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The POWER PodcastThe POWER Podcast provides listeners with insight Author: POWER
The POWER Podcast provides listeners with insight into the latest news and technology that is poised to affect the power industry. POWERs Executive Editor Aaron Larson conducts interviews with leading industry experts and gets updates from insiders at power-related conferences and events held around the world. Language: en Genres: Technology Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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218. Trusted Control Is the Foundation for AI in Power Generation
Tuesday, 3 November, 2026
As power generation fleets add wind, solar, and battery storage to conventional gas, steam, and hydro assets, operators are being asked to coordinate more technologies than ever while maintaining the reliability society depends on. At the same time, interest in artificial intelligence (AI) is growing. But can AI deliver on its promise without a trusted operational foundation? In this episode of The POWER Podcast, Mark Robens, sales head for North and Western Europe for Controls & Digitalization at Siemens Energy, discusses why trusted control matters more, not less, as digitalization and AI advance. Robens argues that AI is only as good as the information it has access to, and that incomplete or inconsistent operational data will not produce reliable recommendations. Robens explains why large offshore wind farms now qualify as critical infrastructure in their own right, and how that changes what operators expect from their control systems. He describes a recent microgrid project in South America in which gas turbines, wind generation, and battery storage are orchestrated as one coordinated system, and he discusses why cybersecurity must be built into the foundation of a control system rather than added as an afterthought. The conversation also covers the relationship between the Omnivise T3000 control system and the Omnivise ecosystem, which Robens sums up as “control across, value above.” He explains how an ecosystem approach connects operational data, applications, and workflows, and he shares an example from Portuguese energy company EML S.A., which is moving its renewable fleet from feed-in tariffs toward direct participation in energy markets. Robens also outlines practical AI use cases Siemens Energy is working on, including root cause analysis, turbine tuning, incident response guidance, and operational agents for control room staff, and he describes a demonstration with Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, Germany, that achieved 72 hours of unmanned operation at a power plant. Topics covered in this episode: • Why power generation is becoming more heterogeneous • Renewables as critical infrastructure • Why trusted control and cybersecurity matter more in the age of AI • How an ecosystem approach connects assets, data, applications, and workflows • Practical AI use cases for plant operations • Progress toward autonomous operation
