A World Economic Forum (WEF) report has considered the lessons of electrification across the globe.

The share of electricity in final energy consumption has been trending upwards and is expected to rise from 21 per cent in 2024 to around 30 per cent of energy use by 2030 to align with net-zero pathways.

Progress is uneven, and the share of electricity cannot be the only indicator of electrification as it reflects the increasing demand across different sectors due to industrial electrification, increased uptake of electric vehicles (EV), and artificial intelligence (AI) growth and cooling needs.

However, drawing from statistics from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), a few factors that stand out:

• Texas, once a symbol of oil and gas, now records one of the US’s steepest rises in electricity use, with a 10-year growth in electricity’s share of total final energy consumption well above US average level.
• Indonesia presents the highest growth in share of electricity in industry final energy consumption.
• South Korea excels in industry electrification, with electricity’s share in total final industry energy consumption at above 50 per cent and still increasing.
• Norway remains a consistent frontrunner, with more than half of its final energy use already electric.
• China has increased its share of electricity in total final energy consumption by more than 10 percentage points in a decade.
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WEF ascribes three main reasons for effective electrification: Policy frameworks, creating financial benefits and technological advances. But it also sees hurdles in, not surprisingly, the bottleneck of existing grids.

Yet here there is a possible dilemma. because electrification could mean greater flexibility. Electrification stresses grid infrastructure, but the other side of the coin is that electrification technologies like smart appliances and EVs, acting as flexible users or "flexumers", provide opportunities to leverage flexibility and a more localised set of solutions. For example, the Digital Power Grids initiated by China Southern Power Grid provide a holistic digital transformation strategy through integration of data assets, 5G, AI and the internet of things, thereby facilitating flexible utilisation.

Learning from others will be an important part of getting to the right solution for each country.

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