Colombia. The energy sector is experiencing a profound impact due to the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the emergence of renewable energy sources, which are transforming the way of managing the service, changing the relationships between supply and demand and the way assets operate.
The sector provides a service that grows with rates similar to those of the population, so the control of information becomes more complex as users grow. In that sense, the sector has found in smart metering systems, a vital tool for the control and management of energy that translates into good practices of efficient use of energy. PrimeStone, a software developer for the management of intelligent energy metering, describes some scope to understand the trends that are currently impacting the sector from innovation with information technologies, intelligent measurement systems and data management:
Smart Grids and their benefits
A smart grid is made up of smart grid devices and meters, telecommunications systems and networks for connection and software applications for control, capture, management and exploitation of measurement and operation information. The benefits are to have permanent and online control of the network, timely information on system variables and service measures, and better network surveillance that consequently allow reducing energy losses and detecting faults for timely intervention.
This type of networks present a revolution in Latin America, where much progress has been made in the Industrial and Commercial segment, however at the Residential level the implementation has been slower due to the costs associated with the infrastructure.
The AMI System in Latin America
AMI (Advanced Measurement Infrastructure) systems are made up of smart meters with bidirectional communication, which allow not only to collect measurement information, but to send to the meter from a control software, remote action commands of various purposes, such as connection-disconnection, rate information and others.
In the region, these systems that are massifying and automating smart metering have been implemented mainly in countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Chile, among others.
Smart Metering Data Capture and Management
In the same way, the sector is betting on MDC (Meter Data Capture) systems for smart meter capture and MDM (Meter Data Management) management systems, both with multi-vendor characteristics, which make it possible to have different manufacturers of AMIs and smart meters in the network.
These systems allow to have all the information of measurement and consumption consolidated, of easy access, timely and with a high level of reliability and security. In this way, information is obtained for the operation and timely decision-making of the business to the service companies.
Analytics and Big Data in the electricity sector
After having the smart metering infrastructure and the capture and management systems, the problem is the exploitation of data to add value to the business. This is how the way of using and managing data becomes a differential parameter when determining the efficiency of public utilities, creating added values to end customers that show substantial improvements when performing some type of management before the company, with organized information, identified and correctly stored, they can be extracted at the time required, either for analysis or immediate actions of a commercial or technical nature.
With the data captured and controlled, the need to preserve them safely is evident, and if the growth of customers in terms of quantity and load of information is taken into account, it grows exponentially and becomes data that must be handled with Big Data technology, which allows to have all the information safe, neat and accessible to any other system that is required to connect with it.
The smart grid and the Internet of Things (IoT)
There is a mutually beneficial and direct relationship between the two, as smart grid devices are expected to connect over the internet and send alarms, events and control commands, as well as information collected from services.
New business models for the electricity sector
Energy efficiency systems for customers, applications that enable the supply and demand market and combine the purchase of energy from generating companies and self-generating initiatives with alternative energies, remote control and management centers, massive analysis software and statistics determined to identify consumption trends and possible losses, these are some of the new lines of business that will appear as trends related to the sector electric for the next few years.
