In the fourth webinar of Smart Talks with Jovan, we had the pleasure of hosting esteemed guests Klemen Belec – Chair of the Electrical Energy Smart Meter Sub Working group at DLMS UA, Davy Michiels – Enterprise Architect at Fluvius, and Dieter Brunner – former president of ESMIG.
During this engaging session, we delved into the motivations driving utilities to establish multi-utility collaborations. Furthermore, we explored ways to encourage and facilitate such partnerships, along with identifying the most effective approaches to accomplish this goal.
Would multi-utility devices be read using an electricity meter or independently?
Klemen Belec:
We should look at this challenge from multiple angles. I will start with the current directives: sustainability building, green society, and the economy. A clear conclusion might be that the multi-utility approach is the correct one because we will use fewer materials and try to aggregate multiple data streams in a limited number of devices. This looks like the way forward.
There are some challenges. Not all utilities today are multi-utility or multi-energy companies. Some companies will have to see some mutual benefits if they join forces and use the multi-utility principle–not only on the device side but as well on the central side. Multi-utility can bring benefits, but we need to assure that there will be clear value added for every company.
Davy Michiels:
From the practical utility side, Fluvius in Belgium, we are a multi-utility DSO and we started off with long-term goals in mind. I would strongly encourage working on multi-utility development and using the electricity meter as a central point, which has the highest maturity level in terms of smart services
Look at the values each participating utility can realize. There are synergies on the central IT systems where you can share one central platform and reduce both the investment and operational cost. Setting up a multi-utility architecture also reduces the complexity. It has a positive effect on the cost, and it also helps you to streamline rollout more efficiently, as we clearly see in Belgium.
Fluvius itself is operating on electricity and gas, but also some heat networks, public lightning… We have a joint collaboration with the water distribution companies in Flanders where we connect the smart water meter to our platform. It’s an example of multi-utility spanning over companies. They are separate companies, but we invest together in a central platform, and a common rollout.
It’s really giving value to all the companies participating, and even more so for the end customer. Having this multi-utility setup is really evolving into a smart city. We strongly encourage it and are proving it day by day now with our rollout in Belgium.
Dieter Brunner:
I think we all believe in multi-utility as the next step but to answer the question on if we should read things via electricity meters…
I think the complexity is quite high on a multi-utility system. The good thing about an electricity meter is that it is always on power. Putting a communication gateway into the electricity meter means there’s no restriction. Meters like gas, water, heat, or cold meters, use a battery for their measurement system as well as for communication parts.
Multi-utility depends a lot on the coordination and cooperation between utilities because only a few utilities have everything under the same roof. A lot of utilities, as we see in Western Europe, have gas, electricity, and water meters. Water meter companies are much more fragmented. Each city, and sometimes each village has its own water utility, and the complexity of getting this all together, as Fluvius has done in Belgium can be difficult. I think the Belgium way of rollout is the optimal situation.
Preferred is reading the data via the electricity meters, or you can go down the way as the Germans have done, where you have a smart meter gateway so that the electricity, gas, and water meter are connected to the gateway and the gateway communicates in a secure way to a central platform.
The case where each meter communicates on its own is still the highest application you will find, but it is not the most economical.
How to motivate utilities to implement multi-utility?
Davy Michiels:
The important aspect of utilities is the experience in the new technologies introduced. We’ve all been very active for over 10 years in smart electricity. There’s a vast amount of experience shared within the industry. For other utilities, that experience is smaller and more recent. When another utility starts on the journey, they’re confronted with the same problems and challenges. It would be a pity to not use our experience.
We talk a lot about the setup of the metering point, but it’s about data too. You do this to retrieve more data from your meteringpoints. Data you can use for grid management or maintenance.
The end goal is to take the citizen along on the journey of sustainability, towards the future.
Data is vital and it is even more valuable when you combine it. Sit together as multi-utilities within the same region, share the experience, and work towards an aligned offering.
I would recommend, not to hesitate to make a proposal to your government and regulator. Don’t wait. The long journey is quite complex, but based on the shared experience and the alignment, you can make a proposal to the regulator on how to realize the goals.
Dieter Brunner:
I think one of the big drivers for the motivation of the utilities is, of course, cost savings. If you can put things together, have one common platform, have one rollout, combine the rollout, and have one-time communication costs, this is quite a big cost saving for all of the utilities.
It’s a good opportunity to do the analytics on the platform with more data, see a complete overall picture, and give much better support to the customer, get better end-user service and customer loyalty.
Klemen Belec:
I can just confirm that the utilities dealing with the electricity have the advantage and have standards in place. It makes sense that experiences are transferred into heat, water, and gas because we will all benefit from this.
I would come more from the end-user perspective, which Dieter mentioned. Now especially when water is becoming scarce, electricity prices are increasing… Our end users are demanding more data. It will be important that they have a single application where they are able to operate multiple energies that they use daily. For smart cities, it is the same. If we can combine data from water, heat, gas, and electricity at the same time, we can predict based on the data analytics, what might happen in the future.
I think this multi-utility even today goes beyond water, heat, and gas. We should not forget that in homes we have heat pumps that tend to have meters in them. We have electrical vehicle charging stations… We will see more sources coming under the same basket of multi-utility.
How to encourage collaboration of different utilities in order to achieve the implementation of Multi-utility?
Dieter Brunner:
I think one of the points to encourage them next to the cost aspect, they can see how we can get more data, more analytics, get more loyal customers by providing more information, etc.
I would like to see the utility collaboration. This huge complexity of smart meter rollout, of getting all the data, demands that the utilities sit more together and discuss how to reduce the risk, how to share experience, and how to make the whole thing successful.
In my last 15, 20 years where we discuss smart meters, multi-utility or dual fuel as it’s called in the Netherlands, there has always been the question, why should we do this? What is the best way? Of course, it always starts from a cost point, and on the other side is the regulator point. You need to see what incentive they get from the regulator body. Most of the electricity utilities are in a prime situation–they can offer a huge network, a huge experience on smart metering, communication, and how to get the data in time, the security of data, privacy, etc., Utilities that start now, gas or even the water utilities or heat and cold meters, they are all a step behind.
They should understand the complexity of it and how to reduce the risk. What they can take out for the end user, analytics, on customer loyalty programs, based on information.
Klemen Belec:
I would just add that only very large utilities will be able to afford to have large teams of engineering experts in security, data science, data analytics, and communication, which are all needed if you want to run your system to bring benefits.
A lot of utilities in Europe can’t have a team of 10 or 20 people to run those operations. They will have to join forces, and set a common platform, and will all benefit from this.
Davy Michiels:
I agree with everything that’s been said, but I don’t think it’s the right approach. I think Dieter already mentioned, we’ve been working for 10, or 15 years in standardization, with a lot of classical approaches: let’s do a joint pilot, etc. I’m convinced that game changers are not looking at this from an internal point of view, but from the outside in, with the customer in mind.
What are the expectations from the customer? Not today or tomorrow, but in 2030, even 2050, when you start from the energy transition. What does the customer need? The customer, as an individual, but also all kinds of new market players that will start to exist. The value comes from combining all data together. Consumption data from electricity, gas, heat network, with linking data, parking space availability, people crowd density, and all that stuff.
I think that the game changer and the step towards multi-utility, and towards smart cities should come from what the customer needs and take that approach. I think over the past decade we have been too much driven by cost reduction and legislation. But let’s turn it around. Let’s think together. You cannot do that as a utility alone. You need to collaborate with others.
Conclusion:
The electricity meter is always on power and putting a communication gateway into the electricity meter is a logical way to go. Meters like gas meters, water meters, heat meters, or cold meters, which use batteries need to be consolidated into one channel and sent to a central system and it is the most cost-effective to do it over the electricity meter.
If utilities can combine the data from water, heat, gas, and electricity in one place and simultaneously, then they can, based on the data analytics, predict what might happen in the future. They can see where they need to pay attention or in which parts of the city, they need to rebuild the infrastructure and do future planning.
The step towards multi-utility and towards smart cities should come from what the customer needs. Utilities have to listen to the customer and build up on that.