The energy industry has to undergo a complete transformation to meet the growing demand, resource limitations and climate challenges of the next century.
Guido Bartels, GM of IBM's global energy and utilities business, and chairman of the Global Smart Grid Federation, says the world's electricity network will change more in the next 20 years than it has in the past 100.
Bartels spoke at the African Utility Week conference, in Cape Town, yesterday, noting that energy-hungry populations and climate concerns are driving a new urgency to modernise energy and utility systems.
“In emerging and developing economies around the world, and importantly sub-Saharan Africa, there are an additional set of challenges that need to be addressed to ensure the adequate supply of energy in a sustainable, secure and affordable way.”
Bartels noted that, while countries would have to set out locally-relevant energy policies, international cooperation could help achieve significant synergies. This includes sharing lessons learned from policies and regulations, technical standards, financing and implementation approaches, and the best available technologies.
Bartels explains that the smart grid heralds the next decade of energy infrastructure as the world's systems become increasingly digital and the consumer becomes more empowered.
“It's a different kind of world for electricity, and an inclusive energy infrastructure will play a major role in developing society today.”
In short, he describes the smart grid as a coming together of the electricity and ICT industries, which has been seen in other sectors such as telecoms, banking and retail.
In SA, concerns around how to meet increasing demand and limited generation capacity is leading to intensive focus on securing future supply.
Bartels also points to Africa's potential to implement advanced energy structures and systems from scratch, rather than modernising outdated equipment, like many developed countries are forced to do.
“If you look at the size of the continent and the amount of people and resources, there are limitless opportunities, but also huge challenges.” He argues that better alignment between business and government, as well as formal and informal collaboration, could allow African countries to 'leapfrog' their peers.
“The areas in sub-Saharan Africa without electricity today may benefit significantly by leapfrogging to both new technologies and new systems.”
In order to achieve this, however, countries will have to design their energy infrastructure from a view of what its future state should be, and how it links to the large and small goals of the country, adds Bartels.
For this reason, he advocates adopting “systems thinking” when looking at ways to modernise electricity infrastructure. “For any system to function reliably and resiliently, you need clarity of a system's purpose; you need all the elements of the system to be connected; you need to know the status of the system and its critical components; and the system must adapt as conditions change, often in 'real-time'.”
He says it's vital for SA to have clarity in terms of its overall vision of where the country is going. Other priorities include good policy and regulation and common standards that will enable SA and other sub-Saharan countries to leapfrog in energy.
Well-oiled machine
The issue of common standards is a widespread concern, notes Bartels, as stakeholders are wary of investing in technology that becomes obsolete, because it's incompatible. “One thing you can do from an ICT perspective is to put a framework in place that enables information from different pieces of technology to talk to one another.”
Bartels says the world is capable of developing this kind of new energy system, “because of the simultaneous shifts in technology and business that are helping to make the most complex systems that make up our world 'smarter'”.
“The worldwide transformation of the electric system is not unique - it is representative of a much wider shift in the way the world works.”
The smart grid marks a move into this new world, where information abounds and the consumer is increasingly empowered, says Bartels.
“All this adds up to an incredible opportunity. The systems for electric power, water, and gas provide the foundations for most of what we consider 'modern society' today.
“Now the time has come to usher in the next great revolution. One that benefits both developed and developing economies...To reinvent the energy and utilities industry to meet the needs of the 21st Century, we will need to look across the entire energy value chain.”
More interconnected and intelligent grid infrastructure will be able to make information available to consumers, so they can become more active and empowered members of the value chain, adds Bartels.
Power professionals and policy-makers from various countries are gathering at African Utility Week in Cape Town this week to discuss issues surrounding Africa's energy future.
Eskom spokesperson Hilary Joffe says Eskom executives will discuss strategic priorities for Eskom, as well as issues of national importance such as keeping the lights on and moving towards a lower carbon future.
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