PEOPLE Project: training and upskilling for the Rotterdam port of the future

Virtual education

Yet the virtual education component within PEOPLE is also important. Kroon: "There will be a data platform where MBO and HBO students can use sensor technology to remotely research and analyse, for example, what a wind turbine is doing. This will allow them to see what the wind force, temperature and power is and how it fluctuates. Should an additional sensor be added to measure vibrations? These are the kinds of issues they will work on concretely on the platform. But we are now also working on an optional subject for secondary school students. We also want to get this group of students enthusiastic about working on the energy transition. A lot of people are needed for the transition to succeed. My conviction is that we will only succeed if we work together."

The PEOPLE Project is also of interest to businesses. For this purpose, among others, the Centre for Energy Transition was created, a virtual environment where companies with education-related questions are directly linked to the right contact person within an educational institution.

Digital twin platform

That link with business, is one of the reasons why FLIE is involved in PEOPLE. Peter van Hooft, operations manager at FLIE: "Our focus here is mainly on the technology side. We are now creating the basis for a digital twin platform (a virtual representation of a process or system that is continuously updated with data from the physical environment, e.g. using sensors and IoT devices, -red.). One of FLIE's founding partners is FME, the business association for the technology industry. They are close to the SMEs, know what is on the minds of these entrepreneurs, what needs they have and what challenges they face. We take the feedback from the companies into account in the design of that digital twin platform."

This virtual platform links real scenarios from the business world to education that allows students real-time learning about practice. A huge win according to Van Hooft. "A lot of work is already being done on innovation within education, but you also have to think about new teaching methods such as the digital twin platform. Our intention is that the platform will soon be available to everyone and everywhere, then you become outreach also many times greater. And that applies not only to the students we are training now, it is also suitable for the people already working in the industry. You already have those in house, so train them. The process industry will increasingly move towards electrification, which brings with it new technology in which current employees also need to be retrained." Van Hooft also emphasises the shortage of well-trained employees. "Around me I hear companies saying that they are not even that concerned about issues like grid congestion or greening. They don't have enough people, that's the biggest problem."

Currently, the development of the platform is in full swing. First the functional requirements have to be defined, then the technical requirements follow and the third step is to build the platform. Van Hooft: "After these three steps, we have a platform, but after that it has to be filled in. In such a digital twin environment, for example, you want to virtually connect a wind turbine, a battery and an electrolyser. To fill in the digital twin platform, we are now writing a proposal."

'Technology readiness'

Another partner in the PEOPLE Project is TNO. Pejman Shoeibi Omrani is senior scientist Energy Transition and he deals with the digitalisation of energy systems, industry and industrial processes. Specifically for the PEOPLE Project, he develops digital tools that train students and people already working in industry to be able to implement the energy transition. "From TNO, we mainly look at what companies and society need and how we can link that demand to education in the best possible way. We provide the facilities to make the ''technology readiness' of people. For TNO, that aspect was one of the main reasons for participating in PEOPLE. We are still at the beginning. First we need to analyse and understand the needs. With that, we can determine what digital roadmap we need to create to prepare future talents and current employees for future technologies. We now have a proof of concept lie in which digital twin solutions have been worked out that are needed to understand what future energy systems and industrial processes will look like. Take renewable energy as an example. It is not available 24/7, the sun does not always shine, nor is there wind every day. This affects industrial processes. With digital twin, you can include scenarios about how the wind is going to develop in the next 24 hours and how to adjust your industrial process accordingly."

Precisely being able to look ahead is essential, he says, because there are so many new technologies. Shoeibi Omrani: "The developments with Artificial Intelligence, for example, are going so incredibly fast, much faster than we expected. It is important for students and staff to keep up with those developments and be able to anticipate them. The people working in the industry now have a lot of experience and are hard to find. We need their knowledge, but we also need to bring them along in new technologies like AI. It is good that we are acting together in this with the PEOPLE Project: education, government, knowledge institutions, business and organisations like the FLIE."