In an interview at Microgrid 2019, two Advisian executives — Tristan Jackson, director, smart and distributed energy and Andrea Ruotolo, senior manager, smart and distributed energy — discuss the company’s latest advanced energy software tool.
Advisian is the technical consulting branch of Worley — a 55,000 person engineering services firm with 200 offices in over 55 countries. Jackson explained to Microgrid Knowledge Editor Lisa Cohn that the firm specializes in engineering and project delivery in the energy resources and chemical sectors, as well as transport.
At Microgrid 2019 in San Diego, the company showcased the results of its partnership with Xendee, which specializes in cloud computing for microgrids.
“What we have here is a unique optimization and design tool for distributed energy systems which brings confidence into the final design, and we get a bankable project that people can rely on,” Ruotolo explained at the company’s expo booth.
“What used to take a roomful of engineers a week can now be done in hours to days.” — Tristan Jackson, director, smart and distributed energy, Advisian
Jackson explained the energy software tool provides “a view” of an on-site energy system for “normal people, as well as those in the financial sector.”
“What used to take a room full of engineers in a week can be done by a person in hours to days,” Jackson said.
Jackson explained the energy software tool greatly accelerates time-to-results, improves confidence and surety in those results, and as aforementioned by Ruotolo, produces a bankable design for a distributed energy system.
What makes these energy professionals excited about microgrids? It’s their capability to bring energy consumption and energy systems back to the local level.
“With centralized power systems, I think people have disconnected how their daily decisions can impact the world. So, it’s incredible that we are able to reduce emissions and increase efficiency, but also get people more aware of their impact on the world,” Ruotolo explained.
Jackson added, “The thing I find most exciting (about microgrids) is the ability to adapt to new conditions and to improve power quality, resilience, reliability and safety, with systems that also can be more efficient and reduce emissions and also bring down costs.”
Additionally, Jackson pointed out that microgrids allow countries that have underdeveloped infrastructure to “leapfrog” and not invest in the old, centralized fossil-fuel driven energy system. Instead , they can rely on a more distributed, more renewable mix of energy sources.
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