Digital Ecosystem Services

FAQ's

1. What is BentoNet?
2. What does "BentoNet" mean?
3. Who needs BentoNet?
4. Why do energy suppliers and grid operators need BentoNet?
5. What can BentoNet do that the competition can't?
6. Who is behind BentoNet?
7. What is BentoNet's vision/corporate philosophy?
8. What does BentoNet cost?
9. How secure is BentoNet?
10. Does BentoNet also provide hardware components? Who does BentoNet work with in this area?
11. What does BentoNet ready mean?

What is BentoNet?
BentoNet is the digitalisation platform for areas where safety, independence and efficiency are essential. BentoNet combines over 20 infrastructure services with the best hardware and software
solutions for the smart, automated distribution of electricity, gas and water. Fast, independent and secure based on an efficient combination of infrastructure, software and services. BentoNet's offering targets all energy suppliers and network operators that maintain supply infrastructure. In other words, regional utilities and all companies that supply energy and water. As a B2B platform company, BentoNet provides network operators with a digital ecosystem of cloud, telecommunications and related services: a combination of all the analysis and
management tools, data collection, evaluation and the associated user interface that energy suppliers need today, expertise from our specialist consultants and, above all, proximity, security and trust. The
result is an integrated cloud system for our customers' and partners' energy data.
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What does "BentoNet" mean?
The name "BentoNet" is made up of the terms Bentō (=structured data) and Net (=network).
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Who needs BentoNet?
All energy suppliers and network operators that maintain supply infrastructure. In other words, regional utilities and all companies from the critical infrastructure sector supply essential commodities, such as energy and water, with no alternative to intelligent and automated software solutions in today's constantly growing decentralised supply network. Energy suppliers can manage this infrastructure themselves with extremely high costs, personnel and time expenditure. Or they can get everything from a single source with BentoNet: faster, more efficient and cheaper.
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Why do energy suppliers and grid operators need BentoNet?
Based in Europe who is in the middle of the transformation phase towards alternative energy generation. To achieve the climate targets of the UK and EU, a complete switch to alternative energies is necessary. However, unlike conventional large-scale power plants, wind and solar power generation are completely decentralised with several thousand local substations. In addition, countless batteries, electric vehicles, grids, heat pumps and solar systems generate massive data streams. As energy and electricity can only be stored to a very limited extent, the network must ensure their precise distribution at the right time and place. Otherwise, there is a risk of blackouts or brownouts. Critical infrastructures are also subject to threats from various external dangers, such as extreme weather events or natural disasters such as floods, fires, and cyber attacks. In order to aid the stability of these networks, immense digital data streams must be processed and managed. And this is not possible without a fully digitalised network that meets the highest
security standards. BentoNet offers all the necessary components from a single source: infrastructure, software and expertise, by supporting the networks' future viability and aiding supply security.
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What can BentoNet do that the competition can't?
BentoNet's portfolio was developed by experts specifically for the energy industry and critical infrastructure and is unique in this form. Our competitors are either specialists with local market access or platform providers with a high profile whose services are based on the cloud infrastructure of the US industry giants. Our BentoNet solution offers customers the best of both worlds: Immediacy, personal proximity,
specific market knowledge, and expertise in the energy industry - and at the same time, the flexibility, scalability and user-friendliness of international cloud service providers. This can be realised both with
existing hardware on the customer's side and with hardware expertise from our BentoNet-ready partners. As a result, BentoNet promises its customers significant cost savings compared to the conventional model - and in accordance with the highest technical and legal security standards, certified in accordance with EU law. Without loss of time and investment costs for IT development and personnel.
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Who is behind BentoNet?
BentoNet Technology GmbH, founded in 2020 and based in Baden-Baden, is a spin-off of Badische Kraftwerk GmbH, which was founded in 2009. It operates a network of decentralised power plants that provides service, plant construction, optimisation, and billing. In addition to extensive industry experience, BentoNet offers energy suppliers and grid operators the complete digitalisation package for efficient,
secure and independent implementation of their digitalisation process.

The platform solution includes infrastructure, software and hardware components, an in-house control centre, a data centre with server
capacity and an IoT platform that bundles all data streams. BentoNet also conducts research and development from which platform users benefit.
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What is BentoNet's vision/corporate philosophy?
We live in a world of change. Effective measures to combat global warming - above all, the decarbonisation of our energy industry - are the major challenges of our time. Just as important as the emission-free
generation of electricity and heat is their distribution. This means disruptive changes - not only for energy producers but also for the supply grid.
In order to bring the electricity generated by tens of thousands of
wind turbines and several million solar installations to households, distribution grid operators must digitalise their low-voltage grids. Without intelligent data processing and software solutions, the challenges of the decentralised supply grid cannot be overcome. BentoNet provides the energy industry with combinations of customised hardware and software solutions, with the help of which the energy transition is no longer an insurmountable challenge but can instead be seen as an opportunity. An opportunity to make supply networks transparent, stable and future-proof with the help of valuable digital data streams. Our vision for the energy industry of tomorrow is for 100% security of supply, 0% emissions and 100% renewable energy.
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What does BentoNet cost?
BentoNet offers a 100% scalable cloud infrastructure, including data transmission, digital workplace and optional hardware components from its BentoNet Ready partners in accordance with EU security standards.

Whether energy companies supply villages, towns or cities - BentoNet only ever costs what it delivers. Without basic fees and investment hurdles. Application price will depend on the order and data volume of the respective customer configuration and, therefore, adapted to their turnover and profit. BentoNet is charis configured for the customer in two volume tariffs. NetConnect offers a complete data acquisition and control domain with over 20 standardised services. Or WorkDesk, which provides the application domain in which the apps process the customer data.
The BentoNet infrastructure amounts to an average of 85% of the operating costs for in-house implementation. By saving on personnel costs and resources (e.g. through remote reading), optimised
network operation and reduced downtimes, the potential savings for a supply network operator amount to a further 25%. This means a total cost saving of 40% with maximum efficiency compared to the conventional model.

For more information on the costs or to obtain a customised offer that suits your needs, please contact sales@itl-uk.com.
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How secure is BentoNet?
Unlike outsourcing to various service providers and cloud service providers, whose company headquarters servers are often located around the world and are therefore subject to different laws and regulations,
BentoNet provides everything from a single source - and meets European security standards:
from compliance with the IT Security Act 2.0 of 2021 and the system protection plan of the transmission system operators to certification in accordance with the international ISO/IEC 27001 standard for
information, cyber security and data protection. By securely forwarding the collected data from the metering infrastructure to the BentoNet infrastructure control centre via M2M technologies, our network
offers maximum protection and ensures the security of the critical infrastructure. In addition, BentoNet has clearly defined participants with a clear data structure, which prevents network misuse.
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Does BentoNet also provide hardware components? Who does BentoNet work within this area?
A large number of measuring, control and protection devices are installed in the field. In order to transform the existing supply infrastructure into an intelligent system, the corresponding measuring device infrastructure is required in addition to IT services.
With the exception of routers, BentoNet does not have its own hardware at the field level. Instead, It relies on the experience and expertise of strong partners such as Janitza, Siemens, BeEnergy SGIM, WAGO, and SAE-IT. These partners have made their devices BentoNet-ready, which means that they can be installed on existing hardware and new devices.
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What does BentoNet ready mean?
All hardware components compatible with the BentoNet cloud are labelled "BentoNet ready." The end devices undergo a standardisation process in which protocols and data models are defined. This saves time and money when connecting the devices and enables apps to be set up based on customer data.