Strategic Intelligence: The Future of Work in Power

Strategic Intelligence: The Future of Work in Power

Summary

Future of work technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, drones, digital twins, the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, and 3D printing will transform power industry operations. They will tackle critical industry challenges, including improving productivity and efficiency, accelerating the energy transition, modernizing aging grids, mitigating skilled labor shortages, enhancing workforce safety, and strengthening energy security. These challenges come amid growing global energy demand fueled by socioeconomic development, electrification, and AI data center expansion.

The future of work will reshape the power industry >This report presents GlobalData’s proprietary future of work framework, built around five transformative technology categories: automation, visualization, interpretation, collaboration, and connectivity. Future of work technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, drones, digital twins, the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, and 3D printing will transform power industry operations. They will tackle critical industry challenges, including improving productivity and efficiency, accelerating the energy transition, modernizing aging grids, mitigating skilled labor shortages, enhancing workforce safety, and strengthening energy security. These challenges come amid growing global energy demand fueled by socioeconomic development, electrification, and AI data center expansion.

Autonomous robots and drones will enhance productivity >Autonomous robots and drones will manage complex, hazardous, and repetitive operations and maintenance tasks with unparallelled speed and precision. These technologies will be particularly critical for servicing largescale wind and solar farms, where the vast geographical spread of assets and large-scale structures demand highly efficient, automated solutions. Companies like Enel Green Power and Iberdrola are already deploying robot fleets for solar panel cleaning, while start-ups are innovating with underwater robots to repair and maintain offshore wind farms.

AI-driven predictive maintenance will reduce downtime >AI-driven predictive maintenance will minimize unplanned downtime across the power industry, significantly enhancing system reliability. AI can analyze historical and live data from IoT-connected assets to predict equipment failures. AI systems can then dynamically adjust operational parameters or take assets offline to prevent costly breakdowns. Generative AI’s emergence has transformed the immediate landscape for AI-driven predictive maintenance by enabling more advanced data generation and scenario modeling. Power original equipment maanfacturers (OEMs) will increasingly incorporate generative AI into their predictive maintenance solutions.

Connectivity forms the backbone of smart grids >The power industry’s aging infrastructure urgently needs modernizing to maximize efficiency, support widespread renewable energy integration, and handle shifting demand patterns, including increased grid load from electrification. Connectivity technologies-namely 5G and the Industrial Internet-will form the backbone of next-generation smart grids. 5G will provide the high-bandwidth and low-latency required for seamless data exchange between grid components. IoT-connected devices will enable realtime monitoring, data driven decision-making, and automated grid management, ensuring more resilient and adaptive power networks.

This report presents GlobalData’s proprietary future of work framework, built around five transformative technology categories: automation, visualization, interpretation, collaboration, and connectivity.

Key Highlights

• Automation, including robotics, drones, 3D printing, and intelligent automation, is a critical investment for all power industry segments except end users, where it is irrelevant.
• Automation technologies will help solve a range of industry challenges, most notably improving productivity and efficiency by handling operations and maintenance tasks. Power companies that fail to invest in automation will get left behind.
• Connectivity, through the Industrial Internet and 5G (and 6G from the 2030s), is the foundation of smart grids. IoT devices can give grid operators real-time insights into energy generation, distribution, and consumption. Advanced analytics can process this data to identify inefficiencies, predict failures, and optimize operations.
• AI will take over key decision-making processes that previously relied on human expertise, performing these tasks with greater speed and complexity while gathering richer insights. AI algorithms can process vast amounts of data collected from connected power infrastructure in real-time, exploiting it for predictive maintenance and real-time grid management. AI allows power companies to automate complex processes, minimizing the need for manual intervention in tasks like grid load forecasting.

Scope

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of the future of work in the power industry including -

• How future of work technologies will solve six key power industry challenges
• Which future of work technologies companies across the power industry value chain should invest in, explore, and ignore
• Leading adopters and specialist vendors of future of work technologies in the power industry
• Case studies
• M&A and hiring trends
• A thematic scorecard ranking major power companies in the future of work theme

Reasons to Buy

• GlobalData’s strategic intelligence ecosystem is a single, integrated global research platform that provides an easy-to-use framework for tracking all themes across all companies in all sectors.
• This report is essential reading for senior executives to understand how the power industry will be transformed by future of work technologies, ensuring your company does not get left behind.