What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the power sector automation?
The global automation control market in the power generation sector is projected to grow at a high CAGR, in the near future. The growing concern to enhance plant performance through dependable and predictable operations is a major factor driving the market’s growth.
Enhancing the performance of plant operations is one of the key priorities for the operators. The emergence of innovative technologies, such as predictive maintenance and convergence of IT and OT, is enabling this enhancement. Besides, with the help of predictive maintenance and connectivity through the Internet, power plant automation solutions are becoming useful in automating turbine control, boiler control, boiler protection, the balance of the plant, and integration of third-party systems. Improved plant safety, integrated workflows, process optimisation, transparency, and reliable day-today operations are the major advantages of using an automated control system.
What are the challenges to market growth?
Today, the biggest threat to the power sector
automation market is its high vulnerability to cyberattacks. There are various worms and viruses which are potent to float easily through software packages created by third-party vendors.
What are the opportunities you foresee?
Some key trends driving the improvements in efficiency in the power generation sector are: Emergence of automation that enables energy monitoring and management solutions; emergence of MES and SCADA-based analytics solutions; and emergence of integrated automation solutions.
What is your latest initiative in this field?
Monitoring and Analytics solutions like MES and SCADA give power companies advantages such as reduction in costs and functionality enhancement to achieve greater flexibility. Users can also view data on devices such as tablets and smartphones. These devices are also used as portable HMIs to monitor remote machines and enable field technicians to access and control the processes. Integration of near field communication (NFC) and Global Positioning System (GPS) have enabled the installation of SCADA in iPads and smartphones.
