Despite setbacks, Siemens bets on smart grids in Chile

Although Chile suffered a major setback in smart meter adoption last year, Siemens Chile remains confident that the country is one of the best places in the region to invest in smart grid technologies.

The company is focusing on providing software solutions to its clients in the generation, distribution and transmission sectors and to large consumers to help them manage the increasing complexity of a rapidly changing network.

The increasing incorporation of renewable energy and battery storage, along with distributed generation and a projected increase in the use of electric vehicles in the coming years, require new solutions, said Carlos Gil, the company's regional portfolio leader of the smart infrastructure unit.

BNamericas spoke with Gil to discuss the future of electric power and Siemens' plans for the business segment.

BNamericas: How can the development of smart grids contribute to Chile's electricity grid in the future?

Gil: Existing grids are already smart grids, in a way, as they already have intelligence that has been built during many years of evolution through the incorporation of electronic and digital-equipment control systems. But a smarter grid is needed to be prepared for all the changes that are coming, such as electromobility: the idea of using the car as a battery that provides services to the grid in the future is already an important issue and one that transforms the foundations of the current power grid.

While that existing power grid is quite robust, from my point of view it is operating at its limit. The existing network is designed to suit demand. Changing all these variables, adding distributed generation and electromobility, storage, batteries, makes this network, which was designed so that energy flows in only one direction, to have to grapple with a bidirectional flow. That network must have more intelligence to manage all these changes and allow them to integrate harmoniously into the network. Especially on the edge, at the juncture where the network meets the user. There you have to place smart services that enable the correct type of communication because the user will not only consume energy, but generate energy and even store it.

This is where Siemens can offer a number of solutions, consulting, services, and network control. We have specific applications for the grid's edge where we can automate and place that intelligence at the service of distributed generation, vehicle charging systems, and for the client to control demand and loads. This is especially relevant for industrial clients or large commercial clients, where you have significant loads that can affect the network quite a bit. You need a great brain that is monitoring all these generation loads and that can give flexibility to the network.

BNamericas: What software services does Siemens offer in the electricity field and why has this area become more of a priority for the company in recent times?

Gil: We have a suite of solutions under the name of Energy IP, Information Platform: it is an energy digitization platform where there are solutions related to products for smart meters, distributed generation, the management of chargers for electric vehicles. It is a very wide range of great solutions. 

Additionally we have consulting services, simulation analysis and simulation of networks.

In one way or another, the world of software is where Siemens sees the future. For many years, the company has been involved with electrical infrastructure, substations, transmission lines, that has been its strength.

However, we are now seeing that there is a market that definitely needs to be exploited, where the competition is going to be very interesting, which is the market for software solutions for the energy sector.

BNamericas: How important is the installation of smart meters in the homes of residential users in order to move forward with issues related to smart grids and smart cities? How can this issue evolve given the difficulties that arose in 2019?

Gil: It is essential. It is very important that regulated customer metering is integrated through a smart meter. Meters are important because what you cannot measure, you cannot improve. Sometimes it is difficult to believe that in these advanced times that we live in, a distribution company cannot know whether or not a specific customer has energy. You have to wait for the customer to call and notify. That does not make sense.

That is where having access to that type of information is important for a smart grid because after all smart meters are sensors at energy delivery points. Their implementation will allow controlling not only if the customer has energy or not, but with what quality the energy is being supplied.

It is very important that smart meters are implemented. The authorities know it and also the distributors, which are initiating internal processes to take up the issue. At this moment, what the regulation is asking for has changed, it is not asking the distributors to install the meters, but to prepare the platform. So that if an end customer requests a smart meter, the distributor is able to install it.

Currently, a lot is invested in investigating what happened to a user, where problems in the grid are located. The smart meter will allow you to focus resources much more efficiently. In the end, this cost reduction is transferred to the end customer.

BNamericas: What characteristics do the Chilean electricity market have that make it attractive for investment related to energy intelligence and smart grids?

Gil: Throughout the entire region and despite what happened in 2019 with the social crisis, Chile is one of the most solid countries from a political and country risk point of view. And you see that the regulators are up to date creating energy policies, Chile has always been at the forefront in this area.

In addition, it is known that there is a great availability of natural resources, sun, wind, water, for the generation of clean energy. This makes it very attractive to investors who are looking at where to do business and where to implement these technologies.

For Siemens, it is very attractive from that point of view because the market is very dynamic and it is a market that is always looking for technology solutions that are related to energy.