By equipping their plant with IoT-connected sensors, energy companies can continuously collect and analyse data about the condition and operation of facilities, sometimes enabling them to detect when maintenance on a piece of equipment is required before it fails, and thus minimise the amount of expensive down-time. The maintenance can also be carried out remotely in many cases, either by upgrading software, or by operating IoT-connected actuators.

Personnel can also be monitored by using IoT-connected biometric clothing, to measure and control their exposure to hazardous situations

As the capabilities of mobile networks improve, both monitoring and maintenance activities can be enhanced further. As networks’ data capacity improvise, monitoring input will increasingly include footage from video surveillance cameras, enabling visual inspection by human operatives and, as the technology improves, by AI systems capable of handling video data. As network latency and reliability improve, it will be possible to carry out remote maintenance not just via actuators, but also via mobile robots, either under the control of remote human operators, or under the control of computer systems, as appropriate.