Innovation in any industry is imperative for its success, lest the technology it uses becomes obsolete. For an organisation to continue being a going concern and in order to stay competitive in the market, there is a dire need to invest in R&D so that industries continue evolving.
Today, the world is at the brink of an apocalyptic situation, caused by climatic catastrophes around the globe, with developing countries being most vulnerable, despite their low carbon footprint. At the same time, when it comes to upgrading the provision of basic utilities, especially in these countries, innovation plays a pivotal role in uplifting lives.
However, the dearth of innovation and merely producing followers is an issue that must be rectified to bring about a shift towards producing critical thinkers and innovators. This is where companies can become enablers through partnerships with educational institutes to not only leverage entrepreneurship and bring ideas to practical shape but also optimise the use of scare resources.
KE, recently provided a problem solving platform through the 7/11+ Innovation Challenge that attracted great minds from various categories which included entrepreneurs, startups, researchers, and university students. The top 10 finalists were selected and incentivised for their business ideas. The event was the first of its kind in Pakistan’s utility market where participants shared innovative business ideas in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In return, KE vowed to provide networking, mentorship, capacity building, and funding support to innovators working in the areas of Energy, Sustainable Cities, and Customer Experience.
Despite KE having the first mover advantage in this regard, other companies must follow suit and facilitate such astute minds, to collectively contribute towards becoming a progressive nation when it comes to technological advance. A good chunk of public funds should be invested in research and development, with the public being the main beneficiary. This can be private sector driven however, it can make inroads to the relevant stakeholders through public-private partnerships. It should be scalable through strategically developed incubation centres across the country and be target oriented.
More so, is the need for innovation in the power sector among other utilities. The global energy consumption though at a seemingly meagre rate of 1% – 2% continues to grow, while the need to mitigate the impact of climate change has plunged the world into a climate emergency. There is therefore an urgent need for transformation and innovation which, though may take time, will have a positive long-term impact for the masses.
There is an emerging trend of introducing new tech when it comes to making various sectors more sustainable. These can include smart grids and self-piloted drones as well. Drones are capable of capturing images of plants at any given angle without the need for human intervention and can record sensor data. These are being used for monitoring infrastructure in the oil & gas industry and managing agricultural sites as well.
There are countless global examples and success stories, and upcoming projects related to innovational excellence which can be used as the guiding light. For instance, Odqa a British startup uses concentrated solar power (CSP) technology which makes use of an ultra-high temperature solar receiver which further facilitates high-temperature industrial heating processes. This helps unlock high-temperature power cycles and increase production, thus expanding the capacity of photovoltaic (PV) power plants. The eventually, leads to cost reductions for PV plants while enabling system efficiency.
Similarly, Internet of Energy (IoE) assists with intelligent distributed control through energy transactions between power users. This system helps with developing a smart grid and improving coordination and optimization in the macro energy system. Similarly, there is a strong need for developing energy solutions which help bring about efficiencies in the entire power system, for instance, through an analytical engine that generates consumption trends and recommends energy management improvements in the entire grid process. Energeia, an Indian startup enables solutions as far as identifying, monitoring, financing, and implementing is concerned within a shared-saving business model. The company’s smart meters collect energy data with the help of gateway devices and send it to an online platform for analysis, altogether, the entire system helps result in energy saving.
Subsequently, public utilities can be restructured to bring about change and innovation which can go hand in hand. The first stage of innovation in this sector with respect to technical efficiencies being sought would be followed by cost efficiencies through cross subsidization and benefits provided to the end consumer.
