New Energy Today Issue 106 - 2026 | Page 23

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ AI
divided by 100.
Energy and utilities leads every sector on that combined score,
at 19.6. Both halves must
be strong at once for the result to move, which is why this sector’ s showing is worth more than a passing mention.
Why the operational technology habit appears to transfer
The likely driver is structural rather than accidental. Operational technology environments have spent years building
â–² Frank Balonis
a specific discipline: know exactly what has access to what, log it, and restrict it by default,
because an ungoverned access path in a physical system carries consequences that are not merely financial. That discipline maps closely onto what AI governance actually requires, namely knowing what an AI system can reach, logging what it does once it has reached it, and restricting that access to an authorized scope from the outset.
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