Southern Europe Industrial Digitalization Market - Forecast(2024 - 2030)

Southern Europe Industrial Digitalization Market Overview

Southern Europe Industrial Digitalization (ICS) market size was valued at $994.2 million in 2020, and it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 9.1% during 2021-2026. Digitalization comprises of different types of technologies such as big data and analytics, product lifecycle management, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and GPS tracking, augmented reality, Computer based simulation, autonomous robots, simulation, horizontal and vertical system integration, cloud computing, cyber security, advanced human-machine interfaces and various others. These technologies are integrated over either new or existing data collection infrastructure to assimilate and analyze the data to derive actionable insights using computer 3d visualization. Industrial digitalization opens up new opportunities in optimizing the plant processes thereby reducing the operating expenses significantly. Industrial digitalization has provided efficient service platforms, smart devices and other technological solutions, which has brought up new opportunities for companies to increase their asset life cycle, optimizing the raw resources flow and providing innovative new products depending on customers choice. Industry 4.0, the next revolution in industrialization, encompassing Information Technology (IT) and Operational technology (OT) is disrupting various industrial sectors including power, water and waste sector. The cyber physical system not only leverages higher degree of automation, but also incorporates higher degree of process optimization through embedded technologies such as data analytics and machine learning

Report Coverage

Key Takeaways

• The Southern Europe power, water and waste sector is also witnessing a paradigm shift in dependency on digitalization to cut down operational expenses to achieve a higher degree of connectivity across the supply chain.
• Adoption of advanced technologies such as IoT in industries and stringent regulations for security is poised to propel the market growth.
• The water industry is progressing towards a new level due to digitalization which has led to the use of connected and intelligent systems resulting in efficient energy usage, reducing water losses, and resource optimization to a much higher extent.

Southern Europe Industrial Digitalization Market, By Industry Vertical, 2020

Southern Europe Industrial Digitalization Market Segment Analysis – by Solution

Industrial digitalization for cybersecurity and customer retention segment is analyzed to witness prominent growth of 14.1% and 12.3% respectively during 2021-2026. The utility companies are majorly concerned on cyber attacks possibilities, with growing penetration of digitalization in their facilities, owing to which they are actively investing and adopting for innovative cybersecurity solution to prevent such attacks. Utility companies are actively looking forward to engage with their customers to reduce defections owing to which they are opting for solutions which can focus more on addressing customer requirements effectively.

Southern Europe Industrial Digitalization Market Segment Analysis – by Industry Vertical

The Southern Europe Industrial Digitalization market is majorly dominated by the power sector, primarily oil/gas fired plants, and this segment is estimated to surpass $1.1 billion by 2026 growing at a CAGR 9.0% during 2021-2026. The coal fired plants acquired a significant share of the power segment in 2020 owing to a large scale adoption of digitalization in the fossil-based power generation sector to reduce emissions through optimizing processes and asset usage. The water sector held the second largest share of the industrial digitalization market and the segment is estimated to witness a prominent growth of CAGR 11.1% during 2021-2026 owing to the increasing emphasis towards promoting efficient water usage and optimization of power usage. The water industry is progressing towards a new level due to digitalization which has led to the use of connected and intelligent systems resulting in efficient energy usage, reducing water losses, and resource optimization to a much higher extent.

Southern Europe Industrial Digitalization Market Segment Analysis – by Geography

France has been analyzed to dominate the Southern Europe Industrial Digitalization market with a share of 34.8% in 2020 followed by Turkey and Italy attributing to 17.1% and 16.9% share in 2020, owing to the broad base of Nuclear power generation plants in France, Coal fired power generation plants in Turkey and gas fired plants in Italy. The aging plants in these economies are extensively adopting digitalization solutions for process optimization to reduce operational costs, increase asset management efficiency, enhance cybersecurity and reduce emissions. The market growth is owing to the increasing adoption of distributed power resources and application of digitalization to maintain the ageing conventional power generation infrastructure. Apart from this, the government targets on renewable power generation such as wind and solar along with plans on establishing smart grids for stable power supply is set to drive the market during 2021-2026.

Southern Europe Industrial Digitalization Market Drivers

Increasing emphasis towards reduction of operational costs in ageing plants

Ageing plants deviate from functioning at optimum efficiency, and this can lead to increase in power usage along with frequent asset and components breakdown which at times result in severe loss of money and operator’s life as well. To ensure efficient process flow and safety, utilities are adopting digital solutions for continuous monitoring of plant assets to optimize its usage, maintenance schedule, and so on. The utility companies need to invest significantly to modernize their ageing plants. Companies such as EDF (France) is planning to invest around $100 billion by 2030 to modernize and maintain its entire fleet.

Adoption of analytics for enhanced process optimization

The use of data analytics has grown significantly in various industry verticals including power and water for optimizing various processes and asset usage with the sole aim of reducing the operational expenses. The adoption of various advanced solutions such as predictive maintenance, condition based maintenance, proactive maintenance, digital twin, and so on is set to rise significantly. These solutions use advanced data analytics algorithms to optimize asset life. Some of the major utility customers are partnering with the digitalization system integrators and vendors to develop in-house solutions which incorporates advanced analytics for leveraging the effective usage of raw data to explore hidden business opportunities and this is poised to drive the industrial digitalization market in the power and water sector.

Southern Europe Industrial Digitalization Market Challenges

Decommissioning of Coal powered and Nuclear power plants:

The current period has been observing a gradual decline in profitability of many European gas-fired power plants. Numerous utilities have decided to either decommission or temporarily shut down a number of gas-fired plants. The major utility companies operating in the Southern Europe region as well as public utilities are shifting their dependency to renewable power generation in sync with the EU directives towards reduction of carbon emissions. Some of the key initiatives include The French government planning to shut down around 14 reactors by 2035 as well as per the national energy strategy, Italy is planning to phase out coal-fired plants by 2025.

Southern Europe Industrial Digitalization Market Landscape

Technology launches, Acquisitions, Collaboration, and R&D activities are key strategies adopted by players in the Southern Europe Industrial Digitalization market. Southern Europe Industrial Digitalization top 10 companies include ABB, Siemens, Cisco, Honeywell, Schneider Electric and others.

Acquisitions/Technology Launches

• In March 2020, Dubai Electronic Security Centre (DESC) had launched industrial security standard for the city in order to enhance the industrial sector’s digital infrastructure against the increase in cyber-attacks and this set to drive the market growth.
• In October 2019, ABB had collaborated with IT companies such as Microsoft, Israel-SCADAfence, Check Point Software and Fortinet in order to improve Industrial digital security and cyber risk. Collaboration with leading IT companies for enhancing industrial security and this is poised to increase the Company’s Southern Europe Industrial Digitalization market share.

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