El Smart Energy Congress 2019 constata un año más que la Transformación Digital es clave para la eficiencia energética y la sostenibilidad.

The VIII edition of the Smart Energy Congress 2019 "Digital Transformation, leading Energy Efficiency" has closed its doors after dealing for two days with the consequences of an unstoppable digital transformation. The congress served as a meeting point for debating not only the role played by new technologies in improving energy efficiency and sustainability, but also how to face the new challenges in energy consumption motivated by the development of large infrastructures essential for digitalization.

The VIII Smart Energy Congress, converted into an annual European congress of reference, is an ecosystem in which all the actors in the world of technology and energy efficiency - from both the private and public sectors - participate, sharing experiences, learning and creating synergies with a common objective: to reduce energy consumption.

For the Secretary of State for Energy, Mr. José Domínguez Abascal, this congress is an unavoidable event for both the energy and technology sectors: "It is to be welcomed that this event is organised and that work is being done on something that is essential in the new energy, in the new energy system, and that is that it is endowed with the capacity to discern, to execute and to function in a different way. That is to say, to be endowed with intelligence."

"The energy transition must take into account two essential factors: the social one - it cannot be done without the citizen - and a dimension of flexibility and intelligence. Information technologies are a transverse element, they are the glue that will allow all the pieces to be joined together and provide the energy system with flexibility and intelligence. An example of the use of digital technologies are shared mobility services, where today they can be managed from a mobile device. Digitalisation will be the protagonist at all levels, but especially in the electrical system", he pointed out at the closing of the Congress.

The double challenge of digital transformation in terms of energy efficiency

New technologies driven by Cognitive Services, IoT, Artificial Intelligence, 5G, Augmented reality allow decarbonization of the economy, reduction of energy costs and CO2 emissions. All of them challenges of the European Union and where Spain already has companies with extensive experience and projects of high technological value.

However, it is also necessary to think about how to make more efficient and sustainable the large technological infrastructures (communications networks and data processing centers) that must be developed to face the digitization and the arrival of these disruptive technologies.

Two content rooms as the axes of the congress: Strategic Vision and Technological Vision

In order to reflect on these issues, the Congress established as its main axes two content rooms, Strategic Vision and Technological Vision, with sessions focused on: Cities (Smart Cities), Industries (Smart Industry 4.0), Energy (Smart Energy) and Large Technological Infrastructures (Smart IT Infrastructure). And focused on challenges, good practices and critical success factors, trends, opportunities and innovation.

Representatives of the City Councils of Madrid, Bilbao, Valencia and Seville or companies such as Acciona Service, Microsoft, Geotab, T-Systems and AEDIVE took part in the different tables of the Strategic Vision Room, giving their vision of the trends in Smart Cities. In the case of the sessions dedicated to Smart Energy, UFD - Grupo Naturgy, Iberdrola, Viesgo, Repsol E&G, Red Eléctrica de España, Endesa, Minsait, Balantia, Atos, Oracle, Engie and Enerclub participated. The Smart Industry 4.0 tables were attended by Aernnova, ITP Aero, Nissan, Bodegas Matarromera, Airbus, Atos, Ferrovial, GMV and Eplan, among others.

As for the Technological Vision Room, the sessions focused on IT Infrastructures with Mobile World Capital, Intel, Ericsson, Vodafone, Naturgy, Repsol and Amazon Web Services; and those of Smart Data Center with Schneider Electric, Rittal, Software Greenhouse, Naturgy, UPM (Polytechnic University of Madrid), Aquads and Pue Control. The agenda also included two sessions of Industrial Cognitive Services where Iberdrola, Galp, Naturgy, Enagás, Engie, Viesgo, T-Systems, Tecnatom, Amplía, CIC Consulting Informático or Balantia participated; as well as a round table on Large Infrastructures at the forefront of technology with Telefónica, ADIF, Acciona Energía, Vertiv or Minsait.

EnerTIC European Hub' Conference: round tables and Matchmaking & Networking

On the other hand, one more year, the 'enerTIC European Hub' conference took place, with several activities aimed at generating collaboration opportunities between Start-ups and large corporations and identifying new business models focused on innovation and new technologies:

- Round table 1: Corporate Venturing and Open Innovation Tools, where an analysis of the current state of these tools in the world of energy, success stories and models of open innovation was presented with the participation of: Repsol, Enagás, Naturgy, Engie, Tecnatom and Everis.

- Round table 2: Innovation Ecosystem in Spain, which analysed the demands of startups, corporations and investors and their alignment. It was attended by: Rated Power, StartupXplore, Swanlaab, Wayra (Telefónica), CDTI, Naturgy and Everis.
 
- an exclusive Matchmaking & Networking day.

A Congress and a Growing Platform

The VIII Smart Energy Congress hosted, as usual, the Expo Zone, an ecosystem of suppliers specialised in solutions to improve efficiency in Corporate Data Centres and where the Speaker Corners Programme was held with the participation of representatives from Balantia, Bjumper, Atos, Aluzina, CDTI, EVBox, Cofrico, Experis IT, Everis, Delta, Deepki, Schneider Electric, TomTom Telematics, Sylvania and others.

The growing interest in energy efficiency and sustainability has been reflected in both the increase in the number of exhibitors and attendees, more than 18% over the last edition. In addition, the number of companies associated with the Plataforma enerTIC is also growing, of which a total of 65 companies now form part. Among its associates there are large energy companies, operators, universities and IT manufacturers.

The VIII Smart Energy Congress & Expo is sponsored by Acciona Service, Atos, Balantia, everis, Minsait an Indra Company, Naturgy, Rittal, Schneider Electric, T-Systems, Amplía iiot, Aquads, CIC Consulting Informático, Engie, Ferrovial, GMV, Geotab, Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Oracle, Software Greenhouse and Tecnatom.

All the information on the Congress, registration and modalities of participation is available at: www.SmartEnergyCongress.eu