A sustainable future with IoT - deep dive into the Energy sector

The Internet of Things (IoT) has certainly brought ‘smartness’ in everything from people to industries to cities. Utilization of IoT in the energy sector has produced several benefits to the industry, such as an increase in overall efficiency, cost-cutting in productivity, optimization of supply chain and diminishing the energy trading risk factors.

The energy-saving IoT makes use of smart meters and M2M solutions to enable interaction, interoperability and resource sharing between different domains. Smart IoT systems are able to track the consumer usage and connect to smart meters, thus improving the power distribution. Also, these systems reduce power loss, and use of smart readers automatically alerts operators regarding maintenance even before a real issue arises. Apart from these, an IoT system also addresses key issues like a failure in the distribution network, line losses, overloading, fault management, and performance monitoring.

As energy resources deplete day by day, worldwide attention has moved towards achieving energy conservation by searching for alternative energy resources and by deploying IoT solutions.

In order to combat the rising security concerns regarding cyber-attacks, solution providers are developing IoT security solutions to safeguard the connected devices. These solutions are enabling companies to increase operational efficiency. With advancement in next generation sensors and smart mobile applications, many major companies are implementing IoT in the energy sector.

The introduction of an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) enables consumers and utilities to have a two-way communication. This kind of communication allows additional services like remote connection and disconnection of energy that subscribers can employ in case of non-payment of their bill.

Let us take a look at the advantages provided by IoT.

1.   Reduces Problems

As IoT captures data in a large amount from machines, it uncovers valuable insights about the performance of equipment and infrastructure. loT solutions monitor this equipment constantly in order to reduce downtime. They make use of predictive analytics to identify impending problems early in order to avoid unexpected failures. Having your equipment, operations and systems interlinked using IoT solutions significantly alleviate problems.

2.   Increases Convenience

IoT solutions reduce the complexity of managing energy consumption from any given place. It means that devices like your smart phone, tablet and laptop will be able to connect and have access to other smart devices such air conditioner or vacuum cleaner for enhanced usability. This helps the households to conveniently lower bills with intuitive devices.

IoT is expected to drive innovation and could create new business models for the provision of energy services. It may develop new forms of demand management and may lead to creative alternatives to traditional energy consumption patterns. Along with innovation, loT will also bring value. According to a survey by MarketsandMarkets, by 2020, IoT is expected to grow the energy market from $7.59 billion in 2015 to $22.34 billion. IoT-based technology solutions and associated services are anticipated to bring immense value to the energy sector in coming years. Thus, companies must be more flexible in adopting IoT solutions to predict asset performance and smoothly integrate all types of energy in a connected system.