Martin Hauske leads Accenture’s Smart Grid business in the Asia Pacific region. He is working on Asset Management, Integrating Renewables, and the shift to new business models for Utilities. Prior to joining Accenture, Martin had worked with another major consulting firm for 15 years in several countries, including Germany and China where he collaborated closely with clients in the utilities, telecommunications and media space. His focus has been on smart metering, renewables integration, and new energy services.
Martin introduced several first-of-a-kind projects during his tenure in China, including the highly visible, Intelligent Distribution Outage Planning at Shanghai Power, which was showcased during the Shanghai Expo.
1. There are many challenges facing the uptake of smart grid solutions in Asia. How can these challenges be overcome and what are some of the potential benefits of smart grids for Asia?
Smart grid solutions offer utilities the opportunity to do more with less, further improving reliability while managing network investments. Additionally, this transformation enables utilities companies to deal with a whole new level of complexity, as they are faced with new trends in consumer energy use, and integrating evolving distributed generation technologies. This is particularly important in light of the increasing use of renewables due to solar reaching grid parity.
Accenture’s view is that by transitioning to a more digitally-enabled grid, utilities are better able to manage the increasing complexity, while ensuring business continuity. As an example, utilities are finding that the analytics associated with smart grid deployments have the potential to significantly reduce costs, improve asset (grid) utilization, defer capital cost and increase control. In addition, technology innovation may help to reduce environmental impact. For instance, more efficient space and water heating or greener transport methods such as electric vehicles.
2. The growth of regional energy trading hubs and flagship connectivity initiatives hold the potential to shape the future of Asian energy requirements. In your opinion, how would the ASEAN Power Grid (APG) impact smart grid opportunities and deployment across ASEAN?
Looking at Europe, the integration of different grids has contributed to a greater energy security and the ability to absorb more intermittent generation, like wind or solar. Having an ASEAN Power Grid (APG) would definitely bring benefits to the grid, although issues around power trading and emission schemes would have to harmonized, in order for the commercial side to be successful.
3. What is your take on an ideal power generation combination which would satisfy both the growing demand for power and the need for sustainable development?
Looking at the decreasing cost of solar and storage, and the improvements in energy efficiency, I believe going forward, that it would be ideal to ensure investment in base load generation be kept to a bare minimum.
4. What are some of the challenges and opportunities in integrating renewable energy sources into distribution networks?
The obvious one is intermittency. This challenge requires exceptionally accurate forecasting. Also, integrating large amounts of renewables requires major investments in grid strengthening, such as Volt/Var management, storage, and step transformers. Meanwhile, the total amount of power sold will likely decrease. The key question for grid companies, is how to cover the cost increase related to network upgrades for smart grid, if ultimately they will be carrying less load.
5. What does “Building Energy Connections” mean for Accenture and your business strategy in Asia?
Based on our research into the Digitally Enabled Grid, and the New Energy Consumer, understanding and building closer connections with your customers is a key opportunity for smart grid, as assets are better managed, and consumers can benefit from better service delivery, reduced interruptions and more choice. At Accenture we are committed to helping the energy industry meet their goals and look forward to contributing our expertise and experience to support this transformation.