Five Key Factors for a Future-Oriented Digital Transformation of Electric Power Enterprises

SHANGHAI, China, Sept. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- At HUAWEI CONNECT 2020, IDC and Huawei jointly released the white paper for the electric power industry — Building the Future-Ready Power Enterprise: Road to a Successful Digital Transformation.

In the white paper, IDC proposed a methodology for the transformation of electric power enterprises. This methodology supports and aligns with Huawei's digital transformation methodology. IDC and Huawei follow a similar approach with frameworks and blueprints to help organizations design their digital transformation priorities and set their agenda, which in turn enables power enterprises to deliver business value of scale.

Electric Power Enterprises Urgently Need New Operating Structures and Business Models

The power industry has long faced disruption. Power enterprises are now facing multiple changes. Management will need new operating structures and business models if power enterprises are to remain key players in the energy ecosystem. As 2020 progresses, COVID-19 has introduced another dimension of change and disruption that business leaders in the power industry must tackle.

Hou Jinming, Deputy Director of the Technology Department of the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO) said that, "As the advance of global energy reform and energy Internet development, the power sector will take an entirely different shape. It will be decarbonized, digitized, and intelligent." The implications of the change will impact the management, operations, services, and transaction modes of the electric power industry. Power enterprises must reconsider who the customer is and who the competitor is, a new breed of stakeholders and participants, and how the energy ecosystem works. This will mean new customer engagements, new business models, new competitors, more stakeholders and increased risks.

Increasing renewables, emerging power consumption devices, multiplying power grid connections, and the integration of energy, information, and transportation networks require power enterprises to systematically improve their response capabilities and the intelligence of their management systems and business processes. This will allow power enterprises to better adapt to complex environments, and enable power systems to operate more securely, adaptively, flexibly, and efficiently. Therefore, high operation data analysis efficiency, rapid and efficient artificial intelligence (AI) decision-making capability, and full-process automation will be crucial to the survival of power enterprises.