Speaking at GITEX GLOBAL 2024 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Friday 18 October, industry leaders urged for further collaboration with technology partners to slowly but steadily adopt new technologies.
As the global energy sector faces increasing pressure to integrate new technologies such as AI to accelerate its transition to a cleaner, more reliable energy system, it has struggled to acquaint itself with the unfamiliar and harness digitalisation’s full potential.
During a panel discussion, Nokia Middle East and Africa (MEA) head of enterprise Kamal Ballout emphasised the need for the energy sector, which he described “as inherently designed and structured so that collaboration is somewhat limited”, to break traditional boundaries.
“There needs to be coalition and understanding with our technology partners," Ballout said, stressing that efforts are required from both sides: the energy sector must be willing to overcome its historically risk-averse attitude, while tech partners need to provide solutions that allow the sector to navigate the risks that come with the adoption of new technologies.
“How can we make sure that we share the risk between the energy sector and the tech partners providing the solutions?... From the partner’s perspective, we need to provide technology that is open, not exclusive and not going to isolate anyone or deprive the utility from any particular use case or transformation path,” he said.
This sentiment was echoed by several panellists including Jason Li, president of global marketing and solutions at Huawei’s electric power digitalisation business. “Only when the core capabilities of digitalisation are owned by power companies themselves can the service stay sustainable,” he said.
Huawei’s focus, according to Li, has thus been on establishing a “capability handover mechanism” to empower utilities to manage their digital transformation independently.
However, experts warned against racing towards rapid technological adoption.
“When the energy sector forms tech partnerships, there are so many issues to be solved, from AI ethics to sustainability, that we don’t know where to start,” said Uthman Ali, global responsible AI officer at BP. He suggested that energy companies focus on one aspect at a time, making sure to develop “something feasible” rather than tackling many challenges simultaneously.
“We can’t boil the ocean," Ali noted, recommending a step-by-step approach to achieve meaningful results.
Bernard Dagher, MEA chief strategy and growth officer at GE Vernova Grid Solutions, added that while collaboration with tech partners and increased tech adoption are vital for industry, it is important that these efforts not “take away from the energy ecosystem overall”.
“Sometimes, it is about slowing down to ensure we are not fixing one area at the expense of creating a bigger hole somewhere else,” Dagher concluded, urging a balanced approach to innovation.
