Nettkonferansen 2024 - Collaboration, security and flexibility

Last week we participated in Nettkonferansen, one of the most important meeting places for the power grid industry. The conference gathered professionals, vendors and authorities to discuss the biggest challenges and opportunities in the age of electrification, sustainability and security. Here are some of my key impressions and learnings from the event: 

Collaboration is the key to progress

A common theme was how the industry has changed in recent years. In the past, utilities were more internally focused, even though they don't compete with each other. Now we see a completely different openness and willingness to collaborate, across players and levels.
Sharing data and best practices is becoming the norm, creating a more efficient and interconnected infrastructure. This is a development to be welcomed, as collaboration makes us better equipped to meet both technological and societal demands.

Flexibility - a prerequisite for success

In recent years, flexibility has been a recurring theme at conferences in the power grid industry, and there have been good discussions about how this can be an important tool for meeting some of the challenges facing the industry. This year, I think Bård Standal from Renewable Norway summed it up well: "Flexibility is not a substitute for building grids, but a prerequisite for reaching the goals in time."
This is about optimizing existing grids, meeting the demand from electrification and developing solutions that are future-oriented. An important point highlighted by many is how procurement processes and contracts need to change. Margrete Raaum from KraftCert pointed out in her summary of the conference that the industry must avoid making itself irrelevant by locking itself into one predetermined technology when making purchases. Instead, there needs to be room for flexibility that allows us to evolve as new technology becomes available.

Taking security seriously - lessons from Ukraine

Security, both cyber and physical, was high on the agenda throughout the conference. Geir Hågen Karlsen, former lieutenant colonel, set the tone early on the first day by shedding light on threats to critical infrastructure, with specific examples from the war in Ukraine. "Their energy infrastructure has been under sustained attack, forcing them to rethink how the grid is operated.
Although similar attacks in Norway are unlikely, both Esben Gudbrandsen from Statnett and Eldri Holo from NVE emphasized the importance of practicing and being prepared. "This obviously requires good systems, but also good internal routines in each individual company. These are issues and challenges that we at Cegal have worked with for a number of years, through our experience from the oil and gas industry. Both industries handle critical infrastructure with similar security challenges, and we see a great advantage in being a supplier that works across different segments of the energy industry.

Customer satisfaction and value proposition - an area for improvement

Another important observation is that the power grid industry. is struggling with low customer satisfaction. This is probably related to a lack of visibility of the work done and the value it creates. Power crid companies have an enormous social task, but it must be better communicated.

Inspiring innovation and technology

There were several exciting initiatives presented at the conference. New to us was Elbits' concept of an app store for energy applications, which could revolutionize how the industry approaches innovation. This is an initiative we look forward to following.

As part of the conference, also organized a 24-hour GridHack where the result was presented at the end of the day a. At Kulturhuset in Drammen, five teams worked intensively to develop solutions to ensure that the energy system at the Port of Drammen is efficient, flexible and sustainable. One of the teams won the competition with its innovative approach. This hackathon has shown how much creativity and collaboration can achieve in a short period of time, and we are impressed by the innovative ideas that were presented. 

Regulations and licenses - a bottleneck

The need for faster grid development was also discussed. Electrification and the green shift require regulations and licensing processes to be adapted to the new everyday life. This is a field where the industry and the authorities need to work more closely together to ensure that we maintain the pace required to achieve the sustainability goals. Audhild Kvam of Tensio also strongly advocates that the incentives in the revenue cap model must be technology-neutral, and that investments in digital systems at grid companies can also benefit customers in the same way as new grids.

What now?

The theme of the 2024 Web Conference was "Are we getting more web faster?" and highlighted how the industry is in the midst of a challenging yet exciting time. Collaboration, security and flexibility are key factors for success in achieving the goals you have set. Perhaps one of the biggest dilemmas in the time to come will be to keep the wheels turning in day-to-day operations and deliver a good and secure product to customers, while managing to make a boost on the technology side. Freeing up time to look beyond operations to innovation can be difficult - especially as IT and technology developments are fast-moving and require rapid change.

At the same time, we must remember that the future is created by the people behind the technology - those who find solutions, build bridges and dare to innovate.

Cegal has unique expertise in three key areas; industry, technology and scalable deliveries. We use this expertise to turn your complex IT problems into simple and understandable solutions. 
We are perfectly sized - large enough to provide economic scale, security, complex projects and professionalism, and small enough to be flexible. We have a complete offering across software, consulting and cloud operations.

We look forward to using the insights from the conference in our work and helping the industry evolve in the right direction. This is a time full of challenges, but also with great opportunities.