Amsterdam 2024
7-8 October 2024 | Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam
The Future Digital Twin & GenAI 2024 conference, organised by Cavendish Group International in collaboration with Shell, provided a vibrant forum for the growing cohort of energy and technology professionals charged with advancing the use of cutting-edge AI-driven technology in the energy industry.
Around 400 innovators and thought leaders from 120 organisations gathered at Shell’s Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam on 7-8 October to share experiences of how Digital Twin implementation and the use of generative AI are transforming their activities, while taking advantage of high-quality networking to discuss the myriad opportunities opening up as a result.
Digital Twins enable organisations to create digital replicas of physical assets, processes or business systems, and carry out predictive modelling that allows them to foresee and avoid potential pitfalls. The technology is helping companies navigate more effectively through the energy transition, and become more collaborative, sharing data and insights that drive improved performance. GenAI – central to this year’s event – is now adding another layer to the utility of Digital Twins, making them more user friendly and allowing people to extract even more useful information.
Speakers from across the energy industry and beyond offered their unique perspectives on lessons learned and how to maximise the value of AI when scaling up Digital Twin technology, including experts from Shell, BP, TotalEnergies, Saudi Aramco, Equinor Petrobras, Repsol, AVEVA, Dow Chemicals, E.ON One, among many others.
Major talking points included progress on more open collaboration both within the energy sector and with other sectors on the development of digital twins and AI, secure data sharing, and how to implement the significant shifts in work and data management practices need to realise the full potential of digital technology.
Shane McArdle, CEO of Digital Twin specialist Kongsberg Digital and Chairman of the event’s Advisory Board, said the high level of interest in the conference reflected growing support for and optimism over adoption of AI-driven technology within the energy industry.
“A digital twin is a transformative tool. We’ve observed the positive impact this technology has made on our industry over the last couple of years by unlocking
efficiency gains, predictive insights, and smarter and better decision making. Bringing GenAI and digital twin technology together offers us a very powerful opportunity to address future challenges head on by integrating real time data with AI driven analytics,” he told delegates.
Adam Soroka, Chief Executive Officer of Cavendish International said:
“Technology needs to advance rapidly to ensure we can provide the energy the world needs as efficiently as possible while we undertake the energy transition. Digital twins are now accepted as a crucial part of the process, so sharing ideas on their evolution at forums like this conference is key to their effective deployment.
“As we heard, Generative AI is becoming a powerful asset in the quest to make digital twins even more useful in the energy industry, albeit an asset that needs to be used with guardrails in place.
“It is also clear that AI is not being seen as a replacement for human endeavour, but as a very helpful complement to it. Human ingenuity and collaboration remain the lifeblood of the energy industry, while strong leadership remains vital to the successful implementation of new AI-drive strategies.”
Here’s what some of the other speakers had to say at the conference:
Karina Fernandez, GM Emerging Digital Technologies, Shell, said: “You have the right people in the room at this event and I’m impressed by how the digital twin alliance has grown. Moving the needle is about getting people together on a journey in the right direction. I think we are going to make it.”
Zeeshan Rashid, Procurement Director, Global Engineering, Brownfields Projects & NewEnergy Start-Up at bp said: “Industry collaboration around common challenges and sharing lesson learns remains a crucial enabler in making progress towards the energy transition. This is an emerging space, and we can all succeed by learning through our experiences.”
Jan Tore Nygård, Manager People & Organisation, at Equinor said: “It’s not an either/or in terms of humans versus AI it’s both. It’s a matter of finding symbioses and synergies between technology and people. If technologies replace some tasks, we should seek to ensure people can reskill to do other tasks.”
Tim Van Amstel, CEO, E.ON One said: “Don’t reinvent the wheel. First look outside your industry at what is already being used across multiple industries and multiple countries, so at least you know it works. Then the question is: can you use it?”