Comment: Towards Electricity 4.0
Olivier Blum, EVP of Energy Management, Schneider Electric, explores how to balance tomorrow's power systems with emerging electricity demand.
The world's population is projected to surge by two billion by mid-century, with an additional one billion people still lacking access to energy today. On top of this, our energy needs are not just increasing — they're transforming. Digital advancements like AI, quantum computing, film streaming, and online shopping demand more power than ever, with energy representing over 80% of the world’s carbon emissions, making the need for clean, scalable energy solutions more urgent.
AI holds great promise for humankind, but is expected to contribute about 200 terawatt-hours per year to data center power consumption between 2023 and 2030, placing unprecedented demands on our energy infrastructure.
To address these challenges, we must embrace the three pillars of ‘replace, electrify, and reduce’. By prioritizing the combination of electrification and digitization – what we call Electricity 4.0 - we can ensure that technology and other critical sectors like buildings, industry, and transportation run efficiently and are powered with the cleanest possible energy mix.
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