Digitalisation: a driver of decarbonisation

As energy companies around the world navigate the pathway of the energy transition, digitalization proved to be an important role in driving decarbonization. At DNV, we see digital technology and digitalization as key enablers of the transition to a low-carbon energy system. By adopting the technology and tools, companies can streamline complicated processes involved in the design and management of energy systems such as in the case of Engie. We took this opportunity at the Singapore Energy Transition Conference to present a customer case that perfectly demonstrated digitalization’s role in enabling a smooth transition on the pathway to Net-Zero.

Engie’s focus on renewable energy in Southeast Asia

In SEA, ENGIE has numerous projects and more and more renewables. For instance, the 100 MW (AC) solar project in Malaysia, the Large Scale Solar LSS3 located in the Kerian District in Perak.  More recently ComfortDelGro ENGIE Solar Pte Ltd, Engie’s joint venture with ComfortDelGro Engineering Pte Ltd, has been awarded a solar power purchase agreement with Volvo Group Singapore. The solar solution deployed provides approximately 1,148 MWh/year in energy generation and saves carbon emissions equivalent to planting more than 588,000 trees during the contracted period.

Besides that ENGIE has partnerships in the region for developing R&D activities such as the REIDS-SPORE platform. Developed by ENGIE Lab Singapore, the APAC’ research centre of ENGIE, the REIDS-SPORE platform is a multifluid multi-energy microgrid demonstrator. Located on Semakau Landfill in Singapore, the platform itself is meant:

• Develop and test low carbon technologies
• Develop and validate digital solutions that can facilitate carbon-neutral targets
• Develop and test hydrogen-related technologies
• Provide a platform for educational and industrial training to support the energy transition

There has been a lot of return on experiences and lessons learned from the deployment of the ENGIE flagship living lab in Southeast Asia.

DNV’s Solar PV plant design software: transforming the PV development process

Engie’s PV project development process is, at a high level, similar to that of many other PV project developers; it covers the whole development cycle from origination to asset management. According to the design process, each phase is addressed by a multidisciplinary team where each discipline delivers its part with its own tool according to its own logic. The time to iterate designs and converge could sometimes be unnecessarily long without special attention to avoid that by the PV design engineer leading the whole process. Using multiple software packages introduces a lot of data shuffling which adds new risks to project management.

Noting these critical process bottlenecks, ENGIE has turned to DNV’s SolarFarmer pre-construction PV layout and yield analysis software. The SolarFarmer software offers bankable energy yield calculation in both desktop and web API formats, allowing ENGIE to,

• adapt the software to blend efficiently with their in-house teams & processes,
• maintain a single source of truth throughout the PV project development cycle,
• and, with a consistent yield calculation used throughout the process, to reduce the risk of late-stage yield calculation surprises.

The CAD feature helps reduce the bouncing back and forth of the project at the earlier phases between the CAD team and the Business Developers for capacity checks and optimizes the interaction between the CAD team and the Design Engineer as well.

Finally, the ability to use the API to connect a tool for financing evaluation of the solution is the cherry on the cake as this opens the doors to a seamless interaction within a single platform from prospecting to financing.

Interested to know more? Watch the full presentation here and the SolarFarmer product video for an introduction to how the software can support the analysis, simulation and design of solar photovoltaic plants.