Take a step into the energy metaverse

The metaverse will emerge as the next generation of digitalisation across the energy industry, says Richelle Elberg.

Many think of the emerging metaverse as a virtual world for gaming, shopping and entertainment, yet it’s the industrial metaverse that promises to generate the most investment over the next decade, according to the MIT Technology Review.

This is estimated upwards of $100 billion by 2030 for digital twins and extended reality (XR) alone, versus $50 billion in projected consumer metaverse spending and $30 billion in enterprise metaverse investment.

Even more significantly, the industrial metaverse has the potential to contribute measurably to industry efforts to address critical global issues like reducing greenhouse gas emissions, advancing social equity and bolstering critical infrastructure resilience.

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Simply put, the industrial metaverse is the next generation of digitalisation, which has already had a profound impact on industry writ large, and specifically on energy verticals, including power generation and T&D utilities as well as oil and gas concerns.

The next evolution of digitalisation technology — sometimes called Web 3.0 — will help energy companies become more efficient, both financially and from an energy consumption perspective. It will enable more intelligent capital investment and promote equity in hiring.

Ultimately, the energy metaverse will bring together energy industry stakeholders worldwide in meaningful, if virtual, ways, allowing for more intelligent global management of the industry and, in turn, the health of the planet and its more than 8 billion human inhabitants.

Existing and emerging technologies — including digital twins, AI and machine learning, extended reality, blockchain and cloud, and edge computing — will be the building blocks of the industrial metaverse. These will converge to create an interface between the real and digital worlds.

When the energy metaverse is fully realised, admittedly more than a decade away, utilities can envision a day when employee onboarding and training take place via XR in a metaverse-based training centre.

Utility storefronts in metaverse malls could provide virtual customers with real-world benefits such as product comparisons and purchasing, energy-use analysis and evaluation of a premise’s suitability for solar.

Power distribution operations can be run more sustainably and with greater resilience, and with faster restoration times when unplanned outages occur.

Core metaverse technologies

The energy metaverse will arise through the intersection of multiple core technologies layered over foundational platforms like the cloud and connectivity.

Digital twins: At the centre of the industrial metaverse will be the digital twin — a virtual model designed to accurately reflect real-world assets and systems.

As connectivity and sensors proliferate throughout the power grids, major utilities are collecting exponentially growing datasets about assets and their performance under various conditions. Histories are being built, in the cloud or vast data lakes.

Gradually, these datasets are being cleaned and integrated into digital twins, where powerful AI applications learn how assets behave under certain circumstances or operating challenges.

Over time, by linking multiple digital twins in a single environment, companies will build the backbone of the industrial metaverse. Some are now calling this next phase, featuring collaboration between people, digital twins, and simulated environments, the Internet of Twins.

Artificial intelligence: When it comes to anything AI, the hype cycle is at an all-time high thanks to ChatGPT. But as critical infrastructure becomes increasingly connected and monitored by multifunction sensors, AI and machine learning are assuming more responsibility for not only asset monitoring, but also control.

Combined with ultrafast connectivity, AI promises to power the energy metaverse in intelligent and intuitive ways.

Extended reality: XR wearables present scalable solutions to previously intractable problems such as industry-wide brain drain. They promise to increase process efficiency, improve safety and compliance, and accelerate training in critical facilities.

The energy metaverse will make use of XR technologies for onboarding, training, knowledge transfer and collaboration with remote experts.

Unmanned aerial systems: Finally, the energy metaverse will depend on accurate, real-time data on physical systems and assets in order to maintain digital twins and feed AI systems. Connected drone systems using advanced spatial technologies will play a role in gathering that data. They also offer a highly cost-effective method for physical asset inspections on a regular basis.

Predicting exactly how the emerging metaverse will affect traditional energy industry companies is imperfect at best. Nonetheless, utilities and other energy executives should be considering the endgame as they make plans for incremental investments today.

The advent of a fully functional and secure energy metaverse could provide innumerable benefits to the industry and its customers and employees. In addition to improving efficiency, resilience, environmental outcomes and worker safety, the energy metaverse will open up new ways for the industry to engage with customers, regulators and staff.

Energy metaverse market

The adoption of core energy metaverse techs is in its infancy, but growth is expected to be robust over the next decade.

Guidehouse Insights expects the market to climb at a 33% average annual rate over the next decade, and to represent more than $300 billion in cumulative investment by 2031.

The metaverse will connect the digital and physical worlds in ways that will prompt new fields of innovation and business models. There are, however, those who are concerned that the energy intensity of building and maintaining the metaverse could be counterproductive in terms of climate change.

The data centres required to run the metaverse’s persistent worlds are not cheap from an energy consumption standpoint. Intel has estimated that a thousandfold increase in power is needed over our current collective computing capacity to power the metaverse, indicating a risk of a substantial carbon footprint.

The IEA estimates that in 2020, data centres will account for nearly 1% of energy-related GHG emissions and 0.6% of total emissions globally.

Virtually every component of technology in the metaverse will be energy intensive. The pros and cons of the metaverse from a sustainability perspective will take years if not decades to fully understand. But the metaverse will form either way, and the energy industry should take a proactive role in its creation.

Not if, when

The energy metaverse will emerge as the next generation of digitalisation across the energy industry.

Change will come slowly and investments should be made incrementally with the bleeding edge avoided, as should behaviour based on fear of the unknown or what has happened in the past.

With a measured approach, energy industry stakeholders can take many steps today in support of their long-term vision. They can identify and engage with potential ecosystem partners. They can accelerate digitalisation across the business and work to ensure that data management results in clean, accurate information for digital twin and analytics use cases.

Perhaps most importantly, they should understand and observe the metaverse as it matures and consider incremental steps to participate, keeping in mind regulatory, privacy and data security concerns.

The energy industry is undergoing great transformation, but as the world becomes more virtual, the energy metaverse is one more shift for which industry executives need to prepare.

Richelle Elberg is a Principal Research Analyst at Guidehouse Insights’ IoT and Connectivity solution.