Collaboration is key to meeting the challenges faced by energy transition to decarbonisation, as Giampiero Frisio, President, ABB Electrification, explains here.

Electrification and the shift towards clean energy generation, distribution, and more efficient consumption are essential to combat climate change and secure a low-carbon future. It’s a topic at the top of the agenda at many companies across all industries as they can make great gains in reducing energy costs as well as reducing emissions, while also meeting legislation. Indeed, over 70% of respondents in a survey by ABB[1] agreed that a key strategic objective in the next couple of years is transitioning to renewable energy sources.

However, the move away from fossil-fuelled power sources to renewable energy is creating many challenges for organisations. Some of the key issues facing senior leaders include how to control operational costs, how to manage infrastructure investments effectively, securing a skilled workforce, and how to best implement new solutions such as energy storage.

More than 425 of the electrification purchase decision-makers surveyed across Europe, expressed reservations about their ability to mobilise adequate human and capital resources. Additionally, as leaders are navigating a digital world, with digital components and software solutions, the need to understand and mitigate cybersecurity risks is also a concern.

Embracing technology

Simply moving to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar from fossil fuels will not be enough to meet future power needs. Smarter approaches to electrification are needed, including leveraging technologies such as Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), decentralised energy systems and microgrids. And much of the technology (approximately 80%) that’s needed to achieve the energy transition already exists, including new methods for energy integration, storage and management.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) is already powering data analytics and helping improve efficiencies within grid systems and security. Energy suppliers and infrastructure owners can better match supply demand from energy users. Electrical asset health and predictive maintenance practices will also be vastly improved thanks to AI and ML, increasing the lifetime of mission critical electrical equipment and systems.

There’s an additional benefit to AI too, as it can deliver financial benefits to a business. For example, it enables customers to sell renewable energy they have generated onsite back to the grid, thereby creating a new revenue stream. Furthermore, AI can help reduce energy bills through energy arbitrage and real-time energy pricing. The data insights from the digital tools monitoring a facility can help to build business cases and measure ROI, boosting confidence in long-term investment and helping to address any financial barriers to execution.

Working together

However, if we are to achieve net-zero by 2050, collaboration is essential. Only through discussion, can complexities of the energy transition be fully understood and issues addressed. By bringing customers, technology businesses, startups and academia together and opening up dialogue, we can accelerate the energy transition and discover new ways to tackle the global energy challenges. For example, innovation can flourish, and cleaner and more efficient energy systems can be designed and built through an open ecosystem.

At ABB we’re working closely with organizations of all sizes and across different industries, by not only simply providing the technology, but also sharing our expertise in addressing the world’s most pressing energy distribution and management challenges. Working together, business leaders can benefit from a partner with the resources and knowledge to harness the full potential of today’s proven electrification technologies and secure their energy efficient future.

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[1] https://new.abb.com/news/detail/120464/abb-survey-reveals-most-european-companies-want-to-shift-from-fossil-fuels-but-many-lack-resources