Eneco makes more than 100,000+ meters in energy network smart

Background

Eneco strives to supply sustainable energy for all its customers. This allows them to switch to more sustainable and smarter energy consumption. Implementing a 'customer intimacy strategy' to digital services requires a huge transformation. Eneco wants to guide its customers in the digital journey from energy consumers to a consciously informed consumer, who receives full insight and advice on energy consumption and production. With these insights, Eneco expects that consumers and companies will be better able to deal with energy consumption more consciously and the company will be able to make its own production more efficient.

Advantages of IoT at Eneco

Everything revolves around gaining a better understanding of the needs of customers. The IoT chain plays a crucial role in this and makes it possible to measure and control smart energy devices at the user's location and at specific points in the network. An important part of the IoT chain is the communication hub that links the devices in a generic way to Eneco's central systems. This allows many devices to be connected to the platform. The processing of the messages to and from this communication hub is done via an IoT platform based on Azure PaaS components. This forms a decoupled platform with a bridge between customers' devices and Eneco's systems. This platform forms the basis for improving business services, such as: stabilizing energy consumption within the network, better forecasting of supply and demand and gaining better insights into short-term usage and peak loads.

PAOLO HERDÉ, MANAGER SMART GRID & INNOVATION AT ENECO, ON THE ENERGY TRANSITION AND THE SUCCESS OF THE VERSLIMEN PROGRAMME:

"The 'network smartening' program consists of several projects, each with their own spearheads. From communicating with end users, to providing technical support on the platform and hardware components. One of the most important components in this program is the IoT data platform for messaging. With this we build new and innovative services for Eneco and our customers."

"We have set up the architecture of the IoT data platform in such a generic way that we are able to activate a multitude of different solutions, starting with heat. After a test period, we successively connected meters from large and small consumers."

"We are now able to use the platform to better match the supply and demand on the network to the wishes and needs of the consumers. The platform is able to connect and control producing sources such as heat, wind and solar energy in order to prevent peaks on the network more and more. This makes a major contribution to various cost savings in the generation and storage of energy. In addition, it offers an increase in comfort and reliability for consumers and companies."

The execution: self-managing agile team delivers high productivity

The program had a multitude of challenges, deadlines, and dependencies. During the implementation, the technology, the environment, the preconditions and the functionalities were still subject to change. Robbrecht van Amerongen, Head of IoT at Conclusion: "Together with Eneco, we have opted for an approach that has a maximum effect on the expertise involved." A multidisciplinary scrum development team has been put together consisting of employees from Eneco, Conclusion and other partners. This team has been given joint responsibility and mandate for delivering the right business functionality. "In practice, we steer this team towards the desired result and leave the implementation entirely to the team."  The team has the freedom to independently carry out its own design and implementation within the frameworks of Eneco. "This means that occasionally things are picked up that do not necessarily fall under the tasks of the project but are necessary to achieve the result". Paolo Herdé: "The result is a team with high productivity and flexibility, which was certainly necessary given the large number of uncertainties at the start of the project."

Application Azure cloud infrastructure gives scalability and flexibility

The platform is based on Azure PaaS components. In doing so, the team uses Conclusion IoT's best practices and Microsoft's reference architecture for IoT and data platforms. The use of Azure PaaS and Azure DevOps accelerates the development process and makes the platform scalable in the future. The platform makes it possible to quickly process and deliver large amounts of messages to the target systems. In addition, it is able to send messages back and thus measure and influence the local operation of the energy network in a very fine-grained way. The installation and activation of new modules in the field is simple and supported by a mobile app that allows a technician to test meter operation and connectivity immediately after installation. This greatly reduces the number of repeat visits as a result of the repair of the installation. The platform continuously measures the operation of all connected devices. In the event of a disruption, the platform can immediately (remotely) analyze the problem and in many cases even solve it remotely. It is designed to connect hundreds of thousands of connected measuring points that produce readings every 15 minutes. At the moment, more than 10,000 devices are connected that produce 5 million messages every day. We also send messages back to remotely adjust settings and control devices remotely.

Security en privacy ‘by design’

The security and privacy of customer data is central to Eneco. The platform is built with the highest privacy guidelines. Data is not stored in the platform longer than necessary and encryption is applied immediately when sending data, so that the data is not usable if it falls into the wrong hands. Finally, the end user is able to adjust the privacy settings himself.

Data as a driving force behind energy transition

Robbrecht van Amerongen: "By using the Azure IoT platform, Eneco gains a detailed insight into the current status and demand in the energy network. This makes it possible to switch quickly and further optimize models for even energy consumption. It is also possible to optimize and balance the network at the smallest level of detail." Paolo Herdé: "This platform is an important asset for Eneco in the context of the energy transition. It is possible to manage the heat network in a smarter way; for example, in the first months after the introduction, we have already succeeded in reducing the average temperature in one of our heat networks by 5-10 degrees Celsius. That means a direct reduction in CO2 emissions."

Results are the basis for next steps

The Azure-based IoT platform offers Eneco many advantages. The processing is faster, the platform can scale better, the availability is higher and it gives more flexibility for the development of new products and services. This enables the IT team to quickly develop new projects for its customers. In the case of proof of concepts, Eneco can now directly present examples with tangible results to the decision-makers. This makes calculating the business case a lot easier.