QUALITY DATA will ensure green transition in the energy sector
The future energy infrastructure puts high demands on the underlying IT architecture in the energy companies. The IT architecture must enable unhampered data exchange across older technologies, cloud services, meters, sensors, OT/IT systems, etc. The goal is a Smart Grid that transforms raw data into valuable knowledge on reducing our resource consumption as a society.
By Jens Cornelius, Senior Business Director at KMD
T he Danish energy sector is in the middle of a transforma- tion process. Sustainable energy sources such as wind and solar must account for a far greater share of Danish energy production in the future. In 2020, the Danish government and a broad parliamentary majority agreed on an ambitious climate accord to ensure a green energy sector and essential steps towards a greener industry. The agreement contains several concrete initiatives. Some of them are constructing the world's first energy islands totaling 5 GW – one in the North Sea and one in the Baltic Sea. The agreement also details investments in carbon capture (CC) and green fuels. The focus on sustainable energy sources calls for an adjustment of the electricity infrastructure to handle the fluctuations in en- ergy production caused by the changing wind and weather conditions. An intelligent infrastructure will help develop the electricity system and thereby create a reliable and efficient balance between production and consumption of electricity — a Smart Grid. Data is a cornerstone in the green transition The intelligent utilization of data will make the base of the fu- ture electricity system in Denmark. Meaning that the shift from primarily fossil-based energy production to 100% green ener- gy production – the target is coal, oil, and gas independence in 2050 – will be helped by automated processes and new tech- nology. The raw material in both automated processes and new technology is intelligent energy data.
The vision is an international network of public and private players that exchange data in a secure, lawful infrastructure. The network will allow Denmark always to have the energy needed - energy produced green and sustainably using wind, solar, biomass, and geothermic technology. The data-driven energy company At KMD, we work with the notion of becoming a data-driv- en company. In the energy sector, being data-driven means that you – from a technology standpoint – use the insights of the past to determine the investments and actions of the future. Most energy companies have, for instance, vast amounts of historical data on energy consumption in Den- mark. But these data are not activated due to, among oth- er things, technological silos, outdated platforms, and the lack of system interfaces. The data sits there – unorgan- ized and entirely too immense to be used meaningfully. The data-driven energy company allows itself to – via data inte- grations – draw meaning from the historical data to build the intelligence needed to carry out an efficient green transition of the sector in a focused and prioritized order. Avoid the Tetris structure I usually describe the system architecture of the past in ener- gy companies by using the popular computer game Tetris. In Tetris, the idea is to place the falling pieces correctly. If you are skilled and quick on your fingers, the pieces will fall into place layer by layer in the grid. But if you fail at long-term thinking, more and more unintended gaps will form – gaps that you are
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