The concept of energy neutrality is a recurring theme for Huawei – as Edwin Diender, Chief Innovation Officer for the company’s Electric Power & Digitalisation business unit explains, this refers to the balance struck between the amount of energy that goes into a production or manufacturing process, versus the efforts one can take to lower and even neutralize the carbon footprint for it.

It’s a significant part of the decarbonisation drive, and Huawei has endeavoured to reduce its carbon footprint and energy consumption in producing equipment.

“Think of energy transition as a general journey of transformation,” says Diender, “there are so many transformations, such as services transitions, business changes, and so on and so forth. Everything is a journey, a transition, or transformational journey. And energy transition is a part of this change to move away from fossil fuels, towards renewable and new energy sources. That’s the transition of the energy source.”

He continues, “There’s also a transition when it comes to awareness; we as a society have to become energy-aware. The energy transition is not just about energy itself, or electricity as a specific component… It is a bigger picture, and when you look at the Asia Pacific or ASEAN region, many different organisations and industries are either ahead of the game or definitely following.”

The ASEAN region is at a distinct advantage, with rapidly-growing awareness toward decarbonisation efforts, and Diender is of the opinion that the region has the opportunity to progress at a higher pace compared to its global counterparts, citing events such as the recently-held Enlit Asia in Jakarta, Indonesia, as an example of a promotional agency successfully creating awareness for the cause.

The speed of progress comes with its own challenges and opportunities, of course. Shares Diender, “The power industry is a very physical one. By nature, they are a non-digital native industry. By contrast, there are many other industries where computing and communication and mobile enablement already sit high up in their value chain – you can even go as far as to say that some players in other industries started from digital and have nothing physical at all.”

This creates a gap that must now be bridged, he explains. “If you think of transitions and changes and their speed of progress, there is already a gap between different industries in their usage and application of computing and communications, and where one innovation on top of the other accelerates the industry even further and creating an even wider gap. We need to see if there is leverage between the world of digital and physical, and if we can systematically bridge and shorten that gap, for example by extensive knowledge exchange.”

For example, he shares, to approach on whether to invest in expansion or growth of a powerplant would ordinarily be a physical one. But on the other hand, this can take place in and with support of a digital platform first to allow for visualisations and simulations and 3D modelling before committing to the process in real life.

“That is not only economic, but also has an impact on the urban and social aspects of the expansion; in a digital platform, this can be outlined and determined very quickly – what would be the best for this investment and how to physically do that in the most optimised way with the lowest carbon footprint possible.” He says.

“Once you have embarked on this digital journey and put these systems and services in place, you are able to move up the value chain in a much shorter timeframe because you are starting from digital first,” he continues. “That’s a very common principle for example, in organisations and industries working in the world wide web of computing and communication, and that creates a learning point with methodologies, frameworks, programmes and initiatives that you can replicate. and bridge it from the digital world to the physical one.”

If that sounds like the notion of grid interconnectivity, that’s because it is – and it’s not really a new concept, says Diender. “Jakarta is the head office of PLN, which is the largest energy and electricity generator in this region, and they have a mobile application – in this app, there are many features and functionalities that create awareness and allows PLN to promote and create campaigns with regards to green living, energy awareness and power consumption.”

The app also allows its users to check their mobile or home broadband services and consumption, and for PLN to invoice users for their usage – what Diender calls an excellent example of how energy and information are captured, and how they broaden the horizon for the Internet of Energy.

“With the informatisation and digitisation of the power grid, the conventional and traditional power grid transforms to what the industry would call a smart grid,” he explains. “In my view, the smart grid is not something that you need to reach; rather, it’s a stage that you need to pass through for something that’s beyond. Something that is higher up the value chain and much closer to your aspirations in transforming your power grid.”

In transforming the traditional power grid and adding concepts such as mobility, AI and intelligent connectivity, organisations can transcend the smart grid itself and enter a space that Diender sees as an equivalent to a world wide web of computing and communications: a World Wide Web of Energy, or “Energyverse” as he calls it.

“The energyverse has a lot of similarities to how information today already runs and works and comes to us in the world of mobility… Information is available at the touch of your hand,” he says. “With a slide of your finger across a screen in your future energy app, maybe you could create a gift card for one of your family members, to give them I don’t know how many kilowatt-hours for their birthday or anniversary.”

Physically speaking, this is impossible – it’s not how electricity works, and you can’t just gift someone X hours of electricity. However, the digital world works quite differently.

“The only thing that utilities need to understand when I gift someone electricity is that I will be the one who will be paying part of the electricity bill for my dad on a specific date, for example when he turns 80 next Year.” Diender explains. “That’s not an electricity component but a financial transaction component, and a world wide web of energy would be able to enable and facilitate that.”

It’s still a work in progress, but the industry has come a long way. The physical transformation of the power grid has been well-supported by digital initiatives. One such project that Diender is excited to share more information about is the Huawei x PLN Joint Innovation Centre unveiled during the recent Enlit Asia conference and exhibition in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Jointly launched by PLN and Huawei, the centre aims to boost the utility’s digital transformation efforts and unleash the digital value of their assets, alongside fostering potential new partnerships.

“Via the Huawei x PLN Joint Innovation Centre, we are looking at technical innovation and components, but also innovative partnerships – we’re integrating different forms of partnerships and innovations, and this is mostly business and industry driven.

As a whole, innovation centres are not new… But if you think of a centre where digital and physical – the word wide web of computing and communication – and maybe the future world wide web of energy can come together, then maybe a future-driven thought process could start to create itself as well. And that would be a very interesting aspiration for this joint business and industry innovation centre. We would certainly be open to embracing new innovative partnerships.”