Energy and utilities light up at the edge of the machine economy

• 2 years ago (2022-01-20)
• Junior Isles

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Thomas Rosen, Vice President, Sales, EMEA, Wind River

A Wind River report published last August year demonstrates that one particular characteristic across many industry verticals is fast becoming the catalyst for what is now being defined as the machine economy. Many industry leaders believe the ability to compute at the far edge of a network is the foundational basis for the establishment of intelligent systems, as vertical sectors arrive at a new epoch of advanced technologies which include AI, robotics, automation and autonomous machines.

The majority of critical industries and infrastructures including the energy and utilities vertical are now devoting time and resources to building systems that sense, predict and compute using digital feedback loops to run autonomously or with machine learning and automation. For the energy and utilities sector this relates to the rollout of smart meters and energy plant sensors, and the need to autonomously monitor resource consumption patterns, learn baseline behaviour and detect anomalies, build stress models, and enable proactive maintenance patterns.

As the report suggests, the energy and utilities industry will benefit significantly from edge infrastructure. True computing on the far edge and the ability to emulate and simulate in real-time are the two most important characteristics for intelligent systems success. In the energy and utilities sector the ability to make accurate decisions from analysing incredibly large data sets in real-time is critical to achieving more efficient operations and associated cost savings. AI is becoming an increasingly critical investment in this sense.

According to Wind River’s findings, 81 per cent of energy and utilities sector leaders believe that more than 50 per cent of their embedded products/solutions will be designed to be used on the far edge. While expressing an understanding of the value around intelligent systems success, only 16 per cent of energy companies see themselves as intelligent systems digital business companies. Beliefs about how to achieve the ambitious new vision are not consistent across the sector.

Ensuring intelligent systems success: the key characteristics

The rise of the new machine economy will be enabled by the combined forces of AI, machine learning, robotics, and embedded devices. In a new era of machine led economic growth, systems and business models will be increasingly devoted to unlocking the power of data and technology platforms. In the context of the energy and utilities vertical where 55 per cent of all energy companies are experimenting with intelligent systems ideas and technologies, the sector is striving to harness the opportunities and value of modernisation and digital transformation. Central to this digital transformation is the need to be empowered by data – data which is captured and analysed at the edge of the operations network.

According to the industry leaders questioned, many cited this as a defining characteristic that needs to be prioritised over the next three to five years as it represents the foundation of intelligent systems success. This is down to the fact that the ability to compute at the far edge expands the sector’s digital capabilities by enhancing the ability to analyse data in real-time. In fact, a number of leaders reported a much more aggressive focus on data-centric decision-making on the far edge of the cloud, thereby allowing them to advance operations and improve business outcomes. It is one of the leading intelligent systems characteristics projected to drive real progress in the sector.

Complementing the ability to compute at the far edge, sector leaders are turning their focus towards two other fundamental characteristics that will also only be realised within a three to five-year time frame. They include the ability to simulate and emulate in real-time as this will drive ongoing strategic decision-making, and an ability to connect data from digital feedback loops into the developmental process for new products and services. Again, this reinforces the core value and the transformative power of data for the sector.

Concurrent with these are lower input characteristics, which, despite their lesser priority status, will also be required to ensure the success of intelligent systems in support of the vertical. These include customised device experience in the cloud, a real-time collaborative workflow platform, detection of events and resolution and adapting tasks based on reprogramming via cloud. With all the cited characteristics in place, it will be possible for the energy and utilities vertical to build a solid infrastructure, lay the foundation for growth, and deliver sustainable gains within the next half decade.

Driving intelligence

With the introduction of the intelligent edge and IoT devices, it is possible to make use of large data sets in near real-time that can measure, monitor, and manage operations seamlessly and easily. For instance, sensors and smart devices can be used to enable remote monitoring and data collection. The insights derived from intelligent edge analytics can then inform and drive strategic decisions to determine infrastructure capacity and service quality, as well as determining which investments are required and where. Increased data volumes allow investigating optimisation strategies across the various stages of business operations: from the analysis of supply resources and associated sourcing and production costs, to that of distribution infrastructure and its operation, as well as an in-depth understanding of customer’s consumption patterns. In fact, the ability to analyse consumption patterns and devise optimisation strategies has both internal and external facing benefits, from internal cost savings to better customer offerings, customer care, and improved brand reputation overall.

Many key use cases – in particular those in the distribution and customer domains – benefit from near real-time analysis capabilities that take advantage of data collected at the edge: for instance, fault/fraud/incident detection and isolation, and root cause investigation – all those that require speed of execution in analysis and response. This is where the intelligent edge can act not just as a local data collection hub, it is also able to express value for upstream business processes.

Building the future

The future of the energy and utilities vertical will see the edge used to manage and operate increasingly complex and interconnected systems. Intelligent systems can transform how resources are distributed and consumed in more conscious and responsible ways. A software driven sector which makes use of a range of smart devices and applications is the next logical step in the evolution of an industry that needs to continually adjust its system performance to keep pace with customer needs and expectations, and remain attuned to its own environmental impact. In this sense, the use of intelligent systems could well provide the key to delivering a clean, affordable, and data-driven new reality.