Investments in energy grid modernisation have not kept pace with energy demands and requirements over the past years, meaning spending on digital transformation needs to accelerate to realise key energy management benefits.
That’s according to a report from ABI Research, which estimates aggregated worldwide investments in grid digitalisation will grow from $81 billion in 2024 to $152 billion in 2030.
“The benefits of the digital transformation of energy grids are huge and wide-ranging,” explains Dominique Bonte, VP End Markets and Verticals at ABI Research. “Most importantly, it enables the real-time management, orchestration, and continuous reconfiguration of increasingly complex and distributed energy networks and assets while unlocking much-needed additional generation and transmission capacity. It also reduces costs in terms of both grid expansion and operational management, improves grid resilience in terms of reduced downtime and faster fault recovery, and enhances overall energy quality and efficiency.”
Examples of key grid digitalisation technologies include:-
- Digital and Virtual Energy Substations – With the energy sector facing the new reality of both distributed and intermittent energy resources and systems, the need for higher flexibility is huge, especially at the edge of the energy grid, which experiences the highest friction between static energy supply and dynamic energy demand in a rapidly electrifying environment. This is where software-defined low and medium-voltage energy substations come into play in terms of facilitating flexible over-the-air functionality upgrades and configuration changes as well as managing and coordinating the 2-way flow of energy, thereby ensuring grid stability in real-time. Key suppliers of virtual substation solutions include Schneider Electric and ABB.
- Energy digital twins – Digital twins developed by companies such as Siemens are critical to design, model, simulate, plan, and operate energy infrastructure.
- (Generative) AI – AI and Gen AI are increasingly becoming general purpose technologies (“Swiss army knife”) addressing use cases such a preventive maintenance, demand-response orchestration, amplification of customer service and maintenance personnel, and compliance reporting.
- Energy Grid Management Software – Companies such as GE Vernova and Hitachi Energy offer a portfolio of energy grid software, including Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS), Distributed Energy Resources Management System (DERMS), and Energy Management Systems (EMS).
- Connectivity and Cloud – Smart metering use cases go beyond traditional end user energy usage monitoring to provide granular edge and cloud intelligence needed to regulate and stabilize the upstream grid in real-time and the use of metering data for billing purposes by resellers in an increasingly competitive environment. Honeywell is key actor in this space.
However, grid digitalization faces multiple barriers and inhibiting factors ranging from a lack of financing, rigid regulation, conservative and protectionist attitudes, aging workforces lacking “digital” expertise, limited competition, long infrastructure lifecycles, and cybersecurity concerns.
Bonte concluded: “Going forward, it will be critical for energy utilities and technology providers to develop agile design and deployment practices, tap into innovative funding mechanisms, leverage open platforms and ecosystem cooperation, and address the human factor of embedding technology into company processes and culture. There is no room for failure. Others will be ready to invest in and take control of energy assets if needed.”
Photo by Evgeniy Alyoshin on Unsplash
