Digital Energy Summit ‘22: Here’s What We’ve Learned
It’s a wrap on Digital Energy Summit ’22! The speakers from various countries explained the current situation, addressed the importance of digitalisation and opportunities in the energy sector, discussed concrete automated and digitized solutions that contribute to easier coping with the energy crisis, and presented good examples from practice.
Luis Goncalves, CEO of Iskraemeco pointed out that we have to be ready to share the energy data: ”In Europe, we don’t want to share the energy data. For instance, we share personal information on social media every day. We have to change this way of thinking, otherwise we won’t manage to make the digital transition of energy.” Mr. Goncalves also noted that digitalisation is not a threat but rather a good opportunity.
Dr. Emilija Stojmenova Duh, the Slovenian minister responsible for digital transformation, said in her speech that digitalisation is very high on the priority list of the current government: “We believe that in the current geopolitical landscape and in the times of energy crisis, the digital transition is urgent. Ideally, the green and digital transitions go hand in hand and reinforce each other, but they will only be successful if we have digital technologies that are accessible and affordable to everyone.’’
Ilias Iakovidis, the European Commission’s adviser on the digital green transition, explained via a live stream that digital and clean energy transition require money, time and knowledge: ’’The Next Generation EU that support Member States with €700 Billion is an opportunity for delivering benefits of digitalisation for the green transition. At the moment, there’s no capacity and understanding at the national level of how to deploy properly digitalisation and ensuring positive impact on the green transition. We need to work on evidence and metrics and to develop capacity to harness these benefits.’’
Mr. Iakovidis also pointed out that digitization has great potential in other areas as well, but we must learn to acquire and use the right data. For more information, please see the following links for your future reference.
We also listened to a high-profile panel discussion about DSOs, TSOs and the power of digitalisation. Dr. Uroš Kerin (ELES), Branislav Pilát (SEPS), Kalle Kukk (Elering), Yusuf Kaya (Siemens Energy) and William Petteau (N-SIDE) agreed that on an operational level, there’s not much discussion about digitalisation and new solutions, and that changes might not occur as fast as we want. It’s also important that we talk more about the benefits of new technologies and how they can make our lives easier.
Another highlight of the event was the presentation of Senad Aruc, a seasoned cybersecurity professional, who publicly hacked an iPhone in 2007. Mr. Aruc delved into the importance of energy security, which requires adequate protection of critical infrastructure, in particular against cyberattacks. We learned how advanced botnets function, and how we can bust them.
The speaker lineup for the event also featured mag. Gorazd Ažman (ELES), dr. Rok Lacko (Gen-I), Jan Kostevc (ACER), dr. Andrej Bregar (Informatika), Igor Hostnik (Unistar), dr. Helena Vrabec (Palantir Technologies), dr. Michael Schöpf (Venios), Selma Kovačević (JP Elektroprivreda BiH), Aleš Glavina (Iskraemeco), Jure Bartol (Petrol), René Kerkmeester (Equigy), Ursula Krisper (Elektro Ljubljana), Bojan Miličić (Medius) and Hrvoje Keko (Končar Digital).
Some highlights:
- Digitalisation is one of the pillars of efficient grids.
- Huge effort will be needed for the energy transition.
- Current regulatory frameworks seem inefficient when addressing efficiency improvements.
- Not cost remuneration, benefit sharing.
Save the date for Digital Energy Summit ’23! We’re looking forward to seeing you again on the 6th and 7th of December.