POWER May 2017 - 46

GENERATION TRANSITIONS
to straddle the boundaries between existing
and emerging fields, particularly flexibility,
energy storage, data handling, and analysis,
providing real-time information as well as
helping to analyze where markets are heading-all,
perhaps, while subtly helping involved
parties move in concert.
A Flurry of Mergers and
Acquisitions
Over the next three years, many of Europe's
top utilities are planning to invest tens of billions
of euros to catch up with the green energy
revolution. One simple growth path is through
acquisitions. This is driving a flurry of takeovers
by tech and engineering firms of niche,
smart-energy innovators, according to reports
by Reuters and other news organizations.
" Everywhere in the supply chain of power
there is disruption going on, " said Bruce
Jenkyn-Jones, co-head of listed equities at
Impax Asset Management, which focuses on
investments in environmental markets and
resource efficiency.
The massive volume of renewables coming
online has translated into a need for
intelligent information technology (IT) systems
that can balance out demand and supply
swings while meeting energy and carbon
emissions targets. Industrial and technology
providers like Siemens, ABB, General Electric
(GE), and others have become key players
in this transformation, often working in
close partnership with grid developers and
operators to manage the grid's evolution.
Merger and acquisition activity is also
moving forward in storage and smart meter
providers, both of which are key sectors in
securing access to customers and, more importantly,
their data, to help the utilities tailor
their power purchases and save costs. According
to Reuters, three major German meter
makers-Techem, Ista, and Qundis-are
up for sale, and in France, energy conglomerate
Total recently purchased battery maker
Saft Groupe for €950 million.
Across the pond, Oracle took over Opower,
a maker of utility software, in a bid to reap key
markets, especially emerging European ones.
Other niche players being showcased include
U.S. smart meter maker Itron, which relies on
Europe for more than a third of its sales.
Utilities Prioritize Network
Upgrades
Together, major European utilities may
spend more than €40 billion over the next
three years to upgrade their networks, according
to ongoing investment plans. This
includes replacing old cables, buying new
smart meters, and putting new IT in place.
These investments follow almost a decade of
steep losses for major power producers like
46
E.ON and RWE, which hemorrhaged many
billions of euros in value as their fossil fuel
systems were marginalized by increasingly
less-expensive renewables.
Also in France, national utility EDF is
moving quickly to install smart meters as that
nation looks to increase renewable systems.
The country's future, however, is clouded by
upcoming elections that could change its energy
direction back towards nuclear. But if a
left-leaning coalition government comes into
office, then renewables will likely continue
to grow there as well.
Goldman Sachs estimates power producers
might invest more than €60 billion by
2025 to digitalize their grids. In Europe, big
conglomerates, including ABB and Siemens,
are so far seen as the leading integrated providers
of smart grid technology and hardware,
simply because they already cover a
wide range of sectors, including IT.
" Sometimes it is hard to draw the line
between IT and industrials. A company like
Siemens is a bit of both, " Frederic Fayolle,
senior fund manager at Deutsche Asset Management,
said. GE in November bought Bit
Stew Systems and Wise.io to expand its
platform for industrial internet applications,
which connect big machines such as power
plants to databases and analytical software.
Utilities, however, will likely stay on the
sidelines rather than become developers
themselves. " I doubt that a utility can compete
with Siemens, GE, nor with Google and
Apple, " said Oskar Tijs, senior investment
analyst at NN Investment Partners. " On the
grid side, the utilities will be mostly clients
of technology companies. "
New Technology, New Partnerships:
E.ON and Siemens
Meanwhile, a partnership between E.ON
and Siemens is breaking new ground as it
develops smart metering technology in Germany.
The collaboration forms part of E.ON
and Siemens' efforts to contribute towards
Germany's plan to replace, process, and systemically
convert a large numbers of meters.
Additionally, Siemens is providing its smart
grid platform EnergyIP for integration with
E.ON's existing EniM program.
According to Siemens, the integration
will allow E.ON network operators ease and
optimal integration of smart metering infrastructure
into IT systems to allow meter data
acquisition for improved grid management
and customer billing. " By integrating EnergyIP
into our systems, we will be able to
offer our customers the best possible advice
and support with regard to the smart meter
rollout, " said Paul-Vincent Abs, metering
managing director at E.ON.
Looking ahead, " with implementation of
our EnergyIP smart grid application platform,
E.ON Metering is prepared for future
rollout scenarios as a metering point operator
and, when it comes, to smart meter gateway
administration, " said Ute Redecker, head of
the Siemens Digital Grid business unit in
Germany. The integration will allow the analytics
application to utilize various big data
options for administering smart meter gateways
and meter data processing for external
market participants on the German market.
Siemens hopes the development will yield
a rich treasure of finely granulated data for
functionalities including energy theft and
overloaded distribution equipment detections
through grid load analysis, grid incident
analysis, and end-customer consumption
load analysis. In other words, Siemens will
have a clear insight not only into E.ON's
grid, but a much better platform on which to
build going forward, as other grid operators
tackle the demands of a renewable energy
backbone. The inclusion of the big data option
will also allow for the creation of load
forecasts for different levels in the distribution
grid as well as an analysis of distributed
energy resources.
EU Steps Up Funding for New
Energy Infrastructure
In February, the EC announced that it would
fund almost half a billion euros in selected
power, smart grid, and gas energy infrastructure
projects through the Connecting Europe
Facility, the EU's funding scheme for
infrastructure. An ongoing project-valued
at a total €5.35 billion-has been allocated
to trans-European energy infrastructure between
2014 and 2020. This year, more than a
third of the selected projects are in the energy
sector, winning support of €176 million.
Another EC-funded project is a €40.25
million investment in Tennet's " SuedLink "
smart grid system. The project is planned
to connect wind power generated in breezy
One of the challenges the nation faces is
that Germany has an ambitious objective:
to get 80% of its power supply from
renewables by mid-century.
www.powermag.com
POWER | May 2017
http://www.Wise.io http://www.powermag.com
POWER May 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER May 2017
