Smart energy benefits the people, and those who deliver it

Ahmed Ashour, CEO of utility management platform Pylon, writes about how management of our energy, water and food production will benefit greatly from the application of efficiency-enhancing smart energy technologies.

Anyone over the age of thirty will be familiar with life before and after the arrival of the smartphone and understand the revolution it has brought in communications and improved productivity. The technologies driving the advancement of smartphones, tablets and supercomputers brought endless possibilities into our hands, far beyond anyone’s imagination back when they were first invented.

By Ahmed Ashour, CEO of Pylon

Now, we enter a new realm of possibilities where these technologies have further evolved and given way to the creation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by means of machine learning. Data-driven analytics and their resulting insights are able to deliver massive changes in our ecosystems. The management of our energy, water and food production will benefit extremely as we apply these technologies to enhance efficiency, productivity and yields. With this potential comes the imperative of delivering said changes to all nations equally and especially developing nations that are the most burdened with losses, inefficiencies and inadequate resources.

Today, we can suddenly find at our disposal ways to automatically turn off pumps or switch on lights and passively optimise devices that consume energy. We can identify energy losses as they occur and pinpoint their exact locations on the grid, meaning loss reduction is now easier than ever. This allows us to feed energy into the grid that previously was untapped or wasted.

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Likewise, we can save water by monitoring and tackling leaks as they occur. We can also find water to recycle that was previously disposed of. These advances might not matter as much in rain-soaked Europe but in much of Africa, South America, Central and Southeast Asia they are vital to continuity of life.

In practical terms, we need to apply processes that have helped put satellites into orbit or enabled smartphones to run our lives to now optimise productivity in the use of water in generating electricity and growing food. The results can mean greater abundance and lower prices for food, water and energy – crucial when you consider the population of the world increased 219,365 on average every day last year.

Using AI, we can build cooling systems that work in harmony with green power generation – with the same benefits for water pumps in fields, hot water heaters, air conditioning and electric vehicles.

When you consider two thirds of annual, global water losses ($141 billion worth) are in emerging markets countries – we can see that if we can reduce that we will make a huge impact. Through the deployment of smart electric grids, we can reduce carbon emissions from the utility industry by 25%.

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Why build new infrastructure when AI can in many cases move faster and accelerate our transition? Given the state of much of the infrastructure in emerging markets, leapfrogging straight to the new technologies often makes more sense.

And these innovative new technologies are already delivering results. Through AI applications, software is able to get more out of existing hardware. Utilities face a lack of unified solutions to manage networks, and there is high capex to move to smart metering. This becomes a problem in emerging markets, yet that is where the greatest benefit can be realised. Through AI-enabled “Smart Metering as a Service” (SMaaS) models, for example, cash-strapped utilities derive the full benefits of smart metering, for an affordable investment.

The renowned economist Adam Smith was right about the invisible hand working through self-interest to benefit everyone – for the incentive to deploy smart metering change not only comes from the desire to make energy more accessible and sustainable, but also from the benefits utilities can see to their bottom lines. SMaaS solutions can increase revenues for utilities by up to 50% by reducing inefficiencies in leakages and theft, from realising uncollected revenue, from improving operational efficiency and improving load management. We then all benefit from that.

Using smart metering and similar digitalised technology to benefit real people in emerging markets can be seen and measured to be beyond dispute – we need to embrace it rather than fear it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ahmed Ashour is the co-founder and CEO of Pylon, an infrastructure management platform for water and electricity distribution companies.

He is an experienced managing partner with a demonstrated history of working in the utilities industry and has held several previous roles at ElSewedy where he worked on new markets development, strategic partnerships, product roadmaps and strategic planning.