The metaverse – delivering beyond expectations and here to stay

Power sector leaders are looking to the metaverse to expand their industry 4.0 capabilities with immersive and simulated virtual experiences, a new survey from EY and Nokia reveals.

The survey, drawn from a broader survey of 860 business leaders across eight geographies on enterprise and industrial metaverses, found that while the power and utilities sector is falling slightly behind other industries like automotive and transportation, supply chain and logistics in the speed of adoption, there is notable activity around the metaverse, with just over half of the respondents having piloted or deployed one or more use cases to date.

Moreover, there is an expectation of growth in the near future with the rest of the respondents expecting the metaverse to come to fruition in the next two years and the majority of them planning to pilot or deploy a use case within that period.

On a geographical basis, power and utilities players in the US and South Korea appear to be outpacing other countries in use of the industrial and enterprise metaverses.

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For example, in South Korea generally there are demonstrated efforts at a public and private level to bring emerging technologies to businesses and consumers. Specifically in power and utilities, Daesung Private Equity, a subsidiary of the energy conglomerate Daesung Group formed an $83 million metaverse fund, based on the expectation that the technology will be an “industry-wide gamer changer”.

Here EY and Nokia state the enterprise metaverse as enveloping the core productivity applications that make businesses function, while the industrial metaverse is a physical-digital fusion and human augmentation for industrial applications.

In contrast, the consumer metaverse is centred around environments for users to interact, purchase items and game, among other experiences.

Top use cases

Overall the majority of those who have already implemented metaverse use cases believe they will have a significant or transformational impact on the way they do business.

For the power and utility businesses, the survey identifies three industrial use cases considered to have the most potential opportunity for impact.

1. Field XR (extended reality, in essence encapsulating augmented reality and virtual reality), with the use of XR technology to augment the capabilities of technicians working within facilities and on equipment and machinery in open and remote locations was seen as the highest impact application.
2. Virtual grid optimisation, with the opportunity to better plan and track the grid in a high fidelity, virtual setting was second.
3. Virtual R&D, prototyping and testing with the ability to enhance virtual design and engineering tools using metaverse technology was then third, despite it being the most deployed to date in the power and utilities industry.

An example quoted is companies like Gamesa, which are using the technology to significantly improve the accuracy and speed of programmes used in designing renewable energy capture devices.

Metaverse enablers

The top enabler identified in the power and utilities sector is fibre broadband networks, notwithstanding their low level of advancement in use.

Others rated highly include blockchain/web3, also among the most advanced in use, and digital twin technologies as well as of course cloud computing, smart sensors, AI and machine learning and 5G and in the future 6G networks.

For example, for use cases such as virtual grid optimization, essential metaverse enabling technologies are around data, connectivity, sensors but they also may benefit from the use of additional technologies like blockchain to aid the tracking of data transactions and maintain a single source of truth.

Similarly, digital twin technology must be highly precise to allow for realistic, accurate grid scenario planning and testing.

Metaverse challenges

The survey found that power and utility companies face similar challenges in employing the metaverse as other industries.

While the survey found that companies across industries rely heavily on partners to drive the deployment of metaverse use cases, one of the most significant challenges is the lack of internal expertise to deploy and scale use cases.

Another is quantifying the benefits and in turn securing and staying within budget, especially in the US where in some markets, regulators require companies to prove the value of internal initiatives before approval. As a result this is potentially a barrier both to initial steps but also for first movers to scale.

In conclusion, the survey report states that like any emerging technology, the metaverse will present hurdles to get off the ground and scale.

EY and Nokia recommend that for some power and utility companies at the genesis of their metaverse journey, it may make sense to begin initial work in areas of the business where technical expertise and enablers like IoT devices and smart sensors are already integral to current operations.

In this case, budget and resources may be allocated to boosting other critical enablers, like fibre broadband, private networks and AI/ML modelling for simulation and prediction, to drive use case success.

“The metaverse is already and will continue to provide a valuable virtual environment, connected to the physical world, to promote collaboration, drive safety and realize process efficiency, among other benefits to power and utility companies.

“It is paramount that those interested in the metaverse begin to assess the best-fit use cases for their business needs and determine the necessary people and technical enablers to build a path forward.”