Thinking big, starting small: From school competitions to solving the energy transition

The challenges the students undertake reflect the exact issues Rosa and Vermeulen face in their daily work: innovating to improve society, but on a smaller scale.

Ensuring that students understand this mission matters. Society – and grid operators such as Enexis and Alliander – face a major challenge: the energy transition. These complex societal issues cannot be solved in isolation. They require multidisciplinary collaboration and an innovation mindset – not just within each organisation, but across them. Rosa sees it as “a unique opportunity to work together.”

Collaboration as a catalyst

Collaboration between grid operators is essential to accelerate innovation. “It’s important to speed up what we’re doing today,” Rosa explains. “Despite everything that’s already underway – the billions we invest and the thousands of kilometres of cables we lay each year. That’s already high-performance work. But it’s not enough. We simply can’t lay cables fast enough to meet demand in time.”

Digitalisation offers many opportunities to tackle these challenges. By leveraging smarter digital solutions, grid operators can limit the need for extensive physical network reinforcement and make better use of existing infrastructure. Digitalisation can also help ease the pressure on scarce technical talent by enabling people to work more efficiently.

Innovating together

So why reinvent the wheel individually? Digitalising in isolation is complex enough. That’s why the IT teams from both grid operators sought each other out and established a flexible collaboration model to support digital projects while making optimal use of available technical expertise.

This did not happen overnight. Due to their regional monopolies and public mandates, grid operators have traditionally focused on their own domains. “Managing your own business well is, of course, important,” says Vermeulen. “And in many areas, that works just fine. But when it comes to digitalisation, there are so many opportunities to enhance each other’s capabilities. For example, by combining several separate systems for reading smart meters into a single jointly managed platform. Or by innovating together with new technologies in our grids. Together, we’re also in a stronger position to negotiate and partner with market players.”

Beyond the inventor’s lab

“Innovation isn’t just for eccentric inventors,” Rosa says. “I can’t rule out that someone might currently be working on something brilliant in their attic – but we can’t afford to wait for that. For us, innovation primarily means making better, smarter, and larger-scale use of the resources we already have.”

Many of the operators’ innovations combine existing technologies. Examples include using drones to inspect infrastructure or robotic dogs to detect gas leaks – solutions being explored in their shared robotics lab. “Robotics helps us address the extreme shortage of technical staff while also making their work safer,” Vermeulen explains.

Raspberry Pi-type computers are also being used to explore solutions. Operators are deploying these devices across their networks to monitor various data points and gain insights.

Training the innovation muscle

Innovation doesn’t come naturally to grid operators. “We’re operators – programmed for years to be cautious and steady,” says Rosa. Compliance requirements and procurement regulations also present significant obstacles. Adopting the open-minded approach needed for innovation is challenging. “Are we set up to be super-innovative? Not if we stay within our silos,” Vermeulen adds. “But if we face this challenge together, we can overcome many of these barriers.”

To strengthen their innovation muscles and nurture this open mindset, Vermeulen and Rosa joined the jury for the Raspberry Pi school competition. Organised by PA Consulting for the seventh time this year, the challenge asks students to use Raspberry Pi computers to invent solutions for societal problems. Participants must combine multiple disciplines and work creatively with limited resources – exactly what the grid operators aim to achieve on a larger scale.

It is valuable that experts from the business world, like Demis and Tim, dedicate their time each year to support these students. This connection to real-world challenges helps elevate the competition to the next level.

Inspiring the next generation

Above all, the competition is meant to inspire. Vermeulen hopes that participants “learn how exciting it is to explore new ideas. That mindset – analysing problems and finding solutions – is something you can’t teach too early.” The students, in turn, inspired the jury members.

“It’s incredible to see what these students can already achieve,” Rosa says. “Both in terms of technical skills and their understanding of broader societal issues.” He also hopes to inspire them in return. “It would be fantastic if this competition sparks something in them – perhaps even motivating them to pursue a career in this field. We urgently need a new generation of innovators in the Netherlands.”

Read the original article in AG Connect in Dutch.