MILAN / FRANCFORT (Reuters) – When COVID-19 sank Italy into the blockade, it was time for resolution at the Verampio power plant. The room, which manages a fleet of hydroelectric power plants in the Pandemic-affected Piedmont region, had to be secured to keep the lights on.
Operator Enel, Europe’s largest utility company, temporarily moved to create a parallel back room at a smaller 30 km (18.6 mile) location while connecting some employees to the factory database so they could simply paint from home.
“We never did this kind of thing for a long time, but it worked instantly,” said Giuseppe Serrecchia, director of the Global Digital Power Generation Center in Enel.
“To meet COVID’s challenges, we have strengthened our overall approach to digitization.”
Like companies in other sectors, European utilities will need to boost the adoption of new technologies as the coronavirus crisis forces them to use software, not people, to run critical infrastructure, adding factories and networks.
Experts say the move late.
Spain’s Iberdrola, the world’s largest renewable energy organization in terms of capacity, has implemented processes for Enel.
The pandemic has generated benefits for companies immune to closures and restrictions, allowing to paint remotely and supply generation to perform a certain fluid service.
“The audience that introduced virtual systems before the crisis was more resilient. In the post-COVID 19 world, many will need to reconsider their technological priorities,” said consultancy McKinsey.
“Using remote monitoring can help network operators minimize hazards and simplify operations,” he said in a report.
Resistance
At E.ON in Germany, Europe’s largest power grid operator with 1.56 million kilometres of electricity and fuel networks, this message was also felt.
It has released another 500 million euros ($591 million), in addition to a total of thirteen billion euros that it plans to invest in the next 3 years, basically in the modernization of its electricity infrastructure.
The company has increased the use of drones by 50% and relies more on automated symbol popularity software for inspection of higher voltage lines as a direct result of the pandemic, officials told Reuters.
E.ON, which recently completed the acquisition of Innogy’s distribution networks and activities, is also focusing on virtual reality. In Bayernwerk’s subsidiary, which operates distribution networks in the German state of Bavaria, E.ON has virtually recreated substations to exercise remotely and provide remote access to partner companies.
“During the crown crisis, our workers and consumers learned to re-appreciate digitization,” said E’s CEO. ON, Johannes Teyssen, added that the organization would accelerate the digitization of its processes.
E.ON is also in the final stages of creating an app similar to Apple’s FaceTime video conferencing service that allows technicians and consumers to fix their smart meters at home, unless the challenge is too complex to address from afar.
The creation and use of new technologies represents a radical replacement in the most effective control of infrastructure and retail and can simply increase valuations, according to analysts and consultants.
“He builds the resilience of his company when it can operate from the sites,” said Steve Jennings, PwC’s director of energy and utilities. “The crisis will drive the virtual revolution in public services.”
DIGITAL BILLION
Companies are investing billions to build a large knowledge infrastructure that will not only allow them to manage factories and networks successfully and quickly, but also implement new ones and create new sources of profit.
They may only find assistance in the plans that the European Union has put in place to combat the consequences of COVID-19, while its proposed budget for 7 years of 1 trillion euros and its stimulus package of 750 billion euros on green and virtual transitions.
Enel has already spent 4.5 billion euros on digitization over the more than three years and plans to invest another 2.5 billion euros in 2020-22 on the “platform” of its business. The “platform” is the establishment of systems or platforms where service and consumers can come together to do business.
But such efforts have no threats because the increased desire to paint remotely also increases the threat of cyberattacks, said Leo Simonovich, Siemens’ global director of commercial cybersecurity and virtual security in Germany.
“Less reliable Internet connections, social engineering attacks on workers and their families, and fair mistakes made in unknown workflows are potential new risks.”
Utility companies still don’t have an option to continue, fearing being challenged by generation giants like Alphabet’s Google or the big oil companies, adding BP, which last week revealed their goal of providing renewable energy.
“If they don’t, the great giants of knowledge like Apple and Google will come with their apps and redefine the relationship with visitors,” said Ingmar Wilhelm, president of Energisme, a knowledge-powerful start-up.
“And COVID sticks the message.”
(1 USD – 0.8450 euros)
(Additional report through Binnie Island in Madrid; edited through Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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