Embracing the Internet of things comprehensive energy services has broad prospects

The Internet of things is the result of the high integration and comprehensive application of the new generation of information technology."Internet of things plus" is becoming the backbone of the energy industry revolution.Taking advantage of the "Internet of things plus" initiative, the integrated energy service industry is expected to blaze a new trail of development.

At present, smart city, smart manufacturing, smart logistics, smart home, smart transportation and other Internet of things applications have been launched and developed vigorously.If "Internet +" opens the curtain of "information convergence", "Internet of things +" opens a new model of "Internet of everything".The energy sector, the engine of modern industry, is also embracing the Internet of things.

In March 2019, the state grid corporation of China proposed to accelerate the construction of the ubiquitous power Internet of things (iot), which attracted wide attention of the society and injected a strong impetus to the application of iot in the energy field.As an emerging business of power grid enterprises, in the wave of "Internet of things plus", what and how can integrated energy services be added to create higher value?

"Internet of things plus" creates incremental value for emerging businesses in the energy sector

After nearly 20 years of exploration, the Internet of things continues to mature at all levels.At the policy level, the national standards related to the Internet of things, the Internet of things branch of the development plan for the information and communication industry (2016-2020), and the guidance opinions of the state council on deepening the "Internet + advanced manufacturing industry" to develop industrial Internet and other documents have been issued.At the industrial level, the Internet of things has moved from a stage of focusing on its own technological exploration to a stage of integration with industry.At the enterprise level, emerging Internet of things enterprises continue to emerge, and industrial giants have also entered the Internet of things field, jointly promoting the commercialization and industrialization of the Internet of things process.

In terms of the energy sector, the Internet of things already has certain application scenarios, such as smart meters, energy-saving lighting, power distribution monitoring and so on.Data plays an important role in these application scenarios.According to the above application scenarios and the consensus architecture of the Internet of things, "Internet of things +" in the energy field can be divided into six key levels: energy equipment layer, perception layer (sensing layer), edge layer, network layer (transmission layer), platform layer (data layer, learning layer) and application layer.

These hierarchies form the architecture of the industrial Internet of things, from industrial physical systems to digital applications.Each level receives services from below as well as from above.At present, each level can achieve corresponding functions, but it is still a difficult project to connect all the different levels, which requires the design and integration of the overall architecture.

Comprehensive energy service is a business that can better carry "Internet of things +" in the energy system terminal.Internet of things technology through data value mining for technological innovation and business model innovation, on the one hand, can better meet the diversified needs of customers, on the other hand, can create a huge "value increment" for comprehensive energy service providers.

Integrating the idea of Internet of things, what new changes will be made to integrated energy services

Comprehensive energy service is an emerging industry in the energy field, and the Internet of things is a leading force in information technology.Integrating the Internet of things into the comprehensive energy service business will bring great changes to the industry from the aspects of hardware, business and market.

Ubiquitous access of terminal equipment will promote the upgrading of energy system hardware.A typical cell phone has about 10 to 20 sensors, and a large industrial device often has more than 100 sensors.If the conventional power station, power distribution network, energy storage device, energy-using equipment upgrade for wisdom energy station, intelligent power distribution network, energy storage device, wisdom, energy-using equipment, etc., and unified access network, energy system will happen fundamentally upgrading from hardware level, to the motors, automation, intelligent transformation.

The activation of energy data assets will lead to continuous optimization of the business value chain.Traditional energy service business focuses on energy sales, energy infrastructure construction, energy station operation and maintenance, etc.With the further utilization of energy data, the business will be upgraded and the business value chain will be extended effectively.In the future, with the in-depth mining of data, the energy system can further realize "automatic perception, rapid response and scientific decision-making", and the business value chain will be continuously optimized.

The driving force of customers will guide the marketization and upgrading of energy services.Every customer is a data source. When the level of customer connectivity and the depth of data integration mining continue to improve, the bottom-up customer driving force will increase exponentially with the continuous access of customers."Numbers speak" will enable energy service providers to know exactly what kind of energy services their customers need in order to promote the overall upgrading of the energy service industry.Customers will also have more freedom of choice over energy providers and energy services.

Business changes and management upgrades will intensify the battle for the commanding heights of the industry.Comprehensive energy service and Internet of things are the focus of competition in energy industry and information industry respectively.In the information-based and platform-based competitive ecology, the one who can take the lead in transforming from the creation of pipeline linear value chain to the platform dynamic value network operation is expected to hold the dominant right of industrial ecology.Therefore, comprehensive energy service providers should shift the management focus from inside out, build a workflow that runs through "data-information-knowledence-intelligence", integrate resources, improve and optimize the operation and organization management, and build a more efficient service operation system, so as to adapt to the changeable market and seize the commanding height.

Facing many challenges, how can the "Internet of things plus" comprehensive energy services go further

The Internet of things has just started in the field of comprehensive energy services, and still faces many challenges from the technical level, commercial level, project level, enterprise level and other levels. It needs to take proactive measures from the links of terminal access, platform application, project demonstration and enterprise cooperation.

Ubiquitous access of terminal devices is the basis of "Internet of things +".However, the current coverage of terminal acquisition is far from enough, and there is a lack of flow inlet for customers and equipment. Therefore, innovative marketing means are urgently needed to achieve active access and network effect of customers.At the same time, core chips, sensor devices, energy routers, operating systems and other urgent need to achieve better cross-border applications.Take sensors for example, there are more than one hundred kinds of sensor devices on the market at present, but most of them cannot meet the large-scale application requirements such as high precision, high frequency, low cost, low power consumption, integration, miniaturization, etc., so the cross-industry application research and development of equipment is about to speed up.

The platform layer and application layer are the core architectures to realize energy data integration, state perception, demand prediction, optimized operation, precise control and other functions.However, the comprehensive energy service platform can only meet the basic requirements such as data integration and operation monitoring, and the advanced applications such as multi-energy optimization and complementarity, regional energy optimization and dispatching are difficult to realize or have poor effects.Therefore, it is imperative to clarify the thinking and context of platform application and figure out what functions to achieve by using energy data. Only in this way can machine learning be carried out with energy big data efficiently, and "data" can be converted into "knowledge" and "knowledge" can be condensed into "wisdom", bringing greater economic and social benefits.

Application demonstration is the first trial of Internet of things technology conception in the field of integrated energy services.From the experience of previous demonstration projects with few samples, it is sometimes difficult to realize the original idea of demonstration projects integrating information technology and energy technology.Even if they don't consider the factor of cost, demonstration projects should be to solve technical problems and business models problem, find a from the project planning and design to construction, operation management of successful path, look for the customer, the energy service providers, Internet enterprise demands combining site and method of interest distribution find integration application solutions, application form can be copied and promote the scale of characteristics.

The cooperation between the information industry and the industrial industry is a gradually deepening process.All kinds of market participants, including comprehensive energy service providers, Internet of things enterprises, equipment manufacturers and engineering companies, need to perform their respective duties, and define the scope of cooperation and division of functions.All kinds of Internet of things enterprises can do well in technology research and development and model innovation at different levels, and at the same time develop access interfaces at this level, provide data access with authority control, and provide business cooperation channels for the upper and lower levels.Comprehensive energy service providers should integrate technologies and services at all levels, strengthen in-depth cooperation, cultivate new models and forms of business, and strive to build an industrial ecology.

The Internet of things has a long way to go in the field of integrated energy services, but its development is in full swing and unstoppable.Faced with the challenges of technology integration, the lack of business models and barriers across industries, all market participants should promote win-win cooperation and promote the integrated innovation and large-scale application of the Internet of things in the field of comprehensive energy services, so as to stimulate market potential, create new value and promote the far-reaching changes in the field of energy.(source: state grid news)