Why connected industrial intelligence is rewriting energy industry rules

Posted: February 21, 2025

The technology to transform the global energy industry exists today. Solutions like renewable energy, smart grids and carbon capture have the potential to eliminate 70% of CO2 emissions. Yet, the industry’s greatest challenge – or opportunity – isn't just about the development of new technologies. The industrial workforce is shifting dramatically as Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha projected to comprise 80% of workers by 2030. Our focus must also be on revolutionizing how we deploy these technologies.

Organizations are discovering a powerful truth: sharing and analyzing data across operations turns individual capabilities into company-wide solutions. This shift in how we use connected industrial intelligence comes at a critical moment. The energy sector must serve three billion new consumers by 2030, while maintaining operational excellence and a responsible use of the world’s resources. 

Transforming hard-to-abate industries: Digital solutions in oil and gas

TotalEnergies demonstrates the impact of digital connectivity in one of our hardest challenges: decarbonizing oil and gas. They faced a challenge common across complex industrial value chains. Different teams worked with the same information but calculated and reported emissions differently. This made is difficult to track and reduce emissions effectively.

“Most of our sites are using [AVEVA] PI System, so most of the data [was] already available, but not really used properly to monitor the emissions,” explains Pierre Bernadi,Technical Advisor at TotalEnergies. “We decided to design the proper templates to help them efficiently monitor the emissions. Now the data is available to the operations people.”

The results speak for themselves. The company started tracking and analyzing the basic building blocks of their operations using digital tools by bringing together 3,400 technical experts in a new division – OneTech. This new approach standardized digital templates and delivered 15% annual CO2 reductions, preventing 500,000 barrels of production loss through better equipment maintenance. Beyond environmental gains, it transformed how teams collaborate. Innovation cycles accelerated as best practices spread rapidly across teams and facilities.

Enabling the renewables transition: Connected intelligence for power supply

The renewable energy sector faces its own challenge: managing unpredictable power supply. ZGlobal and Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) show how connected industrial intelligence creates solutions. They built trust across their network by connecting power producers, schedulers and distributors through shared data to enable reliable renewable power delivery.  

"I can't undersell the value of being able to integrate generator and scheduler data to give us a holistic view," explains Mike Wardell, a contractor with Power Resource Group, SVCE. "It has lowered our overhead."

By creating a secure data-sharing ecosystem through the CONNECT platform, SVCE achieved what seemed impossible. In addition to streamlining operations, their grid operators and schedulers now spend less time reconciling data discrepancies and more time optimizing power delivery strategies.  Every player in the energy chain now works from the same transparent, secure, real-time data. This makes it easier to connect supply and demand, even when power supply from renewables is fluctuating. What started as a data exchange challenge has evolved into a blueprint for modern grid operations and optimization. SVCE’s story reveals how secure data-sharing doesn’t only connect systems – it creates the trust foundation that is es sential for grid transformation while unlocking significant savings and strengthening resilience.

Building tomorrow’s grid infrastructure: Data-driven distribution networks

While some companies are transforming existing operations, others are revolutionizing how we manage and distribute energy. UK Power Networks (UKPN), the UK's largest Distribution Network Operator, demonstrates how combining diverse expertise with data intelligence can accelerate grid modernization. Responsible for delivering power to 19 million homes and businesses across London and Southeast England – 29% of the UK's population – UKPN faced mounting complexity from the proliferation of smart meters and distributed energy resources (DERs).

The challenge was immense: capturing and analyzing over 4 billion data points daily from electric vehicles, smart thermostats, home batteries, and solar inverters. UKPN's solution was to create a single, robust data management platform that unified operational and IT data, providing every department – from operations to planning to asset management – with a single version of truth.

Using AI-powered predictive analytics, UKPN now manages tens of millions of grid assets more effectively. This hasn’t just dismantled decision-making silos; it’s completely changed how teams operate. Engineers and operators who previously spent hours manually processing data now focus on strategic grid optimization and innovation.  The system combines digital and analog data to extract real-time actionable information, helping teams predict and prevent failures, reduce outages, and optimize operations with greater confidence and precision. Most importantly, this enhanced visibility enables UKPN to manage more DERs while maintaining grid stability, maximizing available power, and supporting the transition to a low-carbon future.

The connected future is here

Three forces are reshaping how energy companies operate. Digital ecosystems are maturing, enabling agile energy management. Power grids are evolving to incorporate new green sources and micro-networks. And consumers are becoming small-scale domestic energy producers generate, selling power back to the grid.  

Connected industrial intelligence isn’t just a technology upgrade – it's a new operational foundation. Our pioneers show how this approach drives productivity and competitive advantage. Tomorrow’s energy leaders will be those who best unite their technologies, teams and insights. With billions depending on reliable, clean and affordable energy, this new approach isn’t just transforming the industry. It’s essential progress for the future.