Programmable World – our planet, personalized

The evolution of both the energy transition and the metaverse continuum will be supported by a revolution in data. The energy industry is undergoing a huge digital transformation, where all new assets deployed across the energy value chain – in generation, transmission, distribution, at the meter and in customer premises – are all connected.

Better sensors create more accurate data, which feeds advanced analytics that create deeper and more meaningful insights. New data ecosystems will evolve that support new business models, which require new approaches to data architecture that ensure interoperability.

How will these new sensors be different? The biggest change will be the creation of software-defined power networks, where the intelligence embedded in grid-connected assets is functionally separate from the hardware. Hardware – anything from actuators, meters, EV charging stations or electric appliances – becomes increasingly commoditized, and the value shifts to software.

Within five years, significant change will occur behind the meter. The current transactional relationship between a utility and its residential customers will transform to a partnership with much greater interaction. New ecosystems and technologies will develop to help consumers better manage their power consumption. Importantly, all these new business models will rely on data. This data will transform the way utilities engage with their customers, shifting from volume-based commodity sales to service-based offerings that help reduce energy consumption.

Commercial customers will move faster than residential. Driven by corporate ESG targets – as of August 2021, almost one-third of the 1000+ largest listed European companies aim to reach net zero by 2050³ – the relationship between utilities and corporate customers must change rapidly. Some utilities will become energy service providers, where contracts are based on how much money a utility can save its customers. Utilities and their partners will retrofit customers’ buildings and equipment, and monitor and optimize their energy performance.

Over the next five years, commercial fleets will present a huge opportunity for utilities. They will electrify faster than all other transport sectors. This presents utilities as many challenges as it does opportunities. The new loads will be a welcome new revenue stream, but capacity constraints will require smarter approach to EV charging. Utilities can optimize commercial fleet charging to ensure they charge when prices are lowest, and also to export power to the grid when prices are high.

The world’s aging infrastructure needs trillions of investment to incorporate renewables. According to a report from BloombergNEF⁴, in Europe, the cost of switching to clean energy by 2050 will be $5.3 trillion. To manage the changing load profiles, existing transmission and distribution (T&D) equipment will be retrofitted with sensors. This retrofitting will be complemented with new technologies, which will be concentrated at the opposite ends of asset scale: at very large and very small scales. In the future, there will be significantly more long-distance movement of energy, for example using high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission cables or hydrogen pipelines. At the other end of the scale, smaller, community projects will alter the dynamics of the energy market at a hyperlocal level.

Data scientists and technologists will play a vital role in the new utility workforce. Analytics is central to an energy as a service business model, and requires a different skillset to the current workforce. Rather than develop these skills in house, many utilities will strike partnerships with niche suppliers to accelerate the acquisition of these skills.