Renewable energy meets IT/OT convergence

New ideas, strategies, and state-of-the-art technology for agricultural businesses as well as the use of renewable energy sources – that's what consulting company Projektplanungs- Beratungs- und Entwicklungs GmbH (PBEG), based in Lichtenegg, Lower Austria, is well known for. Siemens was crucial to giving its customer an economic advantage with Industrial Edge and IT/OT convergence.

The balancing power supplier among the renewables

Biogas plants are filled with biodegradable materials. The end product is methane, which can be temporarily stored. They can produce a so-called base load of electricity. This is a significant difference compared to other renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy: The same amount of electricity – independent of the season or current weather conditions – is continuously generated per hour. The intensive expansion of renewables has also resulted in additional strains on the grid, which manifest themselves in the form of power frequency fluctuations. Biogas plants can stabilize the grid, because the electricity production can be increased or decreased within a few minutes. This is so called positive and negative balancing power, which can be used to balance such fluctuations.

A platform for energy trading

Together with its partner B-SEC better secure KG, PBEG developed the Strom Pool Manager – a centralized platform that allows for the trading of balancing power. Biogas plant operators can use the Strom Pool Manager to announce in advance when and to what extent the respective plant will be available for a balancing power call. The Strom Pool Manager subsequently enables balancing power traders to call up positive or negative balancing power from biogas plants.

Connection between IT and OT

Siemens technology was brought on board to ensure the communication of the biogas plants with the Strom Pool Manager. Joint talks quickly made it clear that Industrial Edge can function as a bridge between the biogas plants from the OT world and the Strom Pool Manager from the IT world. Control units operate approximately 20 to 30 years. As a consequence, the automation technology installed in the biogas plants managed by PBEG is very heterogeneous.

Siemens Industrial Edge is used to bring the control units, which may potentially all differ in terms of product generation and manufacturer, to a common denominator.

So-called Edge Devices can connect to almost all control units and collect data, which can subsequently be depicted in a dashboard or submitted to a server. The only prerequisite is a piece of hardware that needs to be installed. In the case of the partnership between PBEG and Siemens, the Edge Devices, installed in the biogas plants, ensure the communication between the control units and the Strom Pool Manager from PBEG by means of a small, containerized app. Participating operators log into the digital administration tool and indicate the availability of their biogas plants.

When the IT and OT worlds merge

The Industrial Edge Devices at the boundary between the IT and the OT worlds are responsible for data collection as well as the subsequent depiction in the Strom Pool Manager. In the opposite direction, i.e. from the Strom Pool Manager to the biogas plants, the devices enable the power output increases and decreases of the cogeneration units, the technical units of the biogas plants.

This bidirectional data exchange is made possible by the application that runs on the Industrial Edge Device. Given the multiple biogas plant sites in different federal provinces and the corresponding geographic distances involved, remote access features, which are also a part of the Industrial Edge, represent a significant advantage. Connecting to the Strom Pool Manager only requires an Industrial Edge Device installed in the biogas plant. Subsequently, software updates can be rolled out via the Industrial Edge Management, which identifies all connected Industrial Edge Devices and establishes remote connections. 

The Industrial Edge solution is currently being used in a pilot project that includes several biogas plants in different federal states. Following the successful completion of the pilot, additional biogas plants will be connected to the Strom Pool Manager via Industrial Edge. This will allow them to participate in the balancing power market, opening up new opportunities for biogas plants in the context of energy transition and the energy mix.

This article was originally published as an Industry Stories article, which can be found here.

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