Global grids are undergoing one of the fastest operational shifts in modern history. Rising electrification, variability from renewables, hybrid plant configurations, digital substations, and new market structures are placing new demands on energy assets every year. Both OEMs and Owner Operators now face a shared question:
How do we manage increasingly complex fleets in a way that is reliable, compliant, and economically intelligent?
REX Automation brings together data acquisition, real-time control, market intelligence, and digital twin simulation into one operational layer. Instead of replacing OEM systems, it strengthens them. Instead of creating another silo, it consolidates them. Instead of adding more operational burden, it reduces it.
This is the direction the world’s largest utilities and OEMs are already moving in, according to 2025 industry outlooks.
1. Load growth is accelerating
Electrification is increasing demand at levels not seen in decades. EV charging, datacenters, industrial electrification, and new transmission constraints are pushing grids harder than before. Owner Operators need automated mechanisms to respond to demand spikes, and OEMs are expected to design equipment that performs predictably under new stress.
2. Renewable variability creates real-time coordination challenges
Solar, wind, and hybrid systems introduce complexity far beyond traditional dispatch. Forecast-driven control and automated charge and discharge are now considered baseline expectations, not optional tools.
3. Hybrid plants require unified control logic
BESS, solar, wind, synchronous condensers, grid-forming inverters, and microgrids all behave differently. Yet grid operators increasingly require uniform responses: voltage ride-through, frequency response, curtailment, ramping limits, and POI-based controls.
Automation bridges these demands.
4. Markets are becoming more dynamic
Markets worldwide are increasing granularity, launching new products, and tightening performance rules. To stay profitable, Owner Operators need automated, market-aware dispatching connected to real-time asset behavior.
5. Workforce strain is real
Staffing shortages mean that neither OEM engineering teams nor Owner Operator control rooms can add more people. Automation, telemetry, standardized controls, and digital twins have become the only scalable approach.
Big energy players such as Hitachi Energy, ABB, and National Grid are signaling this directly in 2025 publications, noting that digital grid automation is now essential for stability, safety, and economic viability.
Modern OEMs are no longer evaluated only on hardware quality. They are evaluated on how that hardware performs within a fully digital, increasingly automated grid.
Customers want:
REX Automation strengthens OEM value by providing:
OEMs that adopt automation platforms are repositioning themselves from “equipment vendors” to “performance partners.” This aligns directly with where the global market is moving in 2025.
Owner Operators face the opposite side of the challenge. They must manage expanding and increasingly technical fleets without proportionally expanding teams.
Solar, storage, merchant-hybrids, microgrids, EV charging infrastructure, and new distributed assets all introduce new requirements:
REX Automation simplifies this entire operational landscape by offering:
The result is a leaner operational burden and a fleet that behaves more predictably, with far fewer surprises.
1. Data Acquisition (DAS)
A protocol-agnostic, secure, high-fidelity ingestion layer that ensures data accuracy, time synchronization, and guaranteed delivery — even across multi-vendor devices.
2. Real-Time SCADA
Modern visualization, alarms, event history, control commands, and portfolio views that support utility-scale and distributed assets.
3. EMS Control Modes
Automated logic for charge and discharge, grid support functions, SOC boundaries, contingency events, and POI-based control.
4. Digital Twin
Full system simulation of plant behavior, allowing operators to test upgrades, inverter settings, market strategies, and NERC compliance scenarios safely before deployment.
5. Market Decision Engine (MDE)
Forecasting and optimization that translate market signals into operational instructions in real time, supporting both regulated and merchant revenue strategies.
Together, these form a unified platform that eliminates the gaps created by mixing hardware vendors, SCADA providers, integrators, and forecasting services.
The Path Forward
OEMs and Owner Operators are navigating unprecedented change. Hybridization, renewable penetration, new market rules, and grid stability concerns require faster decision making and more precise responses than any manual system can deliver.
REX Automation is built for this environment. It provides the operational backbone that modern fleets require and supports the growing technical needs of both equipment manufacturers and asset owners.
A grid that is more renewable, more dynamic, and more complex also needs to be more automated.
REX Automation is the bridge.
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Sources and References:
Building the AI-Ready Grid: Connecting Assets, Data, and Intelligence https://www.hitachienergy.com/us/en/news-and-events/blogs/2025/10/building-the-ai-ready-grid?
Digital Days 2025: Control the network, manage the assets, trade the energy through the power of connection https://www.hitachienergy.com/us/en/news-and-events/blogs/2025/11/digital-days-2025-control-the-network-manage-the-assets-trade-the-energy-through-the-power-of-connection?
Digital Substation Protection, Control & Automation https://electrification.us.abb.com/products/grid-automation/digital-substation-protection-control-automation
Digitalisation strategy https://commercial.nationalgrid.co.uk/digitalisation-and-data/digitalisation-strategy?