Smart Energy, towards the energy transition with more responsible resource management thanks to IoT

Smart Energy includes two fundamental aspects of the energy and ecological transition: renewable energies and better management of energy consumption. Here are the details of how Smart Energy works.

1. Renewable energies :

They are sources of energy whose natural renewal is fast enough that they can be considered inexhaustible on a human time scale. As time goes by, they continue to multiply and grow. In terms of Smart Energy, we automatically speak of Smart Grids. By adjusting the flow of electricity in real time, they allow for more efficient management of consumption. This is made possible in particular by the collection and processing of information between energy suppliers and consumers.

2. Better management of energy consumption :

Smart Energy proposes solutions to manage consumption in a more intelligent and responsible way, by suggesting changes in energy habits, modifications that can allow to consume less. In Smart Energy, Smart Grids allow for more accurate monitoring of needs through the exchange of past, present and future data between energy consumers and suppliers.

Processing data quickly makes it much easier to make decisions thanks to a better understanding of the issues. This digitalization helps to better understand the behaviors of actors involved in Smart Energy and in the preservation of resources.

Using the Internet of Things (IoT) allows us to better understand each situation and to capitalize on actual usage.

The real-time monitoring that IoT solutions in particular allow to provide essential information for :

• Optimize and adjust consumption
• To gain in competitiveness
• Identify energy consuming systems
• Adapt the installation of much more eco-friendly systems
• Rethink the way data is processed and stored
• To better adapt supply to demand

Eventually, the integration of decision-making systems with embedded artificial intelligence algorithms will enable faster and in some cases predictive analysis. As a result, consumers, suppliers and manufacturers will have more and more real-time information at their disposal, as well as predictions to help them in their decision-making.

A historical use in Smart Energy is the remote reading of water, gas and electricity meters. This is an IoT provision allowing to read remotely, we also talk about remote reading, the different information of the meters thanks to sensors and systems.

We also speak of Energy Management System as a management system that brings together the various tools that can be implemented by a company or a community to improve energy performance, reduce the carbon footprint or have a more responsible consumption of energy.

The issues of smart energy are essential to understand. It is mainly about exploiting alternative energies, but also about reducing the energy bill and the ecological footprint:

• Exploiting alternative energies: The Internet of Things enables dynamic management of each connected piece of equipment according to its energy needs and type of use

• Reduce energy bills: The feedback of useful information via sensors allows to optimize considerably the energy consumption of buildings or homes for example. It is possible, for example, to control heating in real time according to the weather or to monitor the behavior of building equipment in order to carry out informed maintenance and ensure optimal energy performance to guarantee better operation.

• Reducing the ecological footprint involves environmental regulations, but also intelligent networks that provide the keys to ensuring the best maintenance of building equipment.

It is advisable to have a transversal approach, an expert accompaniment with the appropriate connected objects and connectivity. It is important not to remain focused only on the technology. Because if it is true that data is a real gold mine that creates value, we must not neglect the human value that cannot be replaced by machines.

Smart energy helps to preserve the environment and optimize the energy efficiency of infrastructures. And it is through the collection and analysis of data that all this is made possible.

This is why all the systems set up must be able to communicate with each other, be remotely controllable and centralised. As with all the data captured, centralizing it for the best analysis is undoubtedly the best thing to do. This is made possible by the SoM2M#IoT and SoDATA#Viz data management and visualization platforms.