The electrical grid is changing...fast

The 15th Electrical Equipment Conference, known as JIEEC, organised by TECNALIA and Orkestra, under the title of “Smart Grids. Digitalisation and Energy Storage” has addressed the need to make the electrical grid "smarter". The conference highlighted the fact that the electrical grids need to become smarter in order to make room for renewable energy, mainly those sources connected to the low voltage network, which is close to the consumer. On the other hand, the management of the electrical grid is increasingly complex, requiring decentralised architectures and control strategies.

Digitalisation is a tendency in all markets and the electrical sector must take advantage of these technological opportunities. The digitalisation of the grid implies a digitalised consumer who is increasingly active and demanding with the service, the digitalisation of the equipment and systems and processes and the digitalisation of the utilities and the services offered.

A strategic shift in the business model of the utilities is foreseen, moving away from being an electricity distributor towards a facilitator in the electric market. Therefore, in order to make data available to other agents, data and its processing is the key to the business. The application of data analysis and artificial intelligence techniques may add value to the vast amount of data available. Although part of the basic technology to foster this change has already been developed, there is still a lot of work to be done in testing it, integrating it with existing systems and making it available.

The conference has set up an international forum meeting in which experts and researchers from different countries and areas can exchange ideas and discuss the state of the art and recent developments in the electrical sector. This conference could not have been possible without the collaboration of ABB, Arteche, Ingeteam, Ormazabal, Schneider, Siemens and ZIV, and without the support of the Basque Government's Department for Education.