Energy Digital Magazine - February 2021 by Energy Digital

energydigital.com

FEBRUARY 2021

REACHING NET ZERO EMISSIONS

WOMEN IN ENERGY

SIEMENS AND TENABLE:

THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION PARTNERSHIP Siemens Energy’s Mex Martinot and Tenable’s Richard Bussiere collaborate to secure IT/OT convergence in the energy sector

MOTOR OIL

BKW AG

Transforming Utilities Projects to Meet the Challenges of the 21st Century To effectively manage growing portfolios of capital projects, organizations require project management solutions that offer mobility, accessibility, and visibility across entire programs and functional teams to help streamline and automate processes. Do you have what it takes?

FOREWORD

here can be no denying that 2020 was a

aided by advances in battery technology,

difficult year for the energy industry and

and reflect on how infrastructure charging

while the IEA has cut its oil demand outlook

concerns are being addressed – as illustrated

for 2021, there are signs of optimism with

by Gridserve’s electric forecourt at Braintree

fresh momentum building behind renewables

in the UK.

and the start of a new US administration.

These are exciting times and the potential

The internal and external clamour for all things

for increasing renewable energy demand,

sustainable will doubtless build towards a

combined with the electrification of transport

climax in November, with Glasgow hosting

and industrial and oil and gas companies’

the UN Climate Change Conference. Energy

increased participation in the electricity value

and the environment are now two sides of

chain, is accelerating industry convergence,

the same coin, and it promises to be a pivotal

notes Deloitte.

year for all suppliers, irrespective of their

Changes are coming thick and fast. Apple

hitherto green credentials.

Co-Founder Steve Wozniak is bringing his

Driving the changes are two words – ‘Net

technological expertise to Efforce, a new

Zero’ – and we shine the spotlight on digital’s

blockchain platform in which contributors

key role in reducing carbon emissions and

will benefit from savings generated by energy

outline how technology can join the three

efficiency projects worldwide.

big dots, from macro government policies

Elsewhere we consider the public-private-

and corporate strategies, to consumers on the ground.

hybrid benefits of Cloud technology as more companies conduct business remotely,

Sceptics may doubt whether the myriad

highlight the Top 10 Women in Energy, and

government targets will be met but they serve

profile leading industry figures who are

as vital signposts, on the rapidly advancing

embracing digital transformation.

horizon, and we must all join the journey.

Dominic Ellis

In tandem with the sustainability push, we

dominic.ellis@bizclikmedia.com

report on the growth in electric vehicles, w w w.e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

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PUBLISHED BY

PRODUCTION MANAGER

MEDIA SALES DIRECTORS

Owen Martin Philline Vincent

James White Richard Turner Mark Cawston

VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Dominic Ellis

Kieran Waite DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

EDITORAL DIRECTOR

Scott Birch CREATIVE TEAM

Oscar Hathaway Sophie-Ann Pinnell Hector Penrose Sophia Forte Sam Hubbard Mimi Gunn Justin Smith

Sam Kemp Evelyn Huang Matthew Evans

DIGITAL MEDIA DIRECTOR

Jason Westgate CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

Stacy Norman PRESIDENT & CEO

Glen White DIGITAL MARKETING EXECUTIVE

Kayeligh Shooter PROJECT DIRECTORS

Karl Green Thomas Livermore James Richardson

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

Georgia Allen Daniela Kianickovรก

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Lewis Vaughan

w w w.e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

CONTENTS

10 Siemens/Tenable

42 60

72 50

Women in energy

Digital Transformation. Made real every day. Find out how big advances in AI have made it easier than ever to unlock the power of data, create value, insights and a new level of intelligent security. From Individuals, to small organizations, to the Global Fortune 100, AI and machine learning are improving businesses and lives everywhere.

Learn More

90 Motor Oil

106 BKW AG

FEBRUARY 2021

Collaboration in Securing IT/OT Convergence in the Energy Sector WRITTEN BY

SEAN GALEA-PACE PRODUCED BY

KRIS PALMER 11

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SIEMENS ENERGY & TENABLE

We examine the partnership between Siemens and Tenable amid the companies’ ongoing digital transformation journeys

he global pandemic in 2020 may have unleashed a host of new challenges for the energy sector – but it also revealed

and vastly accelerated the existing trends already upending how companies manage and defend their critical energy assets, particularly when converging IT and OT operations. Nowhere is that moving 12

faster than in Asia. The sudden shift to remote work forced by the pandemic has driven organisations to adopt remote access technologies overnight as opposed to what would have normally taken years. This has resulted in an expanded digital attack surface and introduced thousands of potentially vulnerable new connections to critical energy assets. “The energy sector is undergoing IT/OT convergence at an unprecedented rate driven by business demands for increased efficiencies and rapid adaptation to changing customer requirements. This all comes at a time when connectivity has become essential to continue operations as global and local travel has come to an abrupt halt,” says Mex Martinot, Vice President and Head of

FEBRUARY 2021

“Creating good partnerships doesn’t just happen” — Mex Martinot, Vice President and Head of Asia, Industrial Cyber and Digital Security e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

SIEMENS ENERGY & TENABLE

Asia, for Siemens Energy’s Industrial Cyber and Digital Security business. “This rapid adoption of digital solutions and urgent need for connectivity to enable remote management and maintenance increases the exposure to the growing cyber threats and recent uptick in targeted attacks.” Considering the small number of countries in Asia with a strict cybersecurity mandate, he adds, many organisations do not have a mature cybersecurity program in place yet. 14

It’s important that a comprehensive

1847

Year founded (Siemens AG)

2020

Year founded (Siemens Energy)

91,000

Number of employees (Siemens)

OT cybersecurity solution is part and parcel of the transformation as it continues to evolve. The answer: “Increasing the

In 2017, Siemens Energy partnered with Tenable, the world’s first Cyber Exposure company capable of pro-

awareness of our customers OT

viding vulnerability management

Cybersecurity risk posture through

across both OT and IT environments.

enhanced visibility, security and control.”

This helps utilities and oil and gas

Siemens Energy is a global tech-

companies to securely enable IT/OT

nology leader, primarily focused

convergence. With the risk of cyberat-

on electrification, automation and

tacks ever-increasing, Siemens Energy

digitalisation. It is one of the world’s

and Tenable collaborated to help

largest producers of energy-efficient,

customers gain a better understand-

resource-saving technologies and

ing of where their OT assets may be

is a leading supplier of systems of

vulnerable, and then deliver the service

power generation and transmission

to help companies secure and protect

as well as renewables.

their critical OT environment. Since the

FEBRUARY 2021

acquisition of Indegy in 2019, Tenable

control to secure IT assets alongside

has extended its depth of OT exper-

OT systems and reduce their cyber risk

tise and intelligence, and breadth of

in converged, modern environments.

OT-specific capabilities from vulner-

“Digital transformation within critical

ability management to asset inventory,

infrastructure means that the days

configuration management and threat

of fully air-gapped OT assets are

detection. The launch of Tenable.ot 3.9

largely gone to increase efficiency

is a testament to Tenable’s continued

and efficacy. This is not without risk,”

product innovation, providing cus-

Richard Bussiere, Technical Director

tomers with unmatched visibility and

at Tenable APAC, says.

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Mex Martinot Title: Vice President and Head of Asia

15 Company: Siemens Energy

At Siemens Energy, Mex Martinot heads the Industrial Cyber & Digital Security business for Asia. Based out of Singapore he is responsible for driving the strategy and delivery of Siemens Energy’s Cybersecurity Solutions to secure the rapid digital transformation in the energy sector in Asia and helping to stay ahead of the ever-evolving cyberthreat. Mex is also leading the initiative to localise the Cyber talent within borders in Asia by driving OT Cyber enablement programs across Asia. Mex Martinot benefits from a diverse background in cybersecurity managed services and cybersecurity consulting leadership roles and has successfully driven cyber strategies across Asia.

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SIEMENS ENERGY & TENABLE

A new chapter for Siemens CLICK TO WATCH

1:39

16 “The interconnectedness of digital

our customers to see and secure

infrastructure today means the secu-

any digital asset on any computing

rity of IT directly impacts OT, and

platform to thrive in today’s digital

vice versa due to an expanded attack

economy. A recent example of this

surface. Without a single, unified

investment is that Tenable.ot now

view into converged IT/OT environ-

has Nessus built-in, which provides

ments, CISOs are basically being

complete visibility into our custom-

asked to defend their organisations

ers’ converged attack surface while

blindfolded and with one arm tied

measuring and controlling cyber risk

behind their backs. It’s an inadequate

across both OT and IT systems.”

cyber strategy and it places the business at serious risk. A lot of the investments that Tenable

Tenable arms organisations with visibility to see any digital asset on any computing platform (from IT to

has made over the past three to

Cloud to OT) at all times. From threat

four years have involved enabling

detection and mitigation to asset

FEBRUARY 2021

tracking, vulnerability management,

“Technology and services work

configuration control and adaptive

hand in glove. By partnering with a

assessment checks, Tenable’s indus-

company such as Siemens, we’re

trial control systems (ICS) security

combining our leading OT security

capabilities maximises operational

solutions with their domain expertise

environments visibility, security, and

and operational knowhow to pro-

control. Siemens then leverages these

vide the customer with the desired

cutting-edge technologies to under-

outcome of enhanced security and

stand threats.

availability. It’s important we have a

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Richard Bussiere Title: Technical Director

17 Company: Tenable

Dick Bussiere is the Technical Lead for APAC at Tenable. Based in Singapore, Bussiere is responsible for evangelising the criticality of cyber hygiene and vulnerability management as a continuous process to enhance an organisation’s security posture. Bussiere is also responsible for Tenable’s operational technology offering in the region, consulting with operators of critical infrastructure on how to bolster their defensive position. Bussiere is the holder of five patents related to networking and network security. He’s also an active participant in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and Internet Engineering Task Force working groups.

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SIEMENS ENERGY & TENABLE

H O W I N F L U E N T I A L I S T H E C O L L A B O R AT I O N BETWEEN SIEMENS AND TENABLE?

Siemens: “Our partnership with Tenable is truly global and allows us to standardise our services. We have a very long-term agreement in place with Tenable and have that alignment. As we have this in-depth relationship, we’re also investing efforts into embedding the technology that Tenable has in its service offering and having its teams enabled to not just provide technology to a vendor but

enhanced services on top of the technology itself. If you look at our managed detection and response offering, this is where we embed the Tenable technology as one of our sensors to provide that context to the client as part of a bigger programme.”

Tenable: “The combination of Tenable’s technology with Siemens’ domain expertise and operational knowhow is a powerful solution that can help customers close the Cyber Exposure gap so they can protect their critical assets. Our

collective expertise, knowledge, depth and breadth of experience can help any customer overcome their IT and OT security challenges.”

FEBRUARY 2021

Mex Martinot, Vice President and Head of Asia, Industrial Cyber and Digital Security

Richard Bussiere, Technical Director, Tenable, APAC

symbiotic relationship with a company

change configurations on the net-

like Siemens,” Bussiere affirms.

work, and detect threats early as they

This combination of cutting-edge

come into the environment,” says

technologies and services provides

Martinot. “We leverage that with other

the necessary level of cybersecurity

technologies to see the full threat

visibility to equip the CISO, C-suite

environment. No interruptions to the

and Board of Directors with the

plant. No disruptions, not probing for

insights needed to focus on the issues

the information, just passively observ-

which matter most and enable better

ing and querying devices.”

strategic decisions. Take a control system that starts

Proprietary Siemens platforms, such as Managed Detection and

doing something unusual or unex-

Response (MDR), built and overseen

pected, or a new valve configuration

by industry-leading experts, deploy

that’s typically implemented on

first-of-its-kind software to proac-

Thursdays, but for some reason is

tively sort, understand and react to

changed on a Sunday: An inexperi-

what it is detecting at lightning speed.

enced IT team working within an OT

MDR sifts through the change data,

environment might shut down the entire plant to track this down unnecessarily. In fact, many IT firms, lacking Tenable and Siemens’ extensive experience working with critical energy infrastructure, would probe these systems without realising it could cause the site to crash. Tenable, by contrast, is constantly operating safely in the background – with Tenable.ot and Tenable.sc. “They can get vulnerability and threat data, information about e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

SIEMENS ENERGY & TENABLE

FEBRUARY 2021

“ By getting a company such as Siemens Energy involved, we’re combining our leading OT security solutions with their domain expertise and operational know-how to maximise the customer experience” — Richard Bussiere, Technical Director, Tenable, APAC

The triage team is crucial. Plenty of companies offer ostensible cybersecurity “solutions”, but have never applied them to critical energy assets, let alone the intersection of OT and IT. MDR, the team that built it, and the experts who manage it are different. “We see a lot of the IT players trying to go into this space, and it’s a common mistake: We have incidents in the region where IT players go in and cause accidents in the plants, causing significant amounts of damage. These are not cyberthreats, these are IT com-

plant activity, and billions of other

panies trying to fix things and doing

data points to rapidly and accurately

more damage,” Martinot says. “We

understand if it’s a true potential

have a very deep understanding of the

threat or mere benign anomaly.

process: How the plants function, what

“MDR becomes part of a security

the risks can be, even making virtual

ecosystem, where we have our intel-

copies of the plants, understanding

ligence, our algorithms, an AI engine

the impacts and assessing which are

behind it that captures all these assets

threats and which are not threats.”

we want to look at, this logic we want

Bussiere points out that one of the

to apply, how to make sense of these

biggest differences between IT and

different methods that we’ve pre-

OT environments is their pedigree

built,” Martinot says. “There’s a team

and approach. “In general, IT people

that triages that and picks it up and

are used to working with the latest

walks the client through the process

and greatest hardware and software.

of remediation that makes sense in the

Meanwhile, OT staff are used to work-

OT environment.”

ing with legacy technologies, many of e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

SIEMENS ENERGY & TENABLE

which pre-date the internet era. These 22

often use proprietary network protocols, and lack basic security controls like authentication or encryption. They also don’t have event logs or audit trails. As a result, incident detection and response in an OT environment is very different than in an IT environment. Both the IT and OT environments must converge to address the security threats on both sides of the network.” Bussiere adds that 2021 will be the era of widespread IT and OT convergence — whether that be intentional or accidental. Unfortunately, many organisations will likely learn the hard way that their OT is no longer airgapped as cybercriminals continue to FEBRUARY 2021

“ COVID has brought a unique set of changes into the environment, and people might be cutting corners due to the current circumstances. Attackers understand that people are working from home and connecting internally and see it as low hanging fruit, so it’s important to be aware of that” — Mex Martinot, Vice President and Head of Asia, Industrial Cyber and Digital Security

W H AT D O E S T H E F U T U R E O F T H E PA R T N E R S H I P H O L D ?

Siemens: “This alignment in Asia is somewhat recent. It’s important to expand that knowledge base of Siemens Energy strategy and vice versa to get a closer mutual message. From a solutions perspective, it would be to adopt further and gain deeper insight into how Tenable’s technology is provided

and get a closer collaboration on the R&D to get a more integrated offering to our clients for a quicker turnaround to get to that ultimate outcome for our clients.”

Tenable: “Innovation is the key to success in any technology business. Don’t stop innovating or creating new things. I see closer collaboration with Siemens

Energy moving forward. We make each other better.”

Mex Martinot, Vice President and Head of Asia, Industrial Cyber and Digital Security

Richard Bussiere, Technical Director, Tenable, APAC

search for attack vectors. When IT and

operated physical assets on-site to

OT converge, breaches in IT can serve

begin accessing them remotely. That’s

as a conduit to compromising sensi-

introduced countless digital entry

tive OT environments and vice versa,

points for attackers to exploit.

paving the way for more cyber threats.

“Threat actors are using this expo-

What’s driving these digital threats

sure that they’re very well aware of to

against critical energy infrastructure?

execute targeted attacks that look

COVID is a visible example but cer-

at these vulnerable points that are

tainly not the only force: It’s driven

now exposed, and then exploit them,”

nearly entire workforces that had

Martinot says. e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

SIEMENS ENERGY & TENABLE

“ Industry 4.0 is bringing the worlds of IT and OT together at an accelerated rate. This results in more IT devices being connected to or living in OT environments, sometimes without the organisation, even knowing” — Richard Bussiere, Technical Director, Tenable, APAC

tensions between countries remain high. These actors have far better funding, deeper know-how and more

With the rise of decentralised

potent tools, posing a new challenge to

renewable power sources like wind

cyber defenders in the energy space.

and solar, and the rapid expansion of

These dynamics are playing out as

distributed intelligent energy man-

the Asian region struggles to close its

agement devices, the energy space

cybersecurity skills gap.

itself is rapidly digitising by employing IoT technology.

“As it stands, there’s a shortage of talent possessing a combined skillset

“We see the grid changing from

of OT and cybersecurity. Previously

centralised energy production to

there was no ramp-up of OT enabled

decentralised – and with that, the

skill, so the only choice we have now is

intelligence goes all the way to the

to take OT engineers and move them

edge, and the threat attack surface is

to cyber, because that’s the quickest

increasing on the client side,” Martinot

fix. But there’s no ground-up OT skill

says. “All of that creates complexity

that exists yet, the sector is still too

on the security aspect, because as the

new,” Martinot says.

energy transition is happening, people aren’t participating in it.” At the same time, while criminal

MDR closes the gap: Compared to hiring – let alone training – a workforce, the Siemens-Tenable partnership,

actors remain omnipresent, nation-

harnessing MDR, offers a robust,

state actors are flexing their muscles

effective solution supported by world-

even more, especially in Asia, where

class expertise.

FEBRUARY 2021

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SIEMENS ENERGY & TENABLE

FEBRUARY 2021

“What we see are actual attacks happening in several countries this year that have created awareness and thus some fear for folks to start questioning from the top-down,” Martinot says. “With our combined Tenable/MDR offering, we can really augment the security function and bridge the visibility between the process side of the environment and understanding the impact of the threat, as well as understanding the information that the technology is providing, which is the nature of the threat.” As he describes: “You have the technology, and you have the response in place and functionally tested. And in the middle is the MDR service. That’s where we leverage the best technologies to give us the right source information to help us make the best decision.”

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D I G I TA L I N N O VAT I O N

DIGITALâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S KEY ROLE IN REACHING NET ZERO EMISSIONS WRITTEN BY

DOMINIC ELLIS

FEBRUARY 2021

e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

D I G I TA L I N N O VAT I O N

With governments and operators agreed on the need to drive down carbon emissions, the focus now falls on digital technology to raise efficiencies and meet targets

ith the vaccine roll-out providing the prospect of an eagerly awaited solution to the COVID-19 crisis in 2021, attention is now

turning to the other pressing global issue of the day: climate change, and meeting net-zero emis30

sion targets. Despite the pandemic dominating the agenda, many of its knock-on effects, from pollution to fossil fuel consumption, have focused minds back on the primacy of green energy. Internet and videoconferencing services, which boomed as we all worked from home and cut back on travel, fostered a sharp drop in emissions, estimated to be between 4-7 percent on 2019 levels. But given residential energy use accounts for roughly 20 percent of Greenhouse Gas emissions in the United States â&#x20AC;&#x201C; rising to 40 percent in the UK, where heating is the biggest contributor to household emissions â&#x20AC;&#x201C; inherent pressures on energy consumption, and the planetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s finite resources, remain.

FEBRUARY 2021

e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

CREATING BUSINESS VALUE THROUGH SUSTAINABLE ENERGY Ensuring you have the best partner at your side.

enelgreenpower.com

Fortunately for every challenge, digital

There can be no denying the energy

provides a clear framework if not an

industry has been through a tumultuous

outright solution, whether it is smart

period. The reduction in hydrocarbon

metering, AI or developing more intel-

demand saw leading oil and gas compa-

ligent building management systems

nies reduce the reported worth of their

– although they all come at a price. PwC’s

assets by more than $50 billion in 2020.

Unlocking capital for Net Zero infrastruc-

Through internal cost pressures as much

ture report estimates around £40bn

as external environmental concerns, the

per year is required on average to be

industry has pivoted as one – embracing

invested in new low carbon and digital

solar, wind and hydrogen energy.

infrastructure over the next ten years.

Renewable energy is now a tangible

It goes as far to list Digital as a key asset

reality. Storm Bella’s strong winds turned

class, alongside Power, Buildings and

enough turbines to generate just over

Industry, and Transport.

half of Britain’s electricity on Boxing Day. e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

D I G I TA L I N N O VAT I O N

U K S T E P S U P N ET ZERO GOALS • The UK government will publish a

• W ith half of the UK’s nuclear

new Smart Systems Plan, jointly

power plants set to retire by 2025,

with Ofgem, in the Spring along

it is clear renewables generation

with an Energy Data Strategy, and

will need to increase rapidly to

aims to launch a national energy

meet the country’s increasing

data catalogue prototype service

electricity needs.

by summer

• UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson

• Six projects have been awarded a

announced a major £160 million

share of £8 million in government

investment in wind power last

funding in a bid to create the

October, in a bid to fuel every

‘world’s first’ net zero industrial

home in the country with

zone by 2040

renewable energy within 10 years.

34 SolarPower Europe, in its latest outlook,

generate over 2,900MW and deliver over

sees additions in a medium scenario of

7.5mn MWh of energy each year.

22.4GW in 2021. Capping greenhouse

China is aiming to be net zero by

gas emissions from fossil fuel power

2060, which is laudable, although its

stations is another key focus, with

population is still rising and expected to

around 19 large-scale Carbon Capture

peak at 1.44 billion by 2029, with all the

and Storage (CCS) facilities in opera-

associate energy needs. The US, Japan,

tion globally.

Australia and the UK want to get there

The biggest names are firmly on board.

10 years earlier.

Amazon is adding 1,800 Mercedes elec-

The net zero challenge is to tie it all

tric delivery vehicles to the company’s

together; to make good on macro gov-

fleet for its European operations and the

ernment policies, deliver viable green

e-commerce giant is currently running 91

corporate strategies and ensure initia-

renewable energy projects worldwide,

tives filter down practically to every

which together have the capacity to

consumer.

FEBRUARY 2021

Electrification, efficiency gains and

Digital technology and the planet: har-

behavioural changes will all play key

nessing computing to achieve net zero

roles on the net zero journey, according

(royalsociety.org)

to the IEA, along with accelerated innovation across a wide range of

But it did stress the importance of 11

technologies from hydrogen electrolys-

key recommendations that need to

ers to small modular nuclear reactors.

be implemented:

Stephen Stead, director of Strategy & Digital Services at SSE Enterprise,

● The net zero transition should be data-

said in response to the anticipated drop

led, with governance arrangements in

in demand, National Grid ESO developed

place that enable the safe and rapid

a new service, Optional Downward

use of data

Flexibility Management (ODFM), to

● The UK Government has a responsibil-

improve access to downward flexibility.

ity to set an example of best practice

“We also saw the rollout of dynamic con-

● More emphasis should be placed

tainment, which we expect will continue

on cross-department and cross-

in 2021. The market has demonstrated

sector initiatives

that it can pivot at pace to create new products and this agility to react to shifting energy markets will be essential over the next 18 months,” he said. A Royal Society report, released in December, indicated that the transition to net zero may not be as daunting as it sounds. It highlighted how nearly a third of the 50 percent cut in carbon emissions’ reductions the UK needs to make by 2030 could be achieved through existing digital technology – from sensors to large scale modelling.

“ The net zero challenge is to tie it all together; to make good on macro government policies, deliver viable green corporate strategies and ensure initiatives filter down practically to every consumer.” e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

D I G I TA L I N N O VAT I O N

FEBRUARY 2021

● The tech sector should “lead by example” and make data accessible ● Tech companies should further promote the use of renewable energy

on clean energy. In 2018, 51 percent of the world’s population was online – which is expected to jump to 66 percent by 2023.

for computing activities about the energy proportionality of

DIGITAL TWINNING, DATA AND NEW TECH BENEFITS

digital apps

A digital twin is a virtual representation

● Regulators should develop guidance

● Action is needed to build digital and net zero skills at all levels

of a physical asset which can be used to understand, predict and optimise the

● The UK government should use

performance of this asset. Simulations

COP25 as an opportunity to lead

can be run before an asset is built or

the way in establishing ambitious

during its use, with then the possibility

programmes

to feedback real-time data.

● UK government policies should

The application of digital twinning has

be updated to reflect the net zero

enabled the real-time digital simulation

imperative

of factories, which enables the optimisa-

● Regulators should provide frameworks

tion of its operations as well as predictive

to help business innovating in the

maintenance, reducing downtime and

space of digital apps for net zero

thus saving energy and emissions.

● There is a need to create a stronger

By modelling the availability of differ-

innovation ecosystem for net zero

ent energy sources, and forecasting

and distribute the benefits

supply and demand across the system, technologies such as AI and digital

Digital’s growth is not without its

twinning can help integrate intermit-

energy challenges. It contributes

tent renewable energy sources into

between 1.4 percent and 5.9 percent to

the grid. Digital twins deployed on a

global emissions, and more scrutiny is

local level (such as smart homes) will

being placed on energy-hungry data

be fed into whole-system modelling

centres, although more are now running

and twinning. e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

D I G I TA L I N N O VAT I O N

Reports from Energy Systems

through personal carbon trading and

Catapult and Imperial College London

apps, which enable them to track and

last year agreed data sharing and

visualise their mobility carbon footprint

digitalisation will be critical to the

in real time.

restructuring, planning and operation of future energy systems. But consumers must be engaged FEBRUARY 2021

Two types of data are relevant to the development and use of digital technologies for net zero:

“ We are excited to combine, with Tridium, open automation and smart energy management to deliver smart parks and smart buildings that run on renewable energy, helping countries’ transition to net zero” understanding of emissions from different sources. ● Data on energy use and emissions

An AI study from Microsoft and PwC

from land use and from the con-

UK in 2019 found the technology’s envi-

struction and use phases of

ronmental applications could save up to

buildings, supply chains, transport

4 percent greenhouse gas emissions by

and other industry assets. Such

2030, contribute up to $5.2 trillion to

data will

the global economy in 2030 and cre-

be used to effectively monitor and

ate 38.2 million net new jobs globally.

control emissions, enable carbon

Machine learning is another key

accounting, or study trends in

area which can provide wider environ-

climate science or sustainability

mental benefits. It can be used to

● Data from across sectors about

monitor carbon stock, and together

the inner workings of these sectors,

with remote sensing, map peatlands,

from the mapping of physical assets

and assist in protecting them from

to business processes. Such data

drought and fires, avoiding the release

will enable the development of digi-

of large amounts of carbon into the

tal technologies to reduce, optimise

atmosphere. Digital technologies can

and control emissions.

also make food systems more reliant, increasing yields and reducing waste.

Existing datasets can be repurposed, more effective emissions monitoring.

DECARBONISED GROWTH DEVELOPMENTS

Combining data from multiple sources

Decarbonising the buildings sector

can create insights that inform our

is critical to achieving the Paris

and made more accessible, to enable

e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

D I G I TA L I N N O VAT I O N

Agreement commitment and the UN Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) as it is responsible for almost 40 percent of energy – and processrelated emissions. Traditional materials remain problematic. For every tonne of concrete used, around 135kgs of CO2 are released into the atmosphere and approximately 100 million tonnes of steel are used in the construction industry – another high carbon emitting material. Nick Cowley, Managing Director 40

of Endurawood, believes aluminium’s multiple strengths and sustainability advantages can help the industry reduce its emissions. “Aluminium can be recycled infinitely, without compromising its mechanical properties,” he said. “This means it can be reused in the construction of buildings, while maintaining the same structural integrity, reducing the need to produce more raw materials.” Peter Barker, Managing Director at BIM academy, said the more data we collect about buildings with BIM and digital twins, the better we can evaluate their performance and make improvements. “Sensors can gather data such as environmental conditions, energy FEBRUARY 2021

usage, how well products perform,

operating system can connect and

how clients use the space and even

analyse data from 100 million devices.

the wellbeing of the occupants. For

“We are excited to combine, with

example, sensors may detect that some

Tridium, open automation and smart

rooms in a large building are only used

energy management to deliver smart

for ten per cent of the day – so building

parks and smart buildings that run on

management may want to change the

renewable energy, helping countries’

function of that space to use it more

transition to net zero,” said Michael

effectively,” he said.

Ding, Global Executive Director,

Net zero projects covering buildings, energy and supply chains have the

Envision Digital. Simon Liu, General Manager, Asia

double benefit of creating local, sus-

Pacific for Tridium, added: “Today’s

tainable jobs and fostering more

burning question is no longer about

‘green finance’ investment.

whether smart parks and smart build-

Singapore-based Envision Digital

ings can deliver value. Instead, it is

and Richmond-based Tridium recently

about how we can effectively imple-

signed a strategic agreement to

ment the right digital architecture

develop joint innovations that support

to harness their full potential.”

decarbonised growth and smart infrastructure deployment. Envision’s AIoT e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

WRITTEN BY

DOMINIC ELLIS

SMART MOBILITY

Power up Electric Vehicles

New electric forecourts, improvements in battery technology and more political momentum behind renewables mean a transport revolution is well and truly underway

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FEBRUARY 2021

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Kevin Welstead, Sector Director EV at SSE Enterprise, is in no doubt that

a fait accompli, not a distant threat.” Last October saw the market share

the future of mobility is electric – driven

for new plugin EVs hit a record 12.1%

by social and regulatory pressures,

in the UK and this year marks a soci-

resulting in a sharp uptake in busi-

etal turning point, as EVs move beyond

nesses looking at fleet EV conversion.

the realm of early adopters into the

“The UK market is also beginning to

realm of the ‘early majority’. Charging

see a significant upswing in the pene-

infrastructure remains one of the main

tration of electric vehicles into the

impediments to prospective buyers.

consumer marketplace,” he said. “This

But changes are now forthcoming,

is likely to increase exponentially with

as evidenced by the opening of

the announcement that the ban on

Gridserve’s first fully electric grid court

sales of fossil fuel vehicles is being

near Braintree, Essex, at the end of

brought forward to 2030. Many will

2020, one of 100 planned in the next

now realise the transition to EV is

five years.

Tesla CLICK TO WATCH | 1:46

e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

SMART MOBILITY

Up to 36 EVs can be charged simulta-

stations,” added Welstead. “This kind of

neously, delivering up to 350kW of

access to infrastructure – which is stand-

charging power, enabling people to add

ardised, reliable and widespread – will be

200 miles of range in 20 minutes, which

a minimum expectation for vehicle own-

is likely to be much faster in future as

ers moving into the electric market in

battery technologies mature. Drivers

2021 and a necessary requirement for

will initially pay 24p per kWh of energy

the electrification of vehicle fleets.”

(including VAT) – meaning a typical

With rapidly improving economics of

charge from 20-to-80% costs under

EVs and a regulatory push across differ-

£10 for an average-size electric vehicle

ent European countries, McKinsey

currently on the market. Together with

anticipates that about 70 percent of

Gridserve, the project has been funded

all vehicles sold in Europe across differ-

by Hitachi Capital (UK) PLC, Innovate

ent segments (passenger cars, vans,

UK and OZEV.

trucks, and buses) will be electric

“The opening of the first all-electric grid court in the UK represents a signifi-

by 2040. It forecasts battery demand from

cant shift from a handful of chargers in

EVs produced in Europe will reach

a local car park to something recognis-

a total of 1,200GW-hours per year,

ably in-line with traditional filling

enough for 80 gigafactories with an average capacity of 15GW-hours

per year.

TESLA POWERS UP CAPACITY WITH TWIN GIGAFACTORIES It is shaping up to be a key year for Tesla. Its Texas Gigafactory’s first phase aims to complete by May, with production starting shortly afterwards (the automaker plans to produce Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck, and FEBRUARY 2021

Tesla Semi at the site) and its Berlin-

Founded in 2010, QuantumScape is

Brandenburg Gigafactory is scheduled

headquartered in San José, California

to start Model Y production from July.

and holds approximately 200 patents

The EV carmaker has also struck

and patent applications for solid-state

a recent battery deal with Panasonic, pledging to buy batteries from its long-

battery technology. “The solid-state battery will mark

time partner until at least 2022. Tesla

a turning point for e-mobility”, said Axel

unveiled its new battery cell, the 4680,

Heinrich of Volkswagen Group, which

at its Battery Day event last September,

has pumped $100 million into the

which offers six times the power of

company. “By increasing our stake in

Tesla’s previous cells and five times the

QuantumScape and forming the joint

energy capacity.

venture we strengthen and deepen our e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

SMART MOBILITY

strategic cooperation with an innovative

website statement, the firm said the

partner and secure access to the prom-

funding will enable it to “ramp up”

ising QuantumScape battery technology

growth plans including the launch of

for Volkswagen.”

Arrival’s first US microfactory in South

Commercial EV tech company Arrival

Carolina – a move it describes as “trans-

is set to put its foot on the global expan-

formative” as it will cut production costs

sion pedal after receiving an $118m

and shipping emissions. The $46m

funding boost from BlackRock. In a

site aims to start production in Q4 2021.

FEBRUARY 2021

Britishvolt recently selected a site in the North East of England to build the UK’s first battery gigaplant. The company has acquired exclusive rights to a site in Blyth, Northumberland and intends to begin construction in Summer 2021, providing “world-class lithium-ion batteries” by the end of 2023. Total investment for Britishvolt’s

GLO BAL EV FO RECAST S

• CAGR of 29% over the next 10 years • Total EV sales growing to 11.2 million by 2025 • EVs to secure approximately 32 per cent of the total market share for new car sales

since Nissan’s arrival in 1984 and one of

• China will hold 49% of the global EV market by 2030, Europe 27% and US 14%

the largest-ever industrial investments

Source: Deloitte Insights

gigaplant is £2.6bn making it the largest industrial investment in the North East

in the UK. By the final phase of the project in 2027 it will be employing up to 3000 highly skilled people, producing

switching to electric vehicles and alter-

over 300,000 lithium-ion batteries for

native fuels “is the most effective way we

the UK automotive industry. It will further

can move toward zero emissions from

provide up to 5000 jobs in the wider

the transportation sector,” he writes.

supply chain. Falling battery costs make it likely

The bright outlook for electric vehicles is in sharp contrast to the rest of

that the total cost of ownership for a

the market. UK sales fell to their lowest

passenger EV will reach parity with

levels last year since the second world

internal-combustion-engine cars by

war last year. Honda suspended

the mid-2020s, believes McKinsey.

production twice in two months in

In his blog, GatesNotes, Bill Gates

Swindon, citing supplier delays as

writes even with big breakthroughs in

Brexit was implemented. While tariffs

battery technology, electric vehicles

have been avoided, the industry is

will probably never be a practical solution

bracing itself for additional costs.

for large vehicles, ships and jets. But e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

EFFORCE SHAKES UP ENERGY SAVINGS AND REDISTRIBUTION WRITTEN BY

DOMINIC ELLIS

Steve Wozniak believes his blockchain-based energy saving platform will reinvent building and industrial processes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but can the Apple co-founder transform energy trading with the same panache as he did with personal computing? 50

FEBRUARY 2021

e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

he Efforce White Paper is a force to be reckoned with, running to 54 pages, which should be expected when you combine

the nebulous worlds of cryptocurrency, blockchain and energy efficiency. Add into the equation Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s involvement, however, and the technological-come-trading proposition becomes more persuasive. Fundamentally the Efforce platform aims to change the way energy savings are generated and redistributed globally. Energy savings financed by the contributor is tokenized (through ‘WOZX’) and used or sold to energy-intensive consumers. The 52

supply of WOZX is capped at 1 billion tokens. The tokens listed on the HBTC exchange early December made a remarkable entrance – catapulting to a barely comprehensible $950 million in the first 13 minutes, and they have since been listed on the Bithumb and Gate.io exchanges. To date, private investors have stumped up $18 million, creating an $80 million valuation. The energy efficiency market has boomed beyond recognition in the last decade, reaching a value of $241 billion, though the IEA reports investments are likely to have fallen around 12 percent in 2020 on the back of the decline in global economic growth. But the trend is up, and to meet the IEA’s efficiency targets, it will need to grow rapidly to $580 billion by 2025. It takes a lot to turn Wozniak’s head – he still gets around 12 pitches a day – but clearly he has seen the potential. FEBRUARY 2021

“ THE ENERGY EFFICIENCY MARKET HAS BOOMED BEYOND RECOGNITION IN THE LAST DECADE, REACHING A VALUE OF $241 BILLION”

e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

The ‘big three’ problems currently with

the energy efficiency of their structure

the efficiency sector are the difficulty

and those who actually want to invest

of putting contributors and savers in

in order to obtain alternative returns. 55

contact; the size of the investments required; and the type of financial return.

• The inability of one of the parties

Other stumbling blocks include:

to evaluate in a technical manner the actual savings achievable

• High initial costs. Accessing a

thanks to the efficiency

complex energy efficiency system

improvement intervention.

requires a minimum investment

of €200,000.

• The limited technical knowledge of the sector on the part of financial

• The need for technical knowledge

institutions, which are not able to

of the functioning of energy systems

calculate the returns on the

and smart meters to monitor the

investments made. Moreover,

energy savings achieved.

the E.S.Cos do not have access to the

capital channel as a inancial institution.

• The lack of trust and a meeting

place between those who need to

• Uncertainty on the pay-back period

implement the investment to improve

of the investment. e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

The goal is to make it possible for any contributor, not just those with access to large amounts of capital, to participate in

energy efficiency projects. This contractual form makes it possible

important projects. Contributors will also

to channel financial investments into

be able to fund projects across borders

projects for the redevelopment and

without being limited by regulations on

performance improvement of an

domestic or local opportunities. Efforce

energy system, be it an industrial plant

will handle the first 20 projects itself in

or a building, owned by a third party

the first quarter of this year, including a

(Beneficiary).

9MW industrial electricity, heating and cooling plant in Italy.

returns against an initial investment in

The EFFORCE team will validate the request and develop, together with

The proposed model is the same as

the company, the energy efficiency

that of Energy Service Companies which,

improvement project, evaluating the

through Energy Performance Contracts,

necessary investment, annual internal

manage to obtain positive economic

rate of return (IRR) and concluding

EFFORCE: Energy Efficiency. Reinvented CLICK TO WATCH

FEBRUARY 2021

1:13

with an Energy Performance Contract

company behind Efforce – AitherCO2 –

(each token represents an Energy

back in 2010.

Performance Smart Contract). While Wozniak is the global face, financial analyst and environmental data

KEY ROLE OF THE BLOCKCHAIN The role of the blockchain is

specialist Jacopo Visetti is “running

fundamental, since it guarantees the

the show as project lead,” according

integrity and uniqueness of the energy

to decrypt.co. Visetti co-founded the

saving data obtained. e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

FEBRUARY 2021

“ THE ROLE OF THE BLOCKCHAIN IS FUNDAMENTAL, SINCE IT GUARANTEES THE INTEGRITY AND UNIQUENESS OF THE ENERGY SAVING DATA OBTAINED.” The data that each smart meter will

where Blockchain-oriented real-

transmit will be validated and certified

time transactions between power

by the blockchain, so as to be able

generators and storage providers are

to unequivocally guarantee the

made in response to actual supply

savings obtained at a certain point in

and demand.

time and, therefore, the quantity of

Blockchain technology’s relatively

KWh saved which will be loaded on the low transaction costs allow smaller user profile of the contributor. Each EFFORCE token holder will be

energy producers, or ‘prosumers,’ to sell excess energy they don’t use.

granted with the access with priority

This ramps up competition and makes

to the energy savings projects that will

the grid more efficient.

be listed in the platform, contributing

According to reports by Deloitte

to the spreading of energy efficiency

and PWC, blockchains have the

on a global scale.

potential to radically disrupt energy

Each project will have a wallet in

related products and commodities,

which the amount of KWh saved

as they become digital assets that can

from that project will be accrued. In

be traded interoperably.

this way each token will accumulate

But the downside is blockchain

the KWh of energy saving achieved.

technologies are still in their infancy

Or to put it another way, the energy

and issues surrounding security,

savings of a third party are tokenized

governance and scalability remain,

and can be used by everyone. In a

added McKinsey.

report last year, McKinsey said the industry needs an ‘energy eBay’, one e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

TECHNOLOGY

Public, private and hybrid WRITTEN BY

DOMINIC ELLIS

The remote-working pandemic has forced more business onto the cloud â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but directors must now weigh up an increasing number of platforms when assessing their security and operational needs FEBRUARY 2021

e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

TECHNOLOGY

ost of us would accept COVID-19 has hastened digital transformation and further accelerated pre-pandemic trends, such as

moving operations to the Cloud. According to the 2021 Gartner Board of Directors Survey, 69 percent of corporate directors want to speed up enterprise digital strategies to deal with ongoing disruption resulting from the pandemic. Moreover, 86 percent of respondents deemed technology as having a transformational role in addressing strategic business priorities, which is why most organizations are expected to create a new ‘Chief Digital Officer’ role to respond to COVID62

19 in the long term. Before the pandemic took hold, in its quarterly results ending September 30 2020, Microsoft’s commercial cloud revenues shot up 31 percent yearon-year to $15.2 billion while revenue in Intelligent Cloud totalled $13 billion, a 20 percent rise. The trend was already set. Then COVID hit. Remote working sent the Cloud to new heights – but productivity gains had to be balanced by security concerns. To rein in expenses, leaders worked hard to improve integrated threat protection to reduce the risk of costly breaches and acquire security solutions. Now looking longer term, nearly 40 percent of businesses are prioritizing investments in Cloud Security (Cloud Access Security Broker, Cloud Workload Protection Platform, Cloud Security Posture FEBRUARY 2021

“ The widespread disruption caused by the global COVID-19 outbreak has reinforced the critical importance of businesses being agile enough to scale up or down with fluctuations in demand” — Jyoti Lalchandani IDC

e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

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Management), followed by Data &

Transferring the responsibility and

Information Security (28 percent)

cost of running on-premise hardware

and anti-phishing tools (26 percent).

and software to a specialist provider is

Understandably, Microsoft believes

naturally appealing. The benefit of the

the cloud â&#x20AC;&#x153;is now a security imperativeâ&#x20AC;?.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model is

Multi-cloud computing offers other clear

that your business outsources the entire

benefits, principally sourcing and

process to a specialist provider who

increased agility; modular applications

takes responsibility for everything,

architecture; and governance to ensure

including the upfront cost of purchasing

standardised policies and operational

the infrastructure, maintaining the equip-

control. Better disaster recovery and

ment, storage, security and running a

easier data migration are often cited too.

team of specialists. e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

TECHNOLOGY

Despite all the focus on the cloud, there

on-premises/dedicated private clouds,

is still a place for in-house data manage-

multiple public clouds, and legacy plat-

ment. Much as we are growing

forms to meet their needs by next year.

accustomed to ‘hybrid workplaces’, the

“The widespread disruption caused by

International Data Corporation (IDC) pre-

the global COVID-19 outbreak has rein-

dicts over 90 percent of enterprises

forced the critical importance of

worldwide will rely on a mix of

businesses being agile enough to scale

FEBRUARY 2021

up or down with fluctuations in demand,”

and cost-effective IT infrastructure that

said IDC’s Jyoti Lalchandani, Group

supports. However, public cloud is not

Vice President & Regional Managing

necessarily an appropriate option for all

Director for the Middle East, Turkey,

types of workloads. As such, some

and Africa (META).

enterprises are choosing to keep cer-

“A public cloud platform provides enterprises with an agile, scalable,

tain workloads on-premises – using an in-house datacenter – or on private clouds. This approach helps them achieve better performance, 24/7 availability, enhanced security, and greater compliance with regulations.” Saudi Aramco Development Company, a subsidiary of Aramco, recently teamed up with Google Cloud to offer high-performance, low-latency cloud services to enterprise customers in Saudi Arabia. Google Cloud offers its customers multiple solutions, including AI, smart analytics, data management, security, infrastructure and application modernization. The collaboration taps into rapidly expanding cloud services demand in Saudi Arabia, which is forecasted to reach a market opportunity up to $10 billion by 2030. Aramco Senior Vice President of Technical Services, Ahmad Al Sa’adi, said: “We live in a world driven by data, and it is essential that companies not only have secure infrastructure to protect enterprise data, but also the e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

TECHNOLOGY

“ Our clients are looking to accelerate IT modernization by leveraging cloud models - both public and hybrid, data, AI, automation and other key technologies to help shape, scale and manage more effectively massive, complex, global architectures ” — Archana Vemulapalli, IBM Infrastructure Services 68 tools that enable them to make the best

AWS, the company is innovating at a

use of it. Bringing Google Cloud

faster clip and unlocking insights that

to Saudi Arabia will deliver significant

are helping to improve the operational

benefits, both now and in the future,

efficiency of energy delivery, as well as

and we are grateful to the Ministry of

enhancing its conservation and sus-

Communications and Information

tainability practices,” said Mike

Technology for supporting this initiative. Clayville, VP at AWS.With on-premises The future of Saudi Arabia’s business

infrastructure all services are run, man-

transformation and growth depends

aged and maintained from within the

on its ability to successfully leverage

business on their own hardware and

cloud services.”

servers. Some businesses may choose

TC Energy decided the hybrid

to do this for compliance or security

approach wasn’t for them, moving its

reasons although often find it is more

entire infrastructure onto Amazon’s

expensive and offers less flexibility,

cloud platform AWS. “By going all-in on

according to EBC Group.

FEBRUARY 2021

C LO U D U P DAT ES

• SoftwareONE Holding AG has bought Intelligence Partner, a leading Google Cloud services company serving the Spain, Brazil and Middle East, which strengthens its ability to serve customers with multi-cloud strategies. It follows the full acquisition of Colombia-based InterGrupo last November. • ENGIE, which provides low- carbon energy and services, is extending its HR transformation with Oracle Fusion Cloud

Human Capital Management to support its 170,000 employees. • SAP recently announced it will invest Rs500 crore in India, making its multiple cloud solutions available in India data centres. • BCN Group, the Manchester- based managed IT, cloud and digital transformation specialist, has acquired Xicon Cloud for an undisclosed sum.

e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

TECHNOLOGY

The group believes it’s often a case of mixing-and-matching different infrastructure to meet your needs. “It could be argued that in modern IT, it’s not so much a decision between whether on-premises or cloud is better, but what set-up will fit with your business and its objectives,” it states. There is much work to do. Many corporate IT leaders say their organizations are not prepared for the future IT needs of the business and nearly all are moving to advance their 70

transition to cloud infrastructure, according to a new IBM survey of leaders at mid-sized and large companies in the UK and US. Of the 380 CIOs and CTOs T HE CLO U D ACT

The CLOUD Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act) passed in 2018 regulates how US citizen and company data, that is physically stored outside the US, is handled. Those who handle US data must do so according to US laws, whose authorities can access all types of data.

FEBRUARY 2021

Although primarily applicable to US Internet, service and cloud providers or their European branches, The CLOUD Act also applies to European customers of US companies whose data maybe processed and stored by a US company, such as Google, Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure.

“ In this rapidly changing digital business environment, organizations can bring in the right technology and the right partners to help aggregate, integrate, build and maintain a scalable digital business, while also enforcing effective governance.” — Archana Vemulapalli, IBM Infrastructure Services

journey or has yet to begin modernizing, with about a third surveyed saying they are still in the midst of transformation. surveyed, 60 percent said their com-

As a result, more than 95 percent

pany’s IT modernization program is

of IT leaders said they are looking to

not yet ready for the future, accord-

adopt public, hybrid or private cloud

ing to the recently completed The

strategies. Of those, many are mov-

State of IT Transformation

ing at an aggressive pace – the study

Study conducted by the Managed

showed 53 percent are aggressively

Infrastructure Services unit of IBM’s

pursuing a public cloud, 48 percent

Global Technology Services division.

hybrid cloud and 45 percent private

Nearly a quarter of CIOs and CTOs

cloud strategies.

(24 percent) said their company is just starting its IT modernization e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

T O P 10

Women in energy The past decade has shown strong signs for growth for women in the industry, with greater representation on boards of directors and increased representation at the C-Suite level. Here are 10 women to watch in 2021

WRITTEN BY

DOMINIC ELLIS

Although women currently occupy less than 20 percent of senior leadership positions in energy companies around the world, a S&P Global report entitled The Changing Face of Energy notes that the decade just past has shown signs of growth for women in the industry, with greater representation on boards of directors, and career paths that lead to the executive suite. An analysis of companies around the world that are constituents of the S&P Global BMI Energy (Sector) Index and S&P Global BMI Utilities (Sector) Index, showed that gains were most visible on boards, where efforts to diversify are more established, with investors adding a push, and in some places, regulation. The share of female board members in the S&P Global Indices nearly doubled since 2000 to reach 15 percent for the energy sector on average, the report adds. Growth in this decade was more than twice that of the previous one. However, when looking further down, the analysis found that one of the most common explanations for why there were not more women in the C-suite is because there are not enough women in the industry at the step below to promote. Women filled 15 percent of senior management pipeline spots in 2019 on average for the energy sector, up from less than one in 10 in the early 2000s, the report says. Operating across a variety of regions and countries, these top 10 women are at the vanguard of change within the global energy industry, with some leading traditional oil and gas companies, while others are more involved in spearheading the transition to renewables â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and all of them are set to play vital roles in the months and years ahead.

e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

T O P 10

Sindoor Mittal

Vice Chairperson, Avaada Group

Sindoor Mittal is the Vice Chairperson of Avaada Group, India’s largest clean energy company. As a social entrepreneur, pioneer and evangelist of sustainable development, she has been at the forefront of India’s clean energy transition process. Mittal has developed Avaada into a key player in the country’s renewable energy sector, bringing in marquee investors such as ADB, DEG, FMO and Proparco to India through Avaada. She also successfully handled the transaction of the organisation’s 1140MW renewable portfolio sale to TATA Power. Aside from being a noted industry leader and keynote speaker at leading forums, she is actively involved in Avaada’s CSR activities.

FEBRUARY 2021

Gauri Singh

Deputy Director General, International Renewable Energy Agency

Gauri Singh is the Deputy Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), a role she brings more than 30 years of experience in policy, advocacy and project implementation within the field of renewable energy and sustainable development from India and internationally. Prior to joining IRENA, she worked within Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s federal government and at the apex level within provincial government. Federally, she was responsible for leading the development of the National Solar Mission of India policy in 2010, an early policy framework designed to drive solar power development across the country. At the Madhya Pradesh provincial Government, she steered rural development, providing strategic planning and implementation guidance across the state. She was also responsible for spearheading initiatives aimed at improving livelihoods for nearly two million poor women across the state.

e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

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Kumud Wadhwa

Senior General Manager, National Smart Grid Mission Project Management, India

Kumud Wadhwa has more than 30 years of cross-domain experience in the power sector, spanning project planning and management for Transmission projects, IT projects and Smart Grid projects in Distribution. She is currently working as a Senior General Manager in the Project Management Unit at the National Smart Grid Mission, which supports Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ministry of Power in the design and develop Smart Grids. Prior to this, as part of ISGTF, she was instrumental in helping to design a roadmap for Smart Grids in India, as well as managing a pilot programme and launching a Smart Grid Knowledge portal.

e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

T O P 10

Fatima Yasmin

Chairman of IDCOL and Secretary, Economic Relations Division, Bangladesh

Fatima Yasmin is a career civil servant, having joined the Economic 78

Relations Division at the Ministry of Finance as the Secretary in 2003. Previously, she worked at the Export Promotion Bureau as its vice chairman and served as the director general of the Institute of Public Finance (IPF), Finance Division, and Ministry of Finance. Since joining the Bangladesh civil service administrative cadre in 1988, she has served in various capacities in the ministries of Agriculture, Women and Children Affairs and Defence as well as Finance Division and Economic Relations Division of the Ministry of Finance. She also worked as Project Manager of the International Jute Organization in 2002, and as an economic adviser to the European Delegation in Dhaka in 2013. As Chairman of IDCOL, Yasmin play a major role in bridging the financing gap for developing medium to large-scale infrastructure and renewable energy projects in the country. Under her leadership, the company has grown to become the market leader in private sector energy and infrastructure financing in Bangladesh.

FEBRUARY 2021

Tracey A. LeBeau

Senior Vice President and Desert Southwest regional manager, Western Area Power Administration

Tracey A LeBeau is a former director for the US Department of Energy’s Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs. She was appointed to the role in 2011 to establish the then new Office which is authorised by statute to manage, coordinate, create and facilitate programs and initiatives. LeBeau has many years of experience in the energy investment, start up and energy development fields, having served in executive capacities for numerous energy businesses throughout her career, and being a principal at SNR Denton – a top 25 international law firm – where she advised a variety of institutional investment and government clients on a range of issues related to energy, including wind and solar development. She has been with WAPA since 2014, when she joined as the Transmission Infrastructure Program manager. In April 2018, she managed the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer. In this capacity, she organized and led Natural Resources, Procurement, Human Resources, Records Management, Facilities, the Transmission Infrastructure Program and the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity. She began acting as the Desert Southwest regional manager in November 2019 and assumed that position officially in May 2020.

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Patricia K Collawn

Chairman, President and CEO, PNM Resources

Patricia Collawn is Chairman president and CEO of PNM Resources and PNM, as well as the Chairman and CEO of TNMP, having previously served as the President and Chief Operating Officer and Utilities President of PNM Resources. With more than 25 years of utility and energy industry experience, Collawn has also held the key positions of President and CEO of the Public Service Company of T:297 mm

Colorado, as well as President of Customer and Field Operations at Xcel Energy, where she managed a 6,500-person operation that was responsible for the electric and gas distribution and transmission for 1.1 million gas customers and 3.2 million electricity customers. She also serves on the boards of directors of Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited, EEI, and EPRI. From 2017-2018, Collawn served as the first female Chairman of the board of directors of EEI, having previously served as the organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Vice Chairman since 2015.

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T O P 10

Mari McClure President and CEO, Green Mountain Power

Mari McClure became President and CEO of Green Mountain Power at the start of 2020 after spending the last decade leading transformational work at the Vermont-based utility service provider. The company transmits, distributes and sells electricity, as well as offering outage reporting, meter reading, and bills payment to customers looking for a provider of clean, reliable power. It also helps customers by providing them with the tools they need to cut carbon and costs. McClure joined GMP in 2010 and has served in leading roles in nearly every aspect of 82

the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s operations, including information technology, regulatory, legal, fleet, facilities, workforce development, and cultural transformation. She has also led organisational developments, helping GMP become a national leader in operational effectiveness and innovation while delivering superior customer service.

Paula Gold-Williams President and CEO, CPS Energy

Paula Gold-Williams is President and CEO of CPS Energy, the largest municipally owned electric and natural gas provider in the US. Based out of San Antonio, the company was established in 1860 and services 860,934 electric and 358,495 natural gas customers in the city and seven adjoining counties. With more than 30 years of leadership experience, she joined CPS Energy in 2004. Over her 16 years at the company, she has progressively served as controller and assistant treasurer; VP & Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) – Organisational Excellence and Shared Services; EVP, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Treasurer; and EVP – Financial & Administrative Services, CFO, and Treasurer. In addition to her role at CPS Energy, Gold-Williams serves on a broad portfolio of boards and committees and is the Immediate Past Chair of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. At the end of 2020, she oversaw the establishment of an agreement with the City of San Antonio to implement a pilot programme for Smart Streetlight Technology, which will leverage the company’s existing lighting infrastructure and align it with SmartSA.

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T O P 10

Anna Borg

President and CEO, Vattenfall On September 10 last year, Vattenfall, the Swedish energy company with approximately 20,000 employees and operations across Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and the UK, appointed Anna Borg as its new President and CEO. Borg, who had been Vattenfall’s CFO since 2017, had broad experience within the energy sector, having been Senior Vice President for Vattenfall’s Business Area Markets, led the Nordic Sales business, the Swedish Heat business as well as the European B2C business. She has also been Senior Vice President Nordics at Klarna. Furthermore, Borg has been heavily involved in setting Vattenfall’s new strategic direction, with the company moving to cut emissions, mitigate climate risks, and develop the low-carbon economy.

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T O P 10

Catherine MacGregor CEO, Engie

Having spent her entire professional career in the energy sector, including 23 years at Schlumberger, Catherine MacGregor joined the Engie Group on January 1, 2021 as Chief Executive Officer. A graduate of the 88

Paris Ă&#x2030;cole Centrale, MacGregor has managed major complex industrial projects, both in France and abroad. At Schlumberger, she held a variety of roles, including operations engineer in the Republic of Congo, Scotland, and the US; manager in charge of drilling and measuring operations in the Malaysia, Philippines, and Brunei region; Group Executive Vice President in charge of human resources, and head of several of the Groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s various entities (Europe & Africa, drilling). From 2019 to 2020, she worked for TechnipFMC, the oil and gas services supplier, as head of Technip Energies. She joins Engie as it embarks on a major push in the renewables and clean energy sectors, with the French giant having pledged to invest $13.1 billion into its 2019-2021 energy transition programme. It is on track to install 9GW of renewables within that period.

FEBRUARY 2021

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WRITTEN BY

LEILA HAWKINS PRODUCED BY

KRISTOFER PALMER

FEBRUARY 2021

How COVID-19 has Driven Motor Oilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Digital Transformation e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

MOTOR OIL

Nick Giannakakis, Group CIO at Greece’s Motor Oil, discusses accelerating digital strategy, digitising manufacturing processes and the customer experience

n the months since the Covid-19 pandemic began, numerous industries have reported a fast acceleration in terms of

moving to digital processes. This certainly rings true for Motor Oil, an oil refinery based in Greece 92

that is one of the largest in Europe. “In the last two months we’ve seen two years’ worth of acceleration,” its Group Chief Information Officer Nick Giannakakis says. It has also been a complex endeavour, as Giannakakis describes the company as “one of the biggest, most complex manufacturing refineries in Europe”. Motor Oil has a strong export branch, with 78% of its operations coming from export sales that need to be facilitated via loading ports and vehicles. As well as being an oil refinery they have a large retail operation, with hundreds of petrol stations selling non-fuel products as well as petrol, making up a large part of the business. A key aspect of the acceleration caused by COVID was ensuring employees could continue

FEBRUARY 2021

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MOTOR OIL

“ In the last two months we’ve seen two years’ worth of acceleration” — Nick Giannakakis, Chief Information Officer, Motor Oil

decided to not stop any of its investments in technology, which meant much of its digital programme could

to perform their daily duties remotely.

continue and it also ensured a good,

“We had to address the end user com-

continued relationship with their part-

puter experience for staff, to make sure

ners. That also meant it didn’t have to

they could still work collaboratively

delay its digital transformation.

from home and get the best possible performance,” Giannakakis says. 94

While the pandemic of course brought challenges, Motor Oil

FEBRUARY 2021

Giannakakis is a believer in resilience in the face of adversity. To handle the challenges of COVID to the business, he says Motor Oil

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Nick Giannakakis Title: CIO

Company: Motor Oil

Industry: Oil & Energy

Nick Giannakakis has over 20 years of experience working in IT. Throughout his career he’s worked for Richemont in Switzerland, British American Tobacco in the UK, and in his native Greece for the Coca-Cola Hellenic Company. His current role is at Motor Oil, where he’s based in Athens. He describes his style of management as being both a mentor and a team member, commenting that he prides himself on a daily basis of being able to combine these two aspects. He believes in the importance of being able to influence decisions working with senior executives. He’s also a big believer in diversity. “We try to encourage everyone to bring a difference to everything they do,” he says. “When you are leading a tech department, and I have been on this journey for years and years now, you need to be able to focus on diversity. When I say diversity I also mean in the way of thinking, combining a more agile way of thinking and understanding the power of prioritisation.” Giannakakis is collaborative, always a team player, and always keen to learn. “I don’t want to be left behind in this new reality, and I always try to bring new ideas to the table” he adds. e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

ABOUT OTE GROUP OTE Group is the largest technology company in Greece and a member of Deutsche Telekom AG. It is one of the top three listed companies, with respect to capitalization, in the Athens Stock Exchange and is also listed in the London Stock Exchange. OTE Group offers a wide range of services, under the unif ied brand COSMOTE: f ixed and mobile telephony, broadband services, pay-TV and ICT solutions. In addition, the Group in Greece is also involved in maritime communications and real estate.

In the f ield of System Integration, OTE Group has developed diverse capabilities and constitutes a leading partner of choice for businesses seeking innovative solutions in the f ields of Data Centers, Cloud, Information Security, Networking, Big Data and IoT. Leveraging strategic partnerships with IT market leaders and thanks to its large IT & Network workforce, it has delivered large scale and complex ICT projects, offering managed services to customers in Europe.

WE EMPOWER. YOU LEAD Focusing on continuously developing innovative solutions and building strategic partnerships with global IT leaders, OTE Group stands out to be a trusted technology partner for large business customers. By modernizing its IT infrastructure, as well as maintaining operational and people excellence, OTE Group delivers and supports sophisticated tailor-made projects. The state-of-the-art services and solutions offered by OTE Group enable businesses dynamically to the new digital era and ensure their business continuity and efficiency. The strategic partnership with Motor Oil for the implementation of an SDWAN (Software Defined-WAN) solution acts as an accelerator of the company’s digital transformation journey through a robust technology strategy. Motor Oil is one of the leading players in Greece and the eastern Mediterranean region in the areas of crude oil refining and petroleum products. The company has large campuses all over Greece with distinct connectivity and communication needs. Some of the installations are in remote areas, where as others need to operate uninterrupted 24/7. At the same time, these installations need to have independent and safe access to the Internet and to cloud services, with an extremely high SLA, regarding both network and services as well as applications. OTE has provided Motor Oil with a turn-key solution to modernize its corporate network with a Software

www.cosmote.gr

Defined-WAN implementation. The SD-WAN solution provides a virtual WAN architecture, with users controlling and managing the entire system via software running on a central platform. One of the main advantages of this approach is that it can offer a combination of communication technologies (MPLS, dedicated broadband Internet and LTE), to safely interconnect a company’s point of presence, while improving overall user experience and increasing productivity. The Motor Oil project includes 30 sites all over Greece. OTE Group has selected Cisco Meraki SD-WAN services in order to provide Motor Oil a complete solution that includes the necessary connectivity, hardware equipment, a management platform and all the SLA agreements needed. With the implementation of the SD-WAN project, Motor Oil will have achieved a simplified, fully secured network, with high availability and scalability. Both user experience and productivity will have improved. The company’s IT department has now more agility, being able to integrate new points of presence whenever needed and much faster. Also, the project provides better management of capital, as well as operational expenses.

Holistically looking at Motor Oil operations, OTE Group aims to empower our customer’s vision for having a leading role in the crude oil ref ining and marketing of petroleum products sectors in Greece.

MOTOR OIL

showed great resilience. They demonstrated this by creating new solutions. “At the peak of the crisis we developed a digital planning tool that allows our employees to perform their daily business,” says Giannakakis. “When you have an organisation that needs to communicate by making hundreds of calls on a daily basis and do their jobs from home, having the same quality in terms of communication is a very important aspect.” For the retail side of the business 98

the company used advanced analytics to deep dive into sales models, identifying relevant models that could predict future sales. This helped them develop solutions to scale up, such as a new pay at pump service which eliminates the need for customers to step inside a shop to pay. Another change he has seen is the way the customer experience is framed. “Some say we’re living in the age of the customer, but I think we are beyond that,” he says. “Before COVID we were in the age of the platform, and COVID has brought the necessity of this platform because of the importance of having collaborative activities. FEBRUARY 2021

“ It’s an industry that needs to change and with COVID this has been magnified and accelerated” — Nick Giannakakis, Chief Information Officer, Motor Oil

“Customer interactions through

In terms of manufacturing, Motor

these platforms continue to be at the

Oil developed the concept of a smart

top of our priorities. We have seen

factory. Giannakakis explains this is

changes, and with a change in focus

focused on five pillars: digital engi-

sales have significantly increased, and

neering; digital production, where the

we want to be able to react to that cus-

remote operation centre is the north

tomer experience. I would say that now

star; digital asset management; digital

customer-centricity along with data is

workers and equipping them with the

the new priority for our business.”

relevant tools so they can perform their tasks; and the digital optimisation of processes. “Everything to do with the smart factory is classified in those five pillars,” he says. “With the help of our partner ecosystem working in each of these pillars allowed us to achieve increased production, reduced downtime, reduced production cost, and focus on product optimisation.” Giannakakis says that although COVID-19 has certainly accelerated all these processes, the need to do this already existed. “The challenges in the energy and oil and gas industries were already there. It’s an industry that needs to change and with COVID this has been magnified and accelerated,” says Giannakakis. “At the same time you have two frontiers: you have to keep the e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

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1970

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5,000 Number of employees

business going with the new reality,

good for us to be able to go with a swift

while not losing time regarding the

pilot to learn and have a partner at

digital transformation.”

the same time ready to scale it up. We

Strong partnerships have been vital

need to be able to combine the value

for this. “I’ve always been a big believer

offering from International and Local

in having relevant partner ecosystems,”

partners in order to be able to maxi-

he says. “Companies like ours, who are

mize the impact.”

manufacturing and retail companies,

From the International field SAP is

cannot focus on technology ourselves,

an important partner for Motor Oil.

because it’s not part of our mandate.

“They help us with all of our transac-

We need to have a partner ecosystem

tions, whether it’s on the customer

around us to help us scale up and pro-

side or the manufacturing side. Every

vide us with the relevant innovation in

inventory and every shipment lives in

the areas and the priorities that we set.

SAP, so it’s a no-brainer for us to look

It’s exactly what we have done both

to SAP to also help us innovate.”

before and during the crisis.”

One of the largest local players

He explains that having partners in

is OTE. OTE has provided Motor Oil

various sectors help them to have the

with a turn-key solution to modernise

right focus and pilot new systems. “It’s

its corporate network with a Software e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

101

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“ Whatever is good for the environment is good for the business too” — Nick Giannakakis, Chief Information Officer, Motor Oil

Defined-WAN implementation. The

103

“I think we are going to live in a new

SD-WAN solution provides a virtual WAN

reality where our priorities and our digital

architecture, with users controlling and

transformation will be accelerated, but

managing the entire system via software

also I think the traditional model was

running on a central platform.

always focused on two pillars: innovation

With the implementation of the

of the business model, and the opera-

SD-WAN project, Motor Oil will have

tional side,” concludes Giannakakis.

achieved a simplified, fully secured net-

“Now we’ve added sustainability into the

work, with high availability and scalability

mix too. It’s a strong directive from the

to improve both the user experience

European Union but also from across

and productivity.

the sector. Whatever is good for the envi-

Looking ahead, Giannakakis believes

ronment is good for the business too.”

the major oil players will all adapt to new ways of working post-COVID. e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

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Driving Digital Change for Energy and Technology 106

FEBRUARY 2021

107

WRITTEN BY

DOMINIC ELLIS PRODUCED BY

MIKE SADR

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BKW GROUP

Thomas Zinniker, Chief Information Officer at BKW Group, explains how business is thriving through synergies across energy, grid and services

homas Zinniker, BKW Group’s Chief Information Officer, pops up on Zoom against a striking Alpine backdrop and

for the next hour, speaks with refreshing clarity about the changing nature of energy and technology, and BKW’s pivotal position at the heart 108

of these changes. Whether it’s urbanisation, climate change or digitalisation, BKW Group is a driver of change and comfortable embracing solutions, innovations and data, as befits its vision to create “infrastructure solutions for a future worth living”. One of its core messages is decentralisation and maintaining flexibility amid volatility, across its three central business sectors – Energy, Grid and Services. Specifically, it has expertise in five key areas; Energy, Power Grid, Infra Services, Building Solutions and Engineering. The numbers speak for themselves. In the half year to 2020, BKW’s revenues shot up 12 per cent to around CHF1.5 billion and operating profit rose 5 per cent to CHF219 million.

FEBRUARY 2021

109

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BKW GROUP

“ We have grown dramatically over the last couple of years and we’ve taken the strategy to build up a network of companies rather than integrate them” — Thomas Zinniker, Chief Information Officer, BKW Group

110

Recently BKW announced its entrance into the gas market, primarily for two reasons; it has significant par-

“We have grown dramatically over

ticipation in power plants, enabling it to

the last couple of years and we’ve

buy gas more cheaply, and many of its

taken the strategy to build up a

business customers are demanding

network of companies rather than

turn-key solutions.

integrate them,” Zinniker says, “which

Fuelling Energy, Grid and Services

means we need technology to create

One key factor in the group’s ongo-

that network, to combine skills, for big-

ing success is its ability to diversify

ger projects and all the collaboration

and keep one eye on the bigger pic-

elements that are essential.”

ture – whether it’s entering the gas market and providing end customers with a comprehensive energy offering from a single-source supplier; opening

FEBRUARY 2021

Diversity I Corporate Film I BKW CLICK TO WATCH

2:11

111 up new distribution channels with

With half of energy consumption

electricity suppliers and installation

occurring within buildings, the group

partners; or growing its end-to-end

is striving to develop solutions to save

Home Energy system. Underpinning

energy and reduce CO2 emissions.

all these elements is the technology;

Zinniker believes technology is a

each day computers with “100 engi-

“key enabler” in the fight against cli-

neering years’ worth of performance”

mate change.

scan the entire BKW network. From a ‘pure energy’ company, BKW

“With the increase in decentralised power production – be it wind or

has grown into a service company

solar – the grid has a completely dif-

across Europe, specifically Germany,

ferent meaning and capacity issues,”

Switzerland and Austria. In future,

he says. “Technology helps us get

Zinniker believes the energy sector

better insights into where the bottle-

has to come up with solutions in

necks are and also what we need to

a more smart way.

change to adapt to new consumption e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

DIGI AL makes it work. The energy and infrastructure service provider BKW relies on SAP solutions as the basis for a successful digital transformation. As a digitalisation service provider, T-Systems in Switzerland supports companies end-to-end with the continuous development and operation of their SAP landscape. www.t-systems.ch

and production patterns, and to a

energy consumption dropped, but the

certain extent, steer the new ways

group has not been heavily impacted.

of consumption.”

In its company presentation, it states

In terms of engineering services,

Mühleberg nuclear power plant

BKW has been appointed as general

disassembly is ‘on course’ despite

planner for the overall build-up of the

the pandemic, while innovative, tech-

Tesla Gigafactory in Berlin – a pres-

oriented buildings include the Tic

tigious win for the group. Besides

Tric Trac solar-power cooling system

that, infrastructure services focuses

in Zurich and Lonza’s new laboratories

on the large transmission grids, com-

in Visp biopark.

munication networks, and drinking water supply. On the business side, COVID-19 has impacted its services area and

“Due to our model to hedge prices and sell production in advance, we were in a good position when energy prices dropped due to lower consumption,”

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Thomas Zinniker Title: Chief Information Officer

Industry: Utilities

Location: Switzerland Thomas Zinniker joined BKW in 2016. As a CIO he is responsible for further developing ICT services – supporting the transformation of BKW from a pure utilities company to an international Infrastructure Services Supplier. Zinniker has a degree in Computer Science and Business Administration. Prior to BKW, Thomas worked in various global companies as a software engineer, consultant and CIO. e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

113

BKW GROUP

114

says Zinniker. “When it comes to work-

from home, that we give employees

ing from home, we were well prepared

stability and structure from a working

and ready from the first day of the

perspective,” adding that the group

pandemic. We have been building our

ranks among the top 10 recruiters

remote working platforms for many

in Switzerland.

years in the light of networking the

Industry 4.0 is a hot topic in the area

newly acquired companies, so when

of power generation and power grid as

the lockdown came, it was quite easy

it switches to a decentralised model.

for us to transition.”

“Electricity cannot easily be stored

But Zinniker acknowledges that in a

so you need insights into what’s going

world of volatility, there will be ongoing

on with the power grid,” says Zinniker.

challenges and technology is going

“We will now have more room to influ-

to be increasingly crucial. “It’s impor-

ence production and consumption.

tant, during this period of working

With the combination of technologies

FEBRUARY 2021

“ We have been building our remote working platforms for many years so when the lockdown came, it was quite easy” — Thomas Zinniker, Chief Information Officer, BKW Group

Clean tech is another key area, though Zinniker wishes the debate wasn’t so “dogmatic” when assessing energy consumption benefits. The flexibility of a gas plant, for example, can be much better controlled and use less CO2 serving as a bridge to solar or other new technologies. Last year, BKW became the first

and combining new ways of storing

publicly listed Swiss company to

energy, we are better equipped to

launch a green bond for trading on the

deal with these uncertainties. In other

Swiss stock exchange, with CHF200

areas, AI is enabling us to plan with

million allocated to fund sustainable

new piping, leakages and installations

projects throughout Europe.

and check everything fits by using Augmented Reality technologies.” The cloud supports the group as a

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS Strategic partnerships across markets

tool to gain flexibility – but it is just a

and sectors are vital for BKW Group,

tool, Zinniker stresses. “Digital trans-

he adds. They add the crucial flexibility

formation is not just automation – it’s

and resilience in our growth path and

the smart integration of people, pro-

let us focus on our core business. For

cesses and technology. You need to question everything, have the right culture and be allowed to make mistakes.” He highlights Uber as a good example of a company which could have created an app that just bundled call centres but they completely re-thought the model from the consumers’ viewpoint. e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

115

Intelligent tech needs ingenious humans Explore how Extended Reality is changing the way people and companies work at accenture.com/xr

“ I like to see myself as the coach on the sidelines, there when they need help, rather than to interfere with the game itself” — Thomas Zinniker, Chief Information Officer, BKW Group

customers. “It is crucial to think out of the box, when developing new prod-

instance T-Systems is a strong partner

ucts for a changing market. Strategic

in the SAP area. We just outsourced

partner help us to bring in new ideas

the total SAP infrastructure to them.

an shed light on bling spots we all have.

“With their very strong position as a

Especially in areas, where we are

service provider to the energy market,

working since decades more or less

we are continuously exploring addi-

the same way”. 117

tional opportunities to further grow in to new areas.” As an operator for critical infrastructure in Switzerland we need to be resilient in case of major incidents in order to guarantee an up and running energy supply for our customers. With HPEs services for data storage and backup solutions we have implemented additional resilience. Our goal was to build a fallback scenario which has to work in case our own security measures are failing. But not only in the infrastructure area, but also in the business part we rely on partners such as Accenture bringing in expertise and new ideas to develop new services for our

DI D Y O U K N O W?

• Production sites: 103 • Countries: 8 • Shareholders: Canton of Bern (52.54%), Others (37.50%) and Groupe E (10%) • Employees: 3,200 (Building Solutions), 2,900 (Engineering), 1,700 (Energy) and 700 (Power Grid) e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

BKW GROUP

118

“ Digital transformation is not just automation – it’s the smart integration of people, processes and technology” — Thomas Zinniker, Chief Information Officer, BKW Group

BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY “From a career perspective I was always in the area of bringing IT into business, and making technology benefit the business. I’ve worked as a consultant for many years, in large multinational companies. But my philosophy has changed over the last couple of years. I’ve seen that the increased speed in

FEBRUARY 2021

119

change can only be achieved through

help, rather than to interfere with the

self-organisation and self-sufficient

game itself. Always trust people – trust

employees. As a manager you can’t

is essential. Mistakes happen but be

always tell people what they have to

transparent and look for solutions.”

do. Provide people with guiding principles, give them a clear target – but let them find the way to that target themselves. I like to see myself as the coach on the sidelines, there when they need e ne rgydi gi ta l. com

Between hope and possible thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a bridge.

There from the beginning to where we stand today. And to where we will go from here. One company. One promise. If you can imagine it, we will build the bridge to get you there.