The briefing, which was prepared by Beecham Research, indicates that out of 174.7 million LPWAN chipset shipments in 2022, 65.9 million were LoRa, while 22.4 million were NB-IoT, 45.4 million were LTE-M and the balance a combination of others including Sigfox and Wi-SUN.

By 2027, with growth expected of almost 20% per annum, shipments are projected to reach 424.8 million. Of these, 148.4 million are LoRa, 61.8 million NB-IoT, 107.1 million LTE-M and 107.5 million others.

(To give a broadly global picture, these numbers exclude China, which has adopted NB-IoT as the standard for massive IoT applications, whereas elsewhere a mixture of NB-IoT and LTE-M is offered by mobile operators).

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“Choosing the right connectivity technology for a use case is the most important decision an end-user will make,” states Donna Moore, chairwoman and CEO of the LoRa Alliance.

She comments that without the in-house expertise, solutions providers can help find the right-fit technology.

“Solutions providers analyse use cases, provide education on available technologies and allow project managers to envision the full scope of an IoT deployment. System integrators bring those ideas to life by integrating IoT sensor data into a platform that consolidates data from numerous end-user platforms.”

The briefing reviews the key features of LoRa as a long range, low power technology, initially developed for utility application, with the ability to penetrate concrete and steel and provide connectivity underground, but also finding application in smart building and smart city IoT use cases, particularly where low latency is not a key requirement.

As a result approximately 35-40% of all LoRaWAN deployments are estimated in the utility sector but the other sectors are increasing rapidly.

The briefing also reviews IoT use cases in the three sectors, with its use in the utilities sector for smart gas and water metering to improve the control and measurement of these commodities.

Current example projects cited include an over 3 million LoRa water meter digitalisation by Veolia and subsidiary Birdz in France and a Middle East utility harnessing low Earth orbit satellites with LoRaWAN to gain visibility on its approximately two million smart meters.

Smart building trends include an increasing emphasis on safety and comfort, with IoT applications such as HVAC and lighting control and air quality monitoring.

In cities, IoT applications include smart parking and street lighting, water and waste management and environmental sensing.

While the benefits of this kind of computing capacity are tremendous, the risks are just as great if malicious actors get access to that same quantum capability. It is vital that the providers of all mission-critical networks prepare for that eventuality now.

What is quantum computing?

Conventional computers are based on the binary concept that electrical signals can be either on or off, which is traditionally expressed in 1s and 0s. From the earliest computers that ran programs off physical punch cards to today’s smartwatches, they have all used coding languages based on binary computations.

Quantum computers are based on the principles of quantum mechanics, which allow for many states between on and off. We are not even limited to one state at a time. This means these computers can not only perform their tasks much faster than conventional binary computers, but they can carry out multiple processes at once, increasing their capacity and speed exponentially.

This offers great opportunities for mission-critical industries. Mining, oil and gas companies can quickly and accurately determine the best places to drill, reducing costly and invasive exploratory excavations. Power utilities can better understand weather patterns and the impact of climate change and make usage predictions to prepare the grid in advance to avoid disruption. The aerospace industry can make major breakthroughs faster, being able to perform highly complex analyses at unprecedented speed. Defence organizations can use quantum sensing for deep-sea navigation, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Emergency services organisations can vastly improve preparedness due to more accurate advance notice of natural disasters. Research and Education Networks, dedicated to solving some of humanity’s biggest challenges from climate change to disease and world hunger, can make calculations that are impossible today and accelerate important breakthrough innovation.

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Who is using quantum now?

Today’s quantum computers are highly specialised equipment that demand precise calibration and extreme cooling. That puts them out of reach for most organizations. The few quantum computers that have been built so far are owned by companies like IBM or large government entities. The capacity of today’s quantum computers is used for scientific and research purposes.

However, as demand for quantum computing increases in the private sector, more companies are likely to buy or rent capacity through an as-a-service model. Some innovators are also producing quantum annealers — smaller machines that are less powerful than full-scale quantum computers, but still offer much of the functionality companies are looking for.

Since 2021, Japanese manufacturers Toyota, Mitsubishi Chemical and ten other organizations have been sharing costs and using quantum computing to solve advanced problems, innovate materials for industrial applications and run autonomous vehicle scenarios as we prepare for the next generation of mobility. Mercedes-Benz is using quantum computing to accelerate battery performance for future electric vehicles.

Banks in the United States are running advanced financial computations. Researchers at Fraunhofer and the Cleveland Clinic are sequencing the human genome faster than ever before. Quantum has even been used to accelerate the study of COVID-19 treatments. And CERN, the European Council for Nuclear Research, is using quantum computing to analyse data from the Large Hadron Collider and accelerate our understanding of how the universe works.

Hacking at quantum speed

Today’s encryption mechanisms used to protect in-flight network data were developed to safeguard against an adversary using a conventional computer. Until now, these mechanisms were deemed strong enough to protect sensitive data because these computers cannot break the encryption within a practically useful timeframe.

It would take thousands of years to try every possible key combination. But with a quantum computer, a brute force attack can break most encryption ciphers, within minutes. Just as quantum computers can calculate at speed, access to the technology in the wrong hands means bad actors can also hack at quantum speed.

To launch such an attack requires a Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computer (CRQC): a quantum computer large enough and equipped with the software required to break the asymmetric ciphers typically used in encryption today. The good news is that no such computer exists… yet. But it’s only a matter of time before a CRQC is developed. That moment is referred to as Q-Day — and while some experts believe its arrival to be most likely by 2030, based on recent developments many experts predict it could arrive sooner.

The potential for disaster when Q-Day comes is substantial. With standard encryption protections rendered useless, all networks will become vulnerable to attack. Malicious actors could cripple the world’s mission-critical networks like power grids and water utility systems with life-threatening consequences, in seconds. Financial markets could be tampered with, sending economies into turmoil. Vital medical systems and research could be impacted, causing irreparable damage to medications, vaccines and other life-saving treatments, setting advancements back to the drawing board.

But the risk does not start on Q-Day. Bad actors can “harvest” encrypted data now — even if they can’t do anything with it — and simply hold onto it until they can decrypt it with a CRQC. It is imperative that we start protecting mission-critical data against quantum hacking now.

Read more news from Nokia

Is it even possible to protect networks from quantum hacking?

Yes. Fortunately, quantum-safe networking technology exists right now.

A symmetric, centralized Classic Key Distribution Network (CKDN) is a way of sharing strong keys separately from encrypted data, making it harder for hackers to acquire both pieces required to access the data. This technology has been in use for several years and is an important element of quantum safety. But it is only effective for certain types of network connections and needs to be complemented by other tools and technologies.

To expand quantum security, it will take a multi-faceted approach. Quantum keys, utilising quantum mechanics as the key material source and transmitted through a quantum key distribution network (QKDN), are currently in development and will provide another layer of security.

Cryptographers are also working on post-quantum asymmetric ciphers, designed to withstand quantum attacks. A future quantum-safe ecosystem will include all three of these elements: CKDN, quantum keys and post-quantum ciphers, as well as other technologies that have not even been thought of yet. The goal is to always stay one step ahead.

The quantum threat cannot be ignored and outdated networking technologies or the mindset of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” just won’t fly. Modernized networking technologies with built-in quantum-safe mechanisms will help. Nokia has been at the forefront of research on quantum-safe optical networking, embedding CKDN into our solutions for years. We are currently the only network vendor to offer a quantum-safe solution for our customers — and we are continuing to work with partners around the world on QKD trials and other innovations to ensure that when Q-Day comes, your mission-critical networks are ready.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

James Watt is Vice President and General Manager for the Optical Networks Division at Nokia. Prior to this, James was the Vice President and General Manager for the Services Business Unit, IP/Optical Networks, at Nokia and its predecessor in Alcatel-Lucent, President of the Optics Business Line in Alcatel-Lucent and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Alcatel-Lucent Carrier Product Group. Until 2008, James held the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP Business Division and had previously held the role of Vice President Network Strategy for Alcatel. James joined Alcatel in 2000 as Chief Technology Officer of the Carrier Internetworking Division through the acquisition of Newbridge Networks, where he was Assistant Vice President, Access and Network Management Strategy. During his 15 years with Newbridge, James held a variety of positions within the research & development, product management and marketing organizations. James holds multiple patents, primarily in the areas of traffic management and Internet Protocol. He received a B.SC. in Electrical Engineering from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario in 1986.

Chris Johnson is Senior Vice President and Global Head of Enterprise at Nokia. A veteran sales and business leader, Chris focuses on delivering critical network solutions for the world’s most essential industries. He is a passionate champion of industrial digitalization for enterprises and government organizations, with a deep understanding of how innovative and intuitive digital technologies can bring resilience, productivity, efficiency and sustainability to any operation. Drawing on his experience defining business strategies, developing teams, executing initiatives and driving profitable growth, Chris helps Nokia Enterprise customers harness the exponential potential of networks to unlock new business models and build capacity for long-term success.

IoT connects business operations to analytics for a seamless approach but there are a few hurdles to overcome in the journey to deployment.

KORE is an Energy Web partner – read more news from Energy Web

KORE leverages the latest research from a global Kaleido Intelligence survey focused on industry experts in energy and utilities IoT and use cases from Stedin and Ease2Pay to explore the market opportunity and real-life strategies for IoT applications.

Download the eBook, “IoT in Verticals: Powering Smarter Solutions” to learn:

• Challenges among cellular IoT adopters and non-adopters
• The eSIM and private network opportunities
• Details on how Stedin and Ease2Pay found success in IoT

Monitoring, maintenance, billing, optimisation, and security are key benchmarks in integrating IoT into operations, but complexities and a fragmented ecosystem can make the path forward difficult and sluggish if not managed properly.

KORE is an Energy Web partner – read more news from Energy Web

KORE, Kaleido Intelligence, Stedin, and Ease2Pay discuss the top challenges and opportunities in IoT for energy and utilities in this on-demand webinar. Download the webinar to learn:

• The results of Kaleido’s global survey within the energy and utilities industry
• Customer experience in leveraging IoT in the industry
• The top three energy and utilities innovations

Kaleido Intelligence’s recent survey, Serving the Enterprise, The Cellular IoT Connectivity Opportunity, breaks down the challenges and opportunities in IoT among key verticals.

These are the biggest concerns facing the energy and utilities industry:

A fragmented connectivity ecosystem

55 percent of cellular adopters said maintaining commercial relationships and device fleets with multiple connectivity providers is complex and is the number one challenge for IoT.

Issues with global connectivity and permanent roaming

50 percent of cellular IoT adopters ranked the ability to minimize permanent roaming risks as their number 1 priority.

Need for security

55 percent of cellular adopters said basic security features, such as SIM locking, location detection, and usage/cost overrun alerting are security features they expect from an IoT partner.

Turning to the advantages of eSIM

92 percent of cellular adopters count eSIM (eUICC) as part of their IoT deployment.

Growing interest in private LTE/5G

57 percent of cellular adopters have an interest in Private LTE/5G to enhance business operations.

KORE is an Energy Web partner – read more news from Energy Web

IoT for energy and utilities

IoT provides many opportunities for the energy and utilities industry to streamline operations through granular visibility and analytics. Leveraging sensor-based technology that creates actionable intelligence accessible through a unified platform helps build flexibility and optimality into operations and expansion.

Smart Metering

With smart sensors that can monitor usage, it is possible to have streamlined energy consumption and measuring, as well as insight into customer usage and performance to help optimize billing and system monitoring.

Water Conservation

Sensor-based monitoring can help ensure that water mainlines and pipes are not suffering any cracks or damages, leading to slow leaks that are costly over time. Water usage can be optimized leading to less use overall for a greater approach to water conservation.

Tank Monitoring

With affordable, ruggedized sensors and resilient connectivity, tank levels can be monitored to ensure that stocks are maintained at optimum levels to help manage costs and logistics.y

Maintenance and Prevention

Through full-scale monitoring of infrastructure, issues can be detected before they become critically problematic, leading to service interruptions, leaks, damage, and costly overruns.

A single source for utilities and energy needs

When you’re ready to add sustainability and intelligence to your energy and utilities application, you’re ready for KORE. With full scale connectivity options – including an eUICC, Multi-IMSI eSIM – Managed services, hardware, sercurity, an holistic platforms, KORE makes IoT a success in utilities. Reach out to learn more

KORE, a global leader in Internet of Things (“IoT”) Solutions and worldwide IoT Connectivity-as-a-Service (“IoT CaaS”), announced its collaboration with GroundWorx, a wireless innovations and water conservation company, to provide technology support for the company’s Ground & Weather Intelligence Platform as a Service.

For organizations globally, sustainable water management is an environmental goal and demonstrates good stewardship. For use by industries, especially agriculture, turf management, hotel and resorts, school and universities, and government services, e.g., municipal parks and smart communities and cities, GroundWorx has developed its GX-1 Soil Sensor that is easily installed by embedding in the ground where soil monitoring is desired. The soil sensor pairs with the GX-1 Micro Weather Station and an analytics dashboard.

KORE initially helped power the solution through the development of firmware, device certification and continues in its support through comprehensive, global connectivity. This collaboration enables organizations worldwide to easily manage water and electricity usage reducing strain on resources while providing an opportunity to lower overall costs.

“Water accessibility and sustainability are major challenges across the globe. Working with an innovative organization that is implementing IoT to help solve some of the most pressing environmental problems is a privilege for us,” KORE President and CEO Romil Bahl said. “Our focus as a company is to make it easy for our customers to leverage and scale IoT capabilities to help solve issues, such as the global water crisis. GroundWorx is a user-friendly approach to water conservation and optimization, and we are thrilled to collaborate on this initiative.”

The soil sensor collects data to report on soil moisture, temperature, and salinity and integrates with irrigation systems. This proactive approach to soil condition monitoring allows end users to water only when needed.

“We’ve seen all of our customers decrease water usage by 30% with very little effort,” GroundWorx Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO Brad David said.

KORE is an Energy Web partner – read more news from Energy Web

KORE has been critical in simplifying and streamlining the ability to implement GroundWorx solutions globally.

“With the help of KORE, we are able to ship these around the world,” GroundWorx CTO Diego Borrego said. “[Customers] open them up, take them out of the packaging, and they work.”

California Avocado Farm and High-End Golf Resort: Save millions of gallons of water monthly, increase employee efficiency and cost savings

John Haskett, owner of Lucky Charm Farms in San Diego, has implemented the GroundWorx solution at his avocado farm.

“California has a critical issue with water, and avocado trees are pretty voracious about their appetite for water,” Haskett said. “The traditional methods of watering avocado trees typically center largely on guesswork, and with the water bills very costly – in the tens of thousands of dollars range – we needed to find a better method of watering.”

In exploring options, the ease of use, installation, and comprehensive readings were key drivers in adopting the GroundWorx solution. The GroundWorx method of “dig and drop” installation and immediate pairing to smartphone devices allowed Lucky Charm Farms to continue operations with no shutdown during implementation and quickly reap the benefits of the system.

“These sensors take 144 readings a day,” Haskett said. “With greater data collection and enhanced analytics with thresholds built in our employees avoid watering too little or too much.”
David Yanez, Director of Agronomy at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar in San Diego, is leveraging the GroundWorx system to optimize water use for golf course fairways.

“The price for potable water has probably increased 300% in 10 years,” Yanez said. “And the challenge is providing the best quality course and playing conditions while using the right amount of water.”
Prior to the GroundWorx system, Yanez – much like many other golf course superintendents – was using a portable digital tool that takes individual soil samples at the surface. This solution was more labor intensive and not nearly as comprehensive as having multiple GroundWorx sensors embedded in the root zone that take numerous automatic readings per day.

Immediately, the data derived can be leveraged to make informed watering decisions. Yanez said, for example, he’s been able to better determine when he can skip irrigation cycles, which has realistically saved millions of gallons of water per month.

About KORE

KORE is a pioneer, leader, and trusted advisor delivering mission-critical IoT solutions and services. We empower organizations of all sizes to improve operational and business results by simplifying the complexity of IoT. Our deep IoT knowledge and experience, global reach, purpose-built solutions, and deployment agility accelerate and materially impact our customers’ business outcomes. For more information, visit korewireless.com.

This is according to a report released by Allied Market Research, Utility Communications Market, which analysed the systems and processes that utilities use to manage and organise their operations.

Utility companies rely on communication networks to monitor infrastructure, respond to service outages and guarantee service delivery to customers.

According to the report, the increase in adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs) has been a factor in the growth of the utility communications market. Utility communications play an important role because communication links need to be established among DERs, grid operators and control centres. Communication networks enable monitoring, control and coordination of DERs to ensure that they are integrated and effective grid performance.

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Asia-Pacific dominated the market in 2022. Many countries in Asia-Pacific have experienced rapid urbanization. As urban populations grow, there is a higher demand for reliable electricity, gas, and water supply, as well as effective communication systems to manage and monitor utility networks.

Asia-Pacific countries have also invested heavily in infrastructure development, including energy generation, transmission, and distribution systems. This includes the construction of new power plants, expansion of grid networks, and implementation of smart grids. Utility communications play a crucial role in connecting these infrastructure components and enabling efficient management of energy resources.

The report showed that the wired segment was the highest revenue contributor to the market in 2022. Wired utility communications offer high bandwidth and capacity, allowing the transmission of large volumes of data. This capacity is essential for handling real-time monitoring and control data, as well as supporting advanced utility applications such as smart grid technologies, AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure), and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems.

According to the opinions of various CXOs of leading companies, the utility communications market is expected to witness increased demand during the forecast period due to a surge in demand for smart grid infrastructure.

Smart grid infrastructure will however require robust cybersecurity measures to protect against cyber threats and ensure the privacy of customer data.

Utility communications play a vital role in establishing secure communication networks, implementing encryption protocols, and monitoring network security to safeguard critical infrastructure and customer information.

The wrap-around proposition brings together business, digital and technical expertise to support the digital transformation in utilities, nuclear and power sectors and to grasp the opportunities of connected technologies, data and the cloud.

In announcing the consultancy, Capula cites how its Pentagon Approach has adapted IT methodologies to OT change programmes to design a five-step process to ensure the right first-time delivery of solutions which support business strategy and digital transformation.

Additionally, the consultancy will adopt current and emerging technologies like Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) which will give clients access to vast amounts of valuable industrial data for increasing efficiencies across power and energy plants and networks.

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Commenting on the launch of the new service, Simon Coombs, managing director of Capula, said: “Our new consultancy leverages 50 years of know-how in operational technology and IT expertise to set a new gold standard in the delivery of OT/IT integration, underpinned by cybersecurity and aligned with sustainability goals.

“We are building technology bridges between technology, data, people and processes to make digital happen, helping industry embrace interconnectivity to make the most of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and prepare for the Fifth.”

The consultancy service will be led by Neil White, an experienced software engineer and business manager. He will be supported by a team of digitalisation specialists backed up by more than 320 automation control and IT engineers.

As a specialist in operational technology (OT) and the convergence of OT with IT, Capula’s service is designed to fast-track the planning, delivery and operation of OT and OT/IT programmes to be high-value, low-risk, outcome-focused, data-driven and scalable solutions.

The UK government estimates that by 2050, improved energy system flexibility through digitalisation could reduce the overall UK energy system costs by up to £10 billion ($12.6 billion) annually and create up to 24,000 jobs.

The agreement between Vodafone and the DCC is for up to 15 years to build and operate 4G managed IoT connectivity for the smart meter network.

The IoT connectivity will use Vodafone’s 4G network. With 4G reaching more the 99% of the country’s population, the ambition is for more homes and small businesses to be able to switch to a smart meter.

“The smart meter network is a key part of the nation’s journey to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Even though there is still a long life and more capacity in the technology we are using today, we need to continuously look towards how our technology is fit for the future,” commented Angus Flett, CEO of the DCC.

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“4G is a natural next step for our connectivity and is just one of a number of technical improvements the DCC is developing.”

A key consideration underlying the future connectivity considerations is the planned withdrawal by mobile operators of 2G and 3G in Britain by 2033, while 5G is not yet offered – and is unlikely to be for some years – with the almost universal coverage of 4G that the DCC’s service obligations require.

Currently, the DCC’s latest data indicates more than 16.6 million homes, more than half, are connected to the network, with numbers increasing by an average a little over 15,000 daily.

The full smart meter rollout is targeted for the end of 2025.

Vodafone will provide the 4G LTE network, with connectivity management delivered by its IoT platform, supported by IT and business consulting services firm CGI, which will be responsible for software development.

This new ‘wide area network’ will connect the DCC’s servers with the LTE communication hubs in the homes, which in turn connect to the gas and electricity smart meters.

With this approach, only the hubs and not the smart meters themselves need to be replaced with the 4G LTE hubs.

In a November 2022 posting, DCC Chief Technology Officer Mike Hewitt reported that a 4G hub was in development and that mass deployment would follow once it has been proven.

The go-live of the 4G service is slated for December 2024, when energy suppliers should be able to start testing and verification with a small number, up to about 9,000 hubs.

The mass rollout is then projected to start in July 2025, with suppliers able to determine their individual paces for their 4G transition.

Also on the radar are announcements of a ‘resilient’ business model based on smart meter-generated revenue for Smart Metering Systems (SMS), growth financing for a smart meter data analysis provider and a €3 billion ($3.9 billion) scheme for cleantech companies in Germany.

AMI provider Ubiik acquires Mimomax Wireless

Taiwan-based Ubiik, an IoT and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) provider, has acquired New Zealand-based Mimomax Wireless, a provider of communication solutions for narrowband channels.

The acquisition is being touted as an acceleration of Ubiik’s market expansion.

The new combined entity, which has not yet been named, aims to bring new wireless solutions to market, providing communications for utilities and critical infrastructure.

According to the Taiwanese provider, their current business is on track to exceed 1 million AMI device deployments by 2024, citing the “coverage limitations of existing public LTE networks that impede utilities’ AMI deployments” as the prime challenge they seek a solution towards, the company stated in a joint press release announcing the acquisition.

Since 2007, Mimomax Wireless established itself as a manufacturer of radios utilising Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO) technology.

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The Kiwi company caters to utilities, stakeholders within the energy sectors and governments among others. Their communications solutions, states Mimomax, optimises data throughput and enables near-real-time visibility of critical assets.

Commenting on the announcement was Tienhaw Peng, founder and CEO of Ubiik, who stated how the acquisition “injects additional momentum into our collective growth. In tandem, we’re poised to boost the performance, security and cost-effectiveness of critical networks.”

Ubiik states how the merger will allow for an array of new solutions for mission and business-critical communications. For example, existing US utility customers who have deployed Mimomax products in the narrowband 700MHz Upper Block A can now leverage their spectrum acquisition by adding Ubiik’s goRAN NB-IoT Band 103 as a retrofit.

This opportunity, adds the AMI provider, offers the ability to connect smart meters and IoT devices for “a fraction of the cost of deploying new pLTE infrastructure”.

SMS’s ‘resilient’ smart metering business model

Glasgow-based smart meter and carbon reduction asset developer Smart Metering Systems (SMS) has, within its H1 2023 trading update and outlook report, reported 13.3% revenue growth.

Specifically, the Scottish clean tech company’s Index-linked Annualised Recurring Revenue (ILARR), a referral to revenue generated from meter rental and data contracts, grew from £97.1 million ($125.4 million) at the close of December 2022 to £110 million ($142 million) as of June 30, 2023.

The company’s CEO, Tim Mortlock, commented on the growth, citing the ‘resilience’ of their model:

“We have delivered another strong operational and financial performance during H1 2023, a testament to the resilient nature of our business model which is underpinned by our index-linked recurring revenues.

“Our existing pipeline of meter and grid-scale battery assets is expected to more than double the Group’s EBITDA in c.4 years compared to FY 2022, with significant additional growth opportunities in existing and developing CaRe assets.”

Within the first half of 2023, the company SMS installed 220,000 smart meters and has maintained market share of 14%.

According to the report, their engineering capacity delivered higher volumes of activity, largely driven by transactional callout services alongside a higher proportion of single fuel installations.

The Group also increased its engineering capacity and expects meter installation run-rate to accelerate as a result.

When it comes to financing, the Group claims its current pipeline of smart meters and grid-scale batteries can be fully funded from asset-backed, internally-generated cash flows and debt facilities.

The Group is also considering asset recycling to maintain a “prudent level of gearing in the medium term and to support future growth”, they state in the release.

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Enel divests 50% of Australian renewable operations to Japanese oil and gas giant

Expansion financing for a smart meter data analysis provider

CIBC Innovation Banking has increased its growth financing commitment to Bidgely, a provider of AI-powered energy intelligence solutions for energy providers worldwide.

The additional financing commitment of $18 million – 2020 saw Bidgely secure $8 million from the same company – will strengthen Bidgely’s ability to support critical utility initiatives, namely within the EV and grid modernisation markets.

Bidgely’s UtilityAI analyses smart meter data to provide appliance-level insights into daily energy consumption, giving utilities insights into energy usage patterns and anticipated grid loads.

Bidgely touts its platform’s ability to coordinate accurate grid planning and load forecasting, together with the ability to better manage the influx of EVs on the grid through optimised time of use, load shifting and managed charging.

“Utilities around the world rely on Bidgely’s artificial intelligence-powered energy solution to guide their clients to smart energy decisions,” said Amy Olah, managing director of CIBC Innovation Banking. “Our continued support speaks to Bidgely’s success and our commitment to back innovative software companies across North America throughout their growth journey.”

€3bn for German low-carbon tech – batteries, heat pumps and more

The European Commission has approved a €3 billion ($3.9bn) German scheme under the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework to support private investments in low-carbon assets for the country’s transition to net zero.

The scheme, touted as in line with the tenets of the proposed Green Deal Industrial Plan, will take the form of direct grants, tax advantages, subsidised interest rates and guarantees on new loans for companies producing low-carbon technologies.

Said companies will include those with business in battery energy storage, heat pumps, electrolysers, wind turbines, solar panel, CCUS and key components needed to produce such tech or related critical raw materials necessary for their production.

The aid will be meted out by 31 December 2025.

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

Cheers,
Yusuf Latief
Content Producer
Smart Energy International

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The G3-Hybrid mesh network is an advanced technology in this field, offering a wealth of unique benefits. To make it easier to understand, let’s break it down into 7 points.

1. The Basics of G3-Hybrid Mesh Networks

A G3-Hybrid mesh network is like a large, interconnected family of both wired and wireless devices. They cooperate to cover a vast area without requiring a dedicated and complex infrastructure setup. This ‘smart’ network is the backbone of advanced systems like smart grids and IoT applications. The biggest advantage of this network is that each device – or node – can benefit from the best that both Power Line Communication (PLC) and Radio Frequency (RF) can offer for communication at any place and time. The resulting flexibility ensures maximum coverage, minimises dead zones, and reduces the cost and complexity associated with network setup and maintenance.

2. Key Components of a G3-Hybrid Mesh Network

A G3-Hybrid mesh network primarily consists of three types of devices:

Gateways – These are the crucial connecting points, serving as interfaces between the hybrid mesh network and the outside world. They connect the mesh network to other systems, such as Head-end Systems or central management systems. Gateways are also known as Border Routers or in G3 terminology it is the PAN Co-ordinator.

Mesh Devices – These devices form the backbone of the network. They route and forward data to and from other nodes, ensuring smooth and efficient data flow across the network.

Leaf Devices – These devices are part of the network but do not contribute to the mesh structure. They only communicate via the network and can rely autonomously on battery-limited energy resources.

3. The Self-healing Nature of the Network

A G3-Hybrid mesh network is self-healing: it has the capability to automatically adjust and repair its structure when the environment or network conditions change. For instance, if adverse weather conditions or a physical obstruction interrupts a connection between two nodes, the network seamlessly switches between RF and PLC technologies to ensure uninterrupted data flow.

4. Understanding IPv6 and 6LoWPAN

IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) is the latest version of the Internet Protocol, which is a set of rules governing how data is sent and received over the Internet. It’s designed to handle a vast array of internet addresses – 3.4×10^38 to be exact. This means it’s well-prepared for our increasingly connected world.

An adaptation of IPv6, known as 6LoWPAN, enables the efficient transmission of IPv6 over low-bandwidth networks, significantly reducing IPv6 overhead. These benefits extend to smaller, more constrained networks, such as those used in wireless mesh networks. This is where the G3-Hybrid network comes in. It harnesses this technology to facilitate smooth, extensive communication and is versatile enough to be tailored to specific applications, whether that’s smart grid, IoT or other dedicated uses.

5. Battery Power in Hybrid Mesh Networks

As mentioned for the leaf devices, hybrid mesh networks can run on battery power. The G3-Alliance developed a battery-powered leaf node specification to allow fully connected devices in a G3-Hybrid mesh network to run on a single battery for an extended period of time – for years or even decades.

6. Standardisation in Hybrid Mesh Networks

A G3-Hybrid mesh network adheres to open standards, specifically the ITU-T G.9903 G3-PLC protocol and the IEEE 802.15.4-2020 standard. This allows seamless integration and operation among devices from different vendors. The hybrid network automatically and dynamically adjusts its communication channel selection for each link in the network, depending on the prevailing network conditions. This flexibility enhances the reliability, efficiency and resilience of the network.

7. Importance of Certification

With the increasing complexity of technology, having a certification program is paramount to ensuring product interoperability and meeting performance requirements. This is where the G3-Alliance plays a vital role. Comprising nearly 100 member stakeholders from the smart grid ecosystem, the G3-Alliance is dedicated to driving the development of G3 technologies, with already over 80 million devices deployed worldwide.

The G3-Alliance runs a thorough certification program that provides assurance to both manufacturers and end users. This certification ensures that meters, data concentrators, and other devices correctly implemented the G3-Hybrid standard, that they are interoperable with other certified devices, and that they meet the required performance levels. Currently, the program has certified over 500 G3-devices from 19 different manufacturers with certified chipsets and 50 different manufacturers with certified products. This assurance of quality and performance underscores the commitment of the G3-Alliance to delivering reliable and efficient solutions for the smart grid and IoT applications.

G3-Hybrid Mesh Networks are ready for any of your applications

A G3-Hybrid mesh network congregates a virtually unlimited number of devices and enables reliable communication among them. It’s a robust, flexible, and scalable solution, serving as a vital backbone of smart grids and IoT applications. With dynamic self-healing capabilities and reliance on open standards, it’s a segway toward an even more connected future.

We’re thrilled to announce that the G3-Hybrid specification has been updated with several enhancements: Frequency hopping for more flexible and efficient use of a given radio spectrum, last gasp function which allows a device to send out a final message in case of a power outage, enhanced RF/PLC media switching, further optimizing the communication capabilities, incorporation of new RF bands, such as 915 and 920 MHz, broadening the reach and effectiveness of the G3-Hybrid mesh network and supporting battery-powered devices.

It is now published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), making it freely available to the public via the ITU website https://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-G.9903

For more information, contact our members or visit our website.

The initiative is in line with Vienna’s digital strategy, which aims to position the city as “the most livable and smartest in the world”, according to a statement, which continues that it leans into its commitment to human digitalisation, ensuring the technology supports its residents rather than displacing them.

Actility will deploy its ThingPark wireless platform, which has been designed for the industrial IoT with security, carrier-grade availability, scalability, multi-radio support and adherence to the latest specifications of the LoRa Alliance and claimed to power over half of national LoRaWAN network deployments worldwide.

“Wien Energie is a utility provider that understands the need for strong, reliable partnerships,” says Paul Prinz-Wallner, Product Owner IoT – Business Development Telecommunications at Wien Energie.

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“With [Actility’s] expertise, we are equipped to implement and manage sustainable IoT use cases that directly benefit our city.”

Wiener Netze, a sister company of Wien Energie, is entrusted with building the outdoor network in Vienna, while Wien Energie focuses on indoor solutions.

The network is currently undergoing a testing process, with the implementation of use cases and projects for smarter resource use and sustainable urban living expected to begin in early 2024.

Wien Energie is Austria’s largest regional energy provider and in addition to electricity, heating and cooling, also provides electromobility and telecommunications services.

LoRaWAN has been an offering of Wien Energie and an example of a reference project is ‘Cool Streets’, which was implemented in 2022 with heat waves and other weather extremes becoming more and more frequent in Vienna.

In the project, so-called fog steles were installed at 24 locations to provide cooling water mist sprays. Special challenges of the project were the recording of local temperatures and the automated control of the fog steles without an external power supply.

Another is the ‘Cape 10’ project at its ‘House of the Future and Social Innovation’, with the greening of its façade.

An intelligent LoRaWAN-based irrigation system was implemented to automatically and optimally irrigate the façade based on soil moisture, temperature and other sensing and communication with valve control boxes. In addition to data transmission, control logics and data visualisation were developed for the customer.

Recognising the need to address these concerns, we’ve developed advanced network operations solutions for utilities. One of the key technologies driving this progress is Software Defined-WAN, which empowers and supports Distribution Automation in remarkable ways.

The goal of Distribution Automation in the Utility grid is a real-time adjustment to changing load conditions, facilitating distributed generation, performing fault location identification and service restoration, and reacting to failure conditions within the Distribution grid, usually without operator intervention.

Read our solution brief and get an overview of how to manage and optimise your industrial fixed and mobile networks using SD-WAN.

Capabilities include:

• Simplified management using a common management tool for your Enterprise and Industrial devices,
• Multi-WAN support for always-connected mobile use cases,
• Security policies are extended to the devices at your network edge,
• On-premise or cloud-hosted architectural flexibility,
• Scalable solution that allows thousands of assets to operate simultaneously, positioning the customer to meet future requirements

If you prefer a more technical perspective, we have also prepared a validated design document. This guide provides tested and documented approaches to help you successfully design, deploy, and extend SD-Wan for distribution automation.

You can select which content paper you want to download in the form below.

According to Nokia, a converged private LTE and IP/MPLS FAN is a single communications platform that can support use cases for OT and IT, IoT and launch new services and business models.

A converged Field Area Network (FAN) allows a utility to start with its legacy use cases, adding new use cases as they expand and execute its digitalisation and automation strategies.

The telecommunications network will allow ESB Networks to integrate more renewable energy onto the grid and decarbonise the network through enhanced grid monitoring and control along with field force enablement.

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Nicholas Tarrant, ESB Networks managing director, commented in a statement: “The purpose-built private telecommunications network now being developed will be a key enabler in delivering integration of renewable energy to the grid, decarbonisation of the electricity network and the electrification of heat and transport amongst other benefits. As such, this private, reliable, and secure mobile network will be an indispensable precursor to delivering a Net Zero-ready electricity network.”

The new solution will offer ESB Networks the following advantages:

• Distribution automation (DA) to improve grid reliability, efficiency and agility;
• Distributed Energy Resources (DER) integration to monitor and control interconnection;
• Safeguarding both IP and Ethernet data traffic end-to-end, securing your network and use cases against cyber threats;
• The network capabilities facilitate use cases with IEC 61850/GOOSE and peer-to-peer multipoint communications. It is a simple evolution to 5G when your use cases require it.

Phil Siveter, UK & Ireland CEO at Nokia said: “Enabling the decarbonising of energy grids while ensuring resilient critical infrastructure is an opportunity that we are helping customers address across the world.

“We are delighted that ESB Networks and Sigma Wireless entrust Nokia to deploy private LTE infrastructure running over their converged IP/MPLS backhaul network for critical grid communications to support the modernization and digitization of the energy grid throughout the Republic of Ireland.”

With this, the performance of the platform and its conformance to G3-Alliance hybrid specifications is validated and interoperability assured when using the solution in G3-hybrid networks.

The SM2400 PLC+RF reference design module is a complete board that implements a full powerline communication interface and as well as an integrated radio for short range, modest bandwidth communication.

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The module can be used as a bridge between RF and PLC or simultaneously connect to both networks.

Such hybrid offerings are aimed to offer an efficient and cost-effective solution for smart grid, smart city, industry and other IoT applications in which meters, data concentrators and other devices need to communicate reliably to meet performance levels and are interoperable with each other.

“Hybrid PLC/RF networks deliver high reliability and scalability, while adding flexibility and increasing data capacity and speed,” said Semitech CEO Zeev Collin.

“Customers want to use certified platforms as a stamp of quality approval and to ensure interoperability with other products sharing the same networks.”

The G3-Alliance is a consortium with responsibility for 2011 to standardize and promote G3-technologies globally.

The G3-PLC Hybrid is the first industry hybrid standard offering extended capabilities through one seamlessly managed network over both wired and wireless media. As such it opens up new cases such as communication with water and gas smart meters, in-home displays and lighting controllers among other technologies.

Subsequently, the solution has been extended to include the ARIB bandplan for Japan to enable implementation in that market.

Elewit, a tech platform for the country’s transmission operator, announced the project in response to the need for automated efficiency in the lifecycle of grid assets.

The Advanced Substation Monitoring Project (ASUMO) was described by the company in a release issued today as a “cross-sectional initiative within Redeia that promotes the digitisation and real-time management of substation assets”.

The project’s goal, they add, is to improve response times to incidents and significantly reduce the presence of personnel at facilities.

To coordinate this, the project will make use of IOT, AI and data analytics, as well as technology such as digital twins, to automate and improve procedures across maintenance, engineering and construction of substation assets.

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Data collection

Core to the project is the opportunity to enhance data collection of critical variables associated with electrical substation assets and real-time images.

Once this collection has been processed through advanced data analysis tools and artificial intelligence, the company states, electrical installation and asset status and condition can then be calculated in real time, improving availability and allowing forecasting of potential incidents.

Additionally, ASUMO aims to optimise the remote operation and maintenance of electrical assets by visualising and processing images in real time, creating a digital twin using systems that analyse the data and provide recommendations on preventive and corrective maintenance actions.

This way, different notifications and alarms are obtained in real time, which are needed to avoid major affections on the assets of the transmission network.

Project scope and phases

According to Elewit, ASUMO is divided into five phases:

1. Defining and investigating affected areas, including engineering, construction and maintenance of electrical substation assets.
2. Analysing technical information needed by asset typology and technology to define an asset monitoring strategy and specify the needed activities to implement it.
3. Identifying critical variables per asset as well as their analysis and segregation for real-time management and degradation models.
4. Data processing creating the required algorithms and alarm logics.
5. Necessary developments for the integration of this new information flow in the corporate information systems.

The company also lays out five areas of the project’s scope, extending to:

• Primary switchgear and ancillary services sensorisation in AIS/GIS installations.
• Real-time automatic monitoring and management of precursor variables.
• Data lake integration for later use in AI applications.
• Digitisation of assets, creation of digital twins and 3D modeling.
• Real-time visualisation of substation assets with fixed and mobile cameras using AGV (Automatic Guided Vehicle).

The combination of smart meters, two-way communications networks and data management systems is known as Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). AMI has a variety of benefits that include helping utility companies automate device connections, meter readings and customer billing.

Smart metering, IoT connectivity and data analytics together make it easier for utilities to improve the delivery of services. The combination further makes it possible for utilities companies and their customers to work together to manage consumption and even pricing.

Smart metering and smart grids

Using various applications for centralised reading and usage tracking, gas and electricity smart metering locally monitors customers’ energy consumption. Smart meters that integrate a variety of IoT sensors are capable of collecting more and richer data in close to real-time.

The data collected by smart meters is the lifeblood of smart grids, which give utility companies the ability to aggregate and manage service delivery flows as well as monitor the health of the grid remotely and at scale. The smart grid allows utilities to deliver services sustainably, efficiently and securely, enabling them to track and achieve their climate change and carbon footprint targets.

The flow of data improves utilities’ ability to predict and monitor demand in order to manage supply. It further permits companies to share usage patterns with customers, which can represent an incentive to adopt more responsible usage practices. The benefits include quicker demand response, better-distributed resource management, operational efficiencies and improved customer relationships.

By 2030, there could be 2.2 billion smart meters deployed by electrical utilities alone, according to the Transforma Insights Connected Things TAM forecast. The adoption pattern is global, driven in part by government sustainability initiatives.

Sustainable low-power IoT devices

Another factor helping to accelerate the adoption of smart meters is the increasing availability of low power wide area network (LP-WAN) technologies, which relieve utilities from having to string a communications wire to every single smart meter. Instead, smart meters can connect to the Internet once or twice a day through a wireless LP-WAN to deliver data; the transmitters can be powered by small batteries.

A safe and secure technology solution

Connectivity is key, but connections must be secure, especially in wireless networks.

There are many ways to protect smart meters and other IoT devices, but in the context of wireless networking, an important one to consider is to use a secure SIM. IoT device manufacturers are increasingly choosing the permanently fixed SIM form factor – an embedded SIM (eSIM) , or even an integrated SIM (iSIM) as part of their design.

An eSIM is a tamper-resistant chip, physically and logically isolated, offering controlled protection from the rest of a device’s processes and resources. Irremovable SIMs, whilst infinitely more physically secure, would have prevented a device from being swapped onto a new connectivity provider’s subscription. However, thanks to GSMA’s Remote SIM Provisioning (RSP) architectures and a capable, compliant SIM operating system (OS), the SIM hardware can remain securely in place whilst the carrier’s credentials and settings, the SIM profile, can be remotely added or removed securely.

The ability to verify the identity of smart meters is important. The installation of virtual private networks (VPNs) is an additional step, and security can be amplified further by implementing data encryption.

IoT SAFE is one option which offers a root of trust within the SIM on the device side. This secures a utility’s cryptography, which can be used to prove the meter’s authenticity to the utility. It can also be used to encrypt all data sent from the device.

Other advantages of eSIM

Meters often reside in restricted locations. eSIMs are of course highly integrated, so using them naturally enables designers to create compact connectivity modules.

With an eSIM, a manufacturer can select a default, out-of-the-box connectivity option, meaning they don’t have to procure multiple regional MNO SIMs or create and manage their own product variations; the default will connect to any supporting cellular network.

Available cellular connectivity options include LTE-M, NB-IoT, 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G. Operators can not only switch connectivity providers, they can also switch connectivity technologies. Fallback options are supported; should the selected network fail, connectivity can automatically get routed over an entirely different network.

Opportunities across the ecosystem

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can incorporate eSIM functionality at the point of manufacture. They can then offer their utility customers a choice of cellular connectivity provision and management options.

Mobile network operators (MNOs) or MVNOs provide ‘connectivity only’ or act as an end-to-end connectivity solution enabler. The second option means they can facilitate integration or provide back-end subscription management, data traffic reporting, billing and even remote cloud management capabilities.

Connectivity management platform (CMP) providers aggregate connectivity across multiple different cellular networks, putting them in a position to manage smart meter network connectivity on behalf of utilities who are customers. 

Consumers can use real-time information from their smart meters (often viewable in mobile apps or web-based dashboards) to minimise consumption or manage usage to potentially manage their billing costs.

Governments and other regulators must have accurate data to set energy usage goals and monitor progress toward achieving those goals, necessitating smart meters. Additionally, governments can also use this data to gain greater understanding of the levels of affluence and poverty across the populace, so that areas of vulnerability can be identified, and appropriate intervention measures can be adopted.

To find out more about OPEN IoT SAFE and this solution available to all smart grid players, contact Kigen at: https://kigen.com/

The company’s new RH1NS200 is an LTE NB-IoT modem chipset that is designed to operate seamlessly on the networks of all major Indian telecommunications carriers.

The company is calling it an ideal solution to serve the Indian smart metering market, which some estimates put at roughly 250 million units over the next five years. The chipset aims to enable customers to build complete NB-IoT modules and satisfy “Make in India” requirements.

The new chipset also can be used in asset tracking, lighting, security and numerous other applications, states Renesas.

Sailesh Chittipeddi, Renesas’ executive vice president and general manager of their infrastructure business unit, commented on the chipset being designed specifically with the Indian market in mind: “Renesas recognies India’s enormous potential in terms of both market size and design talent and we are committed to taking part in future growth driven by the Digital India Act.

“This leading-edge NB-IoT solution is a prime example of tailoring our design and manufacturing strengths to meet the unique needs of this market.”

According to Sony, cellular IoT (both LTE-M and NB-IoT) present an ideal solution for smart meter connectivity due to its lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), high-efficiency and global reach, among others.

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Renesas cites the RH1NS200 chipset’s offerings, which include 1uA power consumption in deep sleep mode and an integrated EAL5+ (Evaluation Assurance Level) Secure Element (SE), aiming to ensure the safety of end applications, particularly power and water metering systems.

According to ResearchAndMarkets, the global NB-IoT chipset market size is expected to reach $7.7 billion by 2028 with a 51.6% CAGR during their 2022 to 2028 forecast period.

Additional research from Persistence Market Research shows that, although the US and European regions are dominant in the market, from 2023 to 2033, the tech’s Indian market will grow by approximately 23%.

Cloud-based software with the right analytics capabilities will allow your company to maintain profitability, and improve transparency, efficiency, and compliance. But where do you start?

Sustainability practices for utilities companies

Download the Oxford Economics report below, Sustainability in Oil, Gas, Energy, and Utilities, to learn how you can start integrating sustainability practices into your overall business and technology implementation, and see improved outcomes in business performance and brand reputation.

This report shows how technology can:

• Deliver safe, reliable, and sustainable energy solutions and automate essential workflows while staying within budget
• Increase transparency across the board using IoT and data management processes
• Leverage actionable insights from real-time data to optimise resources from financial capital to skilled workers

SAP is ready to help utility leaders like you keep your business profitable while managing the transition to a more sustainable future.

Rockwell Automation, which develops industrial automation and digital transformation tech, announced the partnership with energy giant TotalEnergies to implement a robot fleet management system, aiming to implement autonomous operations for its offshore platforms.

The long-running project will reach a significant milestone with its first test on an offshore asset scheduled for mid-2023.

The partners state the importance of robotic and autonomous operations for their operations, as well as for wind offshore projects, in enabling unmanned operations for long periods, reducing employee exposure to hazardous situations, increasing safety, attracting young talent interested in new technologies and further reducing CAPEX and OPEX.

“Because of the remote and often harsh environments in which oil and gas companies operate offshore, there is a strategic objective to minimise employee exposure on these platforms,” said Matt Graves, director at Kalypso, a Rockwell Automation company.

“Over the years, this has been achieved by improving the design and automating equipment. But there are still tasks that need to be performed manually, many of which involve observations by operators. For five years, TotalEnergies has been investigating the use of ground robots to undertake some of these manual tasks and the next step was to develop a control system to operate these robots remotely. For that, they turned to Kalypso.”

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Gamifying automated operations

TotalEnergies has been working with Kalypso, a digital transformation-focused firm, and other partners to implement a Robotic Supervision System (RSS), aiming to allow operators located in an onshore control room to remotely supervise and coordinate the robots using IoT tech.

These robots autonomously perform the various activities that field operators are executing on conventional facilities: from periodic inspection operations and maintenance tasks to emergency response.

Challenged with how to interface the robots with existing industrial systems and how to represent the data in a user-friendly interface, Kalypso employed the Unity game engine, from Unity Technologies.

According to Kalypso, this real-time development platform and ecosystem forms the backbone of many of today’s top video games. In recent years, industry has adopted it to create interactive digital content from 3D data and deploy it to various platforms, such as mobile devices, computers and AR and VR devices. This solution combines the functionality of a digital twin and the mobility and synchronisation of a gaming platform.

The resulting RSS concentrates the information provided by several different types of robots and consolidates the Human-Machine Interface (HMI) displays necessary for the remote operators to work efficiently and effectively.

“These tests are important at this stage of the project so that we understand all the operational aspects of using the robots for inspection purposes, anticipating further potential for maintenance and operation,” Grégoire Audouin, R&D department robotics system architect at TotalEnergies, said.

“The main benefit for the operators is to remotely control these robots and have an immersive view from a central control room. There is huge potential for innovation in our industry.”

By AJ Abdallat, Beyond Limits CEO

The Biden administration recently passed a green infrastructure bill that allocates $250 million to energy and water conservation efforts to lessen emissions from government facilities. The President earlier declared his intentions to make the US government a net zero entity by 2045 with a combination of a zero-emission vehicle fleet and net-zero emission building portfolio.

To expand this goal to the entire country – and globally – there are various key improvements that must occur.

Here are four key ways that AI can bring dreams of net zero into clearer focus:

1. Strengthen the grid
2. Modernise the oil and gas industry
3. Decarbonise the atmosphere
4. Drive accessibility of electric vehicles

1. Strengthen the grid

It doesn’t take a “Storm of the Century” to down the grid, leave thousands in the dark and put human safety at risk. It’s unlikely to be a coincidence that as global warming intensifies these weather anomalies increase in number and strength. The Texas ice storm of 2021 and the United Kingdom’s heatwave in 2022 are prime recent examples of the grid’s failings.

Currently, utility operators depend upon predictions to estimate the next day’s draw on the grid. They consider the weather forecast, potential surges and lulls in business activities. Accurate predictions are essential to ensuring there’s enough power for everyone. Under the mountain of historical data points and past predictions lie patterns. Utility companies can shore up the grid by employing AI to assist in pattern detection and determine next steps based on the patterns. A strong grid is a resilient one. Utilities can strengthen grid performance by utilising these AI-discovered patterns to prepare for the next day’s energy draw and to make real-time pivots to evolving demands.

Accurate predictions contribute to more efficient and carbon-conscious operations. The better the predictions, the less utilities companies have to generate excess power. The boon to the utilities is that generating and delivering the right amount of energy at the right time lowers their operational costs. The benefit to the environment is more conscious energy creation and less waste.

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2. Modernise the oil and gas industry

Renewable energy sources aren’t yet able to sustain every power need, thus it’s worth the energy and investment to modernise the oil and gas industry. Additional infrastructure like sensors and tracking programmes are likely needed to make the industry as environment-friendly as it can be.

AI can assist in detecting breakdowns in equipment and signaling to maintenance where repairs are necessary. This system could help oil and gas machinery components last longer, instead of breaking down completely and being tossed on the top of a landfill.

Supply and demand tracking can also benefit from an AI boost. For example, an AI-assisted tracking system of the supply chain can identify bottlenecks in production or delivery. From there, oil and gas companies can smooth inefficiencies, thus avoiding overproduction – which is detrimental to the environment – or underdelivery that then puts a strain on other resources.

3. Decarbonise the atmosphere

While humans can do nothing to repair the hole in the ozone layer, carbon capture contraptions can slow the deterioration of this essential atmospheric protective casing. New materials discovery is a long, expensive and often fruitless exercise, which is bad news for quick discoveries that can make a difference to the environment.

Explainable AI here will be especially helpful. Instead of “black box” AI solutions that spit out an answer, explainable AI always shows how it arrived at its result. This way, if the explainable AI’s result was incorrect, engineers can at least inspect the AI’s reasoning and glean knowledge from its path. The “glass box” of explainable AI makes it a helpful partner to a human team tasked with thinking creativly for new solutions.

AI can also speed up the trial and error process of new materials discovery key to decarbonising the atmosphere. For instance, instead of scientists wasting precious time manually going through each slight computation only for it to end in failure, they can entrust AI to run through the scenario and only raise a flag when a solution looks promising.

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4. Drive accessibility of electric vehicles

The issue today with EVs is that they’re much too expensive for the average household. Before taxes and fees, the least costly Tesla model has a price tag of about $42,000. Paying that much for a car would take up approximately 60% of the average American’s yearly salary, which, in 2021, was south of $70,000. The culprit for EVs’ high price is the battery.

Automakers are continually improving EV battery range; but, just like new materials discovery, the time-intensive and expensive trial and error phase usually ends in error. Development costs skyrocket with each successive day. Considering that Lithium-Ion batteries took two decades to perfect, there’s likely still a long way to go before engineers perfect EV battery performance at a reasonable cost to consumers.

The semiconductor shortage of 2020 certainly doesn’t help in the high cost of EVs, so automakers must strive for alternatives. Again, AI can assist in speeding up the trial and error process and assist engineers in developing creative lines of thought to improve EV production and roll out a model accessible to the average family. The more fossil-fueled vehicles EVs can replace on the roads, the cleaner the air will eventually become.

Resiliency, modernity, discovery: AI at the centre of it all

While the digital art world grapples with the legitimacy of DALL-E creations and high school teachers everywhere lament the proliferation of ChatGPT-written essays, the overall impact of these and similar applications is positive. The barrier to adopting AI is now lowered.

AI in the utilities and materials discovery fields isn’t a brand new concept, but trusting AI to do more than sort data is. Hybrid AI especially is now more of a partner in creativity, “thinking” up new ways to solve a problem while speeding up the problem solving process. Environmental and energy leaders must continue to hone AI’s capabilities to achieve a net zero society. Governments around the world, including the Biden administration, are handing over the funds. Now, brilliant minds must turn those funds into action and a greener future.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

AJ Abdallat is CEO of Beyond Limits, an artificial intelligence engineering company creating advanced software solutions for the energy, utilities and healthcare industries, and is on the advisory board for Caltech’s Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST).

With a master of science in engineering from the University of Missouri, Abdallat has over 20 years’ experience building high-tech startups in the fields of bio-inspired artificial intelligence, reasoning systems and smart sensors.

The Indian telecom provider yesterday announced the partnership with smart metering company Secure Meters to deploy Narrow Band (NB-IoT) services that will power 1.3 million homes in Bihar through a smart meter solution.

According to Airtel, this will be the country’s first NB-IoT solution on a narrow band with a fall-back option that will work on 2G and 4G, aiming to ensure real-time connectivity and uninterrupted transfer of critical data.

NB-IoT is a low-power, wide area, radio network technology developed by 3GPP which enables a wide variety of IoT devices and services including smart meters.

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According to Airtel, their NB-IoT platform is future-ready and scalable to 5G. Their proposition also includes an advanced IoT platform ‘The Airtel IoT Hub’ which has been customised to suit the needs of Advance Metering Infrastructure Service Providers (AMISPs) and includes a Feasibility Tool to help AMISPs plan their meter deployments.

Other functionalities, states the telecom provider, include customer life cycle management and advanced analytics tools like diagnostics, live sessions check and real-time data usage among others.

Airtel touts its network as ready for pan India NB-IoT deployment and designed for superior coverage to address the specific needs of the IoT market.

Ananya Singhal, joint managing director of Secure Meters, said: “We are thrilled to have partnered with Airtel for the implementation of NB-IoT services in our smart meter rollout in North Bihar.

“With Airtel’s support, we were able to seamlessly connect and monitor our meters, resulting in greater efficiency and cost savings for Secure and for our customers in North Bihar…We highly recommend Airtel to anyone looking to implement NB-IoT services in their IoT solutions and look forward to a growing partnership.”

Power plant and power grid operators have their hands full when it comes to industrial cybersecurity.

The attack surface of their assets increases daily due to a plethora of new applications connected to their operational technology via the Internet of Things, edge and cloud computing, mobile devices, distributed energy generation, and remote assets. And when you add to that global supply chain attacks for hardware and software, you have a picture of an increasingly challenging operational landscape.

It’s no surprise, then, that the number of attacks on energy assets is also on the rise.

This article is part of the ‘Future Energy Perspectives’ series on Power Engineering International, in which experts from Siemens Energy share their insights into how we can move towards a decarbonised energy system.

Like all critical infrastructure, they are a key target, be it for profit, terrorism, or geopolitical reasons. At the same time, attacks are also becoming more sophisticated and attackers are better equipped, with operations run by nation-states and cybercrime organisations. As a result, attacks target more and more operational technology, a problem exacerbated by the convergence of OT and IT.

Fittingly, the research and consulting firm Gartner predicted in 2022 that by 2024, “a cyberattack will so damage critical infrastructure that a member of the G20 will reciprocate with a declared physical attack”.

The cyberspace arms race

To illustrate the risk, there are plenty of well-documented, high-profile attacks to choose from.

The infamous 2015 multi-stage hack of a Ukrainian utility, for example, started with a phishing attack and ultimately resulted in a blackout affecting around 225,000 households. In 2021, the US Colonial pipeline was affected not by an oil leak, but by a leaked password obtained by Ransomware attackers, resulting in a six-day shutdown. Consumers panicked as fuel prices surged in response to the supply shortage.

These examples are only the tip of the iceberg, as industry insiders report that cyberattacks regularly result in operational disruption, power failures, property and environmental damage, and in some cases, even physical injuries.

Due to its very nature, one challenge will be ever-present in the world of cybersecurity: there is no way of futureproofing assets against unknown cybersecurity threats.

While you can get a gas turbine hydrogen-ready so it can burn 100% hydrogen in a few years without any major upgrades, cyber hardening energy infrastructure cannot be carried out in advance in the same way. Instead, operators are in a constant arms race with the attackers.

Defence in depth

All of this has operators rightly concerned. Ultimately, this is a good thing, because it will instigate positive change.

Today, it’s clear that industrial cybersecurity is a core business competency without which reliability is not possible. Operators, therefore, must be smart and vigilant about how to best apply the tools and resources at their disposal. Once they have done their due diligence, they should hopefully realize there is a way to properly protect energy assets, even if it’s a neverending job that requires constant reassessment.

What is necessary, in essence, is an adaptable approach for all products and solutions in operation. An important part of this is the ‘defence in depth’ concept.

It consists of three consecutive protective layers that are coordinated with one another. One example is physical access control with biometric recognition to keep attackers out of power plants.

The second line of defence concerns network security. For example, critical networks can be secured with firewalls and virtual private networks (VPNs), creating subnetworks, and ensuring communication is encrypted. This is especially important for any communication with edge devices or the cloud. It also concerns remote-controlled assets such as the gas-fired power plant in Leipheim in Southwestern Bavaria, which is designed to help with grid stability in case of an emergency.

The third protective layer is systems integration, which protects terminals and automation systems by way of various access limitations, as well as antivirus software for malware protection. This includes monitoring and analysing network traffic, where AI can play an important role in keeping track of large data streams.

Additionally, today, ‘zero trust’ technology is often included, meaning that even within restricted networks, verification for any action is required and only minimal access is granted. And, in case of emergencies, the equipment should also safeguard the availability of all resources through backup and recovery solutions.

Security by design

Of course, at the core of all these layers are assets and components that need to be secured as well – and that should ideally be done before they are integrated into a power plant.

An essential part of this is the ‘security by design’ concept, in which systems are designed from the ground up with a special focus on cybersecurity risks so as to reduce the attack surface from the start.

That’s also why technology providers like Siemens Energy employ cybersecurity experts for their complete portfolio. They ensure various cybersecurity requirements for different products and customized customer solutions are met.

An important part of this is fulfilling the lead cybersecurity standard IEC 62443, which requires, among other things, that systems are regularly patched and that supply chains are secure.

As power plants often have a life span of three to four decades, it also comes as no surprise that some of their legacy components don’t have the latest cybersecurity functionalities, as required by cybersecurity standards mentioned earlier.

But that doesn’t mean they can’t be retrofitted.

Today, it’s possible to add sensors or other monitoring devices to a component so as to collect data and send it to a control system for analysis.

These are all important technical building blocks for securing your operation. But all of it would be worth little if one didn’t create awareness among co-workers at the same time.

In fact, today most security breaches can be traced back to human error. That means it’s essential to have regular training sessions and make sure IT staff regularly implement security measures. It also includes ensuring basic cyber hygiene, such as two-factor authentication, being wary of phishing attempts, and regular updates of soft- and hardware.

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Cybersecurity in a tight labour market

That’s a long checklist, but who takes care of it all?

While cybersecurity is an essential concern of any operator, it takes specialists to implement most of these measures… and those are scarce: The 2022 Cybersecurity Workforce Study found that while today’s global cybersecurity workforce is estimated to be at 4.7 million people, it still faces a shortage of an additional 3.4 million cybersecurity workers.

This tight labour market makes it challenging for small and mid-sized companies to build their own cyber expertise. So, with ever-evolving cyber legislation putting an increasing responsibility on security solutions, providers like Siemens Energy have been working for some time to build in-house expertise and dedicated cybersecurity teams whose services their customers can rely on.

As a result, these specialist teams are getting better at ensuring the implementation of security concepts for all phases of an asset’s lifecycle. They do this based on a risk-based analysis, meaning security efforts are focused where it matters most.

If an energy company does not have the resources itself, it can buy these services from technology providers and free up the time to concentrate on plant operations.

Download your copy of ‘How ‘defence in depth’ can repel energy sector cyberattacks’

Supply chain security

For security providers, threat intelligence is an essential part of their work. This entails constantly searching for information on threats and vulnerabilities in thousands of software and hardware components that are built into power plants and power grids.

Information on vulnerabilities can be found among many sources, such as official security advisories, vendor support pages, and security communities.

It’s work that must be done over the entire lifecycle of these components – a task usually too large for many energy companies. For instance, even if a vulnerability is discovered, it must still be evaluated. If it’s a cause for concern, providers can take care of the required patches.

This way, the providers also offer crucial help when it comes to complying with regulations and international cybersecurity standards such as IEC 62443 or the EU Cyber Resilience Act. These demand, among other things, that systems are regularly patched and that supply chain security is tight.

The blackout in Ukraine in 2015 happened via control software that was infected in the supply chain. That’s why, at Siemens Energy, we have a dedicated group that defines the selection of our suppliers based on their security track record.

Good energy makes the world go round

Even with all the precautions in place, cybersecurity is a challenging, perpetual task. Crucially, therefore, if an attack is detected, there must be a clear guideline for how to react. It’s essential to have an incidence response plan in case the lights do go out, and, ideally, to train for the worst case by having ‘fire drills’. External partners can also help with this, even if it’s just to validate the plan.

Overall, it’s clear that cybersecurity poses a formidable challenge for the energy industry, though it’s one that can and must be mastered.

It’s vital that this is done via teamwork with industry partners, cybersecurity providers, suppliers, customers, as well as colleagues who must be made aware of the risks. Only then will it be possible to push security continuously forward, without ever losing sight of all the good the energy system makes possible.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bernhard Mehlig is an Industrial Cybersecurity Consultant at Siemens Energy. He started his career at Siemens as a software developer for industry automation and communication applications before he became interested in cybersecurity and made it his professional goal.

He has been working in the field of cybersecurity field for 10 years now. During this time, he supported customer solution projects on cybersecurity issues covering the entire solution lifecycle from building secure system architectures to evaluating cybersecurity risks and ensuring their secure deployment. As a member of the corporate cybersecurity department, he now focuses on providing best practices and guidelines for all Siemens Energy business areas.

DEWA’s second satellite, DEWA Sat-2 will be launched by SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, USA. The launch was scheduled for Tuesday 11 April, but has been postponed to Saturday 15 April due to bad weather.

The 6U nanosatellite is part of DEWA’s Space-D programme and follows the first DEWA Sat-1, which was launched in January 2022 and has demonstrated the potential of space-based data in the planning, operation and maintenance of electricity and water networks.

For example, DEWA quotes using satellite data with artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of PV solar panels at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park outside Dubai.

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DEWA Sat-2 was designed and developed at DEWA’s Research and Development Centre in cooperation with nanosatellite specialist NanoAvionics in Lithuania.

The satellites use LoRa IoT communication technology, a new wireless protocol designed for long-range and low-power communications, to expand the coverage of the existing terrestrial communications network.

The new satellite features a high (4.7m) resolution camera for Earth observation missions, providing continuous line-scan imaging in seven spectral bands from its approximately 500km orbit.

DEWA Sat-2 also is equipped with infrared equipment to measure greenhouse gases.

DEWA anticipates that the combined use of DEWA Sat-2 images and IoT measurements from DEWA Sat-1 will enable further improvements in the operational performance of power generation and water desalination plants by providing accurate estimates of seawater temperature and salinity and the detection of red tides, as well as fog monitoring and forecasting.

(This story has been updated on Friday 14 April to reflect the correct scheduled launch date, which was changed multiple times during the course of the week.)

The Réseau d’Énergies de Wavre (REW) project, part of the CONNECTOW initiative, is expected to bring significant improvement to energy management and enable a peer-to-peer distribution model.

The development of a ‘smart grid’ through means of monitoring, predictive modelling and dashboarding will also ensure that less fuel energy is used, a statement says.

The CONNECTOW initiative is being developed by a consortium formed by the City of Wavre and B2B connectivity solution provider Citymesh, with the support of a €3.9 million (US$4.3 million) grant from the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility Digital Fund.

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Its aim is to put in place a 5G communication network and activate a range of use cases and applications to achieve Wavre’s 2030 strategic development vision of a more innovative, energy-efficient, greener and intelligent city.

“Our world at large is in need of a different approach and we firmly believe that close collaboration with all those involved will help achieve the sustainable development goals,” says Mitch De Geest, CEO of Citymesh.

“Together with the city of Wavre, its citizens and all of the stakeholders, CONNECTOW will actively seek out projects and use cases for the betterment of all. Since its conception, Citymesh has committed to the use of wireless communication technologies as a means of improving existing models. Thanks to the EU grant and the CONNECTOW project, the demonstration and realisation of certain aspects of that vision are within grasp.”

Some of the other elements of CONNECTOW alongside the smart metering include providing those in need of support and facilities including schools and libraries with affordable or free internet access, an autonomous drone equipped with thermal and high-end cameras for situational awareness for fire fighting and live streaming of sports events.

The initiative is also seen as offering an active approach to attract high-tech, biotech and e-gaming companies, flywheeling the local economy.

Anne Masson, Mayor of the city of Wavre, says for the past ten years, the city has been fully committed to the digital transition.

“For us, new technologies are an essential means of meeting the expectations of a rapidly changing world as well as the expectations of the players in the economy, health, tourism and culture located in our territory. We are convinced that by being an actor in this development, we will be able to supervise, develop and also control it in order to remain master of these developments and put them at the service of our needs.”

According to the company, their Aether Operating System (AOS) provides an oneM2M-compliant IoT Service Layer.

The California-based company’s solutions have been commercially deployed across Australia and New Zealand. They are now bringing the AOS to the US to meet the demand for smart meter-enabled distributed intelligence at the grid edge.

As demand for renewable energy, battery storage and electric vehicles grows, AOS aims to enable an open ecosystem for secure edge applications and smart meters that addresses the changing needs for electricity in the US.

The company’s US deployment aims to align with new smart meter requirements; the country is seeing the replacement of initial deployments of over 100 million smart meters and utility requirements are prompting the need to re-imagine these endpoints.

Aetheros states this need, whereby US utilities need to add analytics and control at the edge of their distribution network, as requiring an IoT service layer.

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“Our smart meter networking software, field proven with over fifteen years of deployment in Australia and New Zealand, has accelerated innovation by enabling distributed edge intelligence in the most advanced utility markets in the world,” stated Ray Bell, founder of Aetheros, former CEO and co-founder of Silver Spring Networks and CEO and founder of Grid Net.

“For years, we’ve enabled our customers to deploy analytics and control at the edge of their distribution network to detect conditions such as floating neutral, high and low voltage, and frequency imbalances, and to implement advanced services like virtual power plants and dynamic volt/var control.”

Bell’s company states how AOS provides the only ‘massive scale’ proven open IoT Service Layer that does not lock in customers.

According to Aetheros, the AOS enables utilities and suppliers:

• A transactive, distributed energy market: Energy providers can build applications that facilitate the buying and selling of energy resources.
• Balanced power based on distributed resources: Grid edge applications can access cumulative and instantaneous smart metering data, enabling local demand response and load management decisions.
• Industrial IoT: Edge devices collect data from industrial equipment to filter, prioritise and process OT data.

Bell commented on the revamp in US deployments, where “the first deployments of smart meters in the US were all about time of use billing and using demand response programs to offset the need to build more generation capacity.

“Today’s requirements are much more complex [and] utilities need to use distributed edge analytics and control to build a more efficient and diverse smart energy ecosystem.”

This marks the second commercial move into the US this year for the Aetheros.

Earlier this year in February, announced at DISTRIBUTECH 2023, the company made available their Open Computing and Communication cards for smart meters in the country.

The survey was commissioned by Wi-SUN Alliance, a global association of companies driving the adoption of interoperable wireless solutions for use in smart utilities and smart cities. About 250 people responded to the survey, which asked them to comment on changes in the utilities industry, including the most exciting smart/IoT technology developments in the next 12 months.

Energy security is seen as ‘very exciting’ for 79% of respondents, more so than the development of smart buildings and infrastructure (75%), weather and climate (73%) and disaster management (69%) systems. This is at a time when concerns are high among policy makers and industry leaders because of major economic and geopolitical turmoil, such as the war in Ukraine, putting energy supplies at risk.

The energy sector is also facing a growing number of cyberattacks, with recent attacks aimed at aging SCADA systems, as well as an increasingly interconnected energy infrastructure that is opening up opportunities for attackers to access systems and disrupt operations. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted in December 2022 that, “nations and criminal groups pose the most significant cyber threats to US critical infrastructure. These threat actors are increasingly capable of attacking the grid.”

Jeffrey Tufts, global director of utility solutions at Cisco, a Wi-SUN promoter member, said “Energy security and particularly cybersecurity is what we are being asked about most right now. The need to secure energy infrastructure has never been more important and will be an area of significant investment – in terms of pilots and adoption – over the next year or two.”

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Jeff Scheb, Director of Product Management at Landis+Gyr, a Wi-SUN Promoter member, agreed. “The global rise in cyberattacks means that everything is under scrutiny. As systems become more connected and automated, ensuring security across all network connection points is the first priority during design and implementation.”

Scheb added that connectivity with smart buildings and infrastructure is important because, “more grid-edge intelligence and connectivity are necessary to manage a dynamic energy distribution system.”

“Ensuring the security of our energy and water distribution networks is a critical factor in utility modernisation that cannot be overlooked. As utilities and cities face a growing risk of cyberattacks, investments in modern, highly secure and standards based Industrial IoT (IIoT) networks can help safeguard critical infrastructure while providing a scalable platform for future growth,” added Ty Roberts, VP of product marketing, Itron.

Additional survey findings

The survey highlights the need for ‘proven security and reliability’ for smart utility networks, with 83% of respondents acknowledging that this is ‘very important’, more so than ‘customer acceptance’ (75%), ‘open standards’ (69%) and ‘multi-vendor interoperability’ (69%).

More pilot projects and implementations (75%), and greater co-operation between public and private sectors (72%) are important to help drive development and innovation in the sector, while 70% of respondents believe more government funding/legislation is important.

Almost three-quarters (74%) of survey respondents believe electric vehicle charging will be the biggest focus for utilities when it comes to smart grid deployments in the next 6-11 months. Outage management, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and distributed energy resources (DER) are also a priority for utility professionals (71%).

Around three-quarters (74%) of respondents acknowledge that a hybrid of two or more communications networks technologies – including cellular, power line communication, RF mesh and Wi-Fi – will be very important for future smart utility development.

Also of interest:
Survey: US utilities call for government funding and new pilot projects
How to protect your business from a supply chain cyber-attack  

Wi-SUN Alliance’s Journey to IoT Maturity report published in 2022 highlighted security as one of the top three barriers to IoT adoption for around a quarter of senior decision makers across industries.

Phil Beecher, president and CEO of Wi-SUN Alliance, said: “While this figure was lower than our first report five years earlier, security is still very much a concern. We also saw a rise in concerns over data privacy – understandably, with more legislation around data protection. IoT initiatives are increasingly generating huge volumes of data, and while this information may be made entirely secure by design, risks remain.”

Research methodology

Censuswide conducted an online survey of 250+ senior decision makers working in IT, Operations and Production at US utilities in Jan 2023, supplemented by interviews at DISTRIBUTECH, an event for utilities, technology providers, and industry leaders, held in San Diego, California on Feb. 7-9, 2023.

This was originally published on Power Grid International.

International Affairs Analyst, Alice Bertazzoli, describes these companies and their respective technologies, which are enabling the energy transition.

“In all areas in which the energy transition will decline, we see extraordinary development opportunities for our companies. In this context, the showcase represented by Enlit Europe will consolidate its importance in the coming years,” she said.

Watch the full video interview below.

This interview was filmed in November 2022 at Enlit Europe in Frankfurt, Germany

For more information, you can visit ANIE internazionale@anie.it

With the ongoing fight against climate change, Mike says that with the investment and industry working together with the government, it can be done; however, not without its challenges.

Mike talks about the need to accelerate the adoption of low-carbon technologies for a successful energy transition, and comments on what we could expect come COP28.

Additional resources:
View the WEMO report
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Watch the full video interview below.

This interview was filmed in November 2022 at Enlit Europe in Frankfurt, Germany

For more information, you can visit the Capgemini website here

As the number of IoT applications continues to increase along with the trend to move data processing and analysis to the edge, the need for more energy efficient approaches is becoming more and more evident to combat the growing power consumption.

With this need, AIOTI, an industry alliance with the advancement of Europe’s digital and green transformations as its mission, has identified energy efficiency as one of the 18 strategic research and innovation priorities over the period to 2030 that can enable these technologies to evolve into “an integrated digital ecosystem, characterised by distributed architectures and mesh topologies for advancing hyper-automation in all-industrial sectors”.

Specifically AIOTI identifies three research topics – energy harvesting with its potential to remove the dependency on batteries for power and their need for periodic replacement, the energy efficiency of the hardware and the energy efficiency of data processing, particularly AI.

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The next-generation IoT and AI edge solutions should focus on novel energy management techniques to select energy sources, energy harvesting techniques, hardware/software/algorithm optimisation for data sensing, monitoring, filtering, prediction and compression, states AIOTI.

The optimisation for energy efficiency and green IoT requires the use of federation and orchestrations techniques that create dynamic and distributed energy control frameworks for edge IoT applications.

The implementation of energy efficient IoT intelligent search engines, cooling systems, and energy harvesting techniques and renewables must be considered when the hardware/software/algorithm components of the IoT application layer are evaluated.

Suggested short term research priorities include hybrid solutions combining ultra-low power connectivity with energy harvested from ambient RF, thermal, kinetic and solar PV, and system-level optimisation techniques combining lower power consumption and energy harvesting technologies as well as methods and models for data compression and exchange in edge-cloud IoT platforms.

Longer term priorities include interfaces for kinetic energy harvesting, cognitive energy management orchestration and energy efficient data aggregation mechanisms.

6G energy consumption

In a similar vein to edge energy efficiency improvements, continued reductions in energy consumption are a feature of the evolution of the telecoms networks.

The Architecture Working Group of Europe’s 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership (5G PPP) in its architecture landscape for the next generation 6G is targeting a more than 90% reduction in the energy consumption per transmitted bit compared with 5G.

This should be achieved primarily at the base station hardware level but also with improved sleep mode and network management with for example AI.

This group also highlights wireless power transfer and energy harvesting among promising techniques to enable sustainable networks.