As chief dig­i­tal offi­cer at AES Clean Ener­gy, I am part of a team help­ing cus­tomers to reduce their car­bon emis­sions and build a more sus­tain­able future. 

Accord­ing to a recent report from the Inter­na­tion­al Renew­able Ener­gy Agency, today’s renew­ables are the cheap­est form of ener­gy; amid the declin­ing costs of elec­tric­i­ty from onshore wind, off­shore wind, and solar PV, renew­ables are cost-com­pet­i­tive and can play a key role in reduc­ing our reliance on fos­sil fuels. 

AES is one com­pa­ny devel­op­ing ener­gy solu­tions to meet cus­tomers’ cur­rent and future needs in this area, com­bin­ing all avail­able tech­nolo­gies to address the inter­mit­ten­cy and over­all capac­i­ty of renew­ables. Of course, since the sun does not shine (nor does the wind blow) for a full 24 hours a day, ener­gy stor­age solu­tions such as extreme­ly large lithi­um-ion bat­ter­ies can help to make renew­able ener­gy con­sis­tent­ly avail­able and meet the grow­ing demand for renew­able generation. 

The cur­rent per­spec­tive on tran­si­tion­ing to renew­ables requires bal­anc­ing two realities: 

1. The more renew­able pow­er capac­i­ty we have avail­able, the less we will require fos­sil fuels.
2. We need to triple renew­able pow­er capac­i­ty to effec­tive­ly dri­ve down demand for fos­sil fuels. 

In the decade to come, we can expect an increase in the need for renew­able deploy­ment, with cus­tomers and gov­ern­ments alike push­ing that demand, as well as advance­ments in ener­gy stor­age to mit­i­gate the inter­mit­ten­cy of renew­ables. We must also pre­pare for an increase in grid mod­ern­iza­tion, as infra­struc­ture con­tin­ues to improve and advanced grid man­age­ment sys­tems are deployed to accom­mo­date this. 

Demand for ​“green hydro­gen” will increase, as excess renew­able elec­tric­i­ty can pro­duce hydro­gen and con­tribute to decar­boniz­ing trans­porta­tion. Reg­u­la­to­ry poli­cies will embrace renew­ables, expe­dit­ing nec­es­sary per­mits and enabling project devel­op­ers to inter­con­nect dis­trib­uted gen­er­a­tion sys­tems to the grid. Expect fur­ther tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion, with improved solar and wind assets, as well as increased glob­al col­lab­o­ra­tion and fur­ther ener­gy effi­cien­cy mea­sures. As over­all demand for fos­sil fuels is reduced, it will become eas­i­er to replace them with renewables. 

Man­ag­ing renew­able ener­gy assets involves var­i­ous tech­nol­o­gy con­sid­er­a­tions to ensure effi­cient and effec­tive oper­a­tions; in par­tic­u­lar, it will be impor­tant for all of us to under­stand the process­es sup­port­ing the engi­neer­ing, design, pro­cure­ment, con­struc­tion, oper­a­tion, and main­te­nance of these assets, as follows:

• Asset Mon­i­tor­ing and Con­trol Sys­tems: Cru­cial for real-time vis­i­bil­i­ty into the per­for­mance of renew­able ener­gy assets, these include Super­vi­so­ry Con­trol and Data Acqui­si­tion (SCA­DA) sys­tems, IoT sen­sors, and remote mon­i­tor­ing platforms.
• Data Ana­lyt­ics and Pre­dic­tive Main­te­nance: Uti­liz­ing data ana­lyt­ics, machine learn­ing, and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence can help pre­dict main­te­nance needs, opti­mize asset per­for­mance, and reduce down­time. Pre­dic­tive main­te­nance algo­rithms can ana­lyze data from sen­sors to iden­ti­fy poten­tial issues before they become critical.
• Weath­er Fore­cast­ing: Accu­rate weath­er fore­cast­ing tech­nol­o­gy is essen­tial for renew­able ener­gy asset man­age­ment, help­ing us to pre­dict ener­gy gen­er­a­tion from sources like solar pan­els and wind tur­bines while allow­ing for bet­ter grid inte­gra­tion and demand forecasting.
• Asset Per­for­mance Mon­i­tor­ing: These tools pro­vide insights into the health and effi­cien­cy of renew­able ener­gy assets by mon­i­tor­ing equip­ment degra­da­tion, assess­ing per­for­mance against expect­ed bench­marks, and iden­ti­fy­ing areas for improvement.
• Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty: As renew­able ener­gy assets become more inter­con­nect­ed and reliant on dig­i­tal sys­tems, robust cyber­se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures are essen­tial to pro­tect against poten­tial cyber threats and attacks.
• Asset Man­age­ment Soft­ware: Designed for renew­able asset man­age­ment, this soft­ware can help to stream­line oper­a­tions, track main­te­nance sched­ules, man­age con­tracts, and han­dle finan­cial aspects like rev­enue fore­cast­ing and invoicing.
• Remote Oper­a­tions and Main­te­nance: These tech­nolo­gies allow for remote mon­i­tor­ing and con­trol of renew­able ener­gy assets, reduc­ing the need for on-site per­son­nel and improv­ing oper­a­tional efficiency.
• Drones and Robot­ics: Drones and robot­ic sys­tems can be used for asset inspec­tions, reduc­ing the need for man­u­al inspec­tions and improv­ing safety.

AES uses SAP as its core enter­prise resource plat­form to sup­port sup­ply chain man­age­ment, asset man­age­ment, pre­dic­tive main­te­nance, reli­a­bil­i­ty, and finan­cial man­age­ment. Effec­tive tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment is essen­tial for max­i­miz­ing the per­for­mance, reli­a­bil­i­ty, and prof­itabil­i­ty of renew­able ener­gy assets while min­i­miz­ing oper­a­tional costs and envi­ron­men­tal impact. Invest­ing in the right tech­nol­o­gy solu­tions, AES believes, can sig­nif­i­cant­ly enhance the suc­cess of renew­able ener­gy projects.

Ale­jan­dro Reyes is Chief Dig­i­tal Offi­cer at AES Clean Energy.