Digitization in the energy industry - where is it going?

With the European Green Deal, the European Union is aiming for complete climate neutrality by 2050. Given the structures in the energy sector that have evolved over decades, this is a massive technological project.

Already today, the energy transition means that electricity and energy are increasingly being produced and stored on a decentralized basis. Regional solar plants or wind and hydrogen parks are examples of this. With the help of well designed digitalization concepts, the energy sector is organizing itself in a decentralized and yet secure manner. Networked NDT test procedures play an important role here. Thanks to digital NDT test management systems, you can inspect energy plants from any location. Digital test data from the plant or from safety-relevant components can be forwarded securely and in a structured manner for evaluation to highly qualified inspectors, who can evaluate data from several plants simultaneously and independently of location.

At the same time, it is possible to make energy extraction, production and storage more sustainable, based on a reliable database. Energy plants can reduce CO₂ emissions, for example, because artificial intelligence identifies potential savings. Supraregional data systems can be created for analysis. It consolidates test data from all of your company's inspections in a centralized and structured manner.

However, in many companies, non-destructive material testing as an important part of plant inspection still largely involves analog processes or many media discontinuities. This slows down business and approval processes and prevents decision-makers from reacting flexibly to changing production conditions.

Thanks to digital tools for NDT processes, you become more agile in practice. In the future, you will have reliable data for every decision.

Test results are accessible in a decentralized manner. In view of the complex infrastructure involved in the generation and processing of renewable energies, such as hydrogen, it is essential to be able to inspect safety-relevant components in an automated as well as standardized manner.

The conversion to digital inspection processes is possible without high effort. Manufacturer-independent IT standards, such as the ASTM standard DICONDE (Digital Imaging and Communication in Non-Destructive Evaluation), make your investment safe and integrate test systems, such as radiographic and ultrasonic devices, easily into your system architecture. In this way, you can get started with end-to-end digital inspection processes within a very short time.

For digitization strategies to be successful in the energy industry, they must be implemented individually. Each company must determine the appropriate level of digitalization for itself. Demand-driven solutions in software and automation are essential.

The concept of Industry 4.0 is based on networked systems. This also applies to digitization within the energy industry. End-2-end testing processes offer numerous advantages for companies in the energy sector:

• Digital communication between plant operators and service contractors: from the assignment of test orders from the inspection system to the transmission of images and reports back to the direct transfer of measured values to the Inspection Data Management System. In addition, all stakeholders have access to the inspection results regardless of location.
• Digital Twin: Avoid failures during operation with intelligent early warning systems. This is possible on the basis of structured inspection data stored in the vendor-independent life file of a plant component. Defects are detected before damage occurs. This ensures optimized asset availability.
• Integration into ERP and asset performance management systems: Flexible data usage also means that you can easily integrate NDT test results into your asset management systems. Your employees continue to use the familiar management software and now benefit from highly available real-time information.

At DIMATE, we help energy companies build an end-to-end digital inspection process and close disruptive gaps. We rely on vendor-independent IT standards such as the DICONDE file and communication format. This ensures that you can digitally distribute NDT orders to any service contractor and receive inspection results in a standardized way. This saves time and money in day-to-day operations and greatly improves data quality, for example, in wall thickness measurements or pipeline corrosion assessments. Compared to previous inspection processes, this solution eliminates media disruption and error-prone manual entry.

Our intelligent PACS system streamlines inspection processes for energy companies. The digital and standardized transfer of test data opens up new possibilities in plant inspection. As energy production and generation becomes more decentralized, it is important to collect, store, and analyze reliable NDT data regardless of location. In this context, our PACS solution also supports digital signature processes during the test report cycle and integrates specialized AI algorithms to automatically evaluate test images.

The digitalization of the energy industry is well underway. In order to create sustainable solutions today, companies need tailor-made concepts as well as vendor-independent structures. To make sense of the vast amounts of data available, companies need intelligent analytics software and secure IT systems that meet the highest security standards.

At DIMATE, we can help you digitize NDT testing according to your individual needs. Leading companies in the energy industry rely on our services. Learn more about the different software systems and services on our website.

If you have any questions about our products, please do not hesitate to contact us. Go digital with DIMATE.

Would you like to learn more about DIMATE PACS and how it can be integrated into your processes?