This is a question that many people in the electric power industry are asking themselves.
Digitalization is the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities; If we just think about this definition, it is clear that the answer should be Yes. Why would anybody miss an opportunity to get new revenue and produce value?
From many of the articles that have been published in PAC World over the years covering IEC 61850 and its applications, the non-conventional instrument transformers with their digital interfaces and the GOOSE messages and sampled values replacing the hard-wired interfaces between the different primary and secondary devices in the substation, it is clear that the digitalization of the substations provides significant value producing opportunities.
And still many people are not doing it, or not even thinking about doing it.
It is interesting how in some cases people approach differently their personal and professional life. In their personal life most of the people from our industry have implemented the digitalization. Just look around you. Your phone, your wallet, your photos, your music, everything you can think about is digitized. Do we worry about cyber security? Are we concerned that we need to periodically upgrade the software on our multifunctional devices? Are we concerned about the impact of Artificial Intelligence?
These, and many other questions cross our minds, but they don't stop us from moving forward and taking advantage of the digital technology. We make an effort to learn new things and take some risks, because the benefits are too many and very significant.
And it is time to get to the office, bring your team together and say – Let's go digital!