The Digital Energy Transformation

As discussed, the potential economic benefits of energy digitalization are significant. According to the World Economic Fourm, the value stream to the power industry for service platforms, smart devices, and advanced analytics is US$1.3 trillion. Asset performance management solutions alone have the potential to create value by lowering operations costs and eliminating unplanned downtime. Digital solutions in the power industry can create over US$2 trillion dollars from the reduction in GHG emissions, new job creation, and value for consumers.

Even more broadly, the global e-Sustainability Initiative recently found that an IIoT-enabled world could be cleaner, smarter, and more prosperous. They estimated that ICT could bring about a 20 percent reduction in global carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 through the application of Internet-enabled solutions. This would also reduce costs by US$4.9 trillion by 2030, with US$1.2 trillion in reduced electricity expenditures, and US$1.1 trillion in reduced fuel expenses.

Consider GE’s Digital Power Plant (DPP), a suite of digital applications that improve the performance of power plants and reduce asset downtime using cloud-based analytics on GE’s Digital platform. If DPP solutions were to be installed across the global fleet of coal and gas-fired power plants, carbon dioxide emissions from power plants would be reduced by 10 percent. As discussed, recent GE analysis also suggests that if digital grid technologies are fully deployed globally, electricity consumption could be reduced by as much as 12 percent and carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced by 2 billion metric tons by 2030.