Fault-Tolerant Edge Computing: An Essential Foundation for Operational Resilience in the Renewables Sector
Edge Computing platforms present an ideal paradigm to build resilient IT infrastructure in Renewables, enabling Operations teams to run mission-critical software and capture on-site data with maximum reliability.
Fault-Tolerant Edge Computing: An Essential Foundation for Operational Resilience in the Renewables Sector
Introduction
Development of renewable energy is central to achieving global goals to increase electrification, reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and enable broad decarbonization. This energy transition is currently well underway worldwide. In 2023, global annual renewables capacity increased nearly 50%, representing the fastest rate in the past two decades, with wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) representing the primary segment of growth.¹ (Source: IEA) However, much more work needs to be done to reach the COP28 goal of tripling global installed renewable sources by 2030.² (Source COP28)
As organizations bring new renewable energy capacity online, they face the challenges of managing these decentralized grids, operating and servicing diverse and geographically dispersed assets, and ensuring visibility on asset performance for optimization and maintenance. To do so, they must build out resilient computing infrastructure required to support the unique demands of these distributed assets. Whether automation and control, data collection, connectivity and remote management, cybersecurity, or the deployment of advanced software, these capabilities rely on sufficient availability and reliability of computing power at edge locations and operations centers to connect teams to assets and information.
Modern Edge Computing platforms that combine built-in fault tolerance and virtualization present an ideal paradigm to build resilient IT infrastructure in the Renewables sector. It provides Operations teams with a technology combination offering flexibility and efficiency to run complex mission-critical software and capture on-site data with maximum reliability and minimal touch. Other industries have effectively employed Edge Computing to solve the practical challenges of limited connectivity, bandwidth, and limited IT staff, challenges also inherent in Renewables that must be overcome to unlock their full potential.
This whitepaper explores the unique suitability and advantages a fault-tolerant Edge Computing platform provides to build resilient IT infrastructure for the Renewables sector.
From developing smart equipment to deploying advanced software and enabling cybersecurity, Edge Computing that is simple, protected, and autonomous provides an essential foundation for operational success for Owner-Operators, field service teams, and equipment manufacturers in Renewables.
Operational Challenges in Renewables
The Renewables sector faces diverse challenges impacting IT infrastructure design. Navigating these challenges necessitates a comprehensive IT approach that emphasizes resilience, flexibility, scalability, and robust cybersecurity. Owner-Operators must build these capabilities in partnership with the manufacturers delivering equipment and building assets as well as providing the long-term maintenance. Conversely, manufacturers must deliver greater equipment reliability and performance, including modernization/re-powering of Operators’ existing assets, meeting project budgets and regulatory requirements, and ensuring successful installations.
To fully realize the value of Renewables, it is essential to leverage digital technologies. Operators must overcome the logistical and technical challenges of extracting data from remote equipment.
Common operational challenges in Renewables include:
Intermittency and Variability
Fluctuations in solar and wind energy production.
Impact
Demands agile systems and distributed compute infrastructure capable of seamlessly transitioning between production fields and grid management systems, ensuring a stable and reliable energy supply.
De-centralization
Renewable sites are often in remote, unmanned, and occasionally hazardous, hard-to-reach locations.
Impact
Requires robust IT infrastructure in place to support efficient coordination, monitoring, remote management, and control of widely distributed assets.
Unplanned downtime
Assets are susceptible to several causes of unplanned downtime, ranging from extreme weather events to system failures.
Impact
Emphasizes the need for resilient IT infrastructure that can withstand harsh environments and predict and address a potential failure before it interrupts operations, minimizing the risk of downtime.
Regulatory Compliance
Evolving regulations.
Impact
Requires adaptable IT designs to maintain compliance with evolving standards.
Cybersecurity threats
Extending digitization to remote production sites and grids, often far away from IT support, exposes the renewables sector to cyber threats.
Impact
Requires reliable cybersecurity solutions and measures to protect critical infrastructure and data integrity.
Data Management and Analytics
Processing vast amounts of data.
Impact
Effective data management and protection ensures data integrity, greater efficiency, cost reduction, and informed decision-making.
Technological Evolution
Rapid advancements.
Impact
Designs need scalability and flexibility to seamlessly integrate emerging technologies.
Edge Computing provides numerous opportunities for Renewables Owner-Operators, field teams, and equipment manufacturers to harness production data, deploy software to optimize performance, and develop intelligent equipment to meet goals around operational excellence, performance, safety, and reliability.
Edge Computing Platforms Enable IT Resilience in Renewables
Edge Computing refers broadly to computing that occurs outside the data center, close to critical equipment and processes where data is generated. This data can then be sent to a control room, operations center, data center, or cloud location for further analysis and management. Edge connectivity to a centralized cloud or data center is key for data hungry enterprise applications but is often hindered by limited connectivity.
The availability of Edge Computing resources addresses data latency and limited bandwidth by providing local processing that maximizes the time value of data. Moreover, advanced compute platforms purpose-built for operations bring intelligence to legacy equipment, assets, and processes. These platforms transform the collection and processing of data from remote assets to form a foundation, enabling an organization’s data management strategy.
Organizations can derive insights from analytics processed on the Edge Computing platforms and then share data collected via this distributed computing model to the cloud or centralized networks, however intermittently, for enterprise visibility and deeper analysis.
Industrial Edge Computing platforms that incorporate a redundant architecture provide platform fault tolerance and eliminate a single point of failure to run critical applications continuously. They can also deliver server performance in a ruggedized form factor that is ready for installation at production sites directly alongside equipment or for managing a power grid. Edge Computing platforms purpose-built for the industrial edge may be installed and maintained by OT but meet IT requirements for interoperability and cybersecurity out-of-the-box. This ease of use is essential for the limited IT or OT staffing in renewables locations.
Lastly, modern Edge Computing platforms provide highly efficient operations through virtualization, allowing multiple software applications to run on a single platform backed by fault tolerance.
These solutions simplify software deployment, reduce the IT footprint and maintenance, and lower the total cost of ownership. Virtualization additionally enables optimized resource utilization and rapid failover.
When deployed, Edge Computing platforms provide the foundation to connect sophisticated automation with enterprise-class software and analytics for reliability and insight. They are also a pre-requisite for advanced capabilities such as predictive analytics, digital twin, and other Industry 4.0 solutions that offer high value to remote power generation assets.
The newest Edge Computing platforms effectively enable the Renewables sector to acquire real-time data at production sites, monitor performance, and gain real-time insight from sensors, meters, and data loggers. Harnessing this data is fundamental for success in Renewables for grid management, regulatory compliance, operational excellence, and optimum performance. The abundance of computing capacity at renewables sites delivers reliability to automation and control as well as real-time visibility on asset performance for real-time decision support and predictive maintenance programs.
Fault-Tolerant Edge Computing: An Essential Foundation for Operational Resilience in the Renewables Sector
Edge Infrastructure Requirements for Digitalization in Renewables
Advanced Edge Computing platforms solve prior logistical and technology challenges and enable efficient acquisition of real-time data, accelerating digitalization in Renewables to deliver:
Maximum reliability: Edge Computing platforms deliver new levels of application and equipment reliability and availability with built-in fault tolerance in ruggedized form factors for the industrial edge. Currently, many high-value, mission-critical applications are run with basic IPCs incapable of offering the level of reliability required for remote assets. In contrast, Edge Computing platforms provide zero downtime with minimal human intervention or support.
Zero-touch operation and remote management: With limited on-site support staff and access, renewables operators require computing platforms that can be managed remotely to run software and equipment continuously. Additionally, proactive health monitoring, alerting, patching, and issue resolution must be handled remotely, often by OT rather than IT.
Convergence of OT and IT: Operations and field service teams carry the responsibility of managing both industrial control and automation (SCADA, DCS, PLCs), higher-level application such as asset performance management (APM), and all the underlying IT infrastructure. They require compute platforms that facilitate provisioning and operations without requiring on-site IT support. Edge Computing platforms must be built for OT applications and easily serviceable by Operations teams.
Future-proof technology to support Renewables’ asset lifecycles: Renewable assets produce for decades, whereas automation technology and traditional IT infrastructure have much shorter lifecycles; controllers may also be tied to specific equipment. Edge Computing enables equipment manufacturers and service providers to future-proof solutions, use open standards, and deploy software to avoid obsolescence and vendor lock in, and keep pace with technology change.
Easy deployment of software and workload consolidation: Edge Computing platforms offer built-in virtualization to run software applications concurrently from any vendor – AVEVA, GE, Inductive Automation, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, Siemens, and others, including specialized analytics and optimization applications. The ability to use a single, fault tolerant platform enables tremendous cost savings, less footprint, and scales to run wind or solar field.
Cybersecurity at the edge: Cybersecurity is a significant concern for digitized OT assets, as more machinery and equipment enable IIoT sensors for performance analytics. This is particularly true for assets in remote locations with few on-site IT resources. Operators require distributed computing platforms that secure equipment, including seemingly air-gapped assets, which remain at risk from social engineering techniques.
Critical Applications and Edge Computing
Creating resilient computing infrastructure is essential for the Renewables sector and supports the range of diverse energy assets – solar PV fields, wind farms, geothermal pipelines, hydroelectric dams, and others. A well- designed computing and data architecture lays the foundation for scalability, reliability, and security, ensuring that the system can meet both current and future requirements.
Edge Computing provides the platform to run critical applications for power generation equipment and processes, data collection, and visibility to operations centers:
Reliability: For remote, low staffed assets, reliability is paramount. Deploying local Edge Computing supported by fault tolerance eliminates downtime and data loss. This is essential for mission-critical applications and equipment. Use of virtualization extends that reliability to multiple processes and systems.
Fault-Tolerant Edge Computing: An Essential Foundation for Operational Resilience in the Renewables Sector
Monitor and control of critical equipment: Organizations in the Renewables sector can deploy Edge Computing with any type of equipment or asset. Edge platforms are flexible to run SCADA, DCS, and local historian software for monitor and control, as well as the collection of time-based data sets for comparison against expected parameters. Specific algorithms running on edge compute developed to analyze equipment and process variables can deliver additional efficiencies and eliminate unplanned downtime.
Data acquisition and storage: Renewable energy assets generate large volumes of data that require physical storage solutions and data historians for trending and performance analysis. This typically includes a complement of local historians and on-premises storage connected to cloud services, including regular backup of databases and file systems, to ensure that critical data is preserved, replicated, and available to be quickly restored. Edge Computing platforms also offer store-forward data in the event of disconnection from the network.
Asset performance management for equipment uptime: Renewables organizations benefit from asset performance management and predictive maintenance programs. Through analysis and condition-based monitoring of critical assets, companies can avoid costly unplanned downtime. By acquiring asset performance data at the equipment location, Edge Computing provides real-time visibility of conditions unfolding in the field to optimize performance and maintenance. Additionally, implementation of real-time diagnostic tools is critical to identify anomalies and trigger automatic alerts, enabling proactive responses to potential failures.
Cybersecurity and recovery: Cybersecurity is essential for the critical nature of renewable energy assets. Edge Computing simplifies deployment of cybersecurity software such as firewalls, antivirus, data encryption, and authentication. Operators can run multiple applications simultaneously in a single platform as VMs and deploy using orchestrations tools.
A well architected Edge Computing infrastructure additionally opens the door to intelligent automation in several ways:
Predictive maintenance: New analytical tools using edge data promise to optimize performance and safety. As these tools are deployed, they will play a key role improving decision making, providing insight into where minor adjustments can keep assets at peak operating conditions, and when anomalies should be elevated for investigation. Similarly, Edge Computing platforms built with proactive health monitoring and engineered for easy field serviceability offer characteristics vital for platforms running mission-critical applications.
Smart assets: Edge Computing enables equipment manufacturers and service providers to turn equipment into smart, connected Renewables assets that are software driven and operate more efficiently. Workload consolidation via virtualization further allows companies to run SCADA, historians, and advanced algorithms directly on the machine. Additionally, Edge Computing enables smart assets to add the flexibility to re-program software and provide vendor agnostic functionality.
Digital twins and reliability programs: Edge data captured from critical equipment is essential for maintaining operational digital twins and provides the data required for analysis and system monitoring. Digital twins are also key for project handoff and commissioning to Owner-Operators, which creates an opportunity for equipment manufacturers and EPCs to embed Edge Computing to maintain value throughout the lifecycle of Renewables equipment.
Unified operations centers: By capturing, storing, and processing data from edge locations, Owner-Operators gain a centralized view to monitor and control assets and track performance across their operations. Edge Computing deployed in the field also supplies operational data to feed centralized, single-pane-of-glass operations centers for visibility, analysis, and decision making.
Fault-Tolerant Edge Computing: An Essential Foundation for Operational Resilience in the Renewables Sector
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML): Recent advancements in analytics have focused on AI and ML, which rely on data availability and quality, as well as effective interaction between the edge and cloud. The industry has long turned to data analytics and harnessed large data volumes to make technical and business decisions. For AI/ML, these developments also rely on local computing to run AI-driven agents to improve asset performance as well as safety for people and the environment.
Simple, Protected, and Autonomous is Essential for Success in Renewables
While the benefits of Edge Computing are clear, success at the edge requires the combined efforts of people, process, and technology. When assessing Edge Computing platforms for renewable energy applications, operations and technology teams must look for:
Simple: For rapid time to value and simplicity of management, potentially by non-technical staff, Edge Computing platforms must be easy to install, deploy, and manage across applications and infrastructure with zero-touch operation. Systems should also offer virtualization to quickly deploy applications, offer flexibility, maximize computing resources, and lower cost of ownership.
Protected: Physical protection and cybersecurity of computing resources are critical factors for renewable energy operations. Edge Computing platforms must manage operational, financial, and reputational risk by ensuring “always on” redundancy for zero downtime, protection against cyber threats or data loss, and operation in rugged environments.
Autonomous: A core promise of Edge Computing is the ability to operate reliably in any edge locations. Platforms must run in any environment and deliver zero-touch computing that does not require human monitoring, maintenance, repairs, or support. Edge Computing platforms that enable remote management and offer “call home” features and 24x7x365 support further minimize the risk of unplanned downtime for equipment and applications.
Importantly, Edge Computing delivers significant cost efficiency and value. The cost of Edge Computing platforms is a fraction of the aggregate cost of capital assets, equipment, and operating day rates. Yet these Edge Computing platforms provide the “brains” required for software deployment, reliability, local data capture, and analysis, essential for performance and decision making and can deliver a 240% or greater ROI and payback in fewer than 8 months.
Unlock Value from the Edge
Edge Computing platforms provide Renewables companies the opportunity to deploy distributed computing architectures that extend mission-critical software applications to the operational edge and bring Industry 4.0 to Renewables. Edge Computing puts operators on a path to increased automation and evolution of data from isolated to connected to predictive to AI-driven.
As the world races to transition from its reliance on fossil fuels and coal-based power generation to sustainable energy production, it is time for the Renewables sector to harness Edge Computing for increased efficiency, reliability, and safety.
Equipment Manufacturers and Edge Computing
For manufacturers delivering capital equipment and machine solutions for Renewables, Edge Computing eliminates issues related to downtime, data loss, networking, and software deployment for innovation. It is ideal to enable distributed assets with limited connectivity to process data locally and transmit to the enterprise and the cloud. Key benefits include:
Reliability – Embedding Edge Computing with built-in fault tolerance alongside critical equipment eliminates application downtime and protects data integrity. Both capabilities are essential for success of distributed power generation assets. Additionally, the computing platforms support data collection without data loss in the event of failover and enable store forward capability.
Repeatability and Scalability – Edge Computing offers manufacturers the means to repeat and scale designs and to deploy repeatable software templates. With a robust compute platform in place, they are able to deploy basic control software and later deploy more advanced applications to add future capabilities. Built-in virtualization provides efficiency to run multiple applications concurrently in a single platform.
Remote Operation and Management – As organizations build de-centralized grids and incorporate remote sites, it is essential that the Edge Computing allows remote management and monitoring from the desktop or mobile device. Remote desktop services enable teams to easily monitor and control equipment from remote locations using mobile devices such as smart phones, tablets, and laptops and connect single-pane-of-glass visibility.
Security – Manufacturers must address both physical security monitoring as well as cybersecurity concerns. Edge Platforms enable efficient deployment of essential cybersecurity applications for endpoint detection and network monitoring. Additional, platforms themselves provide built-in security features such as restricted USB access and domain.
About Stratus
For leaders digitally transforming their operations in order to drive predictable, peak performance with minimal risk, Stratus ensures the continuous availability of business-critical applications by delivering zero-touch Edge Computing platforms that are simple to deploy and maintain, protected from interruptions and threats, and autonomous. For over 40 years, we have provided reliable and redundant zero-touch computing, enabling global Fortune 500 companies and small-to-medium sized businesses to securely and remotely turn data into actionable intelligence at the Edge, cloud and data center – driving uptime and efficiency. For more information, please visit www.stratus.com.