Energy, utilities and Big Data: will Enel – or other operators who want to get involved – “steal” Google's job? The scenario is concrete and those involved in energy, the digital transformation of networks and the colossal transition process underway from fossil fuels to that of renewable sources, already in orbit, consider it a not so distant outcome.
The signs are all there and experts, researchers and managers discussed energy, the digital revolution and international scenarios on Wednesday at Enea. So let's look at some clues. It is no coincidence that a multinational like Enel turned on the spotlights during the last presentation of the 2018-20 three-year plan in London, on the new Enel X division. It will become the e-Solutions operating arm but it is not just a question of a change of brand. The digital revolution, in which the group will invest 5,3 billion over the three-year period (600 more than the previous plan) will be 80% dedicated to networks. In fact, Francesco Starace, CEO of Enel explained a few days ago, it is a necessary step since the current level of digitization of the distribution network allows it to handle no more than 40% of electricity from renewables - and we are already close to the threshold – when Italy's goals are to rise to 55% in 2025 and those of Europe to reach 80% in 2050.
But this need incorporates another, namely that of launching new services to create value in a context in which the European energy efficiency objectives (+30% by 2030) tend to reduce consumption for the same use. Technological advancement does the rest. And just as Google is preparing to enter the automotive sector with its self-driving car, Amazon is replacing the post office to deliver millions of parcels, Facebook plans to replace the banks for the transactions of over 2 billion active users, the revolution digital technology is opening up scenarios that were unthinkable for energy utilities until a few years ago. A first start of "contamination" has already been seen with Open Fiber where Enel, which controls 50% of the capital, has wrong-footed Telecom Italia in the construction of the new national fiber optic network. Acea has already signed an agreement with OF on Rome and A2A is evaluating what to do in Milan.
On the other hand, "in a world where the traditional boundaries between industrial sectors such as telecommunications, banking and energy are becoming increasingly permeable and blurred - observes Francesco Venturini, head of Enel X in a recent interview with Repubblica - it also becomes necessary broaden its borders towards new growth opportunities. In this context of growing competition, further amplified by the new potential offered by digitalisation, it is necessary to create new opportunities of value for the group". So much so that Enel aims to bring the gross margin for smart services to companies from 143 to 488 million in three years, from 98 to 261 million for the home, from 132 to 216 million the expected margin for e-cities and from 2 to 86 million that for electric mobility, we also see that from all these activities it will be able to obtain a lot of data.
Giovan Battista Zorzoli, president of Free and a great energy expert, in his forthcoming book “Which electricity market?” dedicates a long chapter to the scenarios opened up by Disruptive Technologies. "The digitization of energy - he says - will allow utilities to store a large amount of data: when we turn on the light we let it be known that we have woken up, when we turn it off we signal that we are going out, when we charge the electric car we "say" that we are at work. The smart home gives other information about our consumption habits and so on”. The data mining will it therefore also become an activity for the energy giants? Times are not immediate, but the premises are all there. “Today – Venturini points out – the data business is concentrated on the advertising market where the lion's share goes to the large over-the-top operators. Enel also has billions of data as potential but manages them with great care and always in compliance with laws and consumers”. Which, translated, means that customer profiling affects privacy and the regulation imposes limits to be respected at the moment. But Zorzoli already goes further, looks at the gains that open up the new scenarios linked to Big Data and argues that "the benefits that can be achieved should be equally distributed between utilities and consumers".
In conclusion, Big Data for utilities is still a taboo but the technological transition – in energy as in other sectors – is accelerating times monstrously. Let's get ready for take off.
