Case studies: IoT in the power industry

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6 hours ago

The Internet of Things (IoT), which refers to the use of connected sensors and actuators to control and monitor the environment, the things that move within it and the people that act within it, will transform the power industry. It will help tackle five key power industry challenges: modernising ageing grids, accelerating the energy transition, improving productivity and efficiency, strengthening energy security and enhancing workforce safety. This article presents selected case studies highlighting the impact of IoT within the power industry.
In November 2024, AWS announced that it had partnered with Siemens Energy to develop a unified industrial internet platform to manage and analyse manufacturing asset data across the original equipment manufacturer's global operations.
Siemens Energy's previous setup was fragmented, with manufacturing asset data siloed across factories running standalone IoT systems, making it difficult to standardise analytics and drive cross-site efficiencies. Integration was also difficult due to a mix of greenfield and brownfield assets running on more than 10 machine data protocols. Legacy equipment also required costly, hard-to-configure hardware to extract useable data.
To overcome these challenges, Siemens Energy collaborated with AWS to build the Connected Factory, a centralised platform powered by AWS IoT SiteWise. The platform standardises manufacturing asset data collection, storage and analysis across all factories. Siemens Energy used AWS IoT SiteWise Edge to connect legacy and modern equipment without needing to install additional hardware, accelerating deployment. Siemens Energy has also integrated AWS partner Domatica's EasyEdge tool with AWS IoT Sitewise to enable data ingestion from more than 10 industrial standards, helping to unify previously incompatible data streams. Collected data is securely stored in AWS's Simple Storage Service (S3). Engineers and factory teams can access real-time operational insights through customised dashboards powered by Amazon Managed Grafana, improving asset monitoring and decision-making.
A centralised AWS account governs the platform's architecture, while local AWS accounts give individual factories operational control. Factory teams can request new equipment connections by submitting support tickets to the central IoT team. Most installation and configuration steps are automated, reducing complexity and supporting efficient scaling.
Connected Factory has already improved speed, cost and reliability across Siemens Energy's operations. There are now 18 live factories, supporting 30 custom use cases in areas such as equipment maintenance, energy management and process transparency. Assets such as large autonomous vehicles, robots and computer numerical control machines are connected. Manual data collection times have fallen 50%, boosting data accuracy and transparency. Maintenance costs are down by 25%, while machine availability is up by 15%. Factory teams now detect and respond to equipment anomalies faster, improving quality and accelerating project timelines. Siemens Energy plans to scale Connected Factory across its 80 factories globally, while also integrating AI into the platform to enhance production efficiency.
Vattenfall is optimising wind turbine design with IoT-based "digital twins" to optimise wind turbine design, operations and maintenance, aiming to maximise return on investment for offshore wind farms. The company's digital twins cover its fleet of more than 1,300 wind turbines, with a capacity of around 6.1GW across five European countries. IoT sensors installed on each turbine collect real-time data on structural behaviour, operational performance (rotor speed, power output and vibration levels) and environmental conditions (wind speed, temperature and humidity). The IoT sensors transmit this data into a centralised digital twin platform, offering a comprehensive overview of the entire fleet and detailed insights into individual turbines.
Vattenfall believes digital twins can optimise turbine designs by addressing discrepancies between design assumptions and real-world performance. Michael Sandholm Jepsen, technical authority support for structure integrity at Vattenfall, notes: 'Digital twins [have] demonstrated that the wear and tear on wind turbines is lower than predicted in the original designs.' Such insights enable efficient turbine designs, reduce costly over-engineering, and optimise maintenance schedules, leading to long-term cost savings. Vattenfall has already used data from digital twins to incorporate 10-year upfront lifetime extensions into original designs for two of its latest wind farm projects.
Vattenfall's digital twins have also identified opportunities to reduce steel use in turbine construction, resulting in significant cost savings. Additionally, digital twins enable fewer physical inspections and support proactive maintenance by pinpointing underperforming turbines, allowing for corrective remedies. Vattenfall plans to participate in a joint industry project to review offshore wind codes and standards, using findings from digital twins to guide future modifications.
In July 2024, Engie Group's EV charging business Engie Vianeo partnered with BICS to upgrade 50,000 EV charging stations across Western Europe with real-time, cellular-based IoT connectivity. Engie Vianeo had previously relied on black-box devices to collect charging station data. These devices had to be physically retrieved to access and process the data, an extremely inefficient process that slowed decision-making.
The company is now transitioning to BICS' SIM for Things IoT connectivity platform, equipping each charging station with a SIM card to enable real-time data transmission, remote monitoring and over-the-air software updates. This will allow staff at Engie Vianeo's European supervisory centre to perform remote maintenance and troubleshooting, while insights enhance analytics on station use. Customers will also benefit from a dedicated mobile app that provides live charger availability and charging status updates, helping them better plan journeys. Engie Vianeo will gain visibility across its connected charging network, supporting faster, smarter and more scaleable operations.
The initiative supports Engie Vianeo's goal to scale its EV charging network in line with EU regulations mandating expanded charging infrastructure. Engie Vianeo plans to have 12,000 charge points in France and 3,000 in Belgium by the end of 2025. The company aims to offer a complete range of mobility solutions, from installing charging infrastructure through to power supply, maintenance, and servicing.
Major power companies such as Engie are increasingly integrating EV charging stations into their portfolios and business strategies, driven by growing consumer demand for cleaner transportation, regulatory pressures and an overarching need to modernise grid infrastructure.
"Case studies: IoT in the power industry" was originally created and published by Power Technology, a GlobalData owned brand.
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