Be Energized Podcast

Security is a key focus for many grid operators and IT specialists. It has now become a priority for many utilities. There is a growing need to have access to more data across the enterprise, but this also means that more utility data is exposed to potential threats. Secure devices, secure communication links and secure systems are typical tools that utilities employ to thwart would-be attackers. 

In the utilities sector, a data breach can be costly. Last May the Colonial Pipeline was hacked followed shortly by two successful breaches of a United States municipal water supply. This had a massive impact for the utilities and their clients. We discuss the topic with William White in today's episode. William White (Dub) has recently joined Greenbird as Corporate Information Security Officer and has extensive experience in information and cybersecurity solutions for companies.  

In this podcast you will learn: 

• Types and examples of security breaches 
• How organizations can protect against a breach 
• The difference between information and cybersecurity 
• The importance of focusing on resilience and recovery 
• The cost of a security breach 
• Useful steps to follow in information security management 

Acknowledgements:
Song: www.Bensound.com
Music Info: Corporate Ambient - AShamaluevMusic.
Music Link: https://www.ashamaluevmusic.com/corporate-music

In this Datatopia episode, Areti Ntaradimou, Content Director at Enlit Europe, spoke with Thorsten Heller, CEO, Greenbird Integration Technology on accelerating the energy revolution as well as the essence of the cognitive utility.

"The energy sector isundergoing a revolution.And it’s a revolutionpowered by data."
Thorsten Heller, CEO and Co-founder, Greenbird Integration Technology.

This Podcast was originally broadcast as a Datatopia Webinar 

Denmark is a country well known as one of the world leaders in the field of renewable energy (RE) development. With more than 40% of its energy coming from wind power and the recent announcement that it will create the world's first energy island in the North Sea, there is much to learn from these innovative examples.

Many utilities are all too familiar with the mantra of going digital and the benefits this will bring to help new service innovation and accelerate the energy transition. But too often, insufficient thought goes into the technologies and people that are critical to making it happen. This is a fast paced and very diverse environment, and unless they have the right mindset and a strong IT foundation, most utilities struggle to relate to it to begin with or to keep up with it over time.

Modern IT is like playing game of TETRIS

In this podcast with Jens Cornelius, Senior Business Director at KMD we discuss how modern IT feels a bit like playing TETRIS — the game from the 80s. There are very few new utilities that start with a green field to make their first move. Most utilities have a legacy to take into consideration. What’s more, new things are always coming at you, and you need to deal with them. Over time they discover two things: some shapes seem familiar, and the game seems to get faster. But just like every house, utility IT environments need a solid foundation. Only then can you start building/adapting/expanding/growing. Managed well, everything fits together, but those that do not manage their technical debt can expect their Tetris tiles to pile up and will end up losing the room to maneuver or shape their future business.

In this podcast you will learn:

• Current trends in the Danish energy system and the evolving role of utilities
• Balancing the impact of sustainability on the energy grid
• Impact of M&A, regulatory changes and market requirements on business and IT architecture
• OT/IT convergence in Danish utilities
• How to create new value and capabilities in a digital era
• Fundamentals and skills requirements for future data-driven value generation and services
• How Enterprise Architecture is like playing a game of TETRIS

Acknowledgements:
Song: www.Bensound.com
Music Info: Corporate Ambient - AShamaluevMusic.
Music Link: https://www.ashamaluevmusic.com/corporate-music

Digital transformation is spurring innovation and new business models across virtually all areas of the energy and utility sectors. As the pace of change speeds up, utilities rely on the expertise of technology leaders to make key system and architecture decisions that deliver future data insights and services.

 In this podcast Bram Murawski, a senior solution manager within Siemens Advanta and Chris Potter, a Siemens Solutions Architect speak openly about the trends driving digital transformation today.

You will learn:

• Current status of technology adoption in the energy sector
• Drivers influencing the adoption of data hubs and data lakes in Europe
• Demystifying the differences between data hubs, data lakes and data warehouses
• Data-driven use cases
• Challenges, opportunities and tips implementing data hubs and data lakes

 Related reading:

“You should not have to worry about where it is and how to access it,” Gartner analyst Donald Feinberg said of composable data. It is not a single tool but rather the set of tools put together into a solution. 

https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3980938/data-hubs-data-lakes-and-data-warehouses-how-they-are-di

 https://venturebeat.com/2021/05/07/gartner-says-composable-data-and-analytics-key-to-digital-transformation/

Composable data and analytics initiatives might uncover new ways of packaging data as part of a service or product. These could be built using low-code and no-code tools like those found in the Utilihive Platform.

Utilihive offers the foundation for composable data and analytics allowing for easy access and sharing across distributed data environments. https://www.greenbird.com/utilihive

Acknowledgements:
Song: www.Bensound.com
Music Info: Corporate Ambient - AShamaluevMusic.
Music Link: https://www.ashamaluevmusic.com/corporate-music

Digital transformation, distributed energy, democratization of energy and prosumer influences, decarbonization, Internet of Things, real-time data — these are just some of the trends and technologies that are disrupting the energy sector.

This is a time of Digital Darwinism — a time where technology and society are evolving faster than utilities have traditionally adapted to change. This sets the stage for a new era of leadership at utilities, a new generation of business models, charging behind a mantra of “Jump forward or fall behind.”

When two entrepreneurs and thought leaders come together the conversation flows. In this comprehensive podcast with enersis’ Thomas Koller you will hear an open discussion and dialog ranging from the experiences and learnings gained working with utilities around the globe to the trends and technologies driving the next wave of innovation and transformations in the sector.

You will learn:

• Tips from a startup perspective
• Recent changes in the sector and future trends
• How utilities are investing in technology, expertise and new skills
• How the distributed energy system will impact centralized IT
• Two tier approach to enterprise architecture; digital core and cognitive utility
• New business models driving utilities and retailers contributing to the energy transition and sustainable growth

Thomas Koller is CEO and founder of enersis AG. Born in Schwabe, he studied computer science in Böblingen and supported consulting and sales positions in start-ups and Fortune 500 companies before founding enersis. Next to scuba-diving, Thomas is passionate about the possibility of combining modern information technology with the requirements of the energy transition in a practical way.

Acknowledgements:
Song: www.Bensound.com
Music Info: Corporate Ambient - AShamaluevMusic.
Music Link: https://www.ashamaluevmusic.com/corporate-music

The power sector in India is undergoing a significant change creating much excitement. The Government of India has identified the power sector as a key focus to promote sustainable development through the integration and greening of the grid with renewable energy and digital transformation. Key initiatives at leading DISCOMS are now focused on creating value by making energy services reliable, sustainable and affordable for their clients. 

At BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) they are now taking proactive steps forward to gain valuable experiences and some accolades along their digital transformation journey. By implementing and testing a data lake solution BRPL will enable future service insights and innovation for a variety of use cases. 

In this episode Abhishek Ranjan, Vice President and Head Renewable, DSM & EE and Energy Analytics at BRPL and Avanish Verma, Senior Researcher and Manager of Smart Innovation Norway share their insights on the trends impacting the energy sector in India today and how digital transformation is painting a very colorful future for the sector.

• Trends in the energy system
• BRPL approach to digital transformation
• Key challenges and opportunities for DISCOMS
• What the changes in the energy system mean for consumers
• Experiences from the award winning Utilihive Data Lake implementation
• Future vision and next steps of BRPL's digital journey
• A celebration of color

 About BRPL

BSES Rajdhani Power Limited is the leading premier power distribution company in the city of New Delhi serving more than 2.6 Million customers and catering to a peak load of 3200 MW. The company is a Joint Ventures between Reliance Infrastructure Limited and GoNCT Delhi.

 About SIN

Smart Innovation Norway (SIN) performs independent, applied research within the fields of smart energy systems, smart cities and communities and Applied Artificial Intelligence. SIN’s NCE Smart Energy Markets cluster boasts many IT companies including most of Norway’s leading expertise in Big Data Analytics and digital technologies from companies like Greenbird, which are the drivers behind smart energy innovation.

Acknowledgements:
Song: www.Bensound.com
Music Info: Corporate Ambient - AShamaluevMusic.
Music Link: https://www.ashamaluevmusic.com/corporate-music

We have all had a hard time due to the Coronavirus (COVID – 19) and we all have been working from our homes, from buyer to the seller, operational manager to the chief information officer. We frequently use all kinds of electronic goods at home, consume lots of electricity, our computers, washing machines, and phones, etc. Today, consumers are used to having information at their fingertips. However, the reality is that most consumers spend less than 3 minutes of user engagement per year with information sent by their gas, water and electricity suppliers. Luckily, that will soon change, and AI will be a driver of enhanced services for utility customers. By harnessing the data from nearly ubiquitous smart meters and partnering with technology startups like Net2Grid, consumers, utilities and retailers will actually be able to disaggregate electricity consumption down to the level of individual appliances. Doing so enables utilities to better forecast energy demand to help their customers understand previously inscrutable electric bills and to suggest concrete ways for customers to reduce those bills. In this episode Bert Lutje Berenbroek, CEO and Bram van der Wal, Head of Product at Net2Grid reflect on 2020 and share their experiences working with clients like E.ON, EDP and Essent offering insights into the future of energy saving solutions.

You will learn:

• Industry experiences from the last year
• What disaggregation means and how it impacts the energy sector
• How utilities can develop value-added services in top of their commodity business
• How to drive change through data – your data
• Example services from leading utilities

Acknowledgements:
Song: www.Bensound.com
Music Info: Corporate Ambient - AShamaluevMusic.
Music Link: https://www.ashamaluevmusic.com/corporate-music

How do you transition to a next-gen enterprise architecture that enables data-driven innovation and operational excellence? Whether you are planning or executing transformative initiatives across energy services, grid analytics, application modernisation, or a 360 view of your utility, you need modern IT architectures that can simplify collaboration with market participants and accelerate time to market service innovation.

Innovate to prepare for the challenges and opportunities for today’s fast-changing energy sector and technology landscape.

In this podcast “Piecing together the enterprise architecture puzzle” you will learn actionable best practices from transformative industry-leaders and innovation frontrunners.

We have put together an e-zine with articles which speak to these questions. You can download the digital version of this collection by visiting http://utility40.greenbird.com/ to get more information on the build vs buy debate, understand the digital integration journey and how to simplify the IT/OT relationship.

Session highlights include:

• Discover a blueprint and reference architecture for the digital utility that you can put into action right away.
• Align next-generation architecture principles to your own business strategy.
• Hear how leading utilities overcame key challenges managing huge amounts of energy data or integrate OT/IT and edge devices to create smart benefits.
• Gain insight from other utilities and industries how those succeed with a multi-cloud strategy and understand their rationale behind their “make or buy” decisions.
• Learn key benefits from use cases that generate value.
• Listen to Greenbird and industry experts as they discuss utility data, building a blueprint architecture for the Utility 4.0 and how to extract value from it.
• Learn how a data-driven culture can transition data from a troublesome challenge item to a strategic renewable resource that drives meaningful digital reinvention.

Moderator: Claire Volkwyn, Editor, Smart Energy International

Speakers: Thorsten Heller, CEO | Greenbird; Klaus Wagner, IT Project Manager | Netze BW GmbH; Rinse Veltman, Director Solutions | Energyworx

Against a backdrop of increasing regulatory demands, market adjustments, cost efficiencies and consumer demand, utilities are challenged to be much more agile than ever before. 

Massive growth in the volume and diversity of data, insufficient quality of data and expanding data silos are emerging obstacles utilities face as the world transitions to decentralized low-carbon energy.  

In this podcast Marcel Smit of Energyworx and Thorsten Heller at Greenbird discuss key trends driving the energy sector and share the reasons behind both companies announcing a partnership agreement to offer Integrated Cloud Energy Data Management for new utility business models. 

You will learn:

• Drivers behind cloud versus on-premise preferences
• Challenges in SaaSifying the energy sector
• Build versus buy decisions using in-house IT resources

Read partnership announcement: https://www.greenbird.com/news/greenbird-energyworx-partnership

Acknowledgements:
Song: www.Bensound.com
Music Info: Corporate Ambient - AShamaluevMusic.
Music Link: https://www.ashamaluevmusic.com/corporate-music

Digital innovation holds the key.

As we have seen in so many other industries – including various areas of the utility sector – digital innovation creates new paradigms, transforming the economics and possibilities of industries and advancing the way we work and live.

By harnessing data and digital technology, we are able to transform the puzzle pieces (data) into understandable pictures (information and insights) using advanced analytics to create significant operational and environmental gains, helping to change the way we use our resources. If we do this together, then we have the opportunity to help apply technology and innovative business models as key enablers to address sustainable development in the water sector – with the purpose of creating both economic and social impact in the world. 

To help foster dialogue around digital transformation in the water sector, we spoke to Jon Røstum, chief strategist Powel Environment, which is a part of the Volue group. In this episode Jon shares perspectives on critical issues facing water managers today and offer actionable insights that water stakeholders across the water cycle can benefit from and leverage for the communities and customers they serve.

The technology to transform water is already available today. By tapping into the experiences and knowledge of innovation leaders throughout the water sector, we can advance the dialogue around digital water and impact the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Learn more about how digitalization is transforming the water sector here: https://iwa-network.org/publications/digital-water/

Acknowledgements:
Song: www.Bensound.com
Music Info: Corporate Ambient - AShamaluevMusic.
Music Link: https://www.ashamaluevmusic.com/corporate-music