Abstract The description of the basic principles embodied in the concept of "Industry 4.0" and the possibility of their use in the development of measures aimed at increasing intelligence of modern control system of thermal power plants (TPP) the results of the analysis of the level of intelligence and efficiency of modern control system on the basis of program-technical complexes (PTС). It is shown that, despite the widespread introduction of modern PTС in the construction of new and modernization of existing ACSTPs of TPP, the improvement of the quality of technological processes, optimization of their modes and parameters, occurs mainly at the level of equipment and power unit and to a much lesser extent - at the level of power plants and as a result an insufficient level of automation and low technical and economic efficiency. Another conclusion from the analysis - when implementing control algorithms in automated process control systems based on modern PTC, their wide information and software capabilities are not fully used. The main ways of further improvement of ACSTPs in order to increase their efficiency and the level of intelligence of ACSTPs of power plants based on PTC are given The assessment of the level of increase in intelligence and economic effect from the implementation of the proposed solutions is given.