Enexis adopts Microsoft Mixed Reality technology and the industrial metaverse to take a leading role in the energy transition

“The energy transition is happening, and it’s happening now. But for that to succeed, we need to change. We cannot proceed at the same pace as the past hundred years.” 

Rutger van der Leeuw, Chief Operating Officer at Enexis Netbeheer, is discussing challenges that the energy transition is posing on the wider energy sector – and the steps his company is taking to address them.

“Enexis is committed to facilitating the energy transition across the Netherlands, and creating a sustainable energy future through the development, maintenance, and operation of safe and efficient energy networks,” says van der Leeuw. “It’s our mission to do it by promoting innovative solutions that meet the growing demand for renewable energy sources.”

But that’s easier said than done. “Our experts predict that in the next ten years, we will need to expand our grid capacity by the same amount we’ve built over the past century in order to meet future energy demands,” he says. 

“That’s a task we can’t achieve on our own. We need to change the way we work, our skills and how we use them. And we need technology to help us do it.”

That’s precisely what Enexis is doing. In collaboration with Microsoft and its partner Recreate, the company has launched a digital transformation program centered around implementing new technologies – as well as training its workforce to make the most of them using skilling courses created using mixed reality solutions. 

“Mixed reality has the potential to bring outstanding contribution to the energy transition – allowing to optimize operations, increase efficiency, and reduce downtime,” he says.

“That’s where innovation and Microsoft come in for us: by giving us the tools we need to drive meaningful change in the years to come.”

Preparing the workforce for new demands

A Dutch state-owned utility company based in Hertogenbosch, Enexis Netbeheer has spent the past 100 years overseeing the transportation and distribution of gas and electricity lines in the north, east and south of The Netherlands.

“We are an established, traditional business specialized in installing, managing and maintaining power lines across the country,” says Veerle Wijshoff, Innovation Manager at Enexis Netbeheer. “This has been our bread and butter for decades, allowing us to play an ever more central role in the sector.”

But now things are changing, and so is Enexis. In need to better accommodate the energy transition, the company announced a €1.3bn investment for 2023 in activities such as gas and traditional maintenance, and expanding electric capacity by 2 gigawatt annually. 

“These investments are taking us closer to our sustainability ambitions for the years to come,” she continues. “But at the same time, they’re bringing about new challenges – especially in the skilling and training domain.” 

Over 4,500 people strong, Enexis’ workforce finds itself at a crossroads. “On the one hand, we have employees who have been with us their whole lives, and are soon approaching retirement,” she says. “On the other, we’re hiring lots of new people who we need to train on both existing operations and the new solutions we’re implementing.

“Add that to the widespread skills shortage across the sector, and you can see how important our need to secure talent is.  

“Luckily, Microsoft and its partner Recreate have found a way to help us.” 

Bringing mixed reality to training operations

Wijshoff recalls the moment that she and her newly formed Innovation Team decided to connect mixed reality with Enexis’ skilling needs. 

“We were aware of the shortage challenges that our company was facing in terms of new hires, but also when it came to mentors and trainers themselves,” she explains. “To address these challenges, we knew that we could rely on technology and other rapidly evolving innovation opportunities. 

“But that wasn’t enough for us: we really wanted a solution and use case that could add value and create immediate impact to our mentorship program – and at the same time, helps us with creating a building block for more technology implementation, like the industrial metaverse.” 

Right away, she says, the team realized that the HoloLens 2 was the perfect solution to meet these needs.

“It could help to make training quicker, more inclusive and practical, for example. It could also support mentors and allow them to reduce time. Lastly, it was perfectly suited to the new, younger generations of trainees, with their natural predisposition and curiosity towards technology,” she continues. 

“Mixed Reality – together with the Dynamics 365 Guides and HoloLens technologies it came with – was perfect for our training needs. We finally had a clear business case that we could pitch to our bosses – and hopefully use as baseline for even more, future use cases.

“The next step was creating the courses.”

Fostering cross-departmental collaboration

Following Enexis’ decision to test HoloLens 2 was a long, cross-departmental collaboration that involved the innovation team, IT, educators, and Microsoft partner Recreate. 

“As soon as we started on the project, we knew that we couldn’t do it without the help of our business side and IT, and our educators’ and students’ perspective,” says Wijshoff. “That’s when Coordinator of Practical Training Wilco Gort, and Director of ICT Joost Looij came into the equation.”  

The result was an end-to-end solution that uses HoloLens 2 and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides to create 3D training materials for Enexis’ many trainees. The solution, which was created in close collaboration with Recreate, comes with an application that allows workers to develop their own Guides using mixed reality software – as well as connect frontline workers with remote experts through Microsoft Teams. This further facilitates knowledge sharing amongst employees. 

“The beauty of training with the HoloLens 2 is that it’s an easy-to-build solution that saves mentors’ time – freeing them up for other activities,” says Wilco Gort. “Using the solution, mentors can record practical lessons and deliver them by means of video and 3D content, which is really helpful, especially when it comes to simulations.” 

Tim Hermans, CTO at Recreate, reflects on the early stages of the solution. “Since the very beginning of this project, our goal at Recreate was to apply our unique knowledge of mixed reality solutions to Enexis’ needs – and help them generate real and tangible added value,” he says. 

“That’s precisely what we did with Veerle and Wilco: they wanted something that they didn’t have to build from scratch, so we took HoloLens and Guides right off the shelf and started developing digital training material for mentors to record.

"The result was this great solution that allows trainees to learn new skills in a practical, hands-free way. All in their own time.” 

Echoing his words, Joost Looij stresses how transformational the initiative has been from an IT standpoint. “This project has helped us to build more trust in ourselves and our capabilities, showing that we have the knowledge and guts to successfully pull something like this off,” he says.

“And that’s just the beginning. Now that we’ve proved what we can do to our organization, we can use it to drive even more innovation in the future years.”

Ease of use for learners across the board

The project is already proving hugely successful. 

“So often we talk about the needs that new generations have when it comes to employment,” says Wilco. “They come expecting new, innovative ways to build and learn skills. This solution is allowing us to provide that and more – making us far less dependent on time and guidance capacity.” 

According to Wilco, trainers now need 25% less supervision time on each student. They can instead devote 95% of training time to planning and creating the courses – leaving the students to learn independently. 

Internal data also shows that trainees can master materials 40% faster than in traditional ways – with Wijshoff recalling a 15-year-old intern managing to learn a highly complex maintenance procedure in just  30 minutes thanks to the self-training course.  

“A lot of people are really happy about it,” says Wijshoff. “We received overwhelmingly positive comments from our trainees, with those who are affected by dyslexia particularly stressing how much easier and more pleasant the experience is.

“One of them even sent us feedback that read: ‘finally, education that suits me’. And that’s ultimately why we did this project in the first place – to make learning more interactive and easier for all.”

A prime example is the training course on switchboard operations. “These are quite difficult procedures with a lot of steps involved in them,” she continues. “Before, all of these would be available in paper form, featuring both a step-by-step, written explanation and a practical session. 

“Now, trainees can just put on the HoloLens 2, and using Guides 365, they can see the instructions unfold before their eyes in three-dimensions – it’s much more practical.”

Laying the foundation for the Industrial Metaverse

As she looks to the next phase of their energy transition and digital transformation efforts, Rutger van der Leeuw has no doubts about the direction that Enexis will take. 

“The HoloLens 2 initiative has opened our eyes to the real, tangible benefits that mixed reality offers to an organization like Enexis,” he says. “But that’s just the beginning.” 

“We want to explore what the industrial metaverse has to offer and bring our HoloLens solution to field work, where many more of our employees can use it to do things more efficiently.” 

From maintenance to remote inspections, safety drills and more, the industrial metaverse is showing rapidly growing potential in the energy sector – helping to combine on-field technology with data, AI, Digital Twins, mixed reality and more. “We actually already have a potential name for it: the Enexaverse,” he continues. “In the years to come, we believe that this will play a crucial role in strengthening Enexis' position in the industry by showcasing our commitment to innovation and cutting-edge technology.” 

As Enexis continues to implement these solutions, Tim Hermans says that Enexis’ people are more on-board with it than ever before. And that’s all thanks to the HoloLens 2 project. 

“Not many know what the industrial metaverse is about, so it’s hard to see its value right away,” he says. “That’s what I like about this project: it makes it tangible. 

“It shows that the steps are not that tough, especially if you can visualize them on a HoloLens 2 headset. And if you give people the opportunity to experience it, they’re far more likely to believe in it, deploy it and use it as inspiration for whatever they want to achieve.”