Process intelligence in the energy transition

We are in the midst of the energy transition. Can you indicate how big the challenge is for you?
Van de Rhee: ‘The challenge is enormous. We are working hard at the moment. There is a huge increase in demand for electricity. Over the next few years, more than 100,000 kilometres of cable will have to be laid in the ground. We need to get 50,000 small transformer stations built. One in three streets in the Netherlands will be dug up.’
Suykerbuyk: ‘We are scaling up enormously and investing heavily. Billions per year, ninety billion in the next ten years alone, a factor of ten compared to a few years ago. TenneT will have to build 4,000 football fields worth of high-voltage substations in the coming years. Grid congestion is a major problem. We have to solve it. One way to do this is by working with our customers to make smart use of the capacity on the grid. We really need each other for this. It is one big ecosystem that is becoming increasingly complex to manage properly. To be able to do this, we need data exchange between many parties.’

Collaboration is therefore essential. What does collaboration entail and what are the benefits?
Van de Rhee: ‘Last year we signed a collaboration agreement on digitization between the grid operators. The aim is to work together and accelerate the process. It would also be quite unfair to have society pay for it three times over. The collaboration is going well. We are tackling huge challenges together and we inspire each other. A small example: we recently built a joint system that allows employees from all relevant parties in the chain to log in to our substations, saving hours of hassle. Together, we look at how we can make better use of existing assets such as cables, transformers, and power plants.’

Does that also benefit the customer?
Van de Rhee: ‘Of course we use our data for our customers. Electric cars are often parked at charging stations in residential areas at the end of the day. Behind the scenes, our data and algorithms ensure that the cars take turns charging. In this way, we use data and digitization to get more out of the electricity grid.’
Suykerbuyk: ‘Or transport companies with large electric fleets. You want them to charge when the grid is less busy. You can apply all kinds of market mechanisms here: discounts at certain times, or dynamic contracts. That helps us keep the peaks manageable. Another example might be large companies with cold storage facilities. They can sometimes decrease the temperature in the cold stores by a degree or two. Or water boards. They have the flexibility to decide whether or not to pump at certain times. In this way, we work with our customers to find solutions and ensure that they can still connect to the grid despite all the restrictions.’

I tend to view the world through the lens of processes. Are there any processes that you actually carry out jointly?
Van de Rhee: ‘We constantly, on a very practical level, examine how we can integrate the information provision. We are actually laying a complete digital layer over our physical network. We have, in fact, always been very closely linked.’
Suykerbuyk: ‘It is just becoming much more dynamic. In the past, you had large-scale electricity generation. Then you transported and distributed it to the end customer. Nowadays, energy is also generated at the end of the grid, for example with solar panels. We have moved from a fairly straightforward system to a very dynamic world. It has really become a different game. And that means that it is becoming bidirectional. Where the process used to be very clear – I generate something here, push it through the network, and it comes out there – it now comes from all sides.’
Van de Rhee: ‘As grid operators, we have a joint data-sharing strategy. We are looking at how we can expand this further. We are also thinking together about future products that have not yet been developed. Products that will be needed in the energy transition, so that, for example, industrial estates can exchange electricity on a large scale. We are continuously challenged to share more data.’

You are in an important, vital sector. Security is obviously a major issue. I assume you cannot share everything ...
Suykerbuyk: ‘Yes, security is an important consideration when it comes to collaboration and data sharing. You have to weigh up which data is really necessary to accelerate the energy transition. You have to facilitate that in the market. Cybersecurity means you sometimes have to be cautious.’
Van de Rhee: ‘We are part of the vital infrastructure. For our own vital processes, we have our own data assets and data centers.’
Suykerbuyk: ‘At TenneT, we distinguish between IT and OT domains (information technology and operational technology, ed.). The IT part that is not mission critical is in the cloud – just like any other company. The OT activities are in a separate network, under our own management. Incidentally, it is clear that IT and OT are becoming closer. I do foresee a challenge in the future in continuing to do this in a secure manner.’

Where do you see the biggest challenge or friction in the entire chain?
Suykerbuyk: ‘We want to accelerate. Build faster. We want to expand the high-voltage grid quickly. Sharing documents, sharing data, doing that properly – that is the challenge. In combination with accelerating the permit process, with all the parties involved. Right now, we often have to wait years before we can actually start building. Another challenge is that we are an asset-heavy company. Everyone is thinking about building even more assets, but we will also have to look at how to make better use of existing assets.’
Van de Rhee: ‘The biggest challenge lies in the availability of space to build. And in the availability of personnel to carry it out. The challenge is not in the technology. That is simply there. Organizations in this sector have traditionally been strongly organized based on disciplines. All those disciplines were optimized. But now we notice that we are dealing with issues that are more complex and span multiple disciplines. One of the challenges in digitization is bringing multiple disciplines together: the data scientist, the technician, and even the ethics specialists.’
Suykerbuyk: ‘Yes, that requires a different approach. In the past, we just laid the infrastructure and set up a control room to monitor it. Now we are much more concerned with predicting the future and scenario planning. The focus has shifted to the future. And that has become easier, in part due to the advent of AI.’
Van de Rhee: ‘We often do time travel. We can make predictions for the coming years or decades in no time. In the past, you needed a data center for that, now you can simply do it on a laptop.’

To what extent is the energy transition a digital transformation?
Suykerbuyk: ‘Completely.’
Van de Rhee: ‘Yes, completely. We no longer make any plans without including digitization. Digitization is essential for the energy transition. It cannot be achieved without it. We are moving towards a fully digital energy system and digital energy market. We are becoming a digital network company. This also reflects in our normal operational processes.’
Suykerbuyk: ‘We have in fact been a digital company for decades. We have control rooms that digitally map the electricity grids completely. Except the complexity has increased enormously. We have built an entirely digital company. Our average high-voltage pylons currently emit around ten signals per minute. These signals provide information about the amount of electricity passing through a cable, the temperature, and other such things. Our offshore platforms currently emit thousands of signals per second. This generates a huge amount of data. In future, this will only increase. Every asset we install now has sensors. We install sensors wherever we can, even if we do not yet know whether we will actually use the data. There will come a time when it becomes so complex that you really need AI tooling to be able to make strategic choices.’

So, you see ​​AI as a blessing?
Van de Rhee: ‘We have AI running at the core of our systems. We have developed some things ourselves, such as a model that predicts the amount of power on the grid. Worldwide, it is one of the most downloaded algorithms in our sector. As a social enterprise, working with open source is gratifying, allowing others to contribute and monitor the process. We still have an enormous amount of work ahead of us with the new wave of AI: creative AI. We are still at the beginning of that journey.’
Suykerbuyk: ‘We use AI for the further design of our network. What would be the best places to build? What capacity do we need to allow for? Which companies are there, and which ones are coming? What if the sun does not shine? All these algorithms are getting better and better. We also often use Copilot in the office environment. AI can then make basic summaries of documents. What I really believe in are those AI agents that take over the multitude of repetitive tasks and make our employees’ lives a lot easier.’
Van de Rhee: ‘Take image recognition, for example: take a photo of your meter cupboard and we can often see what our technicians need to do. With these photos, we have built a digital copy of the world. We now have a photo store with 16 million images. We also take photos of the underground situation, which will eventually give us a digital map of the underground infrastructure. Or look at the algorithms we use to schedule jobs for our repair technicians. For example, we ask AI to schedule the last job close to home. That makes the technician very happy.’

What is the biggest challenge in the field of AI?
Van de Rhee: ‘What is very important is that you really have to understand what is happening. You have to build up knowledge independent of the technology. We also set up an ethics office. AI tends to look for the most efficient way. But is that also socially the most beneficial solution? For example, AI might find that it is best to optimize the energy grid in neighborhoods with many electric cars first. But maybe we want to do development in other neighborhoods. We need to keep doing the sanity check.’
Suykerbuyk: ‘We spoke much about AI, infrastructure, and processes, but ultimately this is a people business. It is about whether you can get your organization to that point on the horizon. Resources, processes and IT systems are important, but people are the most important. Because, ultimately, we have to do it with our people.’
Van de Rhee: ‘Digitalizing presents a great opportunity. But there is also a flip side. Digitization can also lead to risks. And you have to be able to manage those risks by understanding how to use digitization. Put it in your toolbox and use it. But most importantly, ensure your people, your employees, and customers can use it.’

Interview by Maarten van der Borden, Customer Transformation Director at Celonis. Published in Management Scope 06 2025.