Sally Jacquemin, VP and GM, Power and Utilities, Aspen Technology, Inc.
Background
Sally Jacquemin is the Vice President (VP) and General Manager (GM) for the power and utilities business at Aspen Technology, Inc. She is an industry professional with extensive experience in digital solutions for operational technology.
Jacquemin oversees strategic customer engagement, solution strategy, and global growth opportunities for AspenTech’s portfolio including the OSI monarch SCADA, Distribution Management, Transmission Management, Generation Management and Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) applications. She establishes and executes corporate strategies for the company’s Power and Utility business segment to ensure continued innovation and market leadership.
Jacquemin has earned a BSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.
To provide insights about how digital technologies offer a beacon of hope in navigating the challenges of the energy transition, Tim Langdon, publisher of Eco Voice, had the pleasure of facilitating a Q & A with Sally Jacquemin, VP and GM, Power and Utilities, Aspen Technology, Inc.
Q1. What are the key elements of the energy transition?
The global electric grid is at a crucial juncture. Decarbonization, electrification and increasing climate and cyber threats are introducing new levels of complexity and unpredictability. The clean energy transition is transforming supply and demand dynamics. The resulting decentralization and bi-directional flow create new operational challenges impacting all utility stakeholders. Without upgrades to improve resiliency, the electric grid will become a bottleneck in the path to Net Zero, and costly and risky service interruptions more frequent.
AspenTech’s utility customers are at the center of the global energy transition, which is providing significant challenges and opportunities for the industry. The energy transition is manifesting on such a huge scale – key elements include expectations that global energy generation will grow 2.6x by 2050 1 with the electric grid doubling in size by 2040 2 to support the expanding capacity (IEA, 2023). This will require significant utility investment in not only grid infrastructure, but also digital grid management solutions.
Q2. What digital technologies will help to navigate the challenges of the energy transition?
AspenTech’s Digital Grid Management solutions support the evolution to an intelligent power grid that utilities can monitor and control in real-time to provide reliable, safe, and secure service. Our solutions help accelerate hardening of critical grid infrastructure to mitigate adverse events, scale renewable capacity rapidly to meet net zero objectives and empower consumers to actively participate and benefit from greater, more diverse market opportunities and services.
Digital technologies are a core component for utilities in navigating the challenges of the energy transition. By leveraging as-operated network models for visibility, control and automation, load and generation data for forecasting and scheduling, as well as advanced analytics and AI, our digital solutions optimize the real-time operations of the grid. These technologies enable more accurate demand forecasting, supply and load balancing, and renewable integration, thereby mitigating some of the operational challenges with the accelerated energy transition on the grid.
AspenTech’s vision for the utility of the future starts with enhancing our Digital Grid Management suite to expand beyond the control room, to create a self-optimizing grid. Here, we will shift focus beyond the control room to the near-adjacency utility functions where real-time operational data becomes the crucial catalyst for unleashing new capabilities and value in planning and maintenance functions.
1 World Energy Outlook 2023, IEA (Net Zero Scenario)
2 Electricity Grids and Secure Energy Transitions IEA Nov 23
Q3. How will digital grid management solutions offer a pathway to create significant new value for utilities?
At AspenTech, our goal is to ensure our real-time operating solutions provide significant long-term value to utilities in three core areas: Increasing Resiliency and Reliability, Accelerating the clean energy transition, and improving operational excellence & safety. The company’s Digital Grid Management solutions provide real-time Operational Technology (OT) for electric, gas, and water utilities that enable enhanced visibility and control over the grid. These digital systems enable utilities to produce, transmit and distribute power, while maintaining grid stability and reliability in the face of increasing demand and the variable nature of renewable energy sources.
Q4. What are a couple of good examples of this?
Digital technologies can create significant new value for utilities by addressing operational challenges with the accelerated energy transition on the grid – for example:
Generation Management Systems are used to manage extremely large-scale power generation – both traditional fossil fuel-based generation and renewables such as wind and solar. These digital control solutions optimally manage the diversity of generation resources and complexity in planning and dispatch for both regulated and deregulated markets. In deregulated markets, market awards and transactions including system operator interfaces are managed – in addition to capabilities such as automatic voltage regulation, fleet performance, energy accounting and evaluation.
Transmission System Operators face the key challenge of balancing the bulk electric grid by safely transporting increasing amounts of power. Grid assets are changing how utilities model, visualize, and intelligently manage the high-voltage transmission grid. Issues such as congestion management, lack of inertia and renewable intermittency all need to be optimally managed by digital solutions such as our AspenTech OSI Energy Management System (EMS).
AspenTech OSI Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) will model the medium and low voltage electric distribution grid to enable operators to manage the real-time power flow between the high-voltage transmission grid and end consumers such as homes and businesses. ADMS systems include a wide range of automation to optimally monitor and manage voltage, switching, and fault management, as well as comprehensive outage management to ensure a safe, reliable, and intelligent electric grid.
Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS) ensure the integration of small, grid-edge Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) like rooftop solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles and smart home devices, into the grid, allowing for seamless coordination and efficient utilization of these flexible loads for both Transmission and Distribution utilities.
AspenTech OSI monarch SCADA platform and purpose-built OT applications offer a comprehensive solution for real-time monitoring and control of electric, gas, or water networks. Inclusive of a wide range of communication protocols, integration capabilities, as well as a robust data historian, the scalability and modular functional capabilities can be used for a variety of both utility and industrial applications.
Q5. How important is it that utilities and industrial companies reach carbon reduction goals, while maintaining a safe and reliable electric network?
Globally, as COP 28 came to a close, more than 200 nations signed an agreement calling for an accelerated energy transition that includes tripling global renewable capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030. Significant investment and transformation of both physical electric grid assets, as well as digital grid technology is mission-critical for utilities and industrial companies to reach carbon reduction goals, while maintaining a safe and reliable electric network.
ABOUT ECO VOICE
First published in 2003, Eco Voice is your go-to publication for sustainability news in Australia. Eco Voice prides itself as an independent news platform with a clear focus on sustainability, with articles coming from a diverse range of contributors – all levels of government, corporations, not-for-profits, community groups, small to medium sized businesses, universities, research organisations, together with input from international sources. Eco Voice values community, conservation and commerce. Eco Voice is a media partner of the prestigious Australian Banksia Sustainability Awards – The Peak Sustainability Awards.
ABOUT ASPEN TECHNOLOGY, INC.
Aspen Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AZPN) is a global software leader helping industries at the forefront of the world’s dual challenge meet the increasing demand for resources from a rapidly growing population in a profitable and sustainable manner. AspenTech solutions address complex environments where it is critical to optimize the asset design, operation and maintenance lifecycle. Through our unique combination of deep domain expertise and innovation, customers in asset-intensive industries can run their assets safer, greener, longer and faster to improve their operational excellence. To learn more, visit AspenTech.com.
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