Top 2020 power industry trends

Source: GlobalData Energy | POWER-TECHNOLOGY | January 23, 2020

Cybersecurity, big data, cloud computing, robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT) are emerging as the top five technologies that will affect the power industry in the next few years.

Power-Technology

The power sector is going through significant changes. GlobalData, a leading research and analytics company, looks at the key trends that will shape the industry in 2020, ranging from electric vehicles (EVs) to corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs).

Electric Vehicle

The adoption of electric vehicles has been increasingly growing in the last few years and is set to continue. International Energy Agency (IEA) data show that the global electric vehicle fleet reached over 5.1 million in 2018 and is expected to grow to approximately 130 million by 2030.

Governments across the world are setting EV deployment targets, encouraging industry stakeholders to invest across the EV supply chain. Large power utilities such as EDF, E.ON and Enel in Europe have been investing in the EV charging station infrastructure. This market is also witnessing consolidation and this trend that is expected to continue.

Increasingly, power utilities are collaborating with EV manufacturers to boost their offering in areas such as EV charging, vehicle-to-grid (V2G) services, energy storage and renewable energy sources. Oil majors such as Shell, BP and Total are also placing huge bets in the market through acquisitions.

Digitalisation

Power utilities, which traditionally are opposed to the adoption of new technologies, are now realising their benefits and heavily investing in them. An emerging technology trends survey conducted by GlobalData reveals that cybersecurity, big data, cloud computing, robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT) are being seen as the top five technologies that will have the maximum impact on the sector over the next three years.

Cybersecurity is receiving the maximum attention from power companies to protect grids from cyberattacks. Power utilities have realised the crippling effect that cybersecurity issues can have on the grid and are willing to heavily invest to guarantee protection.

With an increasing amount of data coming out of the customers’ meters, utilities are focusing on data analytics for load forecasting, generation planning, managing peaks and increasing customer energy efficiency awareness.