E-World 2020: Cybersecurity, hydrogen and digital consumption monitoring

From 11th to 13th February this year experts of the European energy industry will meet for the 20th time at the E-World energy & water in Essen. This time topics such as cyber security or hydrogen are at the top of the agenda. The industry giants e-on and innogy will be presenting themselves even more closely together this year, but each company will still be presenting itself separately. Among other things, the “digital boiler room” will be a topic at innogy once more: a monitoring solution for the housing industry developed by the Dortmund-based Lemonbeat GmbH.

The beginning of the E-World is, as always, the Energy Leadership Meeting on the day before the fair, on 10 February. Here, participants from the management of the energy industry, industry and politics discuss the current challenges, strategies and developments in the sector. This year’s speakers include Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, Minister of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia; Jochen Homann, President of the Federal Network Agency and Dr. Markus Krebber, CFO of RWE AG.

Cyber attacks and hydrogen are important topics at E-World

During E-World, the congress for the energy industry will take place on the first two days of the fair. There, experts share their knowledge on current topics in 16 conferences, workshops and discussion rounds. On Tuesday, the topics will include cyber attacks on energy suppliers and utilitiy cooperations. On Wednesday, the Hydrogen Forum will present solutions for the energy transition, the “Energiewende”. Specifically, the focus will be on the current state of technology, the possibilities in the area of sector coupling and renewable electricity storage as well as the political framework conditions.

The far-reaching restructuring of energy supply and distribution requires smart solutions to guarantee optimized energy use. The basic prerequisite for this further development is compliance with safety requirements – both in terms of operational safety and data protection aspects.

The longstanding e-world exhibitor innogy will also be demonstrating what commitment in the field of IT security can look like. The group has opened the first cyber security training centre for electricity network operators, which is also open to municipal utilities and other network operators. Real conditions of the power grid are simulated on 450 square meters.

Successful energy system transformation also means better monitoring and understanding energy consumption

Among other topics, Innogy will be presenting the “Digital boiler room” (Digitaler Heizungskeller) at its stand this year, a cost-effective retrofit solution for the housing industry for monitoring and controlling boiler rooms. Presented for the first time at the last E-World, first projects with large housing associations in Germany are now already in full swing. Technically, the solution is based on a development by innogy subsidiary Lemonbeat from Dortmund. The Digital Heating boiler room collects status and consumption data from boilers, heat pumps or gas meters and makes this information available to property operators in a clearly structured manner on a monitoring platform. The data is retrieved directly from the devices in the boiler room via various interfaces and forwarded in consolidated form via LTE mobile radio. In addition to pure monitoring, it is also possible to parameterise individual systems remotely.

Energy collection act and delimitation of third-party quantities

The clock is ticking: large consumers still have less than a year to implement the requirements of the Energy Collection Act (EnSaG). The law, which came into force on 1 January 2019, stipulates that companies exempt from EEG contributions must define mandatory third-party volumes by the end of 2020. We have explained what this means for companies in a separate article here on WeSpeakIoT. This will also be a topic at the E-World. In addition, an extensive lecture program will deal with the topics Smart City, Climate Solutions and the energy turnaround, networks and infrastructure as well as innovations in the industry.

E-World 2020 Hall plan and list of exhibitors

Last year, 25,000 visitors from 73 nations came to E-World in Essen. The E-World 2020 hall plan and the list of exhibitors can be found on the official E-World website.