Organizations belonging to various industry sectors including the energy & power sector need to evolve to address the ever-changing business landscape. The business IT field is growing rapidly and many advancements of technology are visible in cloud adoption, big data, software defined networking, IoT, virtualization, threat detection and security. One of the first steps in digitization in any organization is electronic conversion of all existing paper documents, which has increased the demand for professional data entry services and data conversion solutions in every industry. Over the next few years, AI is expected to change the way business teams spend their time acting on data. This will reduce the time they spend on scoping, debating, scenario planning and testing new innovations.
A report from Capgemini’s Digital Transformation Institute has found that an increase in digital investment by power plant owners helps to achieve efficiency, and reduces operating cost and CO2 emission. Over the past 5 years, firms have been investing an average of $330 million in digitizing power plants. Continued investment will see one in five power plants (19 percent) becoming digital plants by 2025 operating with approximately 27 percent lower cost and together contributing to a 4.7 percent reduction in global carbon emission from power generation.
The report which surveyed utility leaders across China, Germany, India, Italy, Sweden, UK and US found that increased production efficiency was achieved from digitization. The report found that power plants with digital technology will experience a reduction in production cost of 27 percent and individual plants can save $21 million each year on an average. Since the price of renewable energy is decreasing, these savings will enable organizations with gas and coal fired plants to remain competitive. As the global electricity need is increasing with every year, these digital investments will contribute to an energy ecosystem that will shift towards renewable energy sources.
The report also provides a positive outlook on the environmental benefits of digitizing power plants. Digital investment in utilities will help power plants to focus more on increasing the energy produced from fossil fuels with less carbon emission.
By the year 2025, digitized plants will annually produce 625 million metric tons less carbon emission equivalent to a 4.7 percent reduction in global emissions from power plants.
Implementing digital transformation helps to achieve various advantages but only 8 percent of organizations have currently embraced digitization and 19 percent of plants are expected to undergo digital transformation within 5 years. The report highlights the need to acquire the digital maturity required to plan and manage digital power plant projects.
Digital transformation offers various opportunities and capabilities for all types of businesses. The transition can be made smoother and hassle-free with outsourced solutions available for various business processes.
