Energy and utilities networks

Distribution networks are at the heart of the energy transition.

Should we favour “all-electric”, “power to gas“, “gas to hydrogen” or district heating? The European energy system will have to rely on all vectors to ensure its energy transition.

Infrastructure managers need an integrative vision of energy systems to identify and exploit synergies between networks and energy sources.

The integration of renewable energies into electricity networks requires the adaptation of infrastructures and the modernisation of network management principles. The dynamic development of renewable energy production facilities places network operators in the front line, responsible for connecting these facilities and providing short, medium and long-term responses to guarantee the safe and economic operation of the electricity network.

Network infrastructures will therefore have to adapt to cope with these developments while maintaining the same level of quality and security. Investments will be necessary, the volume and costs of which must be optimised.

Assess, build and run : the 3 stages to excellence

ASSESS

Before taking action, you need to assess the condition of your assets and the performance of your management processes and methods.

Together, we will:

assess and map the condition of your assets in accordance with recognised benchmarks;
estimate the economic and environmental impact of asset strategies;
carry out one-off technical audits;
analyse the maturity of your management processes, in accordance with ISO 55’001:2024 standards;
analyse your digital tools and your urbanisation in general.

Understanding and assessing how things currently work is crucial: it reveals the strengths that will enable you to make progress, as well as the weaknesses that need to be addressed.

We work with curiosity and humility, respecting the culture and history of your organisation.

BUILD

This second phase consists of designing and then deploying the technical and organisational solutions that will set your networks and your organisation on the road to performance and success.

Together, we:

build realistic and optimised asset strategies and implementation plans, aligned with your economic and environmental objectives;
deploy best practices in asset management;
train your specialists;
deploy efficient and scalable digital tools for asset management;
monitor the progress made by your teams.

We provide you with transparent advice and create an environment conducive to the development of your organisations (change management) by passing on our know-how, making our digital tools available and implementing change management programmes.

RUN

There are times when resource constraints weaken your capacity to act, or when you wish to entrust certain recurring tasks to us, on a make-or-buy basis.

Our teams offer you:

regular assistance in carrying out certain asset management tasks, such as data processing and valorisation, environmental and economic optimisation, production of planning or governance documents, etc.
asset management training programmes, designed to refresh your teams’ knowledge or prepare your new colleagues;
a range of asset management tools, through our Eqylibr® suite (www.eqylibr.com).

We act with complete transparency, making the most of your teams’ expertise and perpetuating their business knowledge. In this way, you can regain control of the activities you have outsourced to us at any time.

Thanks to the integration of Tamdis, a company created by five Swiss distribution network operators, IMDM now has recognised expertise in this field.

For the past 10 years, we have been supporting distribution network operators in the implementation of their network strategy as well as in regular tasks such as the calculation of the stamp.

We help our customers to get the most out of the digitalisation of networks. Data from smart meters, load curve measuring devices, energy billing systems or geographic information systems are integrated into digital network simulation tools such as Neplan^® .

IMDM provides detailed analyses of distribution networks. Our time series models allow us to create digital twins of consumption points, renewable energy sources, electric cars or heat pumps. In this way we analyse the future behaviour of networks with the help of scenarios.

The network components are then integrated into customised digital asset management tools (e.g. in the Office suite^®) or market tools (Eqylibr^® , etc.) in such a way as to derive investment trajectories in line with the requirements of the energy transformation.

As an example, we support several distribution network operators in their infrastructure investment strategy, as part of their energy transition: tactics to remove gas pipes, progressive deployment of distance heating, etc.