Smart Grid as a disruptive digital innovation

Smart Grid as a disruptive digital innovation

Climate change, the rising cost of energy and the mass electrification of everyday life are major concerns that drives the need for change in electricity use. (Farhangi, 2010) Although the demand for electricity has increased, the electrical infrastructure has remained unchanged over the past 100 years. (C. Gongor, 2011) To address these challenges, the smart grid has been introduced as the next generation of electric power system. Although authors state different definitions of the Smart Grid, this study holds on to the definition from C. Gongor et al., 2011, pp. 529 “The smart grid is a modern electric power grid infrastructure for improved efficiency, reliability and safety, with smooth integration of renewable and alternative energy sources, through automated control and automated communications technologies.” Since the first introduction of the Smart Grid in 2009, the electrical power industry has been undergoing rapid change. (Smart Grid, 2018) This massive transformation disrupts not only technologies, but also different levels of industries, organizations and business processes. (Farhangi, 2010) Electricity becomes an information and communication platform for new entrants in order to optimize energy usages and provide innovative services.

The paper analyses disruptive digital innovation smart grid and is divided into three sections: Nature of Smart Grid technology (Section 1) elaborates on particular characteristics of smart grids and explains the consequence it has for new products and services; Industry-level Dynamics (Section 2) provides a detailed analysis of smart grid’ implications and disruption for distinct industries, as well as it describes whether it has positive or negative effects on the industry level; Finally, the last section, Firm-level Dynamics (Section 3) evaluates the implication of smart grid and its disruption for firms, including firms’ respond to it.

Nature of Smart Grid technology

The technology of Smart Grid has been a disruptive innovation for various industries, companies and business processes. In order to explain this more in-depth, this  section elaborates on the particular Smart Grid deployments, characteristics and the consequences it has for the development of new products and services.

Smart Grid deployments

The smart grid enables efficient and reliable delivery of electricity from suppliers to organizations and consumers. Smart energy management systems are aligned with the advanced smart grid infrastructure (see image below), that enable two-way digital communication between energy companies and many smart household devices. Communication between them can be used to increase transparency, reduce costs, control energy demand/supply and save energy. There are fundamental requirements for smart grid deployments to improve energy efficiency and drive consumers participation smart grid programs.

Smart Grid deployments have some key requirements:

• Reliable networking across a diverse range of devices
• Compatibility and interoperability with established consumer home networking technologies
• Ubiquitous reach to connect all electricity-using devices throughout the home environment
• Low cost and low power network interfaces for “embedding” in any device
• Cross compatibility between wired and wireless Smart Grid applications
• Robust standards and third party certification mechanisms to ensure universal interoperability amongst connected devices
• An ability to reach throughout the home using existing wiring, without requiring any new wiring

There is a wide range of utility manufacturers and companies that are adopting standard communications and networking technologies to ensure high quality standards, help customers to reduce energy consumption, and use energy smartly.

Smart Grid Characteristics

The fundamental properties of smart grid technology which are related to the requirements are connectivity, reprogrammability, modularity and digital traces. Well-adjusted, they provide an environment of open and flexible opportunities that can be used to create novel and meaningful products and services to measure, control, store and distribute energy efficiently.

Connectivity

More and more applications and electric products are connected to each other. Therefore, an efficient use of energy for these applications and products is crucial within the transition towards sustainable energy supply. For example, smart home energy (Eneco Toon – de slimme thermostaat) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. This is also connected to interoperability, where different products, like cars, are connected to a home charging point.

Smart grid can be connected to several applications simultaneously. Via these applications it is possible for governments to easily control and monitor objects. For example, FlexOV, which is used to manage streetlights and energy malfunctions (CGI Nederland, 2018).

Besides connecting applications, Smart Grid can provide a two-way communication between both, firms and a firm and a customer. In this case, the firm is the utility center and the customers are all energy consumers. A smart meter is a tool that makes this two-way communication possible. The meter collects data from appliances and communicates this to the utility center (Darby, 2010). Through the grid it is also possible for utility centers to see at which times the energy demand is at its peak. This helps them to reduce energy costs and waste (Homeplug, 2018).

Reprogrammability and smart

For a community where renewable energy is being produced it can be programmed towards the best fit for usage and storage. Whereas the production of renewable energy is volatile this is reprogrammable to smart usage and storage.  

In addition, the smart programming can be used for streetlights, like TVIlight uses their intelligent street light solutions, whereas they only are active when a person or vehicle is close. This makes it easier for utility companies to be effective with their energy usage and improve safety outdoor.

Modularity

Undoubtedly, smart grid is a modular technology, its standardized interface that allows to add various modules and reprogram system depending on user preferences and renewable energy variables such as wind or solar power. These modules are units whose elements are powerfully connected among themselves and relatively weakly connected to elements in other units (Baldwin & Clark, 2000: 63).

Digital traces

Usage of energy for different products leaves a huge amount of data which can be an input for different emerging products and services. Data generation can take place at different markets, organizations or applications (Smart grid infrastructure market prospects 2018-2022, 2018). The importance of smart grid here concerns the data exploitation and homogenization of energy usage where this data can be used for other purposes. Where before, for example a solar installation company had to ask for data about the consumers energy usage at an energy utility company it can now directly make use of the data through the smart grid platform itself. After the solar panels are installed, it is legally required to register to energieleveren.nl the platforms so other applications or systems can use this data for other purposes (Energie leveren, 2018).

Consequences

Smart grid technology impacts the development of future electric power trends, products and services as well as it influences innovation management approaches.  Smart grid may be seen as a vision of a future grid, rather than an incremental change, since it requires technical and cultural transformations. Each of above described smart grid’s characteristics, consequently, results in a change of industrial dynamics (Christensen, 1995).

First of all, smart grid’s ability to connect various applications into one system leads to high interoperability, which is considered to be a lynchpin of a smart grid success. Realizing a high level of interoperability is essential to create more reach and vibrant market ecosystem for electric supply. Ability of smart grid technologies to interoperate strongly with each other drives network externalities, enables new business models, systems optimization and fosters innovation. Due to smart grid open interface module, grid operators may insure grid’s distribution reliability and make cost-efficient adjustments to the infrastructure, while metering points can be easily implemented at strategic points in distribution grids at low cost (https://www.efen.com/en/products/innovations/smart-grid-interface/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. - EFEN, 2018). In other words, standardized open interfaces allow to connect various application and make infrastructural modifications easily at a relatively low cost. Furthermore, smart grid interoperability may attract more entities to develop new applications that can be integrated or connected to a smart grid.

As smart grids technologies increase in popularity and the more people use it, the higher is the value of it. This is defined as network effect (Katz, M. L. and Shapiro, C. 1994), additional to the product generated value, extra value is derived from the ability to interact with other users via applications, purchase and exchange energy.

Secondly, there is a variety of specialized software companies that provide smart grid solutions and software updates. These companies reprogram electronic grids, featuring optimal distribution network infrastructure management depending on renewable energy variables (wind, solar power etc.).  According to Zittrain (2006), because of reprogrammable nature of smart grids, technology exhibits a procrastinated binding of form and function, which means that new capabilities can be added after a product or a tool has been designed and produced. Therefore, the product is malleable and incomplete, since many parties are working on its constant improvement and shaping the demand. That implies distributed collaboration, continuous development of smart grid platform and its ecosystem.

In conjunction, smart grid’s connectivity and programmability leads to servitization. As mentioned previously, smart grid can be considered as an electric power grid infrastructure. While traditional power systems are based on solid information and communication infrastructure, smart grid is a hybrid that requires different and much more complex system, where products and services are integrated. There is a great interdependency between smart grid technologies: smart grid, meter, home, grid power and applications cannot be separated, as artifacts require services and vice versa (Barrett et al. 2015).

Layered modular architecture of smart grid technology is generated through standardizing interfaces between units, which makes it a platform. Consequently, the platform and its modules form an ecosystem (Gawer, 2012). Within these ecosystems competitors can take advantage of one of the platforms by adjusting one or more units. This may result in value-added for smart grid users, the platform itself or a loss to one of the original companies. Modularity is a crucial condition for combinatorial innovation (Baldwin and Clark 2000, Schilling 2000). With physical and digital modular designs, others are able to add layers to smart grid, thus, modularity may foster innovation and require new management approaches.

Data collection is an essential operation in smart grids (V.C. Gungor, B. Lu, and G.P. Hancke, 2010) using wireless sensor networks. There is a periodical data collection from every smart meter that generates power usage in a smart grid. This data is typically used for demand and supply projection, however it can be also used for other purposes (Bilfina B. E., Gungorb V.C. 2016). Being pervasive and reprogrammable digital technology, smart grids allow others to start mining, streaming, integrating and analyzing data collected by smart grid for other innovative projects. Such derivative innovations add new layers of affordances to those digital products and services (Economist 2010). The reuse of data and use of its digital traces is now reflected in the popular idea of  “big data”. Data homogenization makes it easier for developers to create new applications that can be connected to smart grid system, hence developing new products. Therefore, the increasing functionality of the data collected can result in new innovations.

These fundamental properties of smart grid technology may consequently lead to new products creation, specifically, the development of new applications and software solutions for smart infrastructure, as well as foster innovation and new management approaches.

Industry-level Dynamics

The following section analyzes the energy industry that has been affected and disrupted by the Smart Grid Technology, as well as it describes effects that cause changes in industry dynamics.   

Electrical power industry

As discussed above, the Smart Grid technology affected different industries and markets through the different characteristics and consequences of the technology. The electricity power industry is undergoing rapid change. This industry has been run mainly by Distributed System Operator’s (DSOs). DSOs are the operating managers, and sometimes, owner, of energy distribution networks. Transmission grids transport large quantities of high voltage electricity across vast distances, where it is transformed into lower voltages distributed to all end-users through the distribution network. The over-head and/or underground cables leading to the end users’ home or businesses operated by DSOs. In this case, there is a distinction between two types of consumers. (1) The electricity power industry (infrastructure by DSOs) that is disrupted by the Smart Grid technology, and (2) the end-users of electricity that are affected by the sustaining innovation.

Before the introduction of the Smart Grid technology in 2009, energy systems from power generation to households were one-directional and based on more predictable, controllable and centralised power generation as shown in figX, adapted from European

Distribution System Operators' Association for Smart Grids. This concerns the traditional way of supply and demand of energy.

Source: https://www.edsoforsmartgrids.eu/home/why-smart-grids/

The Smart Grid technology has created Business Model challenges for the DSOs in order to only distribute one-way and forced the companies to care about data, quality of service and security of electricity supply. Although the increasing demand of electricity, the new Smart Grid technology creates an increasingly complex environment for DSOs that is introduced to lower the electricity use worldwide, which makes the Smart Grid technology financially unattractive for the electricity power industry. Beside Smart Grid technology, more energy is being generated locally and connected directly to distribution network, for example solar panels, small power plants and wind turbines, which makes the distribution through the Smart Grid increasingly challenging. The new distribution industry now changed to a more complex process of supply and demand without being more profitable, as shown in figure X (REFERENCE). According to study of Christensen (2006), a financially unattractive technology that involves business model problems throughout the process, the Smart Grid technology can be defined as a disruptive innovation for the electricity power industry.

The second type of consumer that is affected by the Smart Grid technology consists of the end-users, that are part of the demand side for the electricity power industry. Energy power delivery is moving toward a more dynamic, service-based, market-driven infrastructure, where energy efficiency and savings are facilitated more interactive (Smart Houses for Smart Grids).   https://www.ecn.nl/publicaties/PdfFetch.aspx?nr=ECN-M--09-110 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (source). This is provided by the help of ICT and smart electricity networks. For both B2B and B2C the same conditions are provided. The end-users before and after the introduction of the Smart Grid technology remain the same. According to Christensen (2006), for these are attractive customers in existing markets that have a better product of energy delivery for a higher price by purchasing smart meters, the Smart Grid technology can be defined as a sustaining innovation for the end-users of electricity.

Stakeholder	Main SmartGrids system needs and roles
Consumers	Consumption of energy products and services. This is the end- user of electricity. Categories of consumers are residentials, households, and communities. As consumers we also consider SMEs, industries and electricity-intensive industries. A speci c example of a consumer category is the set of users with spe- cialized mobility requirements for hybrid or pure electric ve- hicles. These users need mobility interfaces with quality and security of supply of the electricity system.
Prosumers	Consumers with the additional role of self-provided (owned) electricity generation and/or storage for private, daily life needs, comfort and SME business needs.
Energy Retailers	Selling energy and other (related) services and products to consumers. Retailers will develop consumer oriented pro- grammes and offerings.
Aggregators	Broking energy on behalf of a group or groups of prosumers
Energy Service Companies (ESCOs)	Provision of a broad range of comprehensive energy solu- tions, including designs and implementation of energy savings projects, energy conservation, energy infrastructure outsourc- ing, power generation and energy supply and risk manage- ment.
Electric Appliance users	The use of electrical appliances at consumer sites for daily life and business needs will increase due to substitution of (fossil based) space heating requirements. The users will be required to interface their needs with quality and security of supply needs of the electricity system.
Electric Vehicle users	A hybrid or pure electric vehicle is a specialized electricity con- sumer with mobility requirements. The users will be required to interface mobility needs with quality and security of supply needs of the electricity system.
Generators	Large scale centralized generation including wind farms.
Distributed Generators	Small- and medium-scale generation of mainly renewable based electricity either for third party consumers or for own consumption.
Storage Providers	Delivery of storage products and services, including their main- tenance and operation thereby shifting electricity and energy consumption in time either for third parties or own purposes.
Ancillary Service Providers	Provision of services such as Power Balancing, Voltage Pro le Support, Frequency and Time and Blackstart
ICT equipment and systems providers	Sales of Information and Communication Technology (ICT Sys- tem) products and services.
Telecommunications providers	Provision of telecommunication services, based on dedicated or public infrastructure
Data processing service providers	Provision of data processing services respecting consumer pri- vacy
Energy Equipment & Systems Manufactur- ers	Sales of Electro-technology (System) products and services.
Distribution System Operators (DSOs)	Provision of services for secure, ef cient and sustainable op- eration of electricity distribution systems. Legal obligation of a high quality, secure planning, operation and maintenance of the distribution grid.
Transmission System Operators (TSOs)	Provision of services for a secure, ef cient and sustainable operation of transmission system. Legal obligation of a high quality, secure planning, operation and maintenance of the transmission grid.
Wholesale Electricity Market Traders	Provision of market based prices for products and services by liquid electricity markets.
Policy makers, Regulators	Setup and control of natural monopoly requirements and for highly effective electricity markets.
Electricity Market Operators	Operators of market places for energy and other energy prod- ucts and services

Change of dynamics

Within the energy industry there are different markets that are affected by the Smart Grid in a positive or negative way. The following markets will be discussed: Wind Integration, PV integration, Electricity Storage and EV Charging. Therefore, there are two main segmented markets: Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C).

Business to Business (B2B)

Wind integration

The introduction of smart grid has potential to positively affect the market for wind integration. The wind power integration has different challenges and impacts. The variability of wind power integration is a challenge as it depends on environmental conditions which are uncontrollable. In the traditional demand-side driven systems, it is complicated to generate large levels of renewable energies. This requires additional operational reserves and costs. With smart grid there is potential to balance fluctuations and intermittencies that will occur when multiple and irregular suppliers are integrated into the power system. Results acquired from simulators show that the old passive loads have the potential to become a resource of wind’s variability. (Broeer, Fuller, Tuffner, Chassin & Djilali, 2014)

PV integration

The integration of the Smart Grid and Solar energy from photovoltaic have positive effects for the B2B segment. Integration is done with the traditional power generation, which results in having localized and the required sized power plants with reductions in transmission loss, no environmental troubles and increased efficiency. As the shares of energy retrieved from PV is increasing in the total basket of energy, it is required that energy storage with PV- Grid tied systems are integrated. This integration will boost the reliability enhanced power supply and delivery of electricity which in turn adds value to customers and utilities. (Kaur, 2015)

Besides the two markets described above there are two more markets: Electricity Storage and EV Charging. Energy storage can be described as saving up energy to use at a later time (Dunn, Kamath & Tarascon, 2011). This market has a positive effect on the smart grid technology instead of the other way around. Energy storage adds many benefits to the technology e.g. when the energy demand is at peak, energy storage can relief the grid from all the traffic (Gilbert, 2015).

EV Charging also known as Electric Vehicle charging is positively affected by the Smart Grid. Most of the time consumers with EV’s immediately start charging when they arrive home after work. However, this has a negative effect for utility centers as the consumers start charging when the demand of energy is at peak, which could result in surpassing the emergency rating and cause problems. Through Smart Grid the traffic of all the energy demand can be easily monitored and cause less problems. (S. Lang, 2010)

All things considered, Smart grid has mainly positive effects on the markets within Business to Business (B2B) segment.

Business to Consumer (B2C)

In the Business to Consumer (B2C) segment, the Smart Grid provides benefits for end customers. One of the most important benefits is reliability, which is a common concern for all stakeholders of the grid. End-consumers are therefore consequently better of with the smart grid, as it enhances the reliability as discussed before. Secondly, smart grid can provide a two-way communication between firm and consumer. This connection is made possible by the Smart Meter. Through this meter data is transmitted between households and utility centers (Darby, 2010). As of today, this leads to many benefits for consumers. For example, power outages no longer need to be reported by consumers, reports of usage can be automated and saves time for the customer. The Smart Meter can easily communicate this through internet technology which results in a reduction of the amount and duration of outages.

In contrast, the two-way communication requires sharing information about how they use energy and thus exposing the customers to privacy invasions. Here, several security and privacy concerns arise as negative effects of smart grids. Moreover, because grid customers are connected over a vast network of computerized meters and infrastructure, they and the infrastructure itself become vulnerable to scalable network-borne attacks (McDaniel, 2009).

As evident in other physical infrastructure domains, the computerization of the electrical grid enables remote attacks to scale even beyond national borders. For example, researchers recently created a worm that spread between smart meters (McLaughlin 2010). This isn’t surprising: meters are built on easily obtainable commodity hardware and software and will be subject to many or all of the maladies of Internet life. Meter bots, distributed denial-of-service attacks, usage loggers, smart meter rootkits, meter-based viruses, and other malware are almost certainly in these devices’ future.

Some other negative sound comes from a group of people who believe that the Smart Grid can have negative effects on their health because of the usage of countless signals. However, the World Health Organization has proven that this is not the case (Gilbert, 2015).

Ultimately, the changes in industry-level dynamics that are caused by Smart Grids are predominantly positive for B2B segment, since its’ ecosystem is enriched with the benefits that are revealed from Smart Grids characteristics. On the other hand, in B2C segment, the change is customer needs and related reliability and security has contradictory effect in the dynamics of the whole industry.

Due to intelligence features of Smart Grids, there is a potential to decrease projected demand across high energy consuming markets. Moreover, it is essential to ensure that a compatible infrastructure is put in place in parallel (Smart grid SRA 2035, 2012), since countries set more and more ambitious targets for renewable energy. Hence, there is a considerable potential that industry dynamics can be changed, whereas smart grids can be implemented and governed on a global scale.

Firm-level Dynamics

The last section analysis the implications of Smart Grid and disruption for organizations. The disruption for organizations is analyzed by researching one of the most prominent and dominant organization group in the energy industry, the (European) Distribution System Operators. DSOs are the organizations with the highest investment in smart grid (mainly demonstration) projects (Aalbers, 2011). The strong DSOs interest in innovation projects is their way of responding to the rapid changes that are occurring in the distribution segment (Agrell, 2013). Smart grid technologies and solutions are expected to radically change local electricity industry and markets at the distribution level (Ruester, Perez-Arriaga, Schwenen, Batlle, & Glachant, 2013), creating opportunities but also posing challenges to the reliability and efficiency of system operation. In most countries, DSOs are therefore proactively investigating and testing new solutions, as well as new roles and business models, in order to get ready to take up the new tasks, responsibilities and opportunities that are shaping up in the evolving smart grid power systems.

With growing penetration levels of renewable and dispersed power resources, electric vehicles and active demand-side participation, DSOs play an increasingly important role in facilitating effective and well-functioning retail markets. Their traditional role is swiftly evolving towards neutral market facilitators or information hub providers, granting energy end-users with the possibility to opt for better energy contracts and allowing retail companies to offer options and services best tailored to customer needs (Peeters, 2009).

In the future DSOs will also be increasingly required to perform more (pro-) active grid development, management and operation, as the ongoing changes in the distribution sector place new requirements on the networks in terms of operational security, while offering at the same time more options for the DSOs to manage their grids in a more flexible and efficient way (van den Oosterkamp, et al., 2014).

In this context, DSOs appear as one of the leading actors in smart grid projects in EU. Such projects explore the roles DSOs may play in data handling and provision and at the same time make use of flexibility services and performing local balancing activities to deliver better outcomes to the end-users. They also explore the synergies with other actors along the supply chain. Technology manufacturers, ICT and telecom companies, TSOs as well as public institutions appear as organisations the DSOs mostly collaborate with and these mutually beneficial.

This figure presents a circular representation of the weighted relationships among the 15 organization categories. The perimeter of the circle is the total smart grid investment, divided into 15 unequal segments in accordance with the respective investment by each category. The chords connecting the different categories illustrate the collaboration level between stakeholders, where a thicker chord illustrates a stronger collaboration. In a project with several partners, there can be multiple organisations from the same category. For instance, a single project can include three DSOs and one technology manufacturer, each of them participating with a similar budget. However, in this case, DSOs would invest more in this collaboration; hence the thickness between the two ends of a chord in the chart. Nearly all of the 15 segments (stakeholder categories) have a portion that does not send/receive any chord. These portions show the budget related to the internal collaboration of these organisations (e.g. DSOs collaborating with other DSOs).

An insight that can be derived from the analysis of the projects in the database of Gangale et al. is that DSOs are still proceeding with R&D projects, mainly together with universities and research centres. These collaborations are mainly targeting tools and ICT services for the efficient integration of distribution generation & storage (DG&S) in networks. In addition, the increasing renewable energy sources and provision of ancillary services (e.g. voltage control) are managed by the development of new operational and control strategies  

Incumbent Firms Respond

Besides DSO’s there are other incumbent firms in the energy industry which are affected by the implementation of smart grids. While there are many reasons to believe that these firms will embrace smart grid and innovate their business model towards sustainability, there are still many uncertainties related to government support, new entrants, and consumer engagement that might induce them to wait with business model innovation until such uncertainties have been resolved (A. Shomali, 2015; Bergek, 2013). In resources and capabilities terms ,  if a change in the business model would change the dominant logic of the industry (Sabatier et al., 2012) and weaken the value of incumbents’ resources and capabilities, resistance seems likely (Bohnsack et al., 2014).

In addition, how the smart grid will affect firm’s resources and capabilities, and whether they will embrace or resist the technology, depends to a great extent on their organizational structure (Amit and Zott, 2001; Chesbrough, 2010). There is the issue of how skilled firms are in managing and renewing their existing resource portfolio (Teece, 2007). That is, are they able to change their resources and capabilities themselves or to cooperate with other firms to gain access to complementary assets needed to change their business model? The willingness of key decision-makers in electricity firms to make bold decisions with regard to reconfiguring resources and capabilities is a significant factor for business model innovation (Lavie, 2006; Teece, 2007).

A compelling example of an incumbent firm that is able to change their capabilities themself and responded to the introduction of smart grids is Vandebron, an energy utility company. Where the focus of their business model was to connect local owners of renewable sources to customers nearby the source, is now shifting towards storage of energy in electric vehicles and charging when there is no shortage of electricity (filmpje: Vandebron, 2018). The new application which is launched end of 2017, makes it possible for consumers to smart charge their vehicle using the VDB application on their smartphone. Within the company, a new department has derived to put the focus on the electric vehicle storage and charging market, this department has grown within a few months from 2 fte to 10 fte ( whereas the total of the company itself is around 110 fte). This market segmentation is based on the introduction of smart grids and the interconnected ICT services for efficient integration of DG&S and blockchain technologies. Due to these technological developments it is possible to earn money as a electric car owner by renting out their car battery to Vandebron (N.Hosseini, 2017, Vandebron Elektrisch Rijden pilot, 2017).

New players exploit the opportunities of smart grids by implementing AI, IoT or big data with a focus on interconnective management software platforms. An example of such a start up is Watty, a Swedish company targeting the smart home market. With the use of hardware, watty box for home, and an application, Watty app, it is possibly to know what appliances are running in the home environment, how much energy is consumed in real time and have a historical energy consumption map. This makes it for consumers able to control their energy consumption and be more efficient.

Some other promising startups which are exploiting the opportunities for smart grid:

• Wapo (AI virtual Facility Manager)
• S4 energy (smart storage systems)
• Totem (integrated energy and communication pole)  

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