The fight against climate change is currently undisputedly the greatest global challenge. Greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced quickly and sustainably. At the same time, a constantly growing world population is demanding more and more energy. If the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are to be achieved and all people are to have the same right to prosperity and a secure life, this requires the sufficient availability and use of energy. Experts currently expect global energy demand to increase by 50 percent by 2050, creating a de facto energy dilemma, as the use of energy is by far the largest source of global CO2 emissions.

This conflict of objectives cannot be resolved by doing without or adopting backward-looking strategies. Rather, the solution lies in the responsible use of technologies and the complete restructuring of energy production and use; away from fossil sources and towards regeneratively produced energy. The only resource available for this on a large scale is electricity generated from renewable sources. Humanity is now at the end of the fossil age and at the beginning of a new era of electricity as a clean and virtually unlimited basis for global energy supply - the All Electric Society (AES). The term describes a world in which regeneratively generated electrical energy is available globally in sufficient quantities and completely economically as a new primary form of energy and thus becomes the climate-neutral basis for global energy supply.

The technical foundations of the AES are already in place. On an area of 0.3 percent of the Earth's land surface, the energy from daily solar radiation could be used to generate the electrical energy to meet global demand - and at costs that are already significantly lower than those of fossil fuels. The transportation and storage problem can be solved with green hydrogen and the synthetic hydrocarbons based on it. This vision of a sustainable and climate-neutral society and economy is scientifically justifiable, realistic and can be realized through technology and innovation.

The architectural framework of a networked world

The UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) require the sufficient availability and use of energy.

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The key to realizing an all-electric society lies in the rapid and extensive expansion of renewable electrical energy generation as well as the comprehensive electrification, networking and automation of all areas of society and the economy. Added to this is the efficient and coordinated provision and use of this energy. A fully integrated, networked and intelligent energy system is therefore required across all energy-consuming, energy-generating and energy-storing areas. This means that energy can be used wherever it is needed, or can be temporarily stored in a variety of ways when it is not required. The result is considerable energy optimization and savings. This requires physical networking of the energy flows. However, the real key to linking the individual sectors lies in the end-to-end data linking of all areas.

The technological developments of recent years show that the necessary resources are available for this mammoth task. The cross-sector networking of millions of things and technical systems requires data and information models as well as semantics and mechanisms that enable automated and autonomous communication between the technical systems. The digital twin as a virtual, data-based representation of physical objects or processes is an obvious solution. As part of the work of the Industry 4.0 platform, a structured metamodel of such a digital twin has been developed in the form of the Asset Administration Shell (AAS). The AAS has now achieved a form and quality that can be used as the necessary architectural framework for the networked world. The model and architecture can be transferred to almost all areas of application via the development of sub-models.

The Asset Administration Shell is suitable for both static product data and dynamic content, such as process data. It also includes a mechanism that allows the semantics used to be recognized unambiguously, machine-readably and internationally. Being able to detect language and automatically translate it into other languages is an essential prerequisite for interaction in and between different fields of application. The AAS not only defines the respective structure and semantics of the data, but also communication protocols - such as OPC UA or REST - as well as authentication and authorization mechanisms for data exchange. The topic of cybersecurity is also addressed comprehensively. In addition, international standardization of the Asset Administration Shell and its interaction capability is taking place within the framework of IEC WG 24 as IEC 63278.

The Digital Product Passport 4.0

Sector coupling forms the basis for an all-electric society.

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The AAS data model also forms the core of the ZVEI's "Digital Product Passport 4.0" initiative. As part of the Ecodesign Regulation, the EU is aiming to create a standardized Digital Product Passport to make product data relevant to the circular economy accessible and exchangeable. The ZVEI and its member companies have demonstrated that such a product passport can be implemented by using the AAS and its infrastructure through the "Digital Nameplate" project for uniquely identifying a product using a standardized QR code and the "Product Carbon Footprint" project for assigning and aggregating the carbon footprint of individual components and products. However, the Product Passport model can map much more than just information relating to eco-design. Thanks to the flexibility of the underlying AAS metamodel, any group of product information, from environmental data and technical properties to CAD models, including secure access rights to this information, can be represented. Some areas can be accessed openly, while other areas are highly protected and only accessible to contractually assigned users.

The AAS metamodel proves to be so generic that it can also be used as a basic framework in all other sectors outside industry. In general, every new sub-model and every adaptation to new application fields still offers interoperability and the options of using the defined access interfaces or security measures, for example. It is even possible to integrate other sector-specific data models in such a way that they continue to exist within an application area and can be used transparently. At the same time, a cross-sector exchange of certain information from these models is possible. As an integration platform, the Asset Administration Shell can thus bring together existing activities and initiatives. One example is the building sector, which has been doing pioneering work in this context with the Building Information Modeling activities that have been ongoing for years. A standardized digital product passport, which in this case also carries the BIM model of a product, could, for example, seamlessly link the building sector with other applications.

Application-specific data/trust spaces

Digital identification: The QR code on the product enables immediate access to its current data and documents.

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The European Gaia-X initiative provides a further platform for the cross-sector exchange of structured and semantically classified data, which in particular enables the sovereign use of data. Gaia-X defines open interfaces and standards for the integration of individual companies, existing cloud providers or sector-specific cloud platforms into a federated structure. In order for market participants, users and consumers to be able and willing to share their data and interact with each other within the framework of new business models, it is necessary to establish data-based virtual trust spaces in which activities take place according to defined rules and agreements. Users need security and the protection of their individual data sovereignty in order to participate in such data platforms. This data governance, which describes the business, legal and technical foundations of data ecosystems, is currently being created as part of the definition and shaping of application-specific data spaces. One example is the Catena-X data ecosystem for the automotive industry. Here, the rules and business models can also be highly specific and application-related in individual data spaces.

To enable the exchange of information across data spaces, a clean foundation must be laid on the basic uniform specifications - in the sense of a modular layer model. This includes, for example, data models, communication structures, security and exchange mechanisms in the cloud environment. The "Manufacturing X" project initiated by the Industry 4.0 platform and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK), which aims to create a common data space for the manufacturing industry, offers a great opportunity to agree on common standards. Manufacturing X will be based on the definitions and standards of the AAS as a common data model and thus lay the central foundation for information technology sector coupling.

An organizing structure

However, information technology sector coupling can only succeed if the data structures and the associated communication and security infrastructure are used in a coordinated, cross-sectoral manner. This requires parallel and autonomous work on this complex of topics in many areas of the economy and society. A regulatory structure based on consensually developed standards is needed as a framework for this. It must not restrict the necessary individualization and differentiation in the detailed design of technical solutions or business models too much in order to encourage and, at best, promote competition and innovation. However, the structure must provide an architectural management framework.

The author: Roland Bent is a former CTO at Phoenix Contact and former chairman of the DKE German Commission for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies in DIN and VDE.

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As an independent platform, the German Commission for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (DKE) has committed itself in its "Commitment 2030" to creating this framework together with its stakeholders from industry, associations, society and politics. From a technical perspective, there is already a basis for an architectural framework for the comprehensive and consistent data networking of all areas of society and the economy. What is now essential and necessary is the intensive coordination of all stakeholders and the common will to reach a consensus and implement it. From today's perspective, the Digital Product Passport 4.0 based on the AAS has the potential to become the universal data model for information technology sector coupling. It would therefore be the key to realizing the All Electric Society and the associated transformation of society and industry towards a sustainable and climate-neutral future with growth and prosperity prospects for all people.