We are revolutionizing how we use automation, monitoring, and analysis through smart technology. Industrial 4.0 is powered by smart, autonomous systems that use computer-based algorithms to monitor and control physical things like machinery, robots, and vehicles. Industrial 4.0 is a major part of any company’s digital transformation.

Before we can talk about Energy 4.0, we need to take a step back to understand how we got here.

Since the late 1800s, we have gone through three industrial “revolutions” with each revolution defined by a disruptive new technology:

1. Industry 1.0 – the mechanics of the steam engine and water power,
2. Industry 2.0 – the innovation of the assembly line, and use of electricity
3. Industry 3.0 – the advent of the computer systems and automation.

We call them “revolutions” due to the simple fact that they didn’t just improve productivity and efficiency – each completely revolutionized how goods were produced and how work was done.

Industry 4.0 technologies have been increasingly adopted by all major industry sectors over the last several years—and the energy industry is no exception. The next step is reinvention of the ways that energy and utilities companies do business, engage their customers and interact with them.

Being adopters of digital technologies since the early 1970s, the energy and utilities sector is embracing such emerging innovations as the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, 3D Modelling, and much more. This area of the digital transformation is referred to as Energy 4.0—involves these advances to build smart grids, manage renewable energy and distributed generation.

We know that energy consumption is a significant contributor to global emissions and climate change. Plus, the associated costs to producing it are rising in many parts of the world. The consequence is an increasing pressure to address both the volume and type of energy consumption.  It helps in the effort to utilize new and innovative solutions.

In general, it appears that most of this work is being done in traditionally developed countries. This is because these are the countries with more complex Industry 3.0 sites already established, generally more capital to invest in new technology, and strong innovation ecosystems supporting the transition.

However, developing countries should still be able to access the benefits of these changes. In fact, some may even “leapfrog” Industry 3.0 to go directly to an interconnected and intelligent Industry 4.0 reality. This is similar to the leapfrogging of traditional electricity infrastructure in many parts of the world, in favour of localized generation, storage and microgrids in Energy 4.0.

The concept of Energy 4.0 follows a similar progression to the Industry 4.0 revolution. We are continually  increasing our connections to everything and the same goes for energy sector.  This has further benefited from the optimization using big data and artificial intelligence.

This has presented the potential for significant reductions in electricity use, and therefore greenhouse gas emissions. Enabling this is the ability to utilize new renewable options, and significantly improve the energy efficiency of existing assets and processes.

While this comes with security and regulatory challenges, the world has already seen great examples of Energy 4.0 in action to realize the benefits of this major digital transformation trend.  With that, we are going to focus on four of the most impactful sectors, and in the coming months we will explore their impact on the energy industry:

1. The Internet of Things (IoT)
2. Artificial Intelligence
3. Big Data and Predictive Analytics
4. 3D Modelling and Visualization