FEATURE : ELECTRICITY 4.0
THERE ARE A LOT OF LESSONS THAT CAN BE TRANSFERRED FROM THE ENERGY SIDE OF THINGS .
Given your unique experience of being in the energy industry for so long and now expanding your leadership into the data centre sphere , what are the topics you are passionate about or want to tackle ?
There are a lot of lessons that can be transferred from the energy side of things .
Efficiency and safety by design principles for these complex applications is the one thing that can be applied from the energy sector .
On balance , there is probably more to learn for the energy sector from the data centre industry in terms of speed . I can see that the energy sector is finally starting to transform in terms of speed and how this is being seen with utilities , as with the UAE example . In the race for AI , there ’ s probably more cross learning opportunities . As we learnt to support demand , we will also learn in both industries how to apply it to drive efficiency , optimisation and transformation .
All the process industries and energy infrastructure are starting to look for opportunities to leverage AI use cases to improve the sustainability or efficiency of their own operations . There ’ s a wealth of opportunity there , which again would drive demand for more digital infrastructure around the region .
Use cases on how AI could help improve processes or efficiencies , whether it ’ s organisational efficiency , organisational processes , or production / manufacturing processes . In renewable energy plants too , it can be applied to forecasting . For example , how to improve the load , and demand forecasting in a grid . These are all leveraging AI .
There is a convergence here that means the tools and technologies can be spread across industries .
Looking forward in the near term , what do you see as the priorities for data centre owners and operators ?
Firstly , it is having the right partnerships in order to deliver these unprecedented level of deployment plans . This will not happen unless we ’ re working in new innovative business models and new partnership approaches to achieve the ambition and the opportunity .
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