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Power
Supporting sustainability in the power industry The twin sustainability goals of power diversification and efficiency require strengthening capacity and minimising losses. This is something that can be enhanced by digital transformation says Dr Tariq Aslam, head of MEA, AVEVA.
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Challenges
The power industry’s need to find efficiencies In the Middle East alone, it has been reported that generating capacity needs are to increase by 40% in order to meet 2030’s expected electricity demand (MEED MENA Power Sector Outlook 2020 https://buy.meed.com/product/mena poweroutlookreport/ ) In the European Union, there is still a lot of work to be done in order to hit the European Commission’s (EC) target of 53% of Europe’s power needs being met by renewable and nuclear. Digitalisation is essentially, replacing manual processes with digital processes, or upgrading a digital solution with a more advanced technology. it is playing a MAJOR
Photo Credit : AVEVA
Leaders must cultivate a businesswide openness to change and develop an organisational mindset centred around creating and driving value. Without bringing together their people, work processes, strategy and technology, digital transformation efforts are likely to fail. This is because digitisation provides possibilities, but needs to be supported by a holistic combination of all aspects of the business, and most importantly the buyin of employees, in order to succeed. Digital transformation should be seen as a work transformation programme, focused
on the wider business rather than the IT department, alone. This will bring a wide range of benefits from reduced costs and a rise in productivity, through to improvements in safety, reliability and efficiency as staff are empowered with not only the right enabling technologies to transform how they work, but also the right company culture and training.
Photo Credit : AVEVA
USTAINABILITY OBJECTIVES ARE high on the agendas of power companies, as they look to ensure energy security, hit ‘green’ targets and meet customer demand, all while protecting and potentially improving their financial outcomes. Power companies realise the need to diversify their sources and improve efficiencies in order to boost energy security, become more sustainable and stay competitive. Forwardthinking industry leaders are investing heavily in digitalisation.
Technical Review Middle East - Issue Four 2021
Dr Tariq Aslam, head of MEA, AVEVA.
role in helping power companies to meet these and other challenges, through the use of digital twins – realtime digital representations of physical assets – and automated asset performance management (APM) solutions. These use artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to provide information on how assets are running and predict future behavior. This can be applied to advanced diagnostics, enabling workers to detect potential faults before they occur, or opportunities to further optimise efficiencies. The insights provided can help reduce operational and maintenance costs by approximately 20%, dramatically reduce fuel costs, significantly improve asset safety, efficiency and reliably, and drive productivity, all by providing fast and accurate data about where and how power is being generated, transmitted and distributed. www.technicalreview.me
