In the past, you built a new factory, plugged it in and off you went. What's different today?

In principle, this is still the case today. Whenever we talk about digitalization, we must not forget that the basic prerequisite for all new technologies is a stable, secure energy supply. For me, digitalization begins at the point where you start planning. Today, we plan both the process technology and the energy distribution throughout with digital tools, such as those provided by Siemens with the Simaris software for integrated energy distribution solutions (Totally Integrated Power). In conjunction with the Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) portal for the automation process and on the building side with BIM (Building Information Modeling), we achieve end-to-end digital planning. This ultimately leads to what is often referred to as a digital twin. We use this in turn to simulate the processes, energy flows and integrated protection concepts that guarantee a safe and efficient energy supply for all processes.

What distinguishes the energy supply requirements in digitalized production from those of conventional "analogue" production?

First of all, the power supply must be more stable. The demands on supply quality in terms of frequency, harmonics and interference are also higher today. Unscheduled plant shutdowns due to inadequate energy supply cause damage amounting to 150 billion euros every year. These aspects must therefore be taken into account as early as the energy supply planning stage. Digitization, planning and simulation can achieve a significant improvement here. And that is our expertise, and the customer can concentrate on their specialist skills.

This means that the energy supply is already part of the planning for a new factory. What needs to happen on the energy side if the operator wants to digitize an existing, older production facility?

Existing planning documents can be converted to digital planning. With this new planning status, a simulation is then carried out in order to optimize the energy flows and processes according to today's standards. The next step, of course, is to collect data. This will probably lead to a situation where you have to fall back on a range of devices that do not record the data required today, or not sufficiently. Today, our devices consistently record all data such as voltages, currents, frequencies, harmonics, energy consumption and more. This is often missing in older systems. In this case, a targeted decision must be made as to which data is relevant in order to bring the energy supply up to date. The respective devices with corresponding bus connections must then be supplemented or replaced. To connect the devices to the cloud, Siemens offers the new 7KN powercenter3000 IoT data platform, which transfers the data directly to the Mindsphere.

In summary, it can be said that digital planning can be done from the outset from the "green field", while from the "brown field" you have to consider which aspects you want to tackle and implement. This calls for an optimum balance between renewal and something completely new. The key question here is where the data should converge and how it should be processed. The recorded data can be used close to the process or collected and analyzed. The corresponding conclusions allow for optimization, for example in terms of predictive maintenance, but also in terms of security of supply.