Internet of Things (IoT) has numerous applications in the Energy Industry. From collecting data in smart-grids to sending remote diagnostic data from equipment situated in hard to access locations, IoT has been a buzzword and game-changer already.
Internet of Things (IoT) in Energy
We asked the experts from our speaker panel at the Internet of Things (IoT) in the Energy Industry about some of the challenges and best practices in the application of IoT in the industry
“With an increased number of IoT devices and IoT systems in a multi-vendor landscape comes increased connectivity, and an increased number of data interfaces and formats. A major challenge is the lack of interoperability to enable the exchange of IoT data that is commonly understandable across the value- and supply chain. IoT data that cannot be understood (data in context), trusted and integrated with other data sets have limited value to an organisation. The total cost per information for IoT systems (sensor cost, connectivity cost, engineering cost, commissioning cost, maintenance cost) must be reduced in order to secure the positive return of investments, and a key to achieving that is open and scalable architectures, standards, interfaces and information models.”
“Coming from the Energy Trading perspective, the biggest challenge is decreasing the time between measurement and availability of the data for decision making.
On the generation side, you are in control of the energy assets, how they are monitored, how the data is captured and stored. However, when your trading portfolio is made up of third-party assets, you need a flexible, modular, and dynamic approach towards IoT. Each client may have different technical capabilities for IoT connectivity, or you may need to work with intermediaries who have technical restrictions on their platforms.
All of this can make delivering the asset data in a timely fashion to the traders for decision making a huge challenge. With the rise of renewable energy sources, this is an ever-increasing concern.”
“Digital, IoT, Analytics- we have been hearing these worlds for over a decade. But is it worth the effort or even the money? Does it bring real value? We need to look at these questions in specific use cases and how to move forward with digital in their own markets”