Leveraging Smart Energy Management System to Build a Sustainable Energy Future

India's energy landscape is witnessing a phenomenal transformation, marked by propelling growth in clean and renewable energy and the adoption of the latest digital technologies to usher in resilient and sustainable energy infrastructure.

Energy is at the core of powering India's rapid economic and industrial growth and electrifying millions of households in rural areas. At the same time, the growing energy demands of the world's third-largest energy-consuming country¹ creates a challenge for the Government that has vowed to reduce the emissions intensity of its economy to 45 percent by 2030². An estimate suggests that India will soon become the world’s most populous country, adding 270 million people to the urban population by 2040¹, making energy management critical and imperative for the nation's sustainable development and future prosperity.

Partnering with the Government in the ambitious task of building India's sustainable energy future, Hitachi, a globally recognized OT x IT leader and a major player in the Energy sector, is actively collaborating with the Government, policy makers, academia, business partners, and communities at large to build resilient energy infrastructure and achieve India’s ambitious goal of becoming net zero by 2070².

India’s “Net Zero” Target

Digitalization – The Key to Reducing Carbon Footprint

Advancements in technology and a favorable ecosystem that boosts on-site renewable energy are the twin factors encouraging institutions and organizations to manage their energy footprint and carbon emissions. Besides fulfilling their sustainability goals, this brings an added benefit of reduced electricity costs and self-reliance and resilience in the face of power outages.

A Smart Energy Management (SEM) system is one such enabling technology that is leveraging the connectivity that the Internet of Things (IoT) brings to track, measure, control, and optimizes energy consumption throughout the building or office complexes. To further fuel their sustainable growth, organizations are increasingly implementing onsite renewable generation, mostly solar energy systems to take advantage of India's tropical climate, to become self-reliant in energy production along with battery storage to save the surplus output and use the same during peak hours or lower output periods.

Another paradigm shift in the energy industry is the adoption of microgrids, energy storage, electric mobility, localized grids for cities, communities, and campuses that are self-sufficient and can disconnect from the traditional grids to operate independently. The capability of microgrids to provide power backup in case of emergencies such as power outages greatly enhances the resilience of the grid and the community to handle any crisis, besides contributing towards the nation's clean energy future.

Collaborating for a Sustainable Energy Future

The challenging task of becoming a net-zero society will require powerful collaborations between all stakeholders, painstaking research, and technology competency enhancement. Extending its spirit of Collaborative Creation, global technology pioneer Hitachi Energy is actively partnering with the Government, policy makers, academia, industries, and campuses to leverage intelligent and futuristic energy systems for building a resilient, low-carbon future. To set up a model of sustainable growth, Hitachi Energy is collaborating with IIT Roorkee, a leading technical institution in India, to build an intelligent and sustainable campus energy ecosystem.