As energy leaders navigate changing energy demands, automation can help optimise existing infrastructure and support the integration of new energy sources.
By Per Erik Holsten, President of ABB’s Energy Industries division
The path to lowering emissions is often described in simple terms: move away from fossil fuels, scale renewables and decarbonise. In reality, the route is more complex. While many market participants have turned their attention to renewables, this approach oversimplifies the reality of lowering emissions. Renewables contribute to the answer, but rising energy demand means that meeting the challenge requires a multi-faceted solution.
Around the world, energy-intensive industries are being asked to maintain reliability and competitiveness while reducing emissions – a balancing act that depends on automation and digitalisation as well as new sources of energy. Traditional sources continue to support energy security and reliability as more low-carbon options come online, and are likely to remain an important part of the energy ecosystem for the foreseeable future.
These sources – and the wider quest to lower emissions – are being propelled forward and modernised by automation in a dual-path transition. Low-carbon industries seek to scale transformative solutions, while hydrocarbon-based industries are innovating to optimise and decarbonise assets. From power generation to heavy industry, automated control systems, AI-driven optimisation and digital twin technology can help to scale reliably, affordably and safely.
Looking back to look forward
In its earliest form, one of automation’s primary roles was to remove workers from hazardous environments. Moving into the 20th century, increased automation in heavy industry furthered safety protocols, but also gave rise to the concept of modern control systems, evolving to improve the security of operations as well as drive efficiencies, helping to lower costs and improve maintenance and ease of use.
Today, ABB – a global technology company focused on automation, electrification and digitalisation – says its automation platforms, for example, are deployed in more than 35,000 installations worldwide. These systems provide real-time visibility and increased control over energy performance, enabling smarter decision-making, more balanced outputs and a stronger focus on compliance.
Integrating systems and technologies
Historically, automation has been closely associated with efficiency and optimisation. Today, it increasingly involves collaboration: bringing together people, processes and assets in a connected way to drive change.
The current rate of change appears to be driven in part by improvements in the electrification and digitalisation of industrial processes. This combination helps to create standardisation that can reduce operational risk and improve productivity, while also supporting safer operations and more efficient, lower-emission performance – all while aiming to maintain profitability. In Norway, for example, automation, electrical and safety systems are playing a role in enabling the remote, round-the-clock operation of one of the first open CO2 transport and storage infrastructure facilities – where, earlier in 2025, the first CO2 volumes were injected deep beneath the seabed.
The UK’s Dogger Bank wind farm offers another illustration, with system integration contributing to improved availability, safety and efficiency, and facilitating remote operations. Here, technology functions as a key link in delivering clean electricity from the turbines to the national grid and homes. When fully operational, its 3.6 gigawatt capacity is projected to rank among the world’s largest offshore wind projects.
Delivering tomorrow’s demands starts with automating today
The path to a low-carbon future is not about replacing the old with the new overnight. It requires identifying areas for improvement where incremental changes can compound impact across operations to drive pragmatic progress towards change.
Progress begins by modernising and optimising existing systems while innovating, building and scaling tomorrow’s solution in parallel. ABB’s modular automation vision drives a collaborative approach to help mitigate security threats while supporting modernisation paths that unlock new features without disruption. The outcome: systems that are open, secure and flexible, and able to evolve alongside customer needs and industry standards, all while maintaining strong performance. Greater integrated thinking will be essential to help industry optimise operations, lower emissions, maintain profitability and meet rising energy demands – all while aiming to avoid disruption and ensure systems are future-proof and adaptable. Automation is becoming an important part of making this balancing act possible, contributing to the lowering of emissions today while preparing for the energy systems of tomorrow.
Find out more about our role in supporting automation and energy expansion and transformation.
This content was paid for and produced by ABB in partnership with the Commercial Department of the Financial Times.
