Demystifying energy sector and IoT

Posted on July 22, 2023

According to estimates, electricity theft and fraud costs the industry as much as $96 billion a year worldwide, with $6 billion in the United States alone. This $96 billion global problem not only raises prices for paying customers and costs taxpayers money, but it also poses a public safety threat in some nations due to dangerous illicit power hookups. High non-technical losses are threatening the financial viability of several countries' energy utilities.

For many electric power utilities, the financial losses are important. Lack of profits, a lack of funds for power system capacity and upgrade, and the need to expand generating capacity to cope with non-technical losses can all come from lost earnings. The impact of year-over-year losses has brought several electric utility businesses in the worst-affected countries dangerously close to bankruptcy.

Challenges faced-

Fraud - When a customer tries to deceive a utility, this is called fraud. Manipulation or physical tampering with the meter to indicate lower readings of power use than the real consumption scenario is a typical traditional practice.
Stealing Electricity - By wiring a line from the power source to where it is needed, circumventing the meter, electricity theft can be accomplished. Because the illegal lines are frequently above ground and extremely visible, they are easy to spot. However, instances of utility workers being beaten and requiring police protection to remove the lines are prevalent.
Billing Irregularities - Some power companies may be ineffective at measuring the amount of electricity consumed, resulting in an accidental greater or lower figure than the true value. Employees may be persuaded to enter a lower number on the meter than what is displayed. The meter-reader obtains an unofficial wage while the consumer pays a lesser charge.
Unpaid Bills - Some persons and businesses do not pay their electricity bills. Chronic non-payers exist in some systems—the exceedingly wealthy and politically powerful who know that their energy will not be switched off whether they pay or not.
Poorly maintained equipment- Poor energy management- It leads to high expenses, overloading machines can cause breakdowns or under loading can decrease productivity.
Energy Wastage- Not knowing where, when and how the energy is getting consumed or wasted, and also what the reason is for it, whether it is incorrect settings, faulty timers or poorly maintained equipment?
Risk of human error- More often than not, industrial operations, devices e.g., reactor, pumps, machinery, etc. operate in silo and data collection related to energy has to be conducted manually which increases the risk of human error and is also tedious and unproductive.
Improper data collection- Unavailability of granular data related to energy usage makes it difficult for energy managers to discern energy consumption patterns and results in high GHG emissions, exorbitant utility bills, etc.

Major climate goals include making Copenhagen the first carbon-neutral capital by 2025. Copenhagen wants to demonstrate that it is possible to integrate growth, development, and improved quality of life with the decrease of CO2 emissions since the city's population is projected to expand by 20% over the next ten years. The City Council established the ambitious CPH 2025 climate Plan in 2012 to work toward that objective. The four pillars that support the CPH Climate Plan 2025 are: Energy consumption, Energy production, Mobility and City Administration Initiatives.

To produce technologies that help the transition away from carbon while fostering green growth, they rely on close collaborations with the business and research sectors. To guarantee that climate and energy thinking is included across all industries, they are making large investments. Many employment are anticipated to be created as a result of these investments, especially in the construction industry. In the long run, the city anticipates that these improvements will lessen the need for investments in additional heating capacity.

Copenhagen is influencing the national government to enhance national framework conditions at the same time. The city places a lot of emphasis on setting an example. Copenhagen firmly believes in setting the bar high in order to inspire others to follow suit, notwithstanding the modest amount of emissions generated by the city itself.

The main reason for the city's success is a strong political will, a clear determination to achieve this lofty goal at the expense of significant investments and risks; this example should encourage others to have higher ambitions.

The IoT affects the energy sector in many ways, it serves the energy industry primarily by providing intelligent options to reduce unnecessary energy by providing more visibility, real – time monitoring where information can be exchanged between utility and its customers. IoT helps energy sector by making it more efficient, secure and greener.

You must understand how and where your energy is being consumed before making investment decisions to lower energy expenditures. However, it is still typical in many businesses for electricity usage to be calculated based on the facility's overall energy cost. Digital solutions, on the other hand, can assist you in evaluating the energy consumption of electrical motion equipment, such as motors, generators, and drives, and in identifying opportunities for energy savings and CO2 reductions. When combined with the professional skills required to analyse it, the actual data acquired can assist you in reaching wiser judgments.

Inefficiencies can also be found using digital solutions. Data on energy use is continuously acquired from connected motors, generators, drives, and other electrical components in services that are geared toward energy efficiency. This data can be examined in greater detail by knowledgeable service partners to identify inefficiencies and important areas for development. Then they can determine how much energy and money you might be able to save by, say, updating motor systems or putting in variable speed drives. Your service provider can assist you by putting the suggested energy efficiency solutions and services into practise to produce significant energy efficiency gains and CO2 emission reductions.

Service providers can also supply energy efficiency solutions utilising various business models, depending on your needs. For instance, they might provide turnkey solutions with distinct energy saving objectives that are carried out at a predetermined time, date, and cost. They could also provide service agreements that share the duty of gradually increasing the energy efficiency of your equipment over time and maximising the return on your assets. These agreements could involve multiyear execution and operational support. These are a few illustrations of adaptable business models that you might use for your operations.

Smart grid (SG) introduces a 2-way dialogue where electricity and information can be exchanged between utility and its customers. It is a developing network of automation and new technology and tools working together to make the grid more efficient, reliable, secure and greener. The Smart Grid enables newer technology to be integrated such as wind, solar energy production, and plug-ins electric vehicle charging.

AMI enables two-way contact with customers and serves as the smart grid's backbone. Remote meter reading for error-free data, network problem diagnosis, load profile, energy audit, and partial load curtailment in lieu of load shedding are some of the goals of AMI.

AMI is made up of a number of hardware and software components that work together to measure energy consumption and transfer data about energy, water, and gas usage to utility providers and customers. The following are the AMI's overarching technology components:

Smart Meters: They are advanced metre devices capable of collecting data on electricity, water, and gas usage at various intervals and transferring it to the utility via fixed communication networks, as well as receiving information from the utility such as pricing signals and relaying it to the consumer.
Communication Network: Smart metres can provide data to utility companies and vice versa, thanks to advanced communication networks that permit two-way communication. For these applications, networks such as Broadband over PowerLine (BPL), Power Line Communications, Fiber Optic Communication, Fixed Radio Frequency, or public networks (e.g., landline, cellular, paging) are employed.
Meter Data Acquisition System: Data is collected from metres over a communication network and sent to the MDMS using software applications on the Control Centre hardware and DCUs (Data Concentrator Units).
Meter Data Management System (MDMS)- The metering data is received, stored, and analysed by the host system.

Electricity is more costly to deliver at peak times and Smart Grid enables utilities to manage and moderate electricity usage with the cooperation of their customers especially during peak demand times which leads to a reduced operating cost. This also ensures that electricity is more evenly distributed throughout the day. Moreover, Smart Grid technology provides detailed information that allows grid operators to manage electricity consumption in real-time. Greater insight and control reduces outages and lowers the peak power demand. This additionally reduces the need to fire up costly secondary power plants.

This includes IoT technologies, big data and advanced analytics with artificial intelligence and machine learning on top, a plethora of communication standards used to send data from one point to another (e.g., from smart metres to utility companies), and additional technologies (digital twins, for example) that we are seeing emerge in the digital transformation of utilities and in Industry 4.0.

Building Energy Management System

IoT-based analytics tools are the latest advancement in commercial building energy management. An IoT-based platform provides facilities managers with unprecedented levels of insight into their building systems, allowing them to proactively control operations as well as the overall building environment. It is more than a control system because the IoT actually complements traditional building management systems. Facilities managers can use load-shedding schedules to actively and deliberately minimise energy demand (and consequently utility bills) by knowing where, when, and how their building consumes energy.

You may collect real-time, detailed information on your business building's energy consumption with wireless IoT sensors deployed throughout the building. These sensors can remotely monitor a variety of tasks, including:

Individual machinery
Lighting
HVAC
Ventilation systems
Refrigeration units
Hot water systems
Heat pumps, and more

It's possible to design your building's ideal approach to energy management for assured cost savings using the correct data variables—collected, correlated, and evaluated by the IoT. Because the energy consumption of a commercial building is always changing based on a multitude of dynamic conditions—there is no static model of energy use—this IoT-based technique is far more effective for energy management. Better energy management, then, is dependent on obtaining the appropriate data at the right time, which helps building managers to be more flexible and nimble in their energy reduction efforts.

The coming of energy dependent era demands the adoption of sustainable energy and optimization of energy. IoT can be the game changer in this area. Its uses include real-time predictive analytics, remote asset management, predictive maintenance and asset utilization. It can reduce costs incurred by equipment failure. IoT has hastened improvement in the sector efficiency. It has shown great growth potential and is likely to play a strategic role in ensuring care, reliance and prudence in the future.

In this crusade, DYM Labs is anticipated to serve as a significant aid, unquestionably. Our Internet of Things practice successfully delivers IoT solutions right from integrating the sensors to deriving insights and choosing the suitable platform to the energy sector. We enable them to seize the current business needs and open up a new era of economic growth and competitiveness and provide comprehensive solutions through a global network of specialists and thought leaders.

DYM IoT capabilities-

DYM Lab’s IoT based EMS monitors consumption for all the energy parameters in real/near-real time, and enables you to benchmark the power consumption of one’s equipment and sends an alert when there is any variation in power utilization.
Smart Energy Monitoring System gives the health and performance reports (with the option of customizing the report to your own will) of your plant equipment daily, weekly or monthly.
Our solution can be integrated with your current energy meters or any other electrical measuring equipment quite easily also enabling you to measure harmonics of the system allowing for the ability to do bill calculations.
We guarantee a secure data storage and a user-friendly UI that can even run-on cell phones.

Benefits-

Reduce running costs- EMS’s ability to reduce electricity costs by monitoring and optimizing energy used by industrial operations e.g. lighting, heating and cooling, ventilation, reactor etc.
Predict energy usage- By collecting energy data, it allows administrators to predict energy usage and budget for the same more effectively. It has built-in cost-saving functions including offering revenue-generating programs, emit ing less power during peak times, and spotting any potential energy leaks. (predict energy usage)
Predictive maintenance- Our EMS solution allows users to monitor the issues in real time so that the corrective measures can be taken immediately. For example, a short circuit possibility before it happens get notified to you via an alert.
Reduces energy consumption- Your plant's carbon footprint is the entire amount of greenhouse gases produced and is directly related to the amount of energy it uses. Having DYM Lab’s solution in place to regularly monitor and manage this can aid in identifying energy system flaws that can be fixed to decrease your influence on the environment.
Last but not least, companies across the globe are promoting the environmental improvements they have made to their operations, and adherence to various compliances. Implementing an energy management system would not only be environment friendly and sustainable but also improve the perception of your brand among various shareholders.

Any business that wants to be competitive in a dynamic environment must embrace digitalization, which is a necessary component of the difficulties encountered across the market structure and when addressing the human factor. The IoT has far more promise than just data gathering and accurate prediction. Don't get me wrong, predictive analytics and data analysis are important parts of any good IoT deployment. However, there is more to it, and this is what gives rise to the phrase "Industry 4.0" and the "industrial revolution" that everyone refers to. Beyond simply linking factories, machines, and sensors to the internet and automatically collecting data, advanced IIoT systems do much more. These solutions go beyond simple IoT by offering recommendations for production-wide improvement that are based on AI. To put it another way, certain intelligent Internet of Things (IoT) solutions gather data, issue alarms, AND offer actionable insights based on the data, assisting humans in making better decisions, committing fewer errors, and maintaining quality while supporting much larger production scales.

At DYM Labs we-

INSPIRE : Inspired from democratizing the technology for easy availability, accessibility and affordability
IDEATE : Constant inspiration has led us to Ideation of our IoT Platform and encouraged our first set of Industrial customers taking a big leap with us
IMPLEMENT : With the strong footing in IoT platform, DYM Labs is now striving towards Implementing an IoT Marketplace which will have modular IoT services for every player in IoT Value Chain.

We adapt the agile methodology as it is a sophisticated approach to IoT adoption that successfully addresses the issues of bringing connecting culture and technology together. This architecture divides an IoT installation into sprints, which are tiny, easily limited tasks with short time horizons. In contrast to longer, open-ended executions, which can result in a full culture shock, sprint projects can let stakeholders envisage a large-scale implementation in a tangible, intimate environment, then work to scale it over time.

Any project necessitates precise tuning and rapid responsiveness to change, which demands close collaboration among project teams. While different departments may be focused on different activities, they all have the same goal. IoT efforts rely heavily on enhanced transparency between operational and information technology divisions. Teams are encouraged to collaborate on products in novel ways, resulting in shorter lead times, increased overall development efficiency, and more product updates and releases.

References

Thanks to

DYM Labs Team
Chetna Ahlawat
Rupal Kargeti