The utility industry must prepare for the future of renewable energy
Image Credit: Hexagon
Adopting renewable energy sources and the advanced grid management technologies needed to sustain them can help utilities by enhancing their efficiency, reliability and resilience, writes Maximilian Weber, Senior VP EMEA, Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure.
The global push for cleaner, greener sources of energy is accelerating. According to the International Energy Agency, renewable energy was expected to account for nearly 30% of global electricity generation by this year.
In fact, we are approaching “the beginning of the end of the fossil age”, according to the fourth annual Global Electricity Review written by Malgorzata Wiatros-Motyka and others for the energy think-tank, Ember.
As fossil fuels go out of style and fossil-burning power plants are taken offline, renewable energy sources are now surpassing coal as the largest source of power worldwide, says the IEA. By 2027, the IEA report states, renewable energy sources will grow by 2,400GW. That’s equivalent to the entire power capacity of China today, and an acceleration of 85% over the previous five years. In fact, renewable energy is expected to account for 90% of global electricity expansion in the next four years.
That expansion is attributable to renewable energy policies and market reforms in the US, European Union and China, according to the IEA report.
Renewable energy need
The acceleration of renewable energy sources – solar, hydroelectric, wind, biomass – tracks along with the spike in energy prices brought on by war in eastern Europe, which has disrupted the fossil fuel supply chain. That disruption, which the IEA called “the first truly global energy crisis”, underscored the need for the energy security provided by domestically produced renewable energy sources.
In 2022, 63% of the new utility-scale generating capacity added to the US power grid came from solar (46%) and wind (17%). In fact, renewables are the only sector expected to continue to grow, with declines predicted in coal, natural gas, nuclear and oil.
Offshore wind generation is a newer player in the renewables market and is expected to continue to grow globally. However, the expansion in that area is being stalled by lengthy permitting processes and a lack of improvements to power grid infrastructure.
While the expansion of renewable energy might be slowed by policy disagreements and political considerations, the need to update utility infrastructure to handle renewable energy could be the most critical holdup.
Grid enhancements
Utilities are realising that smaller, less predictable energy sources like wind and solar aren’t just plug-and-play. Their grids must be upgraded and digitised to handle not only new offsite power sources, but disruptive technologies such as electric vehicles that are shifting traditional energy demands.
Plus, with the introduction of new renewable energy sources, just how much load they will deliver isn’t certain. Utilities need to move to a real-time, digital approach to load management in order to keep supply and demand balanced. A digital representation of the network, or digital twin, is essential to understand, predict and plan for production and consumption.
A digitised network will also be more efficient since each component and asset can be tracked and maintained through its entire lifecycle, making it more reliable. Having a digitised grid in place is necessary before utilities can adopt a distributed energy resource management (DERMS) approach to dealing with alternative energy sources.
DERMS are the combination of hardware and software that allows management of a power grid that includes renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. DERMS provide real-time communication and control across batteries, solar panels and other devices that may lie behind the meter and outside the grid operator’s direct control. They primarily optimise energy consumption to minimise peak demands, which requires careful planning.
Sustainable future
Renewable energy is not only a transformative opportunity for the utility industry, but also a key driver of global transformation.
By adopting renewable energy sources and the advanced grid management technologies needed to sustain them, utilities can help themselves by enhancing their efficiency, reliability and resilience, while helping the world by reducing the causes of pollution, climate change and dependence on fossil fuels.
About the author:
Maximilian Weber is the senior vice president of EMEA for Hexagon’s Safety & Infrastructure division. He has more than 25 years of experience within Hexagon, serving in various executive roles throughout the years, such as general manager, business unit manager and sales manager.
About Hexagon:
Hexagon helps utilities and communications companies achieve greater service reliability, increase operational efficiency and enhance customer satisfaction. We support hundreds of utilities and communications customers around the world with solutions for network engineering and design, operations and maintenance.
