NEHA MEHTA Founder, FemTech Partners
In December 2019, the world experienced the unprecedented: COVID19 coronavirus, a seemingly innocuous virus that somehow affected 140 countries and was consequently declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). Everything that we have been accustomed to has changed. One sector that has been affected is the power industry. The International Energy Agency’ s (IEA) documented(1) that based on its analysis of daily data through mid-April 2020, countries in full lockdown suffered an weekly average 25% fall in energy demand, and those in partial lockdown an average 18% fall. Some areas of concerns include(2): The feasibility of energy security in a crisis The absolute necessity of resilient energy in modern societies Merge of clean energy and sustainability for the sake of economic revival This is a blatant indication that our energy sector has to evolve digitally. Despite many setbacks from the crisis, we can still create a golden opportunity out of the predicament. Now, with the prevalence of technology, our power industry can now incorporate digital technology in our systems in spite of declining energy demand, without exacerbating the state of our environment. Out of the energy sector, the solar industry is crucial in providing one of the most flexible forms of power generation without burdening the environment. As the crisis continues to affect every nook and cranny of the world, the solar industry has to keep up tist Ian Marius Peters and 3 others in Singapore and Germany with these impacts and adapt accordingly. In comparison to conventional means of power generation such as coal and natural gas, renewable energy like solar is not as feasible as it cannot respond as efficiently to its demand. With more people being conscious of the repercussions of unclean energy(3) , and more advocates for an eco-friendly movement arise, solar is slowly becoming an integral part of energy consumption, as many start to invest in this sustainable clean energy source despite steep costs. However, the virus is a key source of a progressively global economic disruption. Worldwide consumption is plummeting, and this places a negative pressure on global oil prices, and demand for natural gas(4) is undermined as prices reach an all-time-low. Even renewable energy supply chains are temporarily suspended as the world’ s biggest energy producer, China, is facing the issue of tariff and trade disputes.
SOMASHEKAR TH MD & CEO, EnerMAN Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
If you are a Developer/Owner of Solar PV Plants, I am sure you would have realized the need for digitalization a long time ago even before Covid 19 hit this world. Many believe digitalization is a big thing, massive effort involved and is expensive. But in reality, it’ s not; it’ s just a mindset change, it' s about asking your Operation and Maintenance Services(OMS) team to provide all your data in electronic form. Try to answer these questions and you will know how much digitalization has been done to your PV plant. Q1. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW YOUR PLANT’S GENERATION & OTHER PERFORMANCE METRICS TODAY/HISTORIC HOW WILL YOU GET IT?
a. Your plant incharge/OMS team sends you a hardcopy file b. Your plant incharge/OMS team emails you the file end of day c. You browse an URL & get it yourself Q2. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW MANY (ENGINEERS / TECHNICIANS) ARE WORKING IN YOUR PV PLANT, HOW WILL YOU GET IT?
| SEPTEMBER ISSUE 2020
With the emergence of Industry 4.0(5) , the world is seeing an opportunity to further cut costs for solar energy production and distribute it more effectively through a digital revolution. Especially in times of economic depression, the industry has to be innovative in order to keep up with the rising consumer demand due to remote working environments and mandatory quarantine orders. One example of creative application of technology would be the advent of solar photovoltaic systems (PV). Solar PV is an abundant form of energy generation, which offers the stability and reliability that most renewable energy sources lack. This in turn causes the industry to be increasingly competitive, as it competes on the same grounds as conventional energy sources, without much difference in costs. Amidst the pandemic, there is one unexpected positive impact: the campaign for climate change will no longer be neglected. Air pollution which was thought to never improve actually diminished as travelling has been halted globally and consumption in general has been significantly reduced. And this can be credited to solar technology. Researchers(6) testified to the improved air quality as a result of the output from solar photovoltaic panels. With extreme conditions as a result of the crisis, on top of the shutdown of daily social activities and interactions, scientists(7) could afford to gather data from this spontaneous yet natural case study. Moreover, this situation pushes for a greater need to digitalise solar plants, as they are actually beneficial and curbs the one issue that humans have been trying to solve for years. In conclusion, the COVID-19 coronavirus has resulted in devastation for the world economy and affected our daily lives in every way possible. Yet, we are constantly pushing for solutions out of this quandary, and innovating our current technologies to adapt to the world we live in now. The digitalisation of solar plants are just the start of a digital evolution that can potentially change the way we use energy sources, and is an impetus for a superior energy industry in future years. (1) IEA’ s Global Energy Review 2020 (https://www.iea.org/topics/covid-19) (2) Singapore: Update on Energy Digitalisation (https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=6fef0909-fa7448ee-aa88-2714fc12bd63) (3) Fossil Fuels: The Dirty Facts (https://www.nrdc.org/stories/fossilfuels-dirtyfacts#:~:text=Using%20fossil%20fuels%20for%20energy,such%20as% 20plastics%20and%20chemicals.) (4) Experts react: COVID-19 Impacts the Energy Sector (https://www.csis.org/analysis/experts-react-covid-19-impactsenergy-sector) (5) How digitalisation is changing solar (https://www.pes.eu.com/solar/how-digitalisation-is-changing-solar/) (6) Covid-19 shutdown led to increased solar power output (https://news.mit.edu/2020/covid-19-solar-output-smog-0722) (7) MIT professor of mechanical engineering Tonio Buonassisi, research scien
a. OMS team compiles from attendance registers & sends it b. You login to a specific site and find out who is in the plant today, history etc. Q3 . ARE YOU DEPENDENT ON YOUR OMS TEAM WHO HAVE KEPT ALL THOSE DOCUMENTS RECEIVED FROM THE EPC TEAM – LIKE ELECTRICAL DRAWINGS, WARRANTY CERTIFICATES, INSURANCE INSIDE THE SAFE IN MCR?
If you answered yes to the last question & chose a. as your answer to Q1 & Q2 you will have to take some immediate actions to digitize your plants. Most plant owners realized the need for digitalization when Covid-19 hit us. Many plants did not have remote monitoring SCADA, their engineers could not travel to site to get the information of the plant, courier service was not functional. Plant owners lost visibility of their PV asset completely. Digitalization not only helps you to get plant data at fingertips, but also can greatly contribute in reducing manpower thereby reducing opex of your plant. Last few months at EnerMAN, we are getting a lot of calls to retrofit their old SCADA which doesn’ t have remote monitoring capabilities, & also plant owners want to track their O&M activities in cloud servers. This is definitely a good sign. On a positive note, Covid-19 is acting as a catalyst that seems to be accelerating the process of digitalization.
PG 40