Extreme weather events are taking their toll on our infrastructure, particularly so for utilities who are expected ‘to keep the lights on’ even when we experience storms, flooding, wildfires or worse.
We know that extreme weather conditions mean costly damages. According to the US Department of Energy, we are experiencing double the number of outages over the past two decades. It estimates that extreme weather events cost businesses around $150 billion per year, with power outages a significant part of this, shutting down operations and, on occasions, even entire parts of the country for days at a time.
Extreme heat is also pushing the power grid to its maximum. Last year saw some of the hottest days on record with parts of southern Europe and north Africa experiencing record-breaking temperatures. While in the UK, a recent utilities industry risk report highlights the growing concerns of water and energy companies, with the risk of extreme and unpredictable weather surpassing security threats for the first time.
The fact is that we now live in world of changing climate and weather extremes that are having a huge impact on communities, businesses, and in our personal lives.
With this in mind, we recently commissioned a piece of research of senior level professionals within the US utility and power industry to find out how extreme weather events are impacting their operations. In particular, what IoT initiatives they are undertaking or planning to undertake to ensure network resilience at a time when it has never been more important.
Grid infrastructure under pressure
While in many cases, grid infrastructure is based on outdated technology and under-investment in network systems, the industry is looking to IoT to help improve outage recovery times through advanced networking.
It’s encouraging to see that these initiatives include predictive maintenance analytics, smart grid technologies, as well as the use of drones and robotics to inspect assets.
Knowing where power outages occur is crucial for network maintenance teams to quickly identify problems so power can be restored or redirected to help minimise disruption in the service – and save on costs. Critical communications can be lost if a storm damages the network in the case of a cellular network.
Outage management is a viable use case for wireless mesh networking technology, enabling utilities to accurately locate problems and either re-route power to avoid damaged power cables, or send a maintenance team to repair the fault.
Utilities are now looking to smart tools and technologies for more than just outage management when it comes to enhancing their network resilience. According to our research, advanced weather prediction tops the list of IoT initiatives to improve network resilience, followed by renewable energy integration and grid modernisation.
If we take grid modernisation as one example, IoT devices can facilitate the integration of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power into the grid. They can help monitor the energy generated, adjust the flow in accordance with current conditions, and seamlessly integrate fluctuating renewable energy assets.
IoT sensors can provide data, which can also help optimise power distribution, while identifying and responding to any failures.
Cybersecurity investment remains a priority
The utilities professionals we surveyed also highlight the need for disaster response and recovery planning.
They need to feel confident that the communications network for IoT technologies is robust, reliable and resilient enough in the face of an emergency. Interoperability of devices, vendor choice, and enterprise-grade security to guard against attacks and malicious activity, are all critical. Without a secure and resilient network, communication is unreliable and IoT sensors and controls cannot function properly.
In fact, our research shows that cybersecurity investment is a priority for those looking to enhance interoperability and connectivity for large-scale IoT applications in smart utility and smart city projects.
Asked to list their top strategic initiatives for the next five years, 41% of respondents cited security enhancement as the number one choice, reflecting the concerns in our Journey to IoT Maturity report published in 2022, where security and data privacy were critical considerations for utilities adopting IoT solutions.
As a global industry body with many utilities and energy providers as members, we recognise these challenges and the risks they face first-hand.
Phil Beecher is President and CEO of Wi-SUN Alliance. Since 1997, Phil has played a key role in the development of communications standards including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and IEEE and the specification of test plans for a number of Smart Utilities Network standards.