Power under pressure and the AVEVA World Milan sessions you shouldn’t miss

Posted: May 07, 2026

Grid operators are managing record demand with infrastructure that wasn't built for it. According to the IEA, global power demand is expected to grow at an average of 3.6% annually through 2030, with electricity demand growing at least 2.5 times as fast as overall energy demand.¹ This adds roughly 50% more demand per year than the previous decade.

Generation teams are running assets harder and longer than ever—while planning for an energy future that looks nothing like the past. Across the power and utilities value chain, the margin for error is shrinking. So how are organizations adapting? At AVEVA World Milan this year, industry leaders are gathering to share the strategies already delivering results.

Demand growth meets decarbonization

Utilities and generators are facing a twin transition: On one side is surging electricity demand driven by electrification and the growth of digital tech that consumes electricity. On the other is an aggressive push to decarbonize generation and operations.

This imbalance is reshaping investment patterns and operational realities. According to the IEA, annual spending on electricity grids sits at roughly $400 billion—far below the approximately $1 trillion invested each year in generation assets.² But while capital is flowing into new generation capacity, much of the existing fleet is being asked to do more: running harder, ramping faster, and cycling more frequently than ever designed for.

For grid operators, the result is congestion, curtailment, and increased operational risk. For generation teams, it's accelerated wear on aging assets, tighter maintenance windows, and growing pressure to optimize performance while planning for decarbonization.

AI moves from hype to hardware

For years, AI was discussed as a future capability. Today, it’s embedded in enterprise operations. According to Gartner® “Forty percent of enterprise applications will be integrated with task-specific AI agents by the end of 2026, up from less than 5% today.”³ As a result, platforms for automation, data management, and integration are becoming as critical as the algorithms themselves.

And AI is no longer confined to data science teams. As tools become more accessible, operations and engineering teams are increasingly driving outcomes directly. Business expertise—deep knowledge of assets, processes, and regulatory constraints—is now shaping how AI is applied on a daily basis. And sharing data—across disciplines within an organization, across industry professionals, even across sectors—has become the real differentiator⁴.

The questions leaders are asking

Across the industry, leaders are asking the same questions: How do we get more from existing infrastructure without compromising reliability? How do we balance decarbonization targets with surging demand? And how do we make faster, smarter decisions when the data we need is scattered across systems, sites, and teams?

On the grid side, the conversation is moving toward smart grids, microgrids, and digital twins as essential tools for managing renewable variability and load uncertainty. On the generation side, operators are exploring AI-enabled predictive maintenance and fleet-wide analytics to extend asset life, reduce unplanned downtime, and improve efficiency under increasingly volatile dispatch conditions. The IEA estimates that up to 175 GW of additional transmission capacity could be unlocked from existing lines through the use of AI-enabled optimization.⁵ Similar opportunities are emerging across generation fleets.

What you'll hear at AVEVA World Milan

Solving for rising demand, aging assets, and decarbonization at the same time takes more than new tools. It takes shared knowledge.

At AVEVA World Milan, grid operators, generation teams, and technology leaders are coming together to share what's working and what's next. Here’s a look at a few of the power and utilities leaders presenting this year across the power life cycle:

• A2A Calore & Servizi manages district heating across multiple sites and will share how linking operational and economic data changed the way decisions get made—from the control room to the executive level. They share what it takes to scale analytics across a complex network without ending up with a patchwork of site-specific workarounds, and offer lessons from doing it across an active multi-site operation.
• Enel Green Power is an AVEVA Sustainability Impact Award finalist for its work using predictive analytics to deliver quantifiable sustainability results. The company has a centralized monitoring team watching over a generation fleet that spans multiple countries—catching early warnings and working with plant teams to intervene before problems escalate. Built on 48 months of analysis with AVEVA Business Value Consulting, they linked predictive maintenance directly to sustainability impact. That work has helped the team resolve 278 cases, avoid around 3TWh of unplanned energy impact, and cut CO₂ emissions by 61kt in thermal operations and 3.1kt in geothermal.
• ProEnergy built the world's first predictive analytics system for peaker plants—now running across over 60 turbines. Combining operator-focused analytics and long-horizon risk detection powered by AVEVA™ PI System™ data, the team detected anomalies over 30 days in advance and resolved issues with predictive guidance before alarms ever triggered. They’ll cover overcoming the enablement challenges of introducing predictive thinking into an environment built for reaction.
• EDP Renewables is using CONNECT data services and Databricks to get more value from operational data across its renewable portfolio.

Panels focused on what comes next

Looking for practical takeaways? We have three panels that dig into the challenges that matter most:

Powering the future: Energy transition and grid modernization in action
How are grid leaders integrating renewables, working around legacy infrastructure, and using real-time data to make faster decisions? This panel gets into the practical strategies behind grid modernization.

Cloud & AI in Power: Accelerating industrial intelligence transformation
Utilities are moving to cloud-native platforms and AI-driven analytics to unify data and speed up decision-making. This session features real examples of how organizations are breaking down silos and scaling predictive insights across their operations.

Connecting the lifecycle: From design to optimization
What does it actually look like to connect design, build, and operations into a single digital thread? This panel focuses on T&D, with leaders sharing what they've built, what it's delivered, and what they learned along the way.

More than a conference

AVEVA World Milan is also about connection. Roundtables, offsite events, and industry receptions provide space for the conversations you’ll remember long after the event.

For power and utilities professionals, the path forward is complex, but it's not uncharted. The tools, the strategies, the use cases all exist. AVEVA World Milan brings them together in one place.

Ready to join us in Milan, May 19-21, and take part in what comes next?

[1] “Global electricity demand is set to grow strongly to 2030, underscoring need for investments in grids and flexibility,” IEA, February 6, 2026, https://www.iea.org/news/global-electricity-demand-is-set-to-grow-strongly-to-2030-underscoring-need-for-investments-in-grids-and-flexibility

[2] “World Energy Investment 2025: Executive summary,” IEA, 2025, https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-investment-2025/executive-summary

[3] “Gartner Predicts 40% of Enterprise Apps Will Feature Task-Specific AI Agents by 2026, Up from Less Than 5% in 2025,” Gartner, August 26, 2025, updated September 5, 2025,  https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-08-26-gartner-predicts-40-percent-of-enterprise-apps-will-feature-task-specific-ai-agents-by-2026-up-from-less-than-5-percent-in-2025. GARTNER is a trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates.

[4] “Five Steps for Digital Collaboration in Industrial Clusters,” World Economic Forum, March 2025, https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Five_Steps_for_Digital_Collaboration_in_Industrial_Clusters_2025.pdf

[5] “AI for energy optimisation and innovation,” IEA, April 10, 2025, https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai/ai-for-energy-optimisation-and-innovation