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Many sectors – industrial production, building systems and mobility, to name but a few – have yet to achieve the full benefits that digitization of energy management can offer. From 1 to 5 April, experts will gather at HANNOVER MESSE to discuss the areas and ways in which digital processes can be further leveraged to conserve energy and resources and reduce costs.

The upcoming HANNOVER MESSE will again feature a special Digital Energy showcase in Hall 12, where innovative companies from around the world will present ideas and solutions for digitizing the entire energy sector.

A key focus will be on smart meters, particularly Germany’s nationwide rollout, which is currently gathering pace. Nationwide rollout of smart, digital electricity meters is fundamental to further efficiency gains and, indeed, to the energy transition. Hans-Jürgen Schmitt, CEO of PCVue Solutions , explains: “Building automation systems and indeed the electric power system as a whole cannot work properly unless all electricity meters are capable of transmitting their consumption readings digitally, because only then is it possible to achieve efficient, profitable energy management“. Smart meters are the all-important ‘last mile’ in energy system digitization.

The smart meter technology itself has been around for quite some time and is capable of measuring the electricity consumption of any device in any setting, be it in the home, in large public buildings or in factory halls. And there are many providers, including, for example, Germany’s B+G E-Tech GmbH , which offers a whole range of meter types. “Demand is growing, and our clientele is very diverse, ranging from end consumers to industrials,” says CEO Mathias Bruchholz. He believes the increasing demand is due to heightened energy awareness, with many customers now pursuing the benefits of reduced energy consumption. This view is echoed by Werner Derlet, a product manager with the German software provider FlowChief GmbH . He has noticed a greater awareness of energy efficiency. Working closely with engineering firms, FlowChief develops customized energy management systems for companies in a range of industries, including chemicals and wastewater treatment. FlowChief will be showcasing its “e-Gem” product at the Digital Energy pavilion at this year’s HANNOVER MESSE. e-Gem is an energy management software application that can be accessed via browser, enabling users to keep tabs on all aspects of their energy consumption from any location.

While awareness of energy efficiency is growing, many sectors of society still have some catching-up to do. This is certainly true of Germany’s public sector and its extensive building portfolio. “Using our software, our customers are discovering they can reduce their energy consumption by 5 to 30 percent without any drop in climate control performance and comfort,” says Stefan S. Hindrichs, CEO of synavision GmbH , a provider of software for the intelligent monitoring of automation functions in technical building systems. But while energy cost savings of up to a third sound promising, Hindrichs adds a word of caution: “To actually achieve better energy efficiency in buildings, we need the precision of digital tools and processes at all stages, from building planning, right the way through to operation.”

Daniel Fierus-Beyer, CEO of PQ Plus GmbH, another Digital Energy exhibitor, notes that timely planning and long-term planning certainty are also important when it comes to operating and upgrading power grids. The same is true, he says, of electricity quality, especially now that power grids are receiving ever greater in-feeds from solar, wind, hydro and biogas. Based in Germany, PQ Plus GmbH specializes in energy management, providing a wide range of solutions, including multi-channel meters for monitoring and verifying grid quality. Fierus-Beyer explains that the growth in fluctuating green in-feeds is not the only problem for power grids. Sector coupling is also a challenge: “More and more people are charging their electric cars overnight, so next thing you know, residential areas will be looking more like industrial zones in terms of electricity demands.”

This phenomenon – the convergence of industrial manufacturing, power grids, renewable energy and mobility as a result of digitization – will also feature at the showcases of many other exhibitors at the Digital Energy display, including Athion GmbH , econ solutions GmbH and GreenPocket GmbH. TQ-Systems GmbH will also be there, back after its successful debut last year. “This year, our showcase will focus on intelligent charging management in electric mobility,” explains Jörg Jungbauer, head of TQ’s Automation division. “We will be presenting a solution for achieving charging infrastructure in industrial and commercial settings. We’ll also be presenting our patented Energy Manager, which puts modular energy automation in the hands of home owners.” Enapter GmbH will also be exhibiting at Digital Energy. Enapter, a start-up, offers electrolyzers for end consumers. “We’ll be disrupting the hydrogen market with our affordable and simple-to-use technologies,” says Marketing Director Vaitea Cowan. With all of these exhibitors and solutions in store at the upcoming HANNOVER MESSE, it’s clear there’s a lot happening in today’s increasingly digital and renewable energy sector

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Foto cortesía de / Image courtesy of: ContourGlobal.

Wärtsilä has been awarded an integrated 6 MW energy storage project contract for the Caribbean island of Bonaire. The engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) hybrid energy project includes both the hardware, consisting of batteries and inverters, as well as GEMS, the energy management software from Greensmith Energy, a Wärtsilä company. The order with ContourGlobal Bonaire, a subsidiary of London based ContourGlobal, was booked in Q4, 2018.

The energy storage system will enable Bonaire, part of the Netherlands Antilles, to increase its use of renewable energy such as wind and solar. In order to integrate more renewable energy and its intermittent nature, the Wärtsilä energy storage solution will provide the grid stability and reliability required for the island. The energy storage solution will also prevent situations where generation from renewable sources would otherwise had to be curtailed.

The project will integrate multiple generation assets including all of the island’s existing power generation assets, energy storage, wind and solar. GEMS software will control the island grid of Bonaire, an island of 19,000 inhabitants. Work on the Wärtsilä EPC project has commenced, and final completion is expected in April 2019.

Greensmith’s GEMS software platform offers the widest range of energy storage applications for optimising energy storage, often integrated with a growing variety of renewable and thermal generation assets.

Source: Wärtsilä

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Top 10 global inverter supplier GoodWe has officially launched three new products at Intersolar Europe among great expectation.

The new GoodWe DS3 Series is the first single-phase on-grid inverter in the market compatible with bifacial double-glass modules. Awarded with the prestigious Red Dot Design Award for its beautiful aesthetics and user-friendly design with a color touch screen display, the DS3 Series inverter is also 30% lighter for easier installation both indoors and outdoors. Furthermore, DC oversizing of up to 35% and AC overloading of 10% is allowed. Thanks to its reliable performance, the DS3 Series can reach a highest efficiency of up to 98.6%.

The three-phase high voltage energy storage inverter GoodWe ET Series enables enhanced energy independence and maximizes self-consumption through export limit feature and time of use shifts for reduced electric bills. Covering a power range of 5 kW, 8 kW and 10 kW, the ET Series allows up to 100% oversizing to maximize power output and features Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) to inductive loads such as air conditioners or refrigerators with an automatic switchover time of less than 10 milliseconds, providing grid-tied savings when the grid is up and off-grid independence and security when it is down or compromised.

GoodWe Smart Energy Management System (SEMS) is a comprehensive platform for visualizing and monitoring all kinds of power plants. The main focus of the system is to improve O&M efficiency by establishing an intelligent warning system which provides quick troubleshooting solution to underperforming power plants. SEMS also generates customized charts and tables to facilitate data analysis. This cost-free system will allow customers to overview their power plants via web or smartphone application.

The product launch ceremony was attended by Ulrike Therhaag, Vice President of TÜV Rheinland’s solar operations, who praised GoodWe’s focus on quality and technological innovation. GoodWe has been recognized as the winner of the “All Quality Matters” award for its innovative PV generation and energy storage solutions for three consecutive years. With years of experience and significant investments, GoodWe can offer a comprehensive portfolio of products and solutions for residential, commercial and utility scale PV systems an in-house R&D team of 200 people, technical ability and an advanced quality control system.

“Today we are proud to launch our new inverter solutions and smart energy management system, which place GoodWe at the forefront of new solar technologies,” stated Huang Min, CEO of GoodWe. “With our wide range of inverters for residential, commercial and utility scale projects together with our Smart Energy Management System, we believe GoodWe has now the most comprehensive and compelling solar power solutions in the industry.”

Source: GoodWe

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Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management and automation, today announced upgrades to its EcoStruxure Microgrid Advisor platform. These upgrades will improve facility and energy managers’ ability to optimize operational performance. The cloud-based, demand-side energy management software platform will continue to enable more dynamic and flexible onsite control of distributed energy resources (DER) within a building or plant.

EcoStruxure Microgrid Advisor is designed to simplify the integration of DER and allow facility managers and microgrid operators to collect, forecast and automatically optimize the operation of onsite resources using real-time data and predictive machine learning algorithms. This allows customers to adapt the microgrid’s control strategy to optimize the generation resource, adding greater efficiency and flexibility to the operation. The software-as-a-service platform can also integrate with Schneider Electric Energy Control Center, which helps manage DER communication during islanding or microgrid mode via an interactive web interface.

EcoStruxure Microgrid Advisor’s new features include:

• Dynamic demand charge threshold helps customers automatically adjust and optimize their demand charge limit and perform peak shaving accordingly to avoid costly utility charges.
• Day ahead and H-1 pricing allows customers to consume or produce energy at the most opportune time based on daily or hourly utility rates, which reduces the risk associated with variable electricity tariff pricing.
• Storm Hardening Mode allows customers to monitor detailed weather forecasts to anticipate incoming severe storms and take the site out of Optimization Mode if needed. Customers can charge batteries, pre-lube generation, change HVAC set-point or pre-island the site to keep their facility online regardless of a utility power disruption.
• Customers can optimize their use of distributed generation, such as gas generators and PV, by charging batteries during over production to ensure maximal use of resources without exporting energy to the grid.
• CHP and thermal view lets customers uniquely monitor their CHP systems for thermal efficiency and performance while in utility connected or island mode.
• Customer chat functionality allows customers to contact EcoStruxure Microgrid Advisor support professionals via the in-platform chat box and receive fast, reliable customer support.
• Automatic platform user interface updates offer greater real-time visibility into customer energy operations without having to refresh screens or continually log into the platform.
• Cybersecurity upgrades protect sites from external cybersecurity threats through Tomcat 8 virtual servers with double proxy management and outgoing-only communications of data to Microsoft Azure servers.

All updates related to the cloud-based platform will be done automatically for new and existing EcoStruxure Microgrid Advisor customers. Users of the platform can request updates based on their individual project needs.

EcoStruxure Microgrid Advisor is deployed across various utilities, municipalities, industrial, commercial, and university campuses worldwide.

Source: Schenider Electric

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    DISTRIBUTOR OF 100% CLEAN ENERGY

    Feníe Energía, the installation agent’s company, is the independent energy distributor that has demonstrated the highest level of growth in Spain. Its model makes it stand out from other companies as it benefits from a network of energy agents who assess and understand the needs of the customer and who furthermore, are shareholders. Our mission is for customers to make savings through the work and experience of the network of energy agents, which is Feníe Energía’s own commercial network. They are the ones that maintain a direct contact with customers, providing them with personal assessment, which implies a close relationship and proximity with the customer and what they call “management through trust”. As a distributor of 100% clean energy committed to the environment, in addition to electricity and gas, the company offers energy saving, self-consumption, mobility and energy management services.

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    Capgemini’s World Energy Markets Observatory report 2017

    Capgemini, has published the nineteenth edition of its annual study, which for the first time goes beyond Europe and becomes the World Energy Markets Observatory (WEMO) report, built in partnership with the I4CE, De Pardieu Brocas Maffei and Vaasa ETT teams. The study reveals that progress in the sector’s generation technologies has caused an acceleration in the Energy Transition, while related renewables growth continues to destabilize the wholesale electricity markets and key players. The study also highlights a profound change in customer energy usage, behaviors and expectations, with, for example, self-consumption, smart homes, smart buildings, smart plants, smart cities and the creation of communities to purchase or manage energy differently.

    As a result, the financial situation of established Utilities remains challenging. The report encourages utilities to accelerate their transformation efforts and to leverage increasingly the power of digital transformation.

    The three main findings of the 2017 edition of the World Energy Markets Observatory report are:
     
    Rapid evolution of generation technologies makes the renewables penetration unstoppable, thanks to their competitiveness gains, and despite the end of feed-in tariffs in Europe

    During the past 12 months, the costs of renewable energies have continued to fall: onshore wind and utility scale photovoltaic (PV) costs are becoming competitive in some countries, compared to traditional electricity generation resources (nuclear, coal, gas). A recent auction for solar PV generation plants recorded a lower cost in sunny Saudi Arabia, with only 17 $/MWh. Battery storage costs decreased also by about 20%. The ingredients now gathered favor Energy Transition with limited political intervention.

    According to Colette Lewiner, Energy and Utilities senior advisor at Capgemini, “Efforts in R&D and industrialization are boosting renewable energy development, even when considering extra network investments linked to intermittence and energy generation distribution. Today, their intermittency coupled with the absence of pricing reforms, mean the impact of renewable energy on the wholesale markets prices threatens electricity supply and impacts negatively utilities’ finances.”
     
    Empowered smart energy consumers are pushing Utilities to deliver new energy services.

    All customers (residential, tertiary or industrial) now expect from their suppliers’ offerings better management of their energy (examples include self-consumption, smart home, smart building, smart plant, electric mobility). With the participation of the customer in energy communities, the way energy is purchased or managed collectively is also now evolving.

    For Perry Stoneman, Head of the Energy and Utilities sector at Capgemini, “We observe many Utilities creating new customer divisions that are focused on chasing the Holy Grail: the differentiating services valued by the customer, allowing the development of new revenue streams with better margins. With variations from one country to another, the vast majority of players are moving in that direction, but very few, for the moment, have found the appropriate recipe. Innovation capabilities and agility for a rapid and successful go to market are generally missing.”
     
    Established Utilities, heavily hit by Energy Transition and customers’ evolving expectations, have started large transformations. It’s now time to accelerate by leveraging Digital Transformation.

    Most of the big players have launched transformation plans that they are executing with a particular attention. This is also the case in North-America, where the Utilities’ finances are less challenged than in Europe, thanks to a lower pace of Energy Transition and different market rules. In addition to simplifying their internal processes, these transformation plans generally focus on the downstream business (networks, green energy and customers’ energy services), designing and managing new operations and business models. Gains could also be sought in the generation side of the value chain. Digital technologies are evolving continuously to provide new solutions (for example Robotic Processes Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, or Blockchain were not available a couple of years ago). The value of managed data – Analytics – remains also largely unexploited.
     
    The World Energy Markets Observatory is an annual publication by Capgemini that monitors the main indicators of the electricity and gas markets in Europe, North America, Australia and South-east Asia, and reports on the developments and transformations in these sectors. This 19th edition, which is drafted mainly from public data combined with Capgemini’s expertise in the energy sector, refers to data from 2016 and winter 2016/2017. Special expertise on regulation, climate challenges and customer behavior is given respectively by De Pardieu Brocas Maffei, the I4CE – Institute for Climate Economics – and VaasaETT research teams.

    Source: Capgemini

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    The buildings in which Europeans sleep, eat, shop, learn and work, house a great opportunity for energy saving and emissions reduction, particularly in the so-called technical systems: heating, DHW, cooling, ventilation and lighting. A recent study by energy consultancy Ecofys, sponsored by Danfoss, shows the energy saving that can be achieved by improving energy management in Europe’s buildings. This hitherto under-exploited potential is calculated to save €67bn on the annual energy bill of European citizens by 2030, while reducing CO2 emissions by 156 Mt. Documents have been published as part of the study that focus on different types of buildings. This article sets out the main conclusions of the study in the case of supermarkets, along with some of the more recent success stories from Danfoss in this sector on the Iberian Peninsula.

    Buildings allocated to supermarkets in Europe occupy an approximate surface area of 115 million square metres. Part of the study included an assessment of the energy saving potential of a sample supermarket with a surface area of 1,025 m2 and a total energy consumption of 181 kWh/m2a. This sample building is equipped with a gas condensing boiler for heating (with energy recovery for the refrigeration system); mechanical ventilation systems with no heat recovery; a refrigeration and air conditioning system by means of compression chillers; and a direct and indirect lighting system via fluorescent tubes.

     

    Improvements to the technical systems in this sample supermarket reveal the possibility of achieving a 45% saving in energy, which translates into just over 8,000 €/year, with an investment of some €36,000 that would be amortised in around 4.5 years. Read more…

    Article published in: FuturENERGY July-August 2017

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    Acciona Energía has started up the first hybrid plant for storing electricity in batteries that is part of a grid-connected wind farm in Spain. The company has also developed simulation software that will be used in the plant, for which it has been awarded the ‘Eolo Innovation’ prize for by the Spanish Wind Energy Association (AEE). These two projects make the company a pioneer in this kind of solutions, aimed at facilitating the integration of variable-generation renewables into the grid and optimizing the management of the power produced.

    Located in Barasoain (Navarra, northern Spain), the plant is equipped with a storage system consisting of two batteries located in separate containers: one fast-response 1 MW/0.39 MWh power battery that can maintain 1 MW of power for 20 minutes, and another slower-response battery with greater autonomy of 0.7 MW/0.7 MWh that can maintain 0.7 MW for 1 hour. Both batteries are of Li-ion Samsung SDI technology and are connected to a 3-megawatt rated capacity AW116/3000 wind turbine of Acciona Windpower (Nordex Group) technology. The batteries will store energy produced by the wind turbine when required. The turbine is one of five that make up the Barasoain Experimental Wind Farm, which the company has operated since 2013.

     

    The installation also has three other units: one for medium voltage cells and analyzers, another for inverters/chargers and a transformer (installed by Ingeteam, a company participating in the project), and a third for the control and monitoring equipment.

    In the plant, grid-connected storage solutions will be put in practice in order to provide advanced technology services aimed at improving the quality of the energy sent to the grid. Other applications will also be analyzed, such as ancillary services to the electric power system –necessary to maintain a continuous balance between supply and demand– or the energy supply shift to match the production to periods of higher demand, which improves the economic performance of the installation.
    The project has received funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which manages the Spanish Centre for Industrial Development (CDTI).

    Optimizing storage

    A key element of the innovation work carried out by Acciona in this field is the simulation software developed in-house. It means that storage systems can be dimensioned and optimized in synchronization with wind farms, whether they are in the project phase or fully operational. Bearing the Spanish acronym ‘ADOSA’ (Analysis, Dimensioning and Optimization of Storage Systems), it is an innovative tool with the special feature that it covers technical, economic and strategic aspects in an integrated way, meaning that the optimal solution can be found for each case.

    The Spanish Wind Energy Association has just awarded its top prize in the field of R&D – the Eolo Innovation prize – to this project, the brainchild of engineers Asun Padrós Razquin and Raquel Rojo Ochoa, who work in the Innovation Direction of ACCIONA Energía.

    Expectations for the future

    The application of electric power storage systems using batteries connected to wind farms and solar plants is a field with great growth potential due to the major development of renewable energies worldwide, lower battery technology prices and improved efficiency.

    Although still in an early phase, this kind of solution is demonstrating that it is ideal not only for domestic applications or grids with poor connections (islands, weak grids) but also for utility-scale applications in developed countries, with a focus on increasing the penetration of variable renewables in power grids without losing quality or security, and on adapting electricity supplies at times of higher demand. Basically, it is about improving the flexibility of electric power systems to incorporate greater renewable capacity, in a context of a shift towards a low-carbon energy mix in which fossil fuels will be gradually replaced by clean technologies.

    According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), battery storage is even better for providing a fast response to electric power system regulation demands than conventional fossil fuel plants, which have traditionally provided these ancillary services.

    Analysts expect strong growth in storage systems over the next few decades. The consultancy firm Navigant forecasts revenues in utility-scale projects of 18,000 million dollars in 2023 against 220 million in 2014, a period in which the annual storage capacity in batteries will go from 360 MW to 14,000 MW.

    Source: Acciona Energía

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    The buildings where you sleep, eat, shop, learn and work hold a huge opportunity: EUR 67 billion savings on energy bills for EU citizens annually in 2030, and a reduction in emissions of 156 Mt. CO2. These groundbreaking results are presented in a study, released by energy consultancy Ecofys, a Navigant Company. The report, initiated by Danfoss, provides proof of the huge energy savings potential that can be obtained from better management of energy flows inside European buildings. A potential that has been insufficiently exploited.

    We spend most of our time in buildings. It is, therefore, no surprise that buildings consume a large amount of energy. But 75% of our housing stock is energy-inefficient. Most of the vast amounts of energy is used to maintain the right temperature and air quality in heating, cooling and ventilation systems – collectively known as a technical building system.

     

    When these systems are not working optimally, energy goes to waste, they cost money and cause damage to the health and the environment. But we have the technologies to prevent this. Consistent improvements could help reduce energy waste, cut costs and make our buildings better places to be. The report assesses a scenario where buildings are renovated in the period until 2030. The energy consumption in these buildings could be reduced by around 30% through upgrades to heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting and hot water systems.

    “We have all the technologies at hand to make our buildings smart. Taking the findings of the new Ecofys study into account, we see that optimizing the control of energy flows inside buildings and leveraging new technologies, like digitalization, could deliver around 15% of the EU 2030 energy efficiency target. Political support is needed to remove barriers and accelerate the speed and scale of the investments. This will send the right market signals for innovation, jobs and sustainable growth,” says Andre Borouchaki, Senior Vice President and CTO, Danfoss.

    According to calculations by Danfoss based on the World Resources Institute’s report, Accelerating Building Efficiency, from 2016, reaching 15% of the EU 2030 energy efficiency target will create 300,000 new jobs.

    The EUR 67 billion we can save annually on a full application of high performance technical building systems, mostly from not importing gas from third countries, could be invested in Europe instead, providing additional comfort and well-being for EU citizens.

    The only way to significantly improve building energy efficiency is to focus on existing buildings. Nine out of ten of existing buildings in the EU will be occupied by 2050. Renovation of our building stock is more affordable than many currently believe. The investment cost for basic improvements of controls of energy flows inside buildings is low, and the payback time is two years to get the basics right.

    “The consistent optimization of the energy use of technical building systems in existing buildings across Europe should start now,” says Dr. Andreas Hermelink, Associate Director at Ecofys, a Navigant Company. “We are talking about no-regret measures that can quickly deliver very significant reductions of energy consumption, energy bills and CO2 emissions. The revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive should give a strong and effective push for unleashing the full cost-effective savings potential of technical building systems.”

    Source: Danfoss

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    Thanks to a cloud-based efficient energy management platform that uses big data to optimise consumption, Siemens has enabled Gestamp, a multinational company in metal autoparts manufacturing, to reduce energy consumption by up to 15 percent at 14 of its plants. The Spanish company specialises in designing, developing and manufacturing metal autoparts to make lighter and safer cars, and has chosen Siemens as global supplier to implement this system and thus manage to optimise its energy needs in an industry that is increasing its energy consumption. The initial phase was the implementation of Siemens’ efficient energy management platform at Gestamp’s production plants in Spain, Germany, the UK, France and Poland. There are plans to extend the project to 30 plants, including China and USA, before the end of 2017.

    Siemens’ platform makes it possible to monitor real-time energy consumption needs at various factories and to connect their infrastructure to a cloud solution that can instantaneously assess electricity and gas consumption.  This tool allows to define algorithms based on the consumption patterns to identify and warn about the energy malfunctions of the equipment. The energy consumption data can be processed through data analytic techniques to define predictive maintenance, to manage production processes or to forecast energy consumption based on future production requirements.

    gestamp-siemens-1

    The final aim is to model the behaviour of the equipment so that it works as efficiently as possible and in a coordinated way, while also facilitating the reduction of CO2 emissions by 15% given the decreased energy consumption.

    Siemens’ energy efficiency platform, managed from the company’s Smart Grids Control Centre in the Spanish city of Seville, has already been implemented in the Gestamp plants that consume the most energy. The aim is to extend use of the platform to other parts of the world where this automotive manufacturer has a significant presence, where results similar to those achieved in Europe are anticipated.

    Accelerated amortisation

    The plant consumption rationalization resulting from the data analysis and the solutions offered by this platform has enabled Gestamp to save almost 45 Gwh within the past 12 months. This sizeable figure results in a payback period for the investments less than three years.. It is a differential system due to its high resolution in collecting and processing information, in addition to its ability to cross energy consumption data with other variables, such as production. The aim is to extrapolate this information to understand the operation of the equipment, something that is helpful in decision-making. Alongside data collection and processing, the system makes it possible to define behaviour patterns using algorithms, in order to detect energy inefficiencies, to automate them and correct them.

    Siemens and Gestamp are moving forward together to Smart Facilities and they are making real Industry 4.0 in the plants. Energy Efficiency project is one of the pillars of the partnership between Siemens and Gestamp within the framework of this initiative.

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