Reflections 05.05.2019

Change is an opportunity

Timo Chrons, CEO, Aidon Oy:

Climate change and related phenomena have become part of our everyday lives. At least the report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, in October 2018 passed the news threshold so fiercely that no one has been able to avoid the fact that climate warming must be stopped. Staying below the target of 1.5˚C would mean, for instance, that the share of renewable energy, such us solar and wind power, should grow to 80 % of electricity production on a global level.

At the same time, our entire society and we all are more dependent on electricity than ever before. In the Nordics, certainly partly due to our climate, the focus has been for quite some time on securing the supply and availability of electricity as well as low-emission electricity production. The Nordics has become the global forerunner of smart grids. Achieving this position has required a strong vision and will, cross-boundary collaboration, as well as excellence to develop and utilise technological innovations.

The story of Aidon is closely linked to the success story of the Nordic smart grid competence. In 15 years, we have grown from a Jyväskylä-based technology start-up to the leading supplier of smart electricity metering solutions in our market area. A significant milestone on this journey was when Norway’s biggest electricity distribution system operator Hafslund Nett a few years back chose Aidon as the single supplier to upgrade its grid of 700,000 customers with new generation smart technology. Hafslund Nett had a clear plan for utilising the data provided by Aidon devices in several ways: in grid maintenance, customer service and development of new services, for instance. All this by utilising cloud technologies and the efficient data processing and analytics enabled by them.

For Aidon’s development, open-minded customers such as Hafslund Nett, who challenge the traditional operating models, have been – and will be in the future – extremely important. Digitalisation has risen to our customers’ agendas simultaneously with the transformation of the energy industry. Our customers expect and demand new innovations from us, which will help them digitalise their processes, react faster to changes in the distribution network and electricity consumption, and be a reliable electricity supplier with high quality service to its customers. In addition to our solutions, our customers want our expertise.

For our future competitiveness and growth, it will be decisive whether we are going to adjust to the change, utilise the opportunities offered by it, or even lead it? The choice is clear: we want to strengthen our position as a forerunner in the industry and grow profitably, with competent people as our most important resource.