Digitalisation and energy efficiency: keys for a competitive industry

One of the keys to improving the competitiveness and sustainability of production processes is based on the digitalisation of these processes, on new production models, and on the factories themselves.

Connected manufacturing processes and the application of digital technologies bring about new production models and optimise processes. This leads to a decrease in resources and energy consumption, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

We have created a multi-disciplinary team at TECNALIA called Digital Energy which is made up of energy and ICT experts. The aim is to support the entire energy value chain, and to implement digital technologies such as Big Data and predictive analysis, advanced robotics, digital twins, virtual reality and augmented reality, blockchain, etc. in order to promote the transition towards a more efficient, reliable and safer energy system.

Some of our digital solutions focus on improving energy efficiency in industry. Those to be highlighted include NAIA I4.0, a smart system to diagnose energy (in)efficiencies in industrial plants. It applies data analysis techniques so that the system can use a set of historic data to learn consumption measurements, the causal relationship of consumption/production at industrial plant level, and provides advice to the plant energy manager.

The enerTIC platform has acknowledged our experience in this field and has invited our colleague Gillermo Gil to moderate a session on Digital Transformation for a more competitive Industry: Strategic Vision. This talk will be part of the Forum on Technology, Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Trends at Industry 4.0, which will take place on 26 June at the Euskalduna Conference Centre in Bilbao.