Ignition 8.3, DevOps & SCADA at Scale in Renewables w/ Matt Steel Primoris - Ep 054

In this episode of the Energy Tech Podcast, we’re live from ICC 2025 in Sacramento with Matt Steel, Senior SCADA Engineer at Primoris Renewable Energy.

Matt shares a practitioner’s view of how Ignition is becoming the de-facto SCADA platform for utility-scale solar and battery storage projects—and what Ignition 8.3 unlocks for scalability, DevOps, and long-term fleet operations.

We dive into:

- How EPCs and asset owners manage SCADA across dozens of renewable plants

- Why nearly every utility-scale solar and storage project uses Ignition

- What Ignition 8.3 changes for historians, flat-file configuration, and CI/CD

- The challenge of integrating plant-level SCADA with fleet-wide O&M platforms

- Using Ignition as middleware and IoT infrastructure, not just HMI

- Standard data models, UDTs, and self-deploying Ignition projects

- Where AI actually delivers value today in SCADA and controls engineering

- Why community, not hype, is the real force behind Ignition’s growth

If you’re working in renewable energy, EPC engineering, SCADA architecture, or industrial DevOps, this episode is packed with real-world insight from the front lines.

🎧 Recorded live at Inductive Automation ICC 2025

00:00 Intro – Energy Tech Podcast live at ICC 2025

01:05 Matt Steel’s role at Primoris Renewable Energy

02:20 How EPCs approach SCADA in utility-scale solar & storage

03:40 ICC 2025 “Level Up” theme & conference growth

04:55 Ignition 8.3 release and why it matters

06:30 Why nearly every renewable project uses Ignition

08:00 Integrating plant SCADA with fleet-wide O&M platforms

09:40 The need for standard data models in renewables

11:30 Ignition as middleware, not just SCADA

13:20 UDTs, self-deploying projects, and scaling engineering teams

15:10 DevOps, CI/CD, and flat-file configuration in Ignition 8.3

17:00 Community, Prove-It, and real-world creativity at ICC

18:20 AI hype vs. real value in industrial automation

20:10 Where AI actually helps SCADA engineers today

21:00 Closing thoughts from ICC 2025

Music: Uygar Duzgun / “Fast Life” / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com