The aim of the app is to enable users to optimise how and when energy is used around their homes, integrating smart devices, such as electric vehicle charge points and solar panels, regardless of their brand.

“There’s a lot of clever technology out there that helps people manage the energy in their homes but, incredibly, there’s nothing in the UK that works with different brands and devices, meaning people can’t currently control all the energy devices across their home in one place,” said Swarm Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Anthony Piggott.

“We knew we could create something to change this and with [Opencast’s] tech expertise and our knowledge of the energy sector, we have the ability to make something really exciting: one app to control every aspect of energy in the home.”

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Demonstration and testing of the new app are set to take place in a purpose-built energy hub at the Hoults Yard business village in Newcastle, where the two companies are based, with the first iteration planned for launch in autumn 2023.

Growing UK consumer interest in green innovations

The availability of such apps as Swarm’s would appear to be timely, with a new survey from McKinsey & Company of more than 2,000 consumers revealing a soaring demand for green energy innovations to curb high energy prices and reduce household bills.

McKinsey reports that as wholesale prices have started to fall enabling retailers to offer lower prices the incentive to switch suppliers, after record low levels, has increased and a third of consumers are considering switching, while almost half are willing to adopt some form of time-of-use tariffs.

Further, a quarter are also willing to buy additional green products and services from energy retailers such as energy management services, solar panels, electric vehicle chargers and heat pumps.

With this suppliers also have the opportunity to attract more customers and diversify their offerings by curbing costs, simplifying processes and boosting public awareness of new energy products and services, McKinsey indicates.

Kiril Bliznakov, Senior Partner at McKinsey, says the survey findings point to the driving of a more competitive market where low cost and low carbon tariffs, products and services will be the key differentiators of the future.

“The ‘gamification’ of energy services and rising demand for energy-as-a-service offerings will create new opportunities for suppliers to increase long-term customer loyalty and to both decarbonise and cut household bills.”
 

The integration, believed to be a first for quantum-based cyber protection in smart meters, sees quantum computing-hardened encryption keys integrated into all Honeywell’s smart meters for gas, water and electricity.

This enhanced security is aimed to set a new benchmark for protection against data breaches and to help ensure the uninterrupted operation of the utilities infrastructure.

“By integrating Quantinuum’s encryption technology into our smart meters, we’re advancing data security for our customers and shaping the dialogue on how the utility industries should approach cybersecurity in the quantum era,” says Hamed Heyhat, President of Smart Energy and Thermal Solutions at Honeywell.

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“This integration underscores the necessity for continuous innovation to stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape. It is a level of protection that is imperative in our increasingly digital and interconnected world.”

Quantinuum’s Quantum Origin generates keys through quantum computing-enhanced randomness – a feature of the quantum world – which makes them unpredictable and thereby able to significantly enhance the data security.

Specifically a quantum cryptographic seed is generated on a quantum computer, which is then verified for strength and the keys are generated.

Tony Uttley, President and COO of Quantinuum, comments that robust cybersecurity requires a multifaceted approach, taking advantage of the latest technologies.

“Our work with Honeywell demonstrates the importance of using the power of today’s quantum computers to create a more resilient cyber infrastructure to better protect customers.”

Quantum Origin is designed for both devices and infrastructure, with keys generated directly into devices or on demand via the cloud.

The smart meter products with Quantum Origin from Honeywell are available now to customers in North America and Europe.

NYSEG, a subsidiary of Avangrid, is to deploy LineVision’s non-contact LiDAR sensors to introduce dynamic line rating in the Hornell area of New York.

The goal of this ‘non-wires alternative’ is to reduce grid congestion with real-time data to enhance the capacity of the lines.

Traditionally, lines have been operated using ‘static’ line ratings based on fixed values.

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However, with the real-time data combining properties such as sag, temperature and the forecast weather conditions, the capacity can be determined on a ‘dynamic’ basis to enable increases in the capacity without potentially large and costly upgrades.

“We know that we have a critical role in building a smarter, more resilient network that will enable us to deliver clean energy to more customers,” commented Patricia Nilsen, president and CEO of NYSEG and RG&E.

“Investments in innovation like this are very exciting because it will benefit our customers in multiple ways.”

The sensors will be installed on two of the company’s transmission lines – one from Elma in Erie County to Strykersville in Wyoming County and the other from Warsaw to Perry in Wyoming County.

Funding for the project was awarded to Avangrid and LineVision through round two of NYSERDA’s Future Grid Challenge programme.

Capacity optimisation is crucial for the large-scale integration of renewable energies, with their potential for congestion.

New York state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) goals to achieve 70% renewable electricity by 2030 call for an additional 10,000MW solar capacity and 9,000MW offshore wind capacity.

Such an increase would likely cause significant congestion on transmission lines.

Also on the radar are stats from BNEF showing how, in 2022, clean energy activities generated at least $2.56 trillion globally and the latest green bond from E.ON valued at a total of €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion).

Energy trading optimised by grid physics

US-based SESCO Enterprises has announced the use of a mathematical optimisation model to simulate market dynamics based on the transmission grid.

Namely, the power trader has signed on with Gurobi Optimisation LLC, which develops decision intelligence tech, to support their price optimisation.

As a trading firm in the energy markets, SESCO’s goal is to simulate the condition of the national grid, as well as consumer demand for the electricity it delivers.

These outputs simulate energy market dynamics and become inputs to the models SESCO has built to determine bid pricing at auction.

“The unique thing about electricity markets is that prices aren’t really determined by people buying and selling in an order book. Next-day prices are determined at the ISO (Independent System Operator) auction, where clearing prices are often set by the outcome of an optimisation solve – typically using tools like Gurobi,” explains Dylan Modesitt, chief investment officer of SESCO.

“So using the partial information we have, we try to determine what the optimal pricing would be.”

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SESCO’s business involves speculating on next-day electricity prices, as well as the longer-term forward markets for trading power.

“Our trading expertise is about the congestion component of price, which is the kind of pricing differential that arises from transmission lines being saturated at their limit,” explained Modesitt.

“And when transmission lines are saturated to some local limit, loss is going to emit as heat. So to avoid any kind of catastrophic failure, price signals are sent on either side of that transmission line. It’s a lot of demand speculation, and it requires an understanding of the actual physics of the grid.”

SESCO began building out mathematical models and used them to solve toy problems with another commercial solver.

However, states the trader, due to several million constraints and variables, either the incumbent solver was unable to find feasible solutions, or each solve simply took too long to be useful.

Hence the turn to Gurobi, which they state provides a solution that can capture the complex effects of the physical grid state as it impacts market outcomes.

Specifically, the advanced optimisation techniques used by Gurobi’s solver, states SESCO, improve the pricing precision and capital efficiency of their trading approach.

Listed global firms hit $2.56 trillion in clean energy revenues

According to analysis from BloombergNEF (BNEF), in 2022 clean energy activities generated at least $2.56 trillion globally, with power utilities and renewable manufacturers accounting for two-thirds of the figure.

The figure forms 2.6% of GDP, according to BNEF’s Clean Energy Exposure Ratings, which identified and rated over 8,000 listed companies with revenue exposure to clean energy activities, from over 50,000 assessed.

Listed electric utilities like EDF, Enel and E.ON accounted for $1.06 trillion (42% of the total) in clean energy revenues, followed by renewable energy manufacturers and developers including CATL, Vestas and Trina Solar, contributing $628 billion (25%) in clean energy revenues in 2022.

“While automakers like Volkswagen and Toyota are among the biggest earners in the rankings, their exposure remains low and so the auto industry only contributes $370 billion to the total,” said Mike Daly, lead author of the report.

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E.ON issues €1.5 billion in green bonds

E.ON has successfully issued two bond tranches with a combined volume of €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion), backed by a combined peak orderbook of €4.3 billion ($4.7 billion).

Both tranches value €750 million ($815.6 million) each, with the first maturing in March 2029 and the second in August 2033.

E.ON’s CFO Marc Spieker commented on the green bonds: “The high demand from investors underlines again that we are on the right track with our strategy, which is focused on sustainability, digitalisation and growth.

“E.ON is determined to drive forward the energy transition in Europe. We want to invest a total of €33 billion ($35.9 billion) in the energy transition by 2027. Green bonds are an important financing instrument to do this, and we will continue to use them for our financing in the future.”

According to E.ON, a positive market environment has already allowed them to prefund financing needs for the upcoming 2024 fiscal year, while 2023 funding needs were already covered successfully by a €1.8 billion ($2 billion) bond issuance in January.

The proceeds of this green bonds will thus be used to finance and/or refinance Eligible Green Projects as defined in E.ON’s Green Bond Framework.

Bank of America Securities, Deutsche Bank, Natwest Markets and Unicredit served as active bookrunners in the transaction.

What are some of the strategies you’ve seen companies use to improve their energy trading and analytics? Are there any you’d like to see covered? Let me know.

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

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Yusuf Latief
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Smart Energy International

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Through their combined acumen, the two will develop and deploy new solutions for electric utilities and renewable energy producers.

Namely, the collaboration will draw on Hitachi Energy’s Energy Portfolio Management (EPM) solutions combined with Google Cloud’s data analytics capabilities, artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) services, as well as scalable and secure infrastructure.

“Data and analytics are at the centre of the energy transition and play a critical role in the evolving grid,” said Massimo Danieli, managing director of grid automation for Hitachi Energy. “Our customers worldwide have asked for solutions that help them achieve sustainability goals and business outcomes at speed and scale.”

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A first demonstration

The first demonstration of the collaboration is that of Hitachi Energy’s Velocity Suite Power Prices, which delivers sub-hourly energy pricing data for users.

The product’s launch marks the first milestone in the collaboration and, states Hitachi Energy, signals the partners’ aim to address growing market and customer needs for cloud-based solutions that drive the energy transition.

Global developers, operators of renewable generation and battery energy storage systems (BESS), as well as traditional generators, traders and energy market participants can use the data from Velocity Suite Power Prices to make “better, faster decisions about energy projects and investments in North America,” states Hitachi Energy in a press release.

Added Danieli: “Delivering Velocity Suite Power Prices through our partnership with Google Cloud helps global customers accelerate decision making, optimize investments, and digitally transform their own businesses.”

According to Hitachi Energy, Velocity Suite Power Prices informs and accelerates planning and revenue analyses for transformative grid and renewable energy projects.

The computing power of Google Cloud technology, adds the company, is instrumental in automating and consolidating the suite’s dataset.

“By delivering Velocity Suite Power Prices on Google Cloud, Hitachi Energy is enabling customers to deploy its platform on trusted, sustainable infrastructure and helping them better utilise massive amounts of data on their journeys to become more profitable and sustainable businesses,” said Roi Tavor, managing director at Google Cloud.

“Sustainability is a driving factor behind many organisations’ digital transformations, and we’re proud to partner with Hitachi Energy to help global businesses operate responsibly and sustainably.”

The UK market researcher’s report, The power of flex: Rewarding smarter energy usage, outlines the importance of enabling household flexibility, which has the potential to benefit individual households, the national energy system and the environment.

The report highlights four key findings:

• Smart meter-enabled flexibility can cut peak consumption by 3GW;

• Household flexibility could deliver annual savings for consumers and the energy system of £14.1 billion/year ($17.9 billion/year) in 2040;

• Individuals engaged in flexibility could save 52% in wholesale electricity costs in 2040;

• Carbon savings increase 45% with the engagement of household flexibility.

Smart meters crucial for enabling flexibility

According to Cornwall Insight, the research focussed on the system-facing benefits that can be realised by managing and deploying the flexibility potential in household electricity use.

The flow of relevant data between different parties engaged across the energy system is essential to delivering opportunities, states the company, and smart metering infrastructure is a core component in ensuring this information is available to all relevant parties when they need it.

Using the half-hourly data from smart meters, customers can also be rewarded for reducing their use of electricity at certain times, in a way that would not be possible with a traditional meter. With a traditional meter, suppliers typically do not have visibility of consumption at different times of day, states the research, and therefore could not reward customers for making a change in their consumption pattern.

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Enabled by the presence of smart meters, household flexibility was found to support substantial reductions in peak consumption, the equivalent of four new gas-fired power stations.

Specifically, states the research, managing flexible demand technologies like EV charging, heat pump operation and solar and storage activities to market prices and system requirements equates to 3GW of peak demand on the network avoided overall in 2030.

This reduction is equivalent to saving almost £1 billion ($1.3 billion) in spending on the electricity network, including wires and other infrastructure which delivers electricity to homes.

Further savings are seen in 2040, with a 1.5GW reduction in peak demand facilitated by household flexibility, saving £1.7 billion ($2.2 billion) in avoided network upgrades and the building of new gas-fired power stations.

£14.1 billion saved by 2040

According to the study’s comparison between two scenarios, one with enabled flexibility and one without, the flexibility scenario sees consumers and the energy system benefit from £14.1 billion in savings in 2040.

This arises from three key areas, states the report:

• Lowered wholesale electricity prices accounting for £12.3 billion ($15.6 billion);
• Lowered peak demand, reducing the need to build additional power stations, delivering savings of around £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion);
• Reduced need to build additional network assets, equating to a saving of around £500 million ($634 million).

These financial savings relate to single-year scenarios modelled for 2025, 2030 and 2040. The scenarios are stand-alone and are not cumulative for the time periods between the scenarios, states the research.

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Looking nearer term, in 2030 the research finds overall savings of £4.6 billion ($5.8 billion) and by as soon as 2025, the ability to shift some consumption out of expensive peak periods supports wholesale power price savings, with overall power costs £21 million ($26.6 million) lower.

Flexible households could save 52% in wholesale electricity costs in 2040

According to the research, for households with EVs, heat pumps and other smart-capable assets that are managed in line with flexibility incentives, wholesale electricity costs are 52% lower in the Flexibility Scenario, saving £3755 ($4759) in 2040.

These savings take account of the additional electricity demand required to transition to electrified heating and transport and come from these households being rewarded for moving the flexible parts of their electricity consumption into cheaper periods. This means these customers won’t face additional costs from petrol and gas, states Cornwall Insight.

45% increase in carbon savings

According to the report, engagement with household flexibility results in a 45% increase in carbon savings compared to the no flexibility scenario, the equivalent of planting 630,000 trees, states the research.

By engaging with flexibility, households can have a positive environmental impact, shifting consumption from peak times when gas-fired power stations are often used to meet demand, to other times of day when renewable energy is generating more.

The solution, designed to empower the mobile workforce and increase its operational efficiency and delivered on the Coordinator platform, is intended to serve as a deployment tool handling all stages of the meter exchange project.

The smart meter rollout is an initiative of the Israel Electric Corporation.

The first phase of 565,000 smart meters for residential customers has been awarded to Landis+Gyr, with the potential to extend the order up to 4.2 million units.

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In addition, Landis+Gyr will provide the head-end system and services for the maintenance of the existing meter data management system and related applications.

“We have been working for a long time together with Ericsson and we are thrilled to have a part in this extensive project,” comments Jonas Ljungdahl, Business Development Manager at isMobile.

The installation of the smart meters is a key component of Israel’s energy sector reform, which is underway until the end of 2024 and will see Israel Electric focus increasingly on transmission and distribution and reduce its activity in generation and supply – this latter opening to competition.

Further, its system administrator role has been taken over by the newly formed Noga company.

isMobile provides a range of solutions from smart meter rollouts to logistics equipment tracking.

Among other recent initiatives announced is a partnership with Tech Mahindra to enhance its AMI Command and Control Centre offering with smart metering operations and field service management.

09h00 New York | 13h00 GMT | 14h00 London | 15h00 Amsterdam | 15h00 Johannesburg | 17h00 Dubai | 18h30 New Delhi | 21h00 Singapore

60-minute session

Congestion management is a challenge for many grid Distribution System Operators (DSOs) and to reliably manage congestion they require detailed insights into the hot spots and bottlenecks, accurate forecasting and network calculations and collaboration between customers, market parties and stakeholders but this all needs to be underpinned with precise asset data.

Stedin, DSO for 2.3+ million customers in the Netherlands, realised that the asset data they used for their network calculations resulted in anomalies.

Join this webinar to hear industry experts discuss:
• Stedin’s approach to validating asset data for their 22,000 Medium Voltage substations
• The value Stedin is getting from the uplifted asset data
• Use cases for reducing incidents, congestion management, capacity planning and asset management

Speakers:

Wouter van Deurzen, Data Quality Manager | Stedin

André Kleinrensink, Project Director | eSmart Systems

ESB Networks started its deployment of smart meters in the autumn of 2019 and is working through the country on a phased area-by-area basis.

Currently, installations are taking place in County Longford in the central north of Ireland.

Ireland’s Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) made the decision to implement smart metering for all residential and small business customers in July 2012, following customer behaviour and technology trials and a positive cost-benefit analysis.

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Under the National Smart Metering Programme, which is being delivered by ESB Networks in partnership with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland and electricity suppliers, the rollout must be completed for the approximately 2.4 million customers by the end of 2024.

With the smart meters, suppliers are required to offer all users a time-of-use tariff and to make available new services.

ESB Networks also has launched a portal for smart meter users to view their consumption.

At the time of the one million smart meter milestone in October 2022, ESB Networks reported to be installing the new meters at a rate of about 10,000 per week and on track to meet the 2024 timeline.

To date, the programme has focussed on the replacement of standard 24-hour meters to smart meters.

However, the plan is to start from September 2023 also replacing other meter types, including day-night meters, standard 3 phase 24-hour meters with large users including industrial and commercial customers and night storage heating meters.

ESB Networks is installing meters from Kamstrup and Sagemcom.

CAMBRIDGE, MA. – August 14, 2023 – GE Vernova’s Digital business today announced it has acquired Greenbird Integration Technology AS, a data integration platform company focused on utilities. This acquisition highlights GE Vernova’s commitment to investing in technologies and talent that help accelerate the sustainable energy grid.

The platform will accelerate GridOS®, the world’s first software portfolio designed specifically for grid orchestration, adding new capabilities for connecting systems and integrating data across the grid more easily and at scale. The financial terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed.

“Utilities have an urgent need to connect data from multiple sources to gain visibility and effectively automate their grid operations. Fragmented data is a major obstacle to modernizing the grid and is holding the energy transition back,” said Scott Reese, CEO of GE Vernova’s Digital business.

“The Greenbird acquisition brings the proven ability to connect multiple data sources and accelerates our vision for GridOS that is making energy security a reality for many of the world’s leading utilities. Data and AI are key to helping utilities run a reliable and resilient grid and this acquisition is a massive accelerant to making that vision a reality for utilities of all sizes.”

The GridOS orchestration software platform and application suite enables secure and reliable grid operations while delivering resiliency and flexibility needed by utilities worldwide. GridOS delivers these tools with the cloud service provider and system integrator partner ecosystem necessary to accelerate grid modernization and the energy transition. The software portfolio uses a federated data fabric to pull together energy data, network modelling, and AI-driven analytics from across the grid.

The Greenbird acquisition will expand the capabilities of the data fabric, eliminating data silos to make it faster and easier to connect and aggregate energy data, reducing the time and expense of data integration projects. This also better connects modern software like Advanced Energy Management System (AEMS), Advanced Distribution Management Solutions (ADMS), and Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS), creating new opportunities for grid automation.

“Having access to utility data in context gives grid operators an opportunity to better leverage AI for automation and potentially enables the grid to be self-describing and self-healing in the future,” said Mahesh Sudhakaran, General Manager, Grid Software at GE Vernova’s Digital business. “This is the vision we have for grid orchestration enabled by the GridOS portfolio, and this acquisition provides both the technology and the talent to help us get there.”

“We started in 2010 with a mission to simplify data integration for utilities, helping them leverage data to run smarter, more efficient analytics-driven services to accelerate the energy transition,” said Thorsten Heller, CEO of Greenbird Integration Technology. “Our technology platform is purpose-built to support a distributed data and IT architecture and aligns perfectly with GE Vernova’s vision for the GridOS federated grid data fabric and one network model, providing the data foundation utilities need to transform their operations.”

An example of the need for more connected and integrated data is evident in the exponential growth predicted for electric vehicles (EVs) – there are expected to be 77M EVs on the road by 2025 and 229M by 2030 – that will both draw from and possibly contribute to the grid as “rolling batteries” that can be tapped when demand is high and supply is low. Integration of data from multiple sources like charging stations as well as operations, forecasting, billing, and other systems can support the success of future use cases such as vehicle-to-grid (V2G) while keeping the grid safe.

Read more news from Greenbird

Data integration is also key to solving renewables connection challenges. Approximately 1,350 gigawatts of additional, mostly sustainable power capacity is waiting to be constructed and connected to the grid. This large-scale interconnection backlog results in wasted capacity and unutilized investment. Scenario planning and grid simulations can provide an opportunity to increase line capacity and drive deeper visibility into the impact of such assets on the grid, allowing capacity to be connected faster and helping to reduce hundreds of millions of dollars of traditional back-up generators. Such use cases require the integration of forecasting, simulation, historical grid OT, sensor, line, and inertia data.

The Greenbird integration platform is delivered as a service (iPaaS) and is built with containerization and a suite of cloud services, which will accelerate the availability of key GridOS components. In addition, GE Vernova welcomes Greenbird’s innovative team to the Grid Software group, including data specialists skilled in developing and deploying distributed data processes at scale for utilities. The acquisition will advance the AI- and data-driven vision for GridOS that GE Vernova’s Digital business believes will solve grid orchestration challenges while cultivating an energy data ecosystem that advances decarbonization and electrification at scale.

Learn more about GridOS

About GE Vernova’s Digital Business

GE Vernova’s Digital business is putting data to work to accelerate a new era of energy. We deliver the platforms and intelligent applications necessary to accelerate electrification and decarbonization across the energy ecosystem – from how power is created, how it is orchestrated, to how it is consumed. More than 20,000 customers around the globe use our software to help plan, predict, manage, and optimize operations today for a sustainable tomorrow. For more information, visit the website.

About Greenbird Integration Technologies

Greenbird is an international solution and technology company with roots in Norway. We simplify the complexity of Big Data Integration to help organizations unlock the value of their data and mission critical applications. Our flagship innovation, Utilihive, is a cloud-native platform combining enterprise integration capabilities with a data lake optimized for energy use cases. We founded Greenbird in 2010 with a mission to revolutionize how the energy industry thinks about enterprise system integration. Today, Utilihive is used by more than 230 utilities across Europe, Middle East and Asia serving more than 50 million consumers. Greenbird is headquartered in Oslo and has around 50 employees, comprising primarily of senior developers and consultants and specializing in technology development and customer onboarding of the Utilihive platform. To learn how you can unleash the value of data while removing silos, explore more at www.greenbird.com.

Media contact:

Rachael Van Reen: rachael.vanreen@ge.com

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.

The three projects, part of a broader programme to investigate innovations to deliver large-scale flexibility to the electricity system, now move into phase 2 following the first phase to establish feasibility.

Smart meter based IoT applications

The IoT programme is focussed on trialling smart meter system-based sensor devices and the supporting data management tools.

Five projects were funded in the first phase, of which the two selected for further development of their solutions and to build and deploy demonstrations are the Hildebrand-led ‘Smart metering IoT system’ with funding of £764,323 (approx. $976,000) and the Octopus-led ‘Low cost enabler to connect IoT data to the smart meter system’ with £625,171 ($795,000).

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The ‘Smart metering IoT system’ project is focussed on demonstrating smart sensing of temperature and humidity within a property, using smart meter data accessible through the Data Communication Company’s (DCC) communications network.

In Phase 1 data collected from temperature and humidity sensing were shown to work within the DCC test environments while maintaining world class security and high service levels.

The project innovates by utilising new types of sensor data accessible through smart meters and the DCC network, without requiring additional operational obligations of suppliers.

Other participants include the University of Salford and Utilita conducting in-home trials.

Octopus’s project will build on its proprietary ‘Octopus Home’ product, which will connect IoT sensor devices to the company’s cloud based platform to allow real time insights on new data metrics such as temperature and humidity.

During phase 2 Octopus Energy along with Rufilla, NCC Group, Silicon Labs and the DCC will look at securing Certified Product Assurance (CPA) security certification of Octopus Home and adding new environment sensors to the device as well as connecting a HAN load control switch or standalone auxiliary proportional controller to the smart metering system via Octopus Home

With consumer consent, sensor data would be transmitted via the smart meter network instead of relying on home networking and device specific private cloud services.

The solution should provide real time data captured through the connected IoT devices, increasing options for the monitoring of smart building devices in the home.

Smart meter energy data repository

The smart meter energy data repository programme is aimed to determine the technical and commercial feasibility of such a repository.

From the three phase 1 projects, the ‘Anonymisation enhanced smart meter data repository’ led by Advanced Infrastructure Technology Ltd has been awarded funding of £850,000 ($1,08 million) for the phase 2 proof of concept.

The project’s approach puts privacy in the foreground, exploring new tools and techniques to protect personal data while sharing anonymised trends and insights to help manage the energy system more efficiently and accelerate the transition to net zero.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks will co-create the solution alongside the DCC, drawing on machine learning research co-developed by the University of Sheffield and Advanced Infrastructure to leverage the power of aggregated smart meter data in reducing the cost of heating and powering homes.

Other partners in the consortium are Perse Technology, which provides data services for the energy and carbon markets, N3rgy which will provide technology to test the provision of secure and scalable access to smart energy data, and the Retail Energy Code Company which will provide expertise aligned with the goal to make the retail energy market efficient.

The timescale of the phase 2 projects is expected to be around 15 months.

The capability is intended to offer a low cost option for utilities that use drive-by AMR to detect and manage outages without the requirement for upgrade to an automated metering infrastructure (AMI).

The feature, which is described in a patent, is in essence based on cloud-based signal detection analysis to detect meters that are not transmitting readings and from their GPS coordinates to determine a polygon defining the outage area.

“Effectively responding to and managing outages is critical for all utilities,” said Dan Forman, CEO of Copper Labs.

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“Our goal is to give utility companies the tools they need to quickly identify and decrease the duration of power outages – regardless of the types of metering equipment they currently have in the field – while also empowering homeowners with timely and actionable insights.”

Outage detection has historically been one of the primary motivators for electric utilities to consider the retrofit of AMR systems to AMI.

With Copper Labs’ advanced technology, utility companies can now identify the exact location of outages and efficiently allocate resources for restoration without having to make this shift, the company says in a statement.

The new capability joins a growing collection of offerings for utilities, including a ‘neighbourhood-level detector’ announced earlier in the year, which is designed to ‘smarten’ residential meters at scale.

Copper Labs also is partnering with the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory on a tool to harness meter datasets for outage detection and automated restoration. The technology is due to be tested at 20 rural locations.

Similarly the company has introduced an ‘add-on’ technology for water meters for water leak detection without the need for a full water AMI upgrade.

The pilot, the state’s largest, is planned to install more than 16,000 digital smart water meters at homes and businesses across the city.

The aim is to provide insights on the benefits of the smart meters, including how data can help customers change water use behaviours and which meters work best in local conditions.

The first meters are expected to be installed with about 250 customers in west Perth this month, with the wider rollout planned to take place from October.

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“We know by empowering people with information about how they use water, they’re more likely to take action to reduce their consumption,” says Water Minister Simone McGurk.

“Through this pilot, we’ll gain valuable insights into how to best utilise smart meters in Perth. This will inform the pace and scale of future installations, and help Water Corporation on its journey to become a leading digital utility.”

The Water Corporation already has installed some 40,000 smart meters, particularly in larger commercial properties and in regional areas where there may be property access issues including Kalgoorlie-Boulder in the east, parts of the Pilbara in the north and Yanchep to the north of Perth.

In those locations the technology has been found to improve safety and efficiency by removing the need for the physical meter reading.

The smart water meters transmit data on an hourly basis, which should lead to the early detection of leaks or other unusual water use patterns with their implications for customer bills.

Average rainfall across southern Western Australia has fallen by 20% since the 1970s, leading to an 80% reduction in dam inflows, according to a statement.

This in turn has increased Perth’s reliance on water sources such as desalination.

The smart water meters are expected to support both more efficient use of water resources as well as the Water Corporation’s digitalisation journey.

Trial participants will have access to an online Water Corporation account from around mid-2024.

The pilot is planned to finish in mid-2025.

With increasing levels of variable renewable energy generation being added, the management of the grid is becoming increasingly complex – and especially so in the case of extreme weather events or other disasters, natural or otherwise, requiring increasingly advanced modelling and computational techniques.

While investigations are starting on the use of quantum computers for certain power grid problems, the next generation of supercomputers emerging are exascale computers, which bring a significant increase in performance able to perform more than a billion, billion or a quintillion operations per second – or 1 exaflop in computing parlance.

In the initiative, part of the ExaSDG project, LLNL-developed software capable of optimising the grid’s response to potential disruption events under different weather scenarios was run on the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Frontier supercomputer, believed to be the current fastest in the world.

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The open-source optimisation solver, HiOp, was run on 9,000 nodes of the Frontier machine.

In the simulation, the researchers were able to determine safe and cost-optimal power grid setpoints over 100,000 possible grid failures and weather scenarios in just 20 minutes.

In it security-constrained optimal power flow was emphasised, as a reflection of the real-world voltage and frequency restrictions the grid must operate within to remain safe and reliable.

For comparison, system operators using commodity computing hardware typically consider up to only about 100 hand-picked contingencies and up to 10 weather scenarios.

LLNL computational mathematician and principal investigator Cosmin Petra says the goal was to show that the exascale computers are capable of exhaustively solving this problem in a manner that is consistent with current practices that power grid operators have.

“Because the list of potential power grid failures is large, this problem is very computationally demanding. We showed that the operations and planning of the power grid can be done under an exhaustive list of failures and weather-related scenarios.”

With this the software stack could be used for example, to minimise disruptions caused by hurricanes or wildfires, or to engineer the grid to be more resilient under such scenarios.

A key issue for the wider use of the optimisation software is the cost benefit for grid operators.

Petra says in a statement that while a cost-benefit analysis was not done due to confidentiality restrictions and is not yet known, it is likely that a 5% improvement in operations cost would justify a high-end parallel computer, while anything less than 1% improvement would require downsizing the scale of computations.

Other participants in the project were the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

With the demonstration completed, the LLNL research team hope to engage more closely with power industry grid stakeholders and draw in more HiOp users for optimisation with the goal of parallelising those computations and bringing them into the realm of high performance computing.

ExaSGD project

The ExaSGD project is developing algorithms and techniques to address the challenges of maintaining the integrity of the grid under adverse conditions imposed by natural or human-made causes.

ExaGO, the power system modelling framework, the latest version of which was released in February 2023, is the first grid application to run on Frontier.

Frontier was built in partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and AMD and was the first computer to achieve exascale performance in 2022 – at the time being 2.5 times faster than the next fastest ranked.

It is comprised of 74 cabinets with over 9,400 CPUs and almost 38,000 GPUs along with 250PB of storage and achieves its speed essentially with parallel processing of information.

The platform, Predict+, which has been developed by California based Tigo Energy, uses AI and machine learning technology to automatically forecast electricity generation and consumption for utilities, IPP’s and grid planners.

EDF Renewables Israel will use the platform in an extended partnership with Tigo Energy, which develops intelligent solar and energy storage solutions, to enhance the performance of solar farms in Israel through the predictive tech.

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In the collaboration, Predict+ will be used to:

• Forecast and model energy meter data for enable energy trading decisions, including precise day-ahead and long-term forecasting of EDF Renewables Israel consumers’ consumption
• Manage market insights about demand, renewable supply and utility pricing in the Israeli energy market
• Conduct profit analyses using predicted and actual revenues from end-customers, as well as an API-level integration with billing systems for end-customer consumption data and invoicing
• Produce accurate, consistent, and regulation-compliant reporting data for Israeli grid operator Noga

According to Tigo, the platform provides “high-fidelity visibility into the performance of solar and wind energy systems through precise predictions, market insights, profit analysis and regulation functions,” they stated in a release announcing the upgrade to their existing collaboration.

Predict+ is part of the Tigo Energy Intelligence (EI) platform, a digital platform designed to oversee solar installations’ planning, installation, commissioning, monitoring and maintenance phases, from individual residential systems to commercial, industrial and utility-scale solar fleets.

“With Predict+, EDF Renewables now has the power of reliable and self-adaptable forecasting and a customisable, software-driven model to maximise the value of solar assets,” said Zvi Alon, chairman and CEO at Tigo Energy.

“We look forward to continuing our work with EDF Renewables to optimise the company’s virtual supplier business and bolster its position as a leader in the energy utility space.”

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.

Colorado-headquartered Redaptive, an energy-as-a-service provider, launched the digital platform, which tracks and analyses building energy use data to provide insights for facility managers, energy professionals and utilities.

The solution, called Redaptive ONE, assesses building performance with the hope of simplifying sustainability reporting and helping to maximise energy savings.

According to Redaptive, the metering and data dashboard provides a window into consumption across building portfolios, which they claim saves on average 50% on reporting costs and time to gather and interpret the data, in addition to saving between 5%-15% on utility spend.

First Redaptive installs meters to measure electricity, water and gas usage enabling visibility into critical energy consumption for facility managers to make informed improvements.

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The platform’s release is followed by implementation across 18 locations, managed by WPT Capital Advisors, in five months.

In a press release announcing the solution, Spender Gerberding, a partner at WPT Capital Advisors, commented: “With Redaptive’s metering solution and the Redaptive ONE platform, our team can easily track and monitor consumption data, by building, across our entire portfolio for water, gas and electricity.”

Gerberding added how, through the solutions, inconsistent consumption patterns were quickly detected and alerts automatically sent “that ultimately create safer, healthier buildings by identifying leaks and building systems that are running at off-peak intervals.”

According to research released earlier this year – Building energy performance monitoring through the lens of data quality: A review – on the importance of smart meter data for energy performance, data quality reporting had been found to be fragmented and limited, although its importance is undeniable across sectors.

According to Redaptive, the platform can also enable access to consumption data for ongoing environmental, social and governance (ESG) and GRESB reporting without the leg work of collecting and deciphering utility bills from tenants.

The launch of the platform followed a $250 million fundraise with CPP, Honeywell, CBRE, Linse Capital and others.

The updates to the EIA’s National Energy Modelling System (NEMS) will involve both an advancement of the existing model and new data, while prioritising the requirements of current US laws and regulations.

Commenting on the updates was Sauleh Siddiqui, EIA chief energy modeller, who, referencing an AEO2023 appendix, which details the considered Inflation Reduction Act provisions, stated that the enhancements are being planned to develop a “next-generation, open-source modelling framework that will be nimble and flexible to new technology and policy advancements.

“We will be engaging the modeling community and providing updates as we move forward,” added Siddiqui.

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According to the EIA, a core aspect of their mission is to develop long-term projections of the US energy system that informs decision-makers. This requires keeping pace with rapidly evolving energy markets, policies and regulations, macroeconomic trends, technology innovation and resource availability.

As such, the NEMS update will revolve around garnering a better model to account for developments in hydrogen, carbon capture and other emerging technologies.

Announcing some of the updates on social media, Joe DeCarolis, EIA administrator, stated that the ongoing developments within the policy settings of the US have urged the remodelling to better account for newly proposed regulations, “some of which are still being finalised…we must forge ahead with critical NEMS enhancements to keep pace with the changing dynamics of the energy sector.”

The NEMS is used for the EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook, a yearly report using data from the modelling system. With the update, the outlook will be delayed to 2025. A Short Term Outlook will continue to be produced.

Stated the EIA: “By retooling NEMS in 2024, the next AEO (Annual Energy Outlook) in 2025 will more comprehensively address existing laws and regulations in the Reference case, including up-to-date provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act and regulatory actions that could be finalised in the coming months.”

The project, which has been awarded $300 million by the World Bank, will see the prepaid gas meters installed in the capital Dhaka and the Rajshahi Division in the west of the country.

Among these, 1.1 million prepaid meters will be deployed in Greater Dhaka covering just over half of the residential customers of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited.

The balance of 128,000 prepaid meters will be deployed in the Rajshahi division, covering the entire residential customer base of Pashchimanchal Gas Company Limited (PGCL).

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In addition, a pilot with up to about 60 larger industrial users in the two companies’ service areas will be implemented to demonstrate the viability of smart meters to better monitor and manage gas use in the industrial sector.

A Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Geographic Information System also will be installed on PGCL’s network to improve gas flow monitoring and help reduce methane leaks and ultimately contribute to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

With all its customers having gas meters, the company will have better visibility on the flows of gas in its networks and report gas losses more accurately and thus be able to better target leakage reduction.

“Bangladesh’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emission comes from the oil and gas sector,” comments Sameh I. Mobarek, World Bank Senior Energy Specialist and Team Leader for the project.

“Prepaid gas meters and advanced monitoring systems will help optimise natural gas end-use, mitigate methane leakages and lead to lower gas bills for the households and industrial users.”

Natural gas accounted for two-thirds of primary energy consumption in Bangladesh in 2021 and over half of the power generation capacity.

Methane leakages in the oil and gas value chain amount to an estimated 257kt, which is roughly equivalent to 7.7Mt of CO2.

The decision to implement prepaid metering follows an earlier pilot of 200,000 prepaid meters conducted by Titas Gas, which was launched in 2015 and found that the system seemed to have successfully increased consumer awareness in combating waste of natural gas, thus creating the potential for savings in residential consumption.

The project will finance technical assistance to detect CO2 and methane emission sources along the natural gas value chain and identify and prioritise opportunities to abate emissions in existing facilities and infrastructure.

It will also help develop emissions monitoring, reporting and verification protocols and regulatory frameworks for sustained carbon abatement in the energy value chain that can then be implemented through investment with public and private climate financing.

This is according to Aurora’s Down To The Wire: The Role Of Networks In Delivering The Energy Transition, a strategic insights report released to Aurora Energy Research subscribers.

Closing the curtailment gap

The report finds that the UK’s electricity transmission system has not expanded at the same pace as its renewable generation portfolio, necessitating curtailment to fill the gap between generation and grid capacity, so as to avoid grid malfunction.

Closing this gap, states Aurora, will be crucial for the UK’s net zero pathway; expanding renewable capacity alone will not suffice.

Their studies show that, if Britain were to install the needed 40GW of offshore wind power without adequate transmission system upgrades, power sector emissions from now to 2050 would surpass the total required to reach net zero by 55%.

By contrast, delivering all of the grid upgrades currently planned by energy market regulator Ofgem and TSO National Grid would cause power sector emissions in 2023-2050 to fall 9% below the same level required.

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Ashutosh Padelkar, GB research associate at Aurora Energy Research, commented on the UK net zero modelling: “Delivering the grid upgrades planned by Ofgem and National Grid would require nearly 10,000km of additional transmission lines: a very tall order.

“Long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies could provide a useful complementary solution to rising curtailment alongside grid expansion, but the lack of a route to market for these technologies is a barrier to investment.”

Costs will even out

Within their report, Aurora emphasises that costs should not deter action to expand the grid.

Delaying grid buildout, they state, would not reduce costs for consumers. And failing to deliver all the grid upgrades currently planned by Ofgem and National Grid would not cost any less than deploying the required infrastructure in time, their modelling shows.

The buildout envisaged by Ofgem and National Grid would cost an additional £49 billion ($62.7 billion) compared to Aurora’s inadequate upgrades’ scenario, but the increase would be offset by lower grid management costs due to reduced curtailment.

Total power system costs, ultimately borne by consumers, under both scenarios are roughly equal, whereas the “upgrades delivered” scenario costs just under 1% less.

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A not-so-straightforward conundrum

However, Aurora adds how deploying the necessary grid infrastructure to reach net zero will not be straightforward.

Specifically, planned transmission upgrades in the UK would cause cumulative steel demand for the transmission system to rise by 450% between 2025 and 2035.

Britain will also face strong competition globally to meet this demand—Aurora forecasts Germany and Spain each to deploy more than three times as much additional grid infrastructure by 2050 as Britain, for example, likely straining global supply chains.

Expansion projects in Britain also face the challenge of securing planning permission, with projects typically taking 6-8 years to obtain all of the required permits to begin construction. Growing backlash from local residents poses a key obstacle to streamlining the process.

Richard Howard, global research director for Aurora Energy Research, commented: “Great Britain has made great strides in building wind and solar projects over the past decade and has ambitious targets to deploy more renewable power generation.

“This is necessary but not sufficient to deliver our net zero targets: we also need to accelerate investment in grid capacity to link these projects to our cities and towns. Britain already faces a growing problem of having to turn off significant amounts of renewable power when the grid is constrained and this will increase sharply unless we deliver the required grid upgrades in time.”

Renewable power generation represents one of the UK’s “greatest successes in the race to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050,” states Aurora in a release announcing the findings from their Down to the Wires report.

The country’s installed renewable power generation capacity was found to have more than tripled from 2012 to 2022, allowing renewable power plants to account for 41% of total electricity generation in 2022.

The amended Energy Efficiency Directive will set energy-saving targets for both primary and final energy consumption in the EU.

With the directive, member states will have to collectively ensure a reduction in energy consumption of at least 11.7% at EU level by 2030.

A monitoring and enforcement mechanism will accompany this objective to make sure member states deliver on their national contributions to this binding EU target.

EU Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson welcomed the adoption: “Another milestone has been achieved today towards completing the Fit For 55 objectives. Our increased ambition and stronger measures on energy efficiency will accelerate the energy transition.”

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With the directive, EU countries will now be legally required to prioritise energy efficiency in policymaking, planning and major investments.

EU countries also agreed to almost double their annual energy savings obligation in the coming years.

Under the recast directive, EU countries will be required to achieve an average annual energy savings rate of 1.49% from 2024 to 2030, up from the current requirement of 0.8%, driving energy savings in critical sectors like buildings, industry and transport.

With the definition of energy poverty included in the legislation, EU countries are compelled to prioritise energy efficiency improvements for vulnerable customers, low-income households, and individuals in social housing, including within the scope of the energy savings obligation.

Public sector

The recast directive aims to strengthen the role played by the public sector in enhancing energy efficiency practices.

A significant advancement, states the European Commission, is the introduction of an annual energy consumption reduction target of 1.9% for the public sector as a whole. The annual 3% buildings renovation obligation is being extended to all levels of public administration.

Energy Performance Contracts will be prioritised in the implementation of energy efficiency projects in the public sector, whenever possible. Public bodies will continue to consider energy efficiency requirements when making decisions regarding the purchase of products, buildings and services.

Businesses operating in the EU will be able to benefit from assessments of their energy use practices, with energy management systems becoming a default requirement for large energy consumers exceeding 85TJ of annual energy consumption and will be subject to mandatory audits in the event of non-compliance.

Enterprises with an energy consumption above 10 TJ will have to perform an energy audit and prepare an action plan for the different recommendations.

Data

The agreement also introduces a reporting scheme of energy performance in large data centres, promoting transparency and optimisation of energy efficiency potential.

Given the importance of digitalisation and data centres, the directive introduces an obligation for the monitoring of the energy performance of data centres.

An EU-level database will collect and publish data, which is relevant for the energy performance and water footprint of data centres with significant energy consumption.

Heating, workforce and financing

The new legislation promotes local heating and cooling plans in larger municipalities.

Based on the revised definition of efficient district heating and cooling included in the legislation, minimum requirements will be gradually tightened in the coming years towards achieving a fully decarbonised district heating and cooling supply by 2050.

EU countries will also need to ensure that certification and qualification opportunities are available for energy efficiency-related professions.

The agreement supports energy efficiency financing provisions to facilitate investments, including from the private sector, which has a key role to play given the limited public resources available for the clean energy transition.

EU countries are tasked with promoting innovative financing schemes and green lending products, ensuring wider access through transparent investment. Enhanced reporting on energy efficiency investments will improve accountability and transparency.

The Council’s endorsement follows the one given by the European Parliament earlier this month and marks the final step in the legislative process that started in July 2021 as part of the ‘Fit for 55’ package.

As part of the Clean Energy for all Europeans package, the Energy Efficiency Directive underwent significant amendments in 2018, introducing updated energy efficiency targets of at least 32.5% by 2030, based on 2007 projections. Additionally, an extended energy savings obligation was implemented, specifying annual energy savings targets for EU countries during the 2021-2030 period.

The Commission’s proposal for a second revision (a recast) of the Energy Efficiency Directive was put on the table in July 2021 as part of the Fit for 55 package. This proposal included an energy efficiency target of 9% compared to the 2020 reference scenario, asserting the important role to be played by energy efficiency in Europe’s efforts to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions.

The ten ‘demonstrator’ projects have secured new funding under the beta phase – demonstrating their application after successful feasibility studies and proofs-of-concept – within Ofgem’s Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF).

Led by energy networks alongside partners in research, tech and innovation, the UK projects include technologies delving into hydrogen integration, flexible use of energy, AI and weather data systems to predict risks and faults to enable connections to the grid for increasing amounts of offshore renewable power.

The projects include:

1. CrowdFlex

The CrowdFlex project, led by National Grid ESO, aims to explore household energy flexibility as a national resource to help decarbonisation.

The project will evaluate the use of flexibility over when and how energy is used to help align demand to generation, improve network coordination and reduce stress on the system.

The project aims to build a forecasting model of domestic demand and flexibility, based on large-scale consumer trials, with the objective of establishing flexibility as a resource and informing new product design.

Project partners include Amazon Web Services, Octopus Energy, OVO Energy, Element Energy, National Grid Electricity Distribution, Southern Electric Power Distribution, Centre for Net Zero and OHME Operations UK.

Under the beta phase, the project has been awarded £18.6 million ($23.9 million).

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2. Digital Platform for Leakage Analytics

The Digital Platform for Leakage Analytics project, led by Cadent with Guidehouse as technology delivery partner, aims to demonstrate a prototype for how data, analytics and innovative sensors can be used to identify, locate and predict gas leaks in the gas distribution network.

The system is hoped to enable real-time alerts about critical leaks, more accurately analyse and model leakage data across the network and take quick and effective action.

Project partners include Northern Gas Networks, Wales & West Utilities, National Gas Transmission and Southern Gas Networks.

Under the beta phase, the project has been awarded £9.5 million ($12.2 million).

3. HyNTS Compression 

Led by National Grid Transmission, the project will investigate the compression of hydrogen for use in energy networks.

It will test repurposing of existing compression equipment to determine if it could be used for 100% hydrogen transmission. 

Project partners include Cardiff University, Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery, Northern Gas Networks, Southern Gas Networks, DNV Services UK, Premtech and Cullum Detuners.

Under the beta phase, the project has been awarded £33.3 million ($42.8 million).

4. Intelligent Gas Grid

Led by Southern Gas Networks, the project will investigate the use of weather data and AI to monitor and control gas networks, including the optimisation of pressure management, detection of faults and assisting the injection of green gas into the network.

Project partners include Cadent Gas, Northern Gas Networks, Wales & West Utilities, National Grid Gas, Utonomy and DNV Services UK.

Under the beta phase, the project has been awarded £6.1 million ($7.8 million).

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5. Predict4Resilience

Led by SP Transmission, the project will investigate using data from historical faults, land cover, weather and surveys to improve the forecasting of network faults and risks.

Project partners include the University of Glasgow, SP Distribution, SIA Partners UK and Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution.

Under the beta phase, the project has been awarded £4.5 million ($5.8 million).

6. Predictive Safety Intervention

Led by Southern Gas Networks, the project will investigate the use of AI and data to prevent safety incidents.

Project partners include Cadent Gas, Northern Gas Networks, National Grid Gas and FYLD.

Under the beta phase, the project has been awarded £1.1 million ($1.4 million).

7. Velocity Design with Hydrogen

Led by Southern Gas Networks, the project will investigate the use of hydrogen in gas distribution networks.

Project partners include Cadent Gas, Northern Gas Networks, Wales & West Utilities, National Grid Gas, Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers and DNV Services UK.

Under the beta phase, the project has been awarded £5.9 million ($7.6 million).

8. HyNTS Deblending for Transport Applications

Led by National Grid Gas, this project will investigate the blending of hydrogen for heavy transport refuelling stations into the gas network.  

Project partners include Element Energy, Cadent Gas, Northern Gas Networks, Wales & West Utilities, Southern Gas Networks, DNV Services UK, Element 2 and HyET Hydrogen B.V.

Under the beta phase, the project has been awarded £9.9 million ($12.7 million).

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9. Network-DC

Led by Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission, Network-DC is investigating the connection of offshore wind to DC (direct current) networks in coastal communities.

The project will look at the use of DC breakers to allow many wind farms to connect to a DC network, reducing the number of coastal converter stations for economic and environmental benefits.

Project partners include the University of Edinburgh, Carbon Trust Advisory, National Grid ESO and the SuperGrid Institute.

Under the beta phase, the project has been awarded £5.5 million ($7 million).

10. Incentive

Led by Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission, the Incentive project looks at technologies for managing offshore wind generation.

The project will investigate innovative control and energy storage for ancillary services in offshore wind, coupling storage with offshore wind farms to provide grid stability services, such as inertia i.e. when turbines are not generating.

Project partners include the University of Strathclyde, National Grid ESO and the Carbon Trust.

Under the beta phase, the project has been awarded £922,333 ($1.2 million).

The SIF is a five-year programme from Ofgem for projects in the UK, with up to £450 million ($577.4 million) available to promote projects driving energy network innovation.

Projects are funded progressively in three ‘agile’ stages – discovery, alpha and beta – to ensure focus on the right areas and minimise risk.

Discovery projects are short feasibility studies, alpha are longer proof-of-concept projects and beta projects are large-scale demonstrators.

The SIF programme’s second round of projects is currently underway; 53 feasibility studies have completed their initial Discovery Phase. A third round is due to open for feasibility study proposals in the autumn of 2023.

Funding will be provided incrementally and is dependent on key milestones being met.

The UK has pledged to reduce its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050, in accordance with its obligations under the Paris Agreement.

All eyes are on utilities providers as we transition to this net zero future, but it’s not as simple as flicking a switch and swapping to renewable energy generation.

Heat mapping

2022 was one of the hottest years on record in the UK, highlighting the effects of climate change on air temperature.

The UK is already leading the way in climate adaptation by using space data to monitor and understand the impact of climate change. For example, in a project backed by the UK Space Agency, Ordnance Survey is using satellite data to monitor and map heat in locations at greatest risk.

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Revealing locations that are at greater risk allows local governments to plan better and implement effective policies to deal with extreme weather events. Accurate location data can also be used to optimise tree planting and land management, ensuring that planning is resilient to future change.

In cities, heat mapping can be used to find heat islands. These spots, where land surface is densely covered with roads, pavement, buildings and other surfaces that absorb and retain heat, could benefit from building adaptation. For example, retrofitting green roofs and green spaces could be used for heat pumps and as low carbon heat sources.

Heat mapping can also be used to enable community-driven energy generation, where an entire city or municipality create micro energy grids, powered by solar panels or nearby wind farms to help reduce demand on the national grid and lower its carbon footprint.

Asset planning

By 2030, it’s estimated that there will be between eight million and eleven million hybrid and electric cars in the UK, requiring 300,000 charging points. With just 37,000 existing in 2023, it’s clear that work is required to build this infrastructure.

For example, the Department for Transport, in conjunction with the University of Exeter, undertook a study to estimate the proportion of properties in a certain area that could accommodate private electric vehicle charge points powered by the household. Using Ordnance Survey’s geospatial data, combined with other data sets, an algorithm was developed that could be used to classify residential dwellings as potential locations for private charge points.

As the number of electric vehicles on the road increases, data like this will prove to be vital.

Also, for public use chargers, it’s important to see additional data, like how many houses exist within a postcode and what the electricity supply in that area is like. This will allow chargers to be placed in the most efficient locations.

Avoiding strikes

Around four million kilometres of pipes, sewers and electricity and telecoms cables are buried underground in the UK, accounting for a significant proportion of the nation’s utility, building and transport infrastructure. It’s estimated that every seven seconds a hole is dug to access these assets for repairs, upgrades and new installations.

The vast amount of holes dug, coupled with the unreliability of underground asset location data, means that there are around 60,000 accidental strikes per year, leading to injury, project delays and disruption to traffic and local economies. The total cost of these accidental strikes is estimated to be around £2.4 billion (US$3 billion) every year.

The lack of a single source of location data for underground assets has had a huge impact on the number of strikes over the years. While location data exists, it’s siloed in separate private companies, with data sharing between them often slow and inefficient.

To help combat this, the UK Government has established a Geospatial Consortium, of which Ordnance Survey is a member. The consortium has been working for a number of years to build a National Underground Asset Register as a single, secure data-sharing service to record the location and characteristics of underground assets.

The register will provide workers with an interactive, standardised digital view of the underground assets in a given location, reducing the risk of accidental strikes and resultant delays, costs and disruption.

Better service

With energy bills higher than in previous years, it’s important for providers to be aware of customers that require additional support.

Ordnance Survey is participating in a pilot to overcome this called the Priority Services Register. The pilot brings together data from various utilities providers to build a master list of all residents in Great Britain that might require additional support from their providers.

Once the list is aggregated, it will be disseminated out to all of the utility providers involved so that they can understand which of their customers are vulnerable.

While utility providers will have some insight already, the Priority Services Register will help ensure that every resident is provided with the support that they need, especially as our reliance on fossil fuels reduces and the way that households receive energy changes.

Achieving net zero emissions by 2050 is key to protecting our planet for the future. Accurate location data clearly has a key role to play towards meeting the challenges of this energy transition.

Ordnance Survey, the UK’s national mapping service, is a leading geospatial organisation and experienced geospatial partner for the national government and others around the world.

Series A for autonomous EV charging

Rocsys, a developer of autonomous charging solutions for electric transportation, has announced a $36 million Series A funding round.

Rocsys combines soft robotics, AI-based computer vision and data-driven services to adapt existing chargers into an autonomous system that can plug in and out without manual intervention.

According to the Dutch company, the solution removes the risk of operator errors, ensures regulatory compliance and vehicle uptime and minimises damage and human exposure to high-voltage equipment.

They add how the solution works for consumer and fleet vehicles, including port equipment, industrial applications, heavy-duty and more.

Led by SEB Greentech Venture Capital, the round includes participation from Graduate Entrepreneur, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and returning investor Forward.One.

With the investment, which includes a roughly equal split of debt and equity financing, Rocsys will expand the capabilities of its platform as it scales up its presence in the US and Europe.

“There’s too much friction in the EV charging process today, creating needless barriers to sustainable transportation,” said Rocsys Co-founder and CEO Crijn Bouman.

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“That’s why we created a technology-agnostic solution that converts any charger into a fully automated experience, maximising the return on investment and sustainability impact of already-installed charging infrastructure. With this Series A funding, we’re bringing this breakthrough solution to more customers and industries worldwide.”

The capital infusion will support research and development into additional features for the platform, which include intelligent parking guidance, expanded software integrations for vehicle navigation and fleet management systems and additional remote diagnostics and teleoperations support.

Rocsys also plans to build out its North American division, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, to further support application engineering and customer service in the region while expanding local supply chain and manufacturing activities.

As part of the round, Rocsys welcomes four new members to its Board of Advisors, including Mikko Huumo of SEB, Frederik Gerner, and Jan Willem Friso of Forward.One, and new chairperson Dr Gregor Matthies.

Ireland’s GridBeyond acquires Veritone Inc Energy Business

Through an acquisition, Veritone Energy’s acumen and energy management solutions have been integrated into Irish tech developer GridBeyond.

California-based Veritone develops software that uses AI for energy forecasting, optimisation, and control, aiming to unlock the full potential of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) while enhancing reliability.

Dublin-headquartered GridBeyond, on the other hand, develops a technology platform that provides real-time optimisation of distributed assets across a range of industries and asset types.

The acquisition sees Veritone’s extensive portfolio of such AI-powered solutions integrated into the Irish business. It is also a strong growth signal for GridBeyond, expanding its capabilities in the US.

The combination of the two technologies will allow GridBeyond to offer more functionalities to its customers through a new design platform, which they describe as “an extremely accurate forecasting technology” in a press release announcing the acquisition.

One particular combination is that of Veritone’s aiWARE Enterprise platform, which utilises AI forecasting to boost profit from DERs, into GridBeyond’s virtual power plant (VPP) platform.

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Equity capital for a VPP

In the realm of VPPs, Leap, a software platform that aggregates DERs and connects them into VPPs, has secured a new capital raise totalling $12 million in equity financing.

The California-based company utilises customer meter points – to date connecting over 70,000 in the US – to facilitate automated access to energy markets.

Assets such as battery storage systems, EV charging points, smart thermostats, building management systems and other DERs are connected, with the aim of easing the process for technology providers and operators to earn revenue in demand response and other grid services programmes.

Leap co-founder and CEO Thomas Folker, commented on the successful finances: “With this new investment, we will continue to add high-value features to our platform, grow our network of technology partners and expand our value stack across geographies as we advance our mission to decarbonise the world’s electric grids.”

Earlier this year in April, the US-based VPP operator joined the Virtual Power Plant Alliance (VP3).

“Distributed energy resources are a growing priority for both consumers and utilities. With Leap’s unique ability to monetise all types of assets — from energy storage to electric vehicles to building management systems — it is a market maker in an increasingly crowded field,” said Standard Investments’ Logan Ashcraft, who was named to Leap’s board of directors.

The funding round was led by Standard Investments with participation by DNV Ventures and Sustainable Future Ventures as well as existing Leap investors, including Union Square Ventures, Congruent Ventures and National Grid Partners.

An acquisition to bolster ultrasonic water meter readings

French industrial group Sagemcom, which develops broadband communication and energy solutions, has acquired Odit-e, a French digital player specialising in AI solutions for the planning, operation and maintenance of low-voltage drinking water electrical distribution networks.

The acquisition enables Sagemcom to broaden its range of software solutions (namely the Siconia software suite) for network managers, relying on Odit-e for the analysis of data collected by smart meters and sensors installed in the networks.

According to Sagemcom, the Siconia technology offering includes a range of ultrasonic smart water meters to control, monitor and manage water use in residential and industrial environments.

Odit-e’s solutions, utilising smart meter-gathered data, aims to inform decision making for DSOs, through ‘Physics informed AI’ algorithms.

Thus, through the acquisition, Sagemcom is aiming to strengthen its position in the electricity and water distribution markets.

In a release announcing the acquisition, Patrick Sevian, Sagemcom president commented on how the deal “strengthens our expertise in energy transition and enables us to meet the growing needs of energy and water distribution operators.

“By combining the skills of Odit-e and Sagemcom, we are convinced that we will be able to offer ever more innovative and efficient industrial solutions to our customers.”

Make sure to follow Smart Energy Finances Weekly for the latest in finance and investment announcements coming from the energy industry.

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Yusuf Latief
Content Producer
Smart Energy International

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The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a notice of intent to issue a $4 million funding opportunity announcement. In particular, solutions tapping into the ‘tsunami of data’ offered by advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) to enhance grid reliability will be eligible.

The new funding will fall under the Sensor Data Analytics Demonstrations Funding group.

The FOA (funding opportunity announcement) aims to enhance grid reliability and resilience given the availability of advanced data collection and analysis to develop the grid of the future.

In a press release announcing the FOA, the DOE states how “the tsunami of data from the Advanced Metering Infrastructure, specifically, as well as sensors with fast-streaming data sets, have challenged the traditional methods of utility data acquisition, use and storage.”

The FOA seeks to establish a portfolio of projects that demonstrate the different geographic, economic and climate conditions that help assess the deployment of advanced sensor technologies.

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The DOE encourages demonstrations and direct partnerships with data providers and power sector utilities to help ensure that analytics support planning and operations decisions.

Awarded projects will include both Research and Development (R&D) and Demonstration tasks.

“The electric power industry is witnessing an explosive growth in the volume, variety, and velocity of utility data,” said Gene Rodrigues, Assistant Secretary for Electricity. “We will need the data and analysis to accelerate pathways towards our grid modernization goals.”

This is the latest from the US DOE to encourage the use of AMI within grid planning.

Earlier this year, according to a Wood Mackenzie-published Utility investment in grid modernization report, 25 investor-owned utilities in the US filed for $36.4 billion of investment into grid modernisation; AMI was a major focus for the call.

According to their research report, AMI and distributed hardening represented, at the time of the reports release, 80% of grid investment in the country.

The new campus, part of a €1 billion (US$1.1 billion) investment planned in Germany and €2 billion globally in 2023, is set to become a hub for global research and development and manufacturing drawing increasingly on the industrial metaverse.

Specifically, according to a statement, the campus will focus on “sustainable and future-oriented high-tech manufacturing, related research and development activities, and the opening of the location for an ecosystem of partners from the business and scientific communities.”

Currently the Erlangen factory manufactures products in industrial automation and digitalisation including power electronics components and machine tool controls for the machine building industry.

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While already highly automated with robotics, with this combination of the real and the digital worlds Siemens anticipates strengthening the Erlangen location as a hub for digital production concepts, such as industrial 3D printing and innovative power electronics.

In preparation, employees are reported as upgrading their skills both to prepare themselves for the digital transformation of the working world but also to actively shape it.

“Siemens is banking on innovation in Germany and launching the next stage of digitalisation: we’re laying the foundation for the industrial metaverse in the Nuremberg metropolitan region,” said Roland Busch, president and CEO of Siemens AG.

“Together with partners, we’re developing new digital technologies in the metaverse and revolutionising how we’ll run our production in the future – much more efficiently, flexibly and sustainably.”

The plan for the location calls for both conversion of the existing facilities and expansion of the site.

The development itself will draw on the metaverse, with the plan that the new buildings will be developed with a digital twin, which will enable the layout to be optimised and then implemented in the real world.

The approximately 200,000m² area also is planned to be a net zero location. Proposals include an innovative energy infrastructure, green energy supply and energy storage in partnership with the city of Erlangen and the extensive use of Siemens’ digital building technology solutions.

Through this investment, Siemens is now creating a blueprint for the industrial metaverse, a virtual representation of the real world – photorealistic, physics-based and in real time, the Siemens statement says.

Previously Siemens partnered with Nvidia to advance the industrial metaverse connecting Nvidia’s Omniverse platform with Siemens’ software and solutions.

Siemens has a history of development of digital twins, the foundation of the industrial metaverse, in various sectors. For example, as far back as 2018 the company worked with Fingrid on a digital twin of Finland’s power grid and more recently has demonstrated how the technology can improve efficiencies in water management.

The white paper points to the issues such as intermittency, inertia deficits and grid congestion that have arisen with the introduction of renewables to the grid and the classical response being to build bigger and more infrastructure.

But with their costs and scalability issues, blockchain as a distributed architecture is seen by many as the sensible alternative – and according to the white paper, is the only option that will prove to be better and more efficient.

“The rapidly emerging and more complex energy landscape demands a shift from traditional centralised databases to blockchain and the new and decentralised markets they unlock. Realising this is fundamental to saving lots on battery capacity by using the existing resources better.”

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The white paper continues that there is also a stronger claim to be made about the appropriateness of next-generation blockchain to mitigate the problems of the grid with new functionalities anticipated such as peer exchanges in real time and forward booking of electricity slots with time ahead cost dependencies.

With forward booking, auctioning and re-booking slots with penalty clauses and bonus offers, a real-time high-volume Gen 3 blockchain will be needed to manage this market.

Gen 3 blockchains

Gen 3 blockchains are the latest evolution providing significant advances in terms of scalability, interoperability and transaction throughput and cost.

Whereas Gen 1 blockchain, or Bitcoin, with its proof-of-work consensus, is energy intensive and Gen 2 blockchains introduced smart contracting, Gen 3 blockchains use the more energy efficient proof-of-stake or proof-of-history consensus mechanisms.

Examples are Polkadot, on to which Energy Web is moving for its next-gen Energy Web X, and Solana, which Powerledger – one of the white paper’s contributors – has adapted for its blockchain, while others include Cardano, Avalanche and Algorand.

The white paper points out that the high throughput and low latency of Gen 3 blockchains capable of processing thousands of transactions per second make them suitable for handling the high volume of data generated in energy systems in applications requiring near real-time settlement, such as energy trading and grid management.

Other features detailed of Gen 3 blockchains include transparency and security and trustless and decentralised operation.

Gen 3 blockchain use cases

Blockchain technology is best suited for environments where trust is especially important, where there is a need for a secure and transparent record-keeping system, supported by the automation of complex transactions through smart contracts, the white paper states.

Some examples cited among those that have been introduced include renewable energy tracking and energy attribute certificates and transactive approaches including peer-to-peer trading and demand response, while emerging examples are real-time electricity billing with smart metering and electric vehicle-to-grid transactions.

In conclusion, the white paper says that while centralised database systems are working well right now by and large, as countries reach their renewables goals or net zero goals, the grid will need to engage traditional consumers to help balance supply and demand. And in order for it to work well a very agile energy market is needed.

“While sceptics argue that existing technologies can fulfil the same functions, blockchain represents the culmination of advancements in mathematics that have revolutionised everyday activities like communication and online shopping.”

The projects share a common objective to develop and deploy new business models and concepts which add value by leveraging integrated energy services.

Based on the principle that collaboration and innovation are key, they intend to pool resources and expertise to accelerate the energy transition, according to a statement from the EU’s Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency, which delivers the LIFE funding programme to support the delivery of the region’s sustainable energy policies.

“#SmartEnergyCluster projects focus on merging different energy services and incorporating non-energy benefits whilst overcoming market fragmentation and fostering cooperation. This inclusive approach bridges gaps and creates a common ground for business development across different segments.”

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The 19 projects are wide-ranging from InEExS, which is using blockchain technology to tokenise energy saving data, to EU-MORE, which is undertaking early replacement of old electric motors.

Others include Audit-to-measure, which is aimed to help companies translate energy audits into actionable measures, and BungEES, which is bundling and valorising energy efficiency services and flexibility on the demand side.

The others are BD4NRG, BIGG, Bright, Efficiency-as-a-Service, Energate, Flex, Fresco, i-nergy, Interconnect, Matrycs, Neon, Nudge, Probono, SmartSpin and V2market.

The statement continues that the #SmartEnergyCluster highlights the power of collaboration to drive and is a great opportunity to showcase ground-breaking LIFE projects with significant potential for improved energy efficiency, increased renewable energy use and enhanced system flexibility.

For more news about projects, visit the EU Projects Zone

“The cluster aims to inspire even greater collaboration, innovation and more widespread adoption of smart energy solutions by everyone involved in the sector and to pave the way for a smarter, greener, and more efficient energy system for all.”

Specifically the goal of the 10-month programme, which will involve Iberdrola’s distributor in Spain, i-DE, is to bring the power of quantum computing to determine the optimal number, type and locations of supplemental batteries for the grid.

Some of the many variables that must be considered include connections with neighbouring power systems, flexibility in existing generation sources and the hourly, daily and seasonal changes in power demands.

Multiverse’s quantum algorithm team intend to use quantum and quantum-inspired algorithms to solve these computationally complex problems, which are beyond the power of classical computers.

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The project forms part of the Gipuzkoa Quantum Programme in Spain’s Basque Country and emerged out of Iberdrola’s commitment to collaborate with local startups on technology innovations.

The battery optimisation problem was selected by i-DE as key for integrating the increasing capacity of renewable generation.

“The Basque Country has become a reference point for quantum computing, and Iberdrola, committed to this land and to innovation, has located here the global Smart Grids Innovation Hub, its international reference centre in the development of technologies for smart grids,” says Iker Urrutia, i-DE’s Gipuzkoa Area Manager.

“Therefore, Iberdrola’s collaboration with Multiverse is a natural alliance that will keep Gipuzkoa and the Basque Country at the forefront of quantum innovation.”

Quantum computing use cases

Optimisation problems involving the evaluation of large numbers of different combinations are considered a likely use case for quantum computing due to their complexity.

More broadly with the increasing number of sensors and other components in the smart grid, other scalability issues also are envisaged for quantum computation such as PMU placement, while another is the optimal scheduling and dispatch of electricity.

Multiverse Computing also reports that in the US its optimisation solutions are primed to assist with battery placement to support solar and wind installations in cities and states, particularly where utility performance-based regulation has been introduced.

Among other projects in which Multiverse Computing is participating is the Renault-led innovation ecosystem for electric and connected vehicles in Spain.

The project is focussed on areas including decarbonisation, connectivity and mobility and the company is creating new algorithms to better support new testing platforms and other operations for these vehicles.

€350 million for storage in Spain

The project appears to be timely, coming at the same time as the European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, a €350 million scheme to support the construction and operation of approximately 1,000MW of storage facilities in Spain.

The goals of the scheme, which will run until June 2026, are to increase the share of renewables in the system, decrease the curtailment of renewables at times of overproduction and support the secure operation of the Spanish electricity system.

The awards of contracts to the selected projects should take place before the end of 2024. The storage facilities should enter operation by the end of 2026, except for pumped hydro storage, which may enter operation by the end of 2030.