BNEF: The cost of software spending in the power industry will be $3.2 billion this year

New research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance shows that the power industry will spend $3.
2 billion in 2020 procuring software to optimize the performance, cost and revenue
of generation and grid assets.

BNEF believes that this figure will grow to $5.
2 billion by 2025, driven by sectoral decarbonisation initiatives.

In terms of power generation software, China and Europe will be the largest markets, accounting for 26% and 24%
of the global market, respectively.
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The grid software market is expected to be split
between China (28%), the United States (21%), Europe (25%), and the rest of the world (26%) in 2020.
Due to the growing demand for software in other parts of the world, the market share of Europe and the United States will gradually decrease
by 2025.

The falling cost of IoT sensors and communication networks has helped expand the use of advanced analytics such as asset performance management (APM) and field digital tools such as enhanced real-time management
.
With the growth of cloud computing and artificial intelligence use, predictive maintenance (PdM) and computer vision are becoming more popular
.
With IoT and analytics, smart grid technology is also becoming more real-time and automated
.

By 2025, power generators will spend $2.
8 billion on software to optimize cost, reliability, and remote operation
.
BNEF believes utilities will spend $1.
8 billion on software to monitor, maintain and optimize power generation assets
by 2020.
Significant growth in renewable energy capacity and changing wholesale market landscape will drive the software market growth by 60% to $2.
8 billion
by 2025.

China and Europe are the largest markets for power generation software, accounting for 26% and 24%
of the global market, respectively.
As part of its national strategy to modernize its nuclear capabilities, China has been particularly active
in nuclear power.
Given its huge offshore wind capacity, European utilities are leading the way in the
digitalization of the wind sector.
With a large amount of natural gas generation and utilities, the U.
S.
is investing in the digitization of power plants because they play an important role
in providing flexibility to the electricity market.

The largest software application is remote monitoring software, which is widely used in the fields
of wind, solar, natural gas and batteries.
Equipment manufacturers and service companies, such as GE and Siemens, are the most common suppliers
of this type of software.
Despite today's small market, the market for advanced analytics, which includes predictive maintenance, computer vision, and enhanced real-time manipulation
, is expected to grow by 50% over the next five years.

By 2025, the wind energy industry will be the largest end-use market for asset software, surpassing the natural gas industry
.
BNEF expects that 78% of wind farms will use monitoring software, while 40% of wind farms will use APM and image analysis for fault diagnosis
.
Software adoption is low and loud in the gas industry, with remote monitoring expected at 63% and APM at 20%.