will need to keep pace with the phenomenon.

“If digital technologies were earlier crucial for modernizing extractive industries, their role is now getting redefined for above-the-ground energy production, transmission, and distribution.”

“Going ahead, private LTE and 5G will play a crucial role in the management of future grids by enabling grid edge automation, real-time asset management through drone-based line inspection, VR/AR, and teleportation,” says Hauske. These technologies will enable energy companies to convert into a distribution service operator (DSO) with multiple types of energy service (and potentially adjacent types of smart city services) offerings to consumers, and help build smarter communities. Since energy efficiency will continue to be a focus for these companies, the role of ICT in sharing real-time information, analyzing, and taking corrective actions will become more critical.

By 2050, more bioenergy will be added to the energy landscape. It is estimated that liquid biofuels will surpass petroleum products is fuelling the industry and transport sector, before the mid-century. Also, there will be a big push for green hydrogen as a fuel for the industry and transport, as well as, in carbon sequestration technologies.

Driven by actions to reverse climate change, India will continue to invest in processes, technologies, end-use energy efficiency, and carbon footprint reduction. Besides, market-driven mechanisms, such as peer-to-peer energy trading, carbon pricing, congestion-based pricing, and green certificate trading will become more innovative with AI/ML, which will stimulate reallocation of capital and resources to fund these opportunities.

However, as these trends and opportunities grow bigger, so will the competition. Players, nimble enough to develop new business capabilities and customer-centric products and services delivery models who can continue to offer improved and cost-effective traditional producer-centric commodity products will have the edge for sure.

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