COVID-19 calls for utilities to run plants, remote networks
Enel, E.ON and Iberdrola have accelerated the adoption of technology
Relying more on software will reduce costs
By Stephen Jewkes and Christoph Steitz
MILAN / FRANCFORT, 10 August (Reuters) – When COVID-19 sank Italy into the blockade, it was time to take a 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 site 30 km (18.6 miles) away, while connecting some key employees to the factory database so they could simply paint from the house to stay in Array.
“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 corporations 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.
Consultants 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 that brought the world economy to its knees has created benefits for companies that are immune from closures and restrictions, allowing staff to paint remotely and generate supply to ensure the availability of services.
“The audience that introduced virtual systems before the crisis was more resilient. In the post-COVID 19 world, many will have to reconsider their technological priorities,” McKinsey said.
“Using remote monitoring can help network operators minimize the threat to their operations and simplify operations,” she said.
At E.ON in Germany, Europe’s largest power grid operator with 1.56 million kilometres of electricity and fuel networks, this message has penetrated.
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 a greater 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 the Bayernwerk subsidiary, which operates distribution networks in the German state of Bavaria, E.ON has virtually recreated substations to exercise remotely and give access to spouse corporations without sending anyone.
“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.”
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 can place aid in the plans that the European Union has put in place to combat the consequences of COVID-19, while its proposed 7-year budget of 1 trillion euros and its 750 billion euro stimulus package on green and virtual transitions.
Enel, the first application in the world that migrated all its knowledge to the cloud last year, has already spent 4.5 billion euros on digitization over the last 3 years and plans to invest another 2.5 billion euros in 2020-22.
But such efforts have no threats because the increased desire to paint remotely also increases the threat of cyberattacks, said Leo Simonovich, vice president and global head of commercial cybersecurity and virtual security at Siemens 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.”
Utilities have little choice, however, but to plough on, concerned that they could be challenged by tech giants such as Alphabet’s Google or oil majors including BP, which last week unveiled plans to enter renewables.
“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.”
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