Energy 4.0

The goal of Smart Grid and better telecontrol (SCADA) is to utilize our limited energy more efficiently.

For this to be possible we need to know more about the whole system and much needs to be controlable from afar. Most of the technologies to control components of the grid are already out there, but they often lack security and modernity. But after that there is still no intelligence for a Smart Grid to be called smart. We want to know where much energy is needed and where we get that power from. If an energy network is to busy right now it would be much better to reroute the flow of energy through a much less busy connection.

Some will notice this is similar to the problem the IT needed to solve a couple years ago for the internet. You have many users and a limited network. The load has to be distributed over the whole network but you still need the right data to arrive at its destination. The problem was solved with a few simple rules and the data split into many small packages. A too simplified version of the solution is that each router only knows of its direct neighbours, which networks they are able to send data to and how busy each route is. With this information the router decides itself where to send each data fragment and the whole grid appears to be smart. You can say it has some kind of swarm intelligence to control itself. Some advantages include less manual maintenance, more stable network and better scalability.

The next problem the IT is facing is industry 4.0 and true artificial intelligence. There are many possibilities and much already works in theory.

We have much experience in that field and because of the similarity of the two problems, we believe that this will take the energy grid to the next level. Effiency and security wise. With proven protocols like Modbus and standards like DNP3 or IEC 104 there is nothing that is impossible!