AI is one of the three “megatrends” identified at the recently held ADIPEC, but will it save the world – or doom it, given increased power needs?
Siemens Energy vice president for product management transformation of industry EAD Kirsten Roden sat down for the final episode of Road to ADIPEC to set out her thinking – and how AI can have a part to play.
People are ready to accept AI, she said, with the right drivers. Making someone’s life easier is a powerful pitch.
“We have started to use Copilot, we have started using ChatGPT in our day to day work, we get summaries out of these tools. You start getting used to not doing everything manually anymore, right? And then you actively start searching for tools that could help you.”
It is in this area of incremental change, rather than revolution, that AI can make its mark.
“I don’t think AI as such can save the world,” she said. “It’s not going to take over from us and undo all the things that we have maybe done less than ideally in the past years.”
What it can help, though, is changing how we go about tackling those big issues. “AI can help us to change the … pace of change.”
Roden explained that, for instance, AI can provide ways to carry out tests faster than through physical tests.
She cited a use case where Siemens Energy has been involved, with BlueVault energy storage solutions. The company has used AI to “optimise the loading process for these batteries”, she said.
Ferry operators can install these batteries. Roden said using AI helped increase efficiency of electric ships.
Power demand
The flip side of AI is the increased power demand the technology will use. Research suggests a query to ChatGPT uses 10-15 times more power than a Google search.
Technology companies are betting big on AI and as a result are searching for additional power supplies.
Roden said this presented an opportunity. Historically, infrastructure has been based on growth from carbon – for instance, coal-fired power plants near coalfields.
“That means it’s harder to transition from the existing infrastructures,” she said. “We have now the unique opportunity for data centres that we can think this through, so to speak, from the start, more or less.”
New greenfield data centres provide opportunities. They can be installed where access to power is privileged, for instance, but also where there may be uses for recovered heated water.
“We can think about where they are positioned, what are the neighbouring industries, what are the neighbouring users, who else needs power, how can we leverage the network in a local scale and how can we optimise it from the start?”
Listen to this, the fourth episode of Road to ADIPEC, here.
