How IoT technology is pushing the energy turnaround

Rising energy prices are a pressing issue in Germany. Climate protection measures, increasingly scarce raw materials, the Ukraine crisis as a price accelerator: The current mixed situation makes it clear that implementing the energy transition away from fossil resources to more sustainable concepts is one of the most important current tasks for society, business and politics.

A major challenge for all players - and one that is crucial to success is digitalization. According to a bitkom study from 2020, digitalization can contribute almost half of the climate protection targets in Germany alone. Smart networking via IoT technologies is the key to a sustainable infrastructure, to increasing resource efficiency, to reducing CO2 emissions and thus also to accelerating the energy transition.

Using IoT to create opportunities for greater energy efficiency

In this blog post, we show how it can be done - for consumers, industry and the energy sector. An IoT-supported energy transition not only makes sense in terms of sustainability, it also benefits industry and consumers - through high transparency, optimized plannability and significant cost savings. Two points make this happen: intelligent decentralized energy generation and data-driven reduction of energy consumption.

IoT for energy producers

Future energy generation will be more volatile and decentralized in many areas. Smaller plants will complement or even replace large power plants. They can be efficiently linked and controlled via IoT. In the process, all components of the energy supply chain will be digitally networked: Plants, electricity storage, lines, transformers, consumption points. The data collected in this process is used in real time to optimize the operation of the individual components depending on the situation. The keywords in this context are artificial intelligence algorithms, IoT platform and platform-as-a-service. For example, fluctuating results from regenerative power generation can be compensated for automatically. Other benefits: Remote monitoring of plants for predictive maintenance, detection of faults in real time, data-driven adjustment of operating parameters for optimized plant performance, AI-based predictions of electricity consumption and generation.

IoT for consumers

In the private sector, the benefits are clear: minimization of energy consumption and associated cost reductions - without rationing or loss of comfort. This is ensured, for example, by networked household appliances and building systems that can be intelligently visualized, monitored, controlled and optimized. The energy consumption and output of electricity storage systems can also be smartly controlled via an IoT link.

IoT for industry

Germany has many energy-intensive sectors of industry. Of course, it cannot be a matter of weakening these sectors via energy reduction; on the contrary, the potential for digital optimization and improvement is enormous. Smart IoT solutions enable smart energy management for virtually any company via intelligent networking - regardless of whether it is a large corporation, a medium-sized business or a small family business. There are now several convincing examples:

Large manufacturing companies rely on smart energy management to record and analyze energy consumption data in their plants. The automotive supplier Magna-Steyr has been able to reduce its electricity consumption by up to ten percent annually in this way, and the trend is rising.
Energy management provider Techem uses Narrowband IoT to help its customers increase their energy efficiency - saving 8.7 million tons of CO2 per year.
Large utilities are building smart grids to efficiently produce and sensibly distribute sustainably sourced energy. Rapid application development platforms such as low-code and no-code are helping them to network, reduce costs and manage resources.
Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom are developing climate-neutral communications networks that intelligently and sustainably connect people and machines.

Conclusion: With Iot to a powerful green infrastructure

The consistent use of innovative digital IoT technologies creates opportunities: It helps energy producers and industry to manage their plants, networks and factories better and more efficiently. It enables private consumers to use and save energy intelligently. Combined together, this is an unbeatable and indispensable prerequisite for building a powerful green infrastructure.