Could the Internet of Energy be the solution to the biggest energy crisis in history?

Smarter and more efficient electricity consumption has become the number one priority for all economic agents worldwide. Technology is the cornerstone on which industry must build to solve the current energy crisis and meet the globally agreed decarbonisation targets.

This conviction underpins the concept of the Internet of Energy, which goes a step beyond the smart grid concept, bringing together the most advanced technologies in Edge Computing, IoT, automation and Artificial Intelligence in a cybersecure energy data exchange ecosystem that will optimise energy distribution and consumption. To this end, the Internet of Energy will be able to regulate, programme and update generating sources according to consumption needs in real time, with the aim of maximising energy efficiency and sustainability.

The main challenge of this new paradigm is the homogenisation and standardisation of data through interconnected systems. This is where the need to create common protocols for data sharing arises, allowing secure data exchange while preserving data sovereignty.

The Internet of Energy is already beginning to glimpse the solution to this challenge with a networked system of intelligent energy infrastructure components through Edge Computing: each energy element, be it an electrical substation, a transformation center, a distributed energy resource or end-uder consuption, analyzes its own information in real time in situ, and only reports back to the centralised infrastructure any relevant deviations that may have a significant impact on the network, exponentially reducing processing costs compared to the cloud.

The aim of the Internet of Energy is to collect, organise and generate information from individual devices available to all other participants in grid management in a simple, secure and fast way and to use intelligent forecasting systems based on external weather, traffic, etc. information to predict future energy demands.

There are many global players in both the energy and government sectors that are working on the development of this ecosystem to solve one of the major problems of our era. Of particular note are European projects such as Platoon (a consortium of organisations that offers a methodology that applies distributed processes and data analytics technologies for optimised and real-time management of energy systems for experts in the field of energy) or Spanish projects such as Barbara, a startup selected by Platoon from more than 500 companies and the only Spanish representative involved in a EU-funded project financed to create an European wid energy and data market.

"If it is very windy in Norway and very sunny in Spain, if Norwegian and Spanish users exchange information, it will make it easier to sell and buy energy. The project tries to enable this data sharing from a technical, legal and even social point of view" explains David Purón, CEO of Barbara.

You can obtain more information about the project at the following link.

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