AVEVA to strengthen presence in energy

AVEVA Inc, a developer of software for industrial companies, vowed to strengthen its presence in China, helping the country decarbonize its energy industry with digital operations, a company official said.

The company is a global leader in industrial software and aims to drive the digital transformation of more Chinese industrial organizations by managing complex operational processes in the future, Wan Shiping, general manager of AVEVA in China, said in an interview in Beijing.

"We aim to connect the power of information and artificial intelligence with human insight, to enable faster and more precise decisionmaking for the country's energy behemoths, helping industries to boost operational delivery and sustainability," Wan said.

The company has been actively cooperating with Chinese companies, mostly State-owned enterprises, including China Three Gorges Corp and China General Nuclear Power Corp.

Its cooperation with China Three Gorges Corp, for example, will make sure the company can solve its engineering digitization and intelligent transformation in the next 10 years as it deploys its digital transformation, Wan said.

He added the next five years are crucial for the Cambridge-headquartered company in China, when the country will go through green energy transition as clean energy including solar, wind and hydrogen plays a bigger role in the country's energy mix.

AVEVA pledged to further facilitate the country's energy transition by enabling project operation on-time and on-budget by using its advantages in industrial software, while eliminating value leaks, increasing operational efficiency and maximizing collaboration, he said.

Wan said they are looking forward to more cooperation with Chinese industrial companies to uncover opportunities at home and abroad, especially in the new energy sector.

AVEVA's portfolio of power generation solutions enables industry operators to overcome the challenges associated with renewable generation, including intermittency, electric grid stability and other economic factors, and ensure a clean, greener future, he said.

Luo Zuoxian, head of intelligence and research at the Sinopec Economics and Development Research Institute, said while renewable energy is the fastest-growing energy source in the country, it is less reliable compared with fossil fuels, as the world can be dark at any given time and wind does not blow regularly, creating similar intermittency issues.

The intermittent nature of most renewable energy requires energy storage, the cost of which can negatively affect the return on renewable generation investment, he said.

However, advances in battery technology, software and electric grid integration methods are making energy storage more reliable and affordable, Wan said.

As technology adoption increases and future advancements are made, the industry is poised to overcome current storage challenges, he said.

Cloud-enabled operational data management, combined with software that spans design, engineering and operations, asset performance, monitoring and control solutions, will deliver proven business value and outcomes for the company's partners in China, he said.

"Supported by the largest industrial software ecosystem, including 5,500 partners and 5,700 certified developers, we aim to help further facilitate China with its energy transition."