Net zero energy grid and remote energy asset management
The drive for renewable energy and the mission to reach net zero is decentralising the generation of power.
At grid level, battery energy storage systems (BESS) will play an increasingly key role in managing the intermittency of renewable energy generation from solar and wind farms.
For our customers, their energy profile is more complex comprising onsite and off-site generation, a growing reliance on smaller scale battery storage, as well as importing and exporting energy from the grid at the most cost-effective time.
This emerging network of net zero energy infrastructure needs to be managed at scale to monitor uptime, security, and initiate preventative maintenance. As the new energy infrastructure rolls out, Digital Services, part of SSE Energy Solutions, is developing and deploying digital platforms to meet this challenge alongside developing new sensor technology.
Decarbonising Transport: Fuel stations to EV hubs
The most obvious change in our everyday lives is the transition from petrol and diesel vehicles to EVs. We’re accustomed to refuelling at the network of circa 8,000 fuel stations in the UK, most of which have staff onsite for customer service, maintenance, and safe operation.
Compare this to SSE Energy Solutions first EV hub in Glasgow. A six-bay hub conveniently located close to a food and coffee outlets. It’s typical of many of the EV charging hubs being built across the country. It’s more conveniently located, self-service, 24/7 and 365 days per year.
Safety is SSE’s top priority, and this includes the safe and secure operation of EV charging network. As we roll out over 300 EV hubs , we’re developing ways to remotely manage the safe operation of the network using our Sentinel computer vision sensors and energy technology platform.
One proposed use case is to capture anonymised images of each EV hub in the morning, noon, and night using Sentinel’s inbuilt sensor technology. We can train the sensor to trigger alerts for specific events relating to the safe and optimal use of the EV charging hub. Our asset management team can then respond to issues quickly or autonomously.
Computer Vision, a subset of AI, is the technology that is powering this transformation. It trains the sensors to recognise movement flows, classify vehicles and objects, pedestrian flows, and volumetrics.
Customer parking times at EV hubs, vehicles overstaying their charge time, or non-EV cars parking in EV charge bays, known as ‘bay blocking’, are pain points that may increasingly become issues as the volume of EVs on the road increases. We’re gathering insightful and evidential data on the operation of our already opened EV hubs to build a valuable dataset – benchmarking bay blocking, vehicle classification, and even the flow of customers to nearby food and beverage outlets.
Safety and Security of Energy Assets
Ensuring site security and maintenance is also a key consideration at solar farms and energy substations. We can train sensors to check and confirm that operatives onsite are wearing the correct PPE both during construction as well as day to day operations.
Large scale batteries, like SSE’s first battery at Salisbury, need to be monitored from a safety and security perspective. Computer Vision technology is driving the next generation of edge compute solutions. Existing CCTV continually monitors a site, and if an issue occurs, a manual process of reviewing the CCTV footage is required to further investigate.
We’re exploring ways to use Sentinel’s edge compute power and the technology platform to proactively monitor energy assets. We can also train the sensors to recognise specific scenarios, such as vandalism, graffiti, and misalignment of assets to trigger alerts to the asset managers. This adds up to increased safety, security, and user experience.
Biodiversity Net Gain Transparency
As the new energy ecosystem takes shape with the inevitable construction activity, we need to ensure that biodiversity is not compromised. Advances in AI driven Computer Vision are enabling us to develop sensors that can be deployed prior to construction to benchmark biodiversity. We can classify and count the local, flora and fauna and monitor the net gain through construction and into the operational phase.
The technology is driving transparency and accountability in biodiversity. It demonstrates our vision of developing a technology platform that monitors energy assets, one that’s central to achieving net zero while also monitoring biodiversity and the restoration of wildlife.
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