Accelerating the energy transition through digital transformation

Posted: July 24, 2024

Power companies are under pressure to incorporate more renewable resources into the grid and deliver reliable, resilient power—all while ensuring safe, efficient operations. Digital transformation is playing a crucial role in enabling power companies to rise to the challenge and overcome these pressures. By leveraging digital technologies, power companies can optimize their operations, reduce costs, and increase efficiency and sustainability, all while reaching their energy transition goals.

Thanks to digital transformation initiatives, companies in the energy sector are collecting, analyzing, and acting on industrial data in real-time. When power companies can monitor the performance of renewable energy sources, such as wind turbines and solar panels, users can make rapid, data-driven decisions to optimize output. For example, predictive maintenance can identify potential issues before they occur, reducing downtime and increasing the overall efficiency of renewable energy sources.

Digital transformation also enables energy companies to better integrate renewable energy sources into the grid. By using advanced analytics and machine learning, energy companies can forecast the output of renewable energy sources and balance production with demand. This helps to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels and increase the share of renewable energy in the energy mix.

How new digital solutions can help power producers accelerate the energy transition

Power generation companies face growing demands from government mandates and the public to transition to sustainable energy generation. To remain competitive, they must optimize capital expenditures, mitigate security-of-supply concerns, and effectively train their workforce. Industry leaders are finding success by adopting new digital technologies, which enable them to reduce their carbon footprints, improve capital project efficiency, build agility and resilience, and empower their workers.

Qatar Power has successfully implemented digital tools to improve operations. The company is leveraging digital technologies to optimize operations, reduce costs, and increase the efficiency of renewable energy sources—and has improved fuel efficiency by 10% in the process, saving $1.4 million per year. Thanks to new insights, Qatar Power is accelerating the transition to a more sustainable, renewable future.

ENEL is driving agility and resilience with an AI-infused asset performance management system. By using advanced diagnostic tools, ENEL can predict failures before they occur, which has cut maintenance costs. In the first 21 months, ENEL detected and prevented over 220 real events, optimizing performance across 20GW of power generation and 1,275 assets.

The Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) is a real-time wholesale energy trading market that enables participants in the western United States to buy and sell energy, reduce production costs, and integrate more renewable energy. With 22 entities, WEIM must manage tremendous amounts of data quickly and efficiently. Using AVEVA^TM PI System^TM WEIM created a standard and flexible asset framework that seamlessly integrates with various systems.

Digital transformation is essential for the energy transition and the growth of renewable energy. By leveraging digital technologies, energy companies can lay the groundwork for a more sustainable, efficient, and optimized future.

Read our white paper to discover six digital initiatives that can increase sustainability, efficiency, and reliability in the power industry.