DIGITALISATION WILL BE THE KEY TO ENABLING ENERGY TRANSFORMATION
By Kit Bun
Yukari Niwa Yamashita, Board Member, Director, The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ), opened the Roundtable C session, Digitalisation, an Enabler of the Energy Transformation, by reviewing IEEJ’s 2019 outlook, which states that:
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Only emerging and developing economies increase energy demand
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In Asia, demand growth overwhelms supply growth, which in turn increases reliance on energy imports and dependence on Middle Eastern oil
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Dependence on fossil fuels is still high, and we will not keep the temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius. More research and development for innovative technologies is required, and digitalisation will be a key enabler.
Dr Arij van Berkel, Research Director of Lux Research Inc., agreed on the importance of digital technologies, stating: “Digitalisation helps us to use resources in a different and more optimised way.” He highlighted how digital technologies can use data to uncover unseen insights and forecasts, optimise and automate processes and upskill human capability, making information more accessible.
Matthew Friedman, Chief Digital Officer of Sembcorp, shared a similar sentiment. “Asset management and optimisation across distributed energy resources is a huge challenge,” he said. “Digital technologies are important [to] how we run these assets.” With digitalisation, data science and machine learning will be critical in ensuring that data is processed quickly and then optimised in less time. Digitalisation virtualises distributed assets, providing customers with new products and services.
Miki Sato, General Manager (Business Planning and Promotion) of Tokyu Power Supply Co. Ltd, talked about the concept of “City as a Service” through the integration of digital technologies with real life. She cited their Cool Share Campaign, running since 2016, which encourages families to spend time outside of their homes (e.g., outdoors, shopping malls, etc.) to conserve energy. In 2019, this programme reached 100,000 participants and saved 329 MWh. In the next phase, Tokyu Power Supply will be using digitalisation technologies to grow the participation rate.
During the panel discussions, all the speakers agreed that digitalisation technologies would enable energy transformation. With decentralisation, decarbonisation and digitalisation, the energy system will become a world where the price of generating electricity will be less than the price of using electricity. Digital technologies will play a key role to enable and influence consumer behaviour on how people consume electricity.
