After reading the UK Parliament's recent post on Energy sector digitalisation available online and for the full report: Energy Sector Digitalization.
With such continuing support and research the UK is going to become a global leader in the development of new tools in order to achieve its objective of Net Zero emissions by 2050. The exploitation of digital technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) in the energy sector has shown great potential, currently being pursued for valuable returns on the energy sector.
I attempted to create the following point summary quoted from the original post. As I think this post is made to help shape the future research projects and current energy firms' strategic goals.
Internet of Things (IoT)
- The IoT typically features: sensors, actuators, and network connectivity.
- IoT devices are expected to increase in the energy sector.
- IoT devices can be incorporated into the electricity network to help create 'smart grids'. For example, data from smart meters about customers’ energy usage patterns and information collected from customers such as their billing details.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- AI refers to the ability of machines to perform tasks that typically required human intelligence.
- AI systems can produce a prediction, a recommendation or a classification.
- For example, an AI system may make a prediction that energy demand will be lower next Sunday morning.
- AI is likely to play a key role in four domains: modelling and optimisation, maintenance and security, customer-facing services, and markets and investment.
Distributed ledger technology (DLT)
- DLT has been proposed as way to manage future energy systems
- DLT could be used to enable 'peer-to-peer' electricity trading between multiple different parties, including small-scale local energy producers, without central supervision
Digital Twin Model
- Digital twins use data collected from the real-life system to inform decisions about the operation of the physical system.
- Digital twins can be used to replicate physical and operational aspects of a generation plant and aid in improving operations and maintenance.
- In 2018, the UK Government (GOV.UK) launched the National Digital Twin Programme (NDTp). More about it at : https://digitaltwinhub.co.uk.
Demand-side flexibility
- A flexible energy system has the ability to shift in time (or location) the generation or consumption of energy.
- To date, much of the system flexibility has been provided by the 'generation-side' of the system, by adjusting supply according to demand
- Digital technologies also enable 'demand-side' flexibility (or simply, demand flexibility) where consumption can be shifted towards periods when energy is cheaper and possibly coming from renewable sources
- AI is a key enabling technology for demand-side flexibility as it allows demand-side data to be processed efficiently and helps in predicting demand based on previous trends
Cyber security
- A number of pieces of guidance have been produced to improve the cyber security of energy sector infrastructure.
- The 2019 National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) third Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) provides organisations that operate within critical national infrastructure sectors with guidelines for assessing their cyber resilience.
- In 2020, Ofgem published a set of cyber resilience guidelines for gas and electricity network companies and their stakeholders, which aims to support security professionals within network companies to improve the resilience of their IT systems.
Improving data practices
- The Energy Data Taskforce (EDTF) was established by Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), and Innovate UK.
- In June 2019, the EDTF released its first report that addressed how data practices could be improved across the UK energy sector to facilitate digitalisation.
- The EDTF's recommendations included the industry-wide adoption of data and digitalisation strategies and the promotion of 'presumed open' data across the sector such that it is available to other organisations.
- The Open Energy project led by non-profit Icebreaker One aims to deliver a platform that enables better sharing of energy data.
- Following these recommendations, Ofgem ran a consultation on draft Data Best Practice Guidance which closed in June 2021.
- In May 2021, BEIS, Ofgem and Innovate UK launched the Energy Digitalisation Taskforce (EDiT) which is focused on market design, digital architecture and governance of the UK energy system.
- The recent Government energy sector digitalisation strategy plans to have standards and regulatory frameworks for energy data developed by the mid 2020s
