Trends in energy IT for Smart Grids

By Antti Jokinen, Head of Marketing and New Businesses

The energy world is changing dramatically due to the twin political drivers of carbon emissions targets and energy efficiency objectives. The Copenhagen meeting of December 2009 was a milestone in showing the concrete threat that global warming poses to all mankind. This event and the drawn-out political discussions that preceded it have opened the eyes of energy industry players and technology vendors too. As a result of this, several new concepts have been developed to meet global CO2 emissions targets - one of the most exciting being that of the smart grid. It has also been recognized that ICT-based innovations in smart grids may provide one of the most cost-effective ways to enable substantial gains in energy efficiency.

“Our solutions can accelerate the adoption of optimal energy and emissions saving activities by every party on the smart grid.”
-Antti Jokinen

The Smart Grid vision for a future ecosystem

The smart grid is a vision for modernizing electricity transmission and especially distribution operations. It is a visionary way of taking advantage of cutting-edge technology to improve the functionality and performance of all electricity networks both current and future. But because the smart grid concept has reached a wide audience only recently, the concept is fluid and subject to differing interpretations. A common denominator among them though is that the smart grid has increased system-wide intelligence, greatly enhanced utilization of ICT, and communication capabilities between system components.

There are many objectives for transforming ordinary electricity networks into smart grids. It is vital that these new intelligent electricity networks can be easily accessed by all network users. This includes both electricity consumers and the full spectrum of electricity producers from large centralized power plants to small distributed energy sources. Easy integration of a wide variety of distributed renewable energy sources is of particular importance for reducing the carbon footprint of the electricity supply system as a whole. Connecting to the grid should work in a plug and play manner.

At the same time however, these new intelligent electricity networks must be highly reliable in providing electricity whenever and wherever it is needed. In general, a major difference between the several interpretations of smart grid lies in the emphasis between the security and reliability of the system and how the energy users and deregulated markets can benefit from the smart grid. Its main difference from the traditional electricity network is that the smart grid has dynamic multi-directional electricity flow under real-time control. This allows parallel operation of both centralized and distributed generation and the full integration of distributed generation resources into the larger environment of energy markets and overall power systems.

A proven platform for Smart Grid IT infrastructure

Centralized smart grid compatible IT systems will play an essential role in delivering the benefits of the smart grid. Process Vision has created an innovative global energy information platform that has a special focus on flexibility and scalability. Over 300 systems have been delivered to a broad and diverse set of parties in the energy sector, from modestly-sized local utilities all the way up to system operators and energy exchanges. Our GENERIS platform is widely used for meter data management, balance and imbalance settlement, meter asset management, contract and portfolio management, trade and risk management, billing, and energy efficiency services for large energy users.

Process Vision has thoroughly analyzed its GENERIS platform for compatibility with the future needs of the smart grid. This analysis and intensive internal piloting have clearly demonstrated that the platform provides the unique flexibility and scalability that are essential for playing a key role in information management for the smart grid.

Based on our GENERIS platform, we provide comprehensive meter data management services and also new applications for monitoring and controlling overall energy consumption and CO2 emissions throughout the smart grid. This can accelerate the adoption of optimal energy and emissions saving activities by every party on the smart grid - from private homes equipped with intelligent energy conservation technologies and micro-generation up to the largest industrial energy users and producers.

Antti Jokinen is Head of Marketing and New Businesses, and a partner and member of the management team at Process Vision Oy. Mr Jokinen received a Master of Science degree from the Helsinki University of Technology. He has worked with energy markets for over 15 years in several positions at Process Vision, along the way acquiring extensive knowledge of global energy markets and IT systems.