Page 11 - European Energy Innovation - autumn 2019 publication

Autumn 2019 European Energy Innovation
Openness enables utilities
to invest smarter
By Henrik Mørck Mogensen, Senior Vice President, Kamstrup
The reality in which power
utilities operate today and
the responsibility they are
expected to assume in the
future are changing rapidly.
The keyword is having the
flexibility to continuously
make the investments that
generate the most value.
Within smart metering solutions for
power utilities, openness has long
been the answer. However, only
recently has it become clear what
the real question is. It’s about how
utilities can buy enough flexibility
into their business to enable them to
meet both their current and future
business needs.
A NEW REALITY FOR UTILITIES
The path to this clear-sightedness
has been paved by especially two
market tendencies seen over the
last few years. The first one is the
consolidation challenge many utilities
are facing today, where efficiency
demands drive utility companies
to merge only to find themselves
struggling to operate efficiently in
a morass of IT systems that must
somehow magically co-exist.
The second is the current state of
change of the power utility’s role
– which, from a political point of
view, includes a key role in the green utilities, being unable to boast 100%
transition. Areas such as integration
of renewables, balance responsibility
and effect challenges are still so
complex and undefined that for a
utility to lock themselves in with
a certain technology for the next
decade is becoming increasingly
unimaginable. According to a recent
report, renewables are expected to
make up 90% of the electricity mix in
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11
COMMUNICATION
Europe by 2040, with wind and solar deeper grid insight and optimise
accounting for 80%. Without knowing operations. Hence, this is where
even just five years down the road technology is needed most, while
which regulation will apply, what daily billing data will often suffice
demands utilities will have to meet from the rest. A utility about to invest
and which technologies will surface in a new system should, therefore,
or die out, why would they? focus on upgrading that 20 %, while
the value of upgrading the remaining
Instead, utilities need the flexibility meters can be assessed if and when
to be able to gradually upgrade the need arises.
(or replace) their meters and to
implement new technology in the This, of course, makes demands on
lots, order and pace that deliver the the supplier of their business critical
most value. meters, meter reading system and
data analytics to not only provide the
NEXT STOP INTEROPERABILITY? necessary flexibility to handle other
On the system level, CIM has become meters as well but also cooperate
the de facto standard for integration in the necessary partnerships to
between HES and MDM systems not continuously ensure better utilisation
just for Kamstrup but for everyone of data in an uncertain future.
else as well. As a result, we see that
in the systems that are installed Ultimately, there is no longer any
today, the HES is, in practice, doubt that openness is the way
operated through the utility’s other forward for utilities. But how they
business systems. use it, will determine how fast they
will go.
On the meter level, the industry
hasn’t reached the same level kamstrup.com l
of interoperability. DLMS is the
widespread standard among meter
suppliers, but it’s not Plug & Play, it
always requires an integration effort
and even then, a utility can only
expect basis functionality based on
the lowest common denominator.
However, for the majority of
interoperability is not a problem
if they are just smart about their
investments.
MAKING SMARTER INVESTMENTS
Based on our experiences with
customers, 20% of a utility’s metering
points may hold 80% of the potential
in terms of supplying the detailed
and frequent data necessary to gain