TenneT develops a data strategy for the future 

TenneT has a key role in the energy transition. To address the growing energy demand and complexity of the energy system, TenneT is investing not only in physical infrastructure but also in smarter ways of working. Data plays a crucial role in this. John Simons, Head of Digital & Data at TenneT, and Tim Beswick, Management Consultant at Anderson MacGyver, discuss how they laid the foundation for the company’s current data strategy. 

The role of data at TenneT 

The developments in the energy transition are happening rapidly. John Simons emphasizes that data is indispensable. “Data is key for managing the existing network infrastructure and new technologies more efficiently. With the rise of wind and solar energy, energy flows are less predictable than before. This calls for innovative data-driven solutions and improved data quality. Additionally, data not only helps to optimize existing assets but also accelerates network construction projects.” 

Tim Beswick, who has been involved in developing TenneT’s data strategy as a management consultant, recognized a lot of ambition when he started working with TenneT two years ago. “TenneT has a strong focus on utilizing the potential of data to accelerate the energy transition. From the start, the Digital & Data department had a clear vision of what the impact of data should be for TenneT. At the same time, there were still plenty of challenges within the organization to make that happen.” 

Challenges around the further development of data applications 

“TenneT is an organization where individual business units are very focused on a project or operation,” John explains. “Data flows across all these units. Due to constraints around the speed at which we were able to deliver data-driven solutions, the individual units pursued their own data initiatives. This resulted in fragmentation and a lack of cohesion. This makes data hard to access and use effectively. Technical complexity continued to increase. A lack of structure created a vicious cycle where data was not managed in a sufficiently uniform manner; impeding the accelerated delivery of smart data solutions that the units need.” 

“TenneT also faced limitations in the scalability of data technology. This resulted in the scarce capacity being utilized too much for enabling technology related tasks. This limited the ability to align capacity towards innovative value add projects. Without a more scalable data platform and more uniform data management and governance, it would remain difficult to realize data-driven innovations at scale,” Tim adds. 

The new data strategy 

“The main goal of our new data strategy was to anchor our approach to levering data to accelerate the energy transition at the highest level,” explains John. “We primarily wanted to create a common foundation, a starting point for working smarter with data to unlock business value. By engaging with key stakeholders within each business unit, we mapped out the value of data for that specific part of the company. Anderson MacGyver supported us in this process.” 

“We wanted to create a common foundation for smarter data management to unlock business value,” says John Simons, Head of Digital & Data at TenneT. 

“This approach resulted in agreeing on eight strategic themes,” Tim explains. “From making TenneT a great place to work for data talent to migrating to a scalable cloud-based platform. From clarifying, fine-tuning and operationalization of roles and responsibilities around data governance to extending the portfolio management process with a more long-term and more business value aligned perspective. For each theme, it was essential to find and activate an owner within John’s leadership team and develop a cohesive roadmap and detailed underlying plans.” 

Success factors for the data strategy 

The implementation of the data strategy had several success factors. “A business use case-based approach was essential,” says John. “By closely aligning with the reality of the business, data solutions can directly address real life business challenges. This ensures buy-in and engagement from the organization.” 

“It was also important to distinguish between enabling must do initiatives, the data foundation roadmap, and the specific needs of individual business units, the data value roadmaps,” adds Tim. “Additionally, now with the central Digital & Data team’s strengthened ability to fulfil business demand, we are more and more bridging business capabilities and data & technology capabilities.” 

Implementation and scaling of new data technology 

The focus in the upcoming period will be around further implementation of the data strategy and scaling of the cross-TenneT data capabilities. In the short term, a new cloud platform will be delivered. Additionally, we will migrate all legacy data environments to this one platform by the end of the year. This will be an important step for TenneT towards a more flexible and scalable data infrastructure. “With the new platform, we can scale our technology and people capacity to shape all sorts of fantastic ideas,” says John. “We can then implement the smart data-driven solutions that the business needs much faster. We want to as much as possible enable the business to create data-driven insights and solutions themselves. We are working towards ‘data at your fingertips.’ So that the business can quickly and easily access certified data they can trust. We are aiming to create a flywheel that can be used across the entire organization.” 

There is also significant work underway to streamline data governance and data management responsibilities and collaboration across the organization. “This should lead to a more efficient process where the right data is available at the right time for the right users,” Tim explains. “We are also strengthening the roadmaps, which is crucial for accelerating progress. More business value aligned and congruent roadmaps give us a clearer long-term perspective on how the business can use data to drive innovative solutions in the future and what needs doing to enable this. Based on this we know where to focus our resources and where to scale.” 

“The streamlining and operationalization of data governance and management responsibilities must lead to a more efficient process where the right data of the right quality is available at the right time for the right users,” says Tim Beswick, Management Consultant at Anderson MacGyver. 

Lastly, TenneT is exploring the possibilities of generative AI. We do this through pilots and with a clear governance structure, so that the opportunities for AI to deliver value to the business can be leveraged without losing sight of the risks. Within Digital & Data, we now have a Competence Center that guides these developments. 

The Future: towards a data-driven TenneT 

The transformation of TenneT into a more data-driven organization is in full swing. Thanks to a thoughtful data strategy, strong collaboration with Anderson MacGyver, and a clear focus on creating business value though a joined-up approach to people, processes and technology, the organization is well on its way to using data more effectively to support the energy transition. 

John is pleased with the collaboration. “Anderson MacGyver is hands-on way and goes beyond PowerPoint. It is about understanding and adapting to what needs to be done to achieve actual change. This is crucial for TenneT. You need some external power for that, and Anderson MacGyver helps us with that.” 

“The best thing you can do is to step into the arena and get involved,” Tim says. “In the Anderson MacGyver approach, we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the people involved at TenneT. We do what needs to be done to get things moving, rather than trying to activate change on paper.”