The Trough of Despair – Where AI Hype Meets Reality in Power Generation and How to Navigate Through It

In the years since Artificial Intelligence (AI) first became a hot topic at power industry conferences, expectations have peaked with miraculous claims of optimizing plant availability and efficiency, reducing maintenance costs, smarter decision-making and lowering emissions. This paper explores the realistic opportunities AI presents to improve power plant performance, examining its true potential, existing use cases, and limitations that need to be addressed to enable widespread adoption and value.