The digital future of electrification
A company started within Enel to transform electricity distribution networks into smart grids now aims to help digitalize the energy system globally. We found out how from Robert Denda, CEO of Gridspertise.
By Gabriel Bârligă
You said almost a year ago that we were entering the decade of electrification. A lot has happened in the meantime. Do you stand by your statement?
Yes, we are in a very difficult time for the energy sector, but the current environment is only accelerating electrification. Heavy dependence on fossil fuels is one of the causes of today's energy crisis. In response, we will see an increasing shift towards renewable energy sources, towards technologies that use green electricity as a primary source. And that will mean further electrification. Heat pumps will be increasingly used for heating, electric vehicles will conquer the transport sector and beyond, in order to become less dependent on fossil fuels. So there will be an acceleration of electrification, even though at first glance it looks like the opposite. Fossil fuels used to be a problem anyway because of their environmental impact, now there is a political will to reduce dependence on them.
How has Gridspertise evolved over the past year?
We started Gridspertise in September 2021 and it has been very interesting so far. It was a very good decision by the Enel Group. There is a growing market for our services and products. What we used to do only for Enel internally, we do now for the whole sector. We offer solutions and services that help grid operators around the world to go digital. The time is right for this. Enel is a leader in innovation and technology in terms of digitalization. We have had a very active year with strong growth and we already have many customers outside the Enel Group in several countries. This confirms our strategy and vision concretized in our portfolio of solutions. And in the coming period we will grow strongly. The hardware and software technologies and services we offer are in high demand. By 2030, the global annual smart grid market is expected to become a €30 billion opportunity. Digitalization of the electricity grid is absolutely necessary to better integrate renewables. This will allow electrification to continue, energy sources to be secured and interaction with customers to be different. The problems and opportunities are much the same all over the world, with local specificities and needs, of course, but everyone needs digitalization. Next year will be one of international growth for us.
“The energy system of the future is based on a fully digitalized electricity grid, on fully digitalized customers, with secure interactions between them, making the system more robust, more reliable, more secure, so that if problems occur, they can be overcome more easily.”
Robert Denda, CEO Gridspertise
What is the situation in Romania?
We have growth potential in the area of digitalization here too. The energy sector in Romania faces the same challenges as other countries. The state of the system today is different from country to country, but the targets to be achieved are the same everywhere. We need to move from fossil fuel dependency to renewable energy, the country needs to be electrified and customer interaction needs to be digitalized. Romania has an important opportunity, as it was a little behind in these areas, but it can burn some stages to implement an efficient digitalized system without going through successive cycles, as happened in other countries. For example, smart meters are being introduced in Romania, perhaps not at the desired pace. But this can also be an opportunity, because you can directly introduce a new generation of smart meters, which offer new opportunities for interaction with the customer, but also the possibility of real-time monitoring of networks. Smart meters are a key element for the digitalization of electricity networks. But there are other components to a digitalized grid. The electricity grid reaches everywhere, was built many years ago, is quite old and needs to be updated for the challenges of the future. Smart meters do this on one end, but intelligence is needed within the grid itself. We have solutions at Gridspertise that are also suitable for Romania, bringing intelligence and using edge computing into the grid so that it can be controlled and operated in real time. This results in increased reliability, faster interaction with customers and operations that become more efficient and secure. Here are the opportunities. We want to work with local companies in this direction to go directly to the next level.
What does the energy system of the future look like?
The ideal energy system should be fully digitalized. This brings efficiency, speed, reliability, real-time interactions with customers. We're used to getting immediate feedback in other areas, using smartphones. In the energy sector, this is often not the case. Gridspertise is a company that specializes precisely in digitalizing power grids and the components that connect to them, but there is a need to digitalize the whole chain. You need to integrate customers who have solar panels, an electric car and so on. Digital interaction between all players is essential to allow flexibility both in the market and in the control area of the electricity grids. The energy system of the future is based on a fully digitalized electricity grid, on fully digitalized customers, with secure interactions between them, making the system more robust, more reliable, more secure, so that if problems occur, they can be overcome more easily. We now have the opportunity to start moving towards this goal, starting from the digitalization of networks. Of course, the optimal regulatory framework is needed to make the major investments that need to be made. We are talking about up to hundreds of billions of dollars a year, globally. Then industries need to be prepared for this transition and this is where we, Gridspertise, are working with the players in the field.
How do you see Gridspertise evolving in the coming period?
We will see significant growth. We target to double our revenues in the coming year as we expand geographically. Right now we are working a lot with Enel, but we have already signed an agreement with CVC (which will own 50% of Gridspertise - ed.) and we will become a more independent company offering services to distribution companies around the world.
This article, freely translated into English from Romanian, was published in Revesta Biz on December 21, 2022. Click here to read original article!