20 EVENT
@ green | May-June , 2022
Modernising the grid infrastructure
Power utility companies need to move faster to meet customers ’ expectations
Aria Ghautama Malik
Dr Kannan Munisamy
Dr Zainal Arifin
BY FATIHAH MANAF
THE DIGITALISATION of the power sector has driven significant improvements across the industry and led to the coining of the phrases “ digital utility ” and “ grid 4.0 ”. To manage the challenges posed by increased demands and the rising prominence of variable renewable energy within ASEAN ’ s energy mix , countries in this region are moving towards modernising their grids .
During the Enlit Asia + Series event : The Grid of the Future & Ensuring Grid Resilience , a discussion titled “ The Ascent of the Digital Utility & Power Grid 4.0 ” was held . The discussion focused on modernising grid infrastructure in Southeast Asia and its challenges .
The session , moderated by Simon Hoare , Portfolio Director of Energy at Clarion Events , featured Dr Zainal Arifin , Executive Vice President of Engineering and Technology , PT PLN ( Persero ); Aria Ghautama Malik , Territory Manager , Indonesia , Hubbell Power Systems and Dr Kannan Munisamy , Head , Customer & Market of Tenaga Nasional Berhad .
Aria said the adoption of power grid 4.0 was imminent , and the main factor for this urgency would be climate change . According to Aria , electric vehicles ( EVs ) play an essential role in extensively reducing the emissions from the transportation sector , which contributes significantly to climate change .
“ The next one is energy efficiency . It will require the upgrade of the power grid in terms of the automation aspect . Another aspect is the decentralisation , which is now coming into renewable energy and distributed energy resources .”
Challenges in grid modernisation
All transformational initiatives have their own set of challenges . For the grid modernisation journey in Malaysia , Kannan said the way it needed to grow had to be very steep .
“ You have to grow faster compared to other parts of the world . The way I look at it , the investment cost would be the first challenge because you need to justify your investment to your regulator and meet the customers ’ expectations at the same time ,” said Kannan .
Agreeing with Kannan , Zainal said : “ The first challenging issue is the investment . To solve the problem , we open the opportunities to collaborate . We do some synergy collaboration projects .”
According to Zainal , other than investment , mindset is the main issue in the grid modernisation journey .
“ Digitalisation is not only about technology but also human beings . It is how we transform the mindset of our people , including the top leaders , to be aligned with the target of the legislation .
“ Even in our company , sometimes , not all leaders understand the digitisation target , utilisation objective , etc .,” shared Zainal .
The trend in the nextgeneration power grid
Touching on EVs , Aria stated that it was not easy to move the agenda forward as it requires people to change the habit of using gasoline-powered vehicles .
“ The investment to have EVs with the battery is also quite expensive . Even though Indonesia is rich in nickel mines , processing them into EV batteries is not cheap . We face plenty of challenges , but it depends on the government . The mindset needs to be changed , especially from our top leaders .
“ On the distributed energy resources , the decentralisation will help with the progress to achieve Indonesia ’ s net-zero emission target ,” shared Aria , adding that the upgrade of the network was also required to have a more detailed data collection including having AI machine learning .
Elaborating on the customer ’ s perspective , Kannan said : “ The customer is moving faster than the utility . That ’ s alarming because we must be ready to give the supply .”
He then highlighted the importance of customers ’ expectations to companies ’ investing strategies and blueprints .
“ EV is good . It ’ s good growth for utility because you shift from gasoline to kilowatt-hour . But , simultaneously , you need to supply the electrons ( power ) to homes they want to charge .”
“ The other one would be the solar power generation by the customers . Another part that perhaps would come faster than our regulator ’ s thinking would be the battery storage . It means you can generate and consume ( electricity ). That is even a scary scenario for a utility like us regarding businesses .”
Zainal added : “ Battery storage will be the game-changer in the future . Our customers will be more independent from the grid . So , we should do collaboration and engagement with the customers .”
Aria then emphasised the importance of having better collaboration within the industry to ensure the successful journey of the digital utility .
“ Instead of just upgrading the infrastructure , the industry has to find better solutions so they can operate more efficient and cheaper . The goal is to reduce the cost of electricity at the customer ’ s side .” — @ Green