Value Proposition
Electrical utilities are incumbent players in a century-old industry dealing with disruption driven by new technologies, regulations and market realities.
The top five issues facing utilities in 2019 are physical and cyber security, distributed energy policy, rate design reform, aging grid infrastructure, and reliable integration of renewables and DERs.
The increased focus on grid security can be attributed to federal efforts to coordinate utility cybersecurity initiatives, as well as a number of recent news about cybersecurity. The emphasis on rate design and DER policy shows that a increasing number of utilities are seeing growth of distributed energy resources and try to adapt and build business models around them.
TowerPower has gathered world-class industry experts in the field of energy, digitization, IoT, AI, enterprise architecture and telecommunications to address these issues.
The top five issues facing utilities in 2019 are physical and cyber security, distributed energy policy, rate design reform, aging grid infrastructure, and reliable integration of renewables and DERs.
The increased focus on grid security can be attributed to federal efforts to coordinate utility cybersecurity initiatives, as well as a number of recent news about cybersecurity. The emphasis on rate design and DER policy shows that a increasing number of utilities are seeing growth of distributed energy resources and try to adapt and build business models around them.
TowerPower has gathered world-class industry experts in the field of energy, digitization, IoT, AI, enterprise architecture and telecommunications to address these issues.
Challenges
We have identified the following challenges:
- Uncertainty over future market conditions and regulations associated with their changing power mixes. Vertically-integrated utility regulatory models can remove the uncertainty of wholesale power markets.
- Reliable integration of new generation technologies such as operation of intermittent wind and solar generation.
- Minimizing customer costs.
- Market and regulatory uncertainty.
- Financial reward models are often not conducive to regulated utilities pushing for distributed energy business models.
New Business Models and Solutions
Smart Grids
A "smart grid" is an electrical transmission and distribution system that employs a full array of advanced electronic metering, communications, and control technologies. The grid can provide detailed feedback to customers and system operators on energy use and allow precise control of the energy flow in the grid.Utilities and system operators are especially concerned with time-of-use – particularly reducing and managing peak demand on utility systems. There are numerous load management and demand response technologies and programs that they may use to accomplish this goal. The same technologies also can save energy and improve end-use efficiency for customers.“Smart grid” technologies are made possible by two-way communication technologies, control systems, and computer processing.
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Smart Industry
Industry 4.0 refers to the concept of factories in which machines are augmented with wireless connectivity and sensors, connected to a system that can visualize the entire production line and make decisions on its own.The Industrial Internet of Things , or IIoT, refers to the billions of industrial devices -- anything from the machines and robots in a factory to the engines inside an aeroplane -- that are filled with sensors, connected to wireless networks, and gathering and sharing data. IoT promotes more flexible, open architectures that support greater customization and digital upgrades across tens of thousands of devices.
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Virtual Power Plants (VPP)
Virtual Power Plants are an aggregation of customers (i.e. residential, commercial or industrial) under one type of Pricing, Demand Response or Distributed Energy Resource program.
Technically speaking a virtual power plant is a network of decentralized, medium-scale power generating units (wind farms, solar parks and combined heat and power (CHP) units, flexible power consumers and storage systems. The interconnected units are dispatched through the central control room of the Virtual Power Plant but are independent in their operation and ownership. |
Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Adding IoT sensors to generation, transmission and distribution equipment can enable energy companies to monitor it remotely. These sensors measure parameters such as vibration, temperature and wear to optimize maintenance schedules.
A preventative maintenance approach can significantly improve reliability by keeping equipment in optimal equipment and providing the opportunity to make repairs before it fails.IoT technology can enable the integration of more distributed resources into the grid, but it can also improve grid management in other ways as well. Placing sensors at substations and along distribution lines provides real-time power consumption data that energy companies can use to make decisions about voltage control, load switching, network configuration and more. Some of these decisions can be automated. |
