Energy coalition aims to boost demand-side technology adoption
Schneider Electric and Bloomberg New Economy have launched the Energy Technology Coalition, aiming to improve the way energy is consumed amid rising global electricity demand. The initiative brings together private sector leaders and technical experts to encourage faster deployment of technologies that make energy use more efficient, reliable, and responsive.
Demand focus
Current investment efforts in the energy sector are mostly directed at expanding electricity supply to address increased consumption from sources such as artificial intelligence data centres and population growth. The new coalition has chosen to focus on improving the efficiency of existing energy consumption rather than only expanding supply. One area of attention will be how artificial intelligence and other technologies can address efficiency and power grid responsiveness, which may also help integrate more renewable power sources.
Coalition goals
The coalition plans to bring together stakeholders from energy, technology, and infrastructure industries to understand the barriers to adopting demand-side technologies. Examples of such technologies include AI-assisted grid management, digital twins, and industrial automation systems. The group aims to publish research-backed recommendations and data frameworks to help overcome current obstacles in transitioning to smarter and more sustainable energy systems.
Founding members of the coalition include Christina Shim, Chief Sustainability Officer at IBM; Professor John D. Sterman, Director of the MIT System Dynamics Group; Claire O'Neill, Non-Executive Director at Oxy and former UK Minister of State for Energy and Clean Growth; Arch Rao, Founder and CEO of SPAN; and Manon van Beek, CEO of TenneT. Additional members are expected to join.
Industry perspectives
"Building a resilient and affordable energy future requires strong collaboration across the technology and energy sectors. By working together and leveraging innovations like AI and digital twins, we can strengthen the grid, improve reliability, and make energy more accessible and cost-effective for everyone. Schneider Electric is committed to partnering with industry leaders to deliver solutions that support economic growth and ensure our energy infrastructure can meet the demands of tomorrow, which is why we're excited to play a part in this new coalition," said Frédéric Godemel, Executive Vice President, Energy Management, Schneider Electric.
Speaking on the importance of focusing on the demand side, Claire O'Neill stated, "Demand side innovation and investment are too often ignored in our forward thinking. Regardless of the carbon intensity coming into the system, there are huge cost, efficiency and flexibility benefits from managing demand better. It's now so much easier to make this case - especially to energy intensive industries struggling with structurally high energy costs in many regions."
Digital and energy convergence
The Energy Technology Coalition is emerging as digital infrastructure and the energy sector increasingly overlap, especially given the growing requirements related to advanced computing and artificial intelligence. This convergence is likely to have implications for future energy management and policy development.
"We are witnessing a critical moment where digital infrastructure and energy systems are converging at an accelerating pace. It's clear the world would benefit from coordinated action to ensure that surging AI and compute demands are met with clean, resilient, and efficient energy delivery for generations to come. By bringing together the best minds in this industry, the Energy Technology Coalition will help catalyse new innovations, partnerships, and policies needed to power the future responsibly," said Karen Saltser, CEO of Bloomberg Media.