Digital & The Future of Energy - Enel Use Cases

Enel's #digital #transformation has been monumental : the company has the largest deployment of Artificial Intelligence #AI and Internet of Things #IoT applications in the world. Enel's journey toward #digital #transformation also started at the top, led by #CEO Francesco Starace who appointed Fabio Veronese, Head of Infrastructure & Technological Services, to lead Enel's #Digital initiative. #Enel projects to spend $5.3 billion to #digitize its assets, operations, and processes, and to enhance connectivity.

Let's dive into two specific #use #cases along Enel's #digital transformation #journey. First is the #predictivemaintenance of Enel's 1.2 million Km distribution network in Italy that comprises numerous assets - substations, distribution lines, transformers, and smart meters - with sensors throughout. To further improve grid reliability and reduce the occurrence of #outages and service interruptions due to #assetfailure, Enel deployed a prebuilt #AI-powered predictive maintenance application. The #SaaS application applies advanced machine learning #ML to analyze real time network sensor data, smart meter data, asset maintenance records, and weather data to predict failure along distribution network ''feeders" (ie : distribution lines that carry electricity from substations to transformers and end customers) before they happen. Enel can monitor assets in real time, assign day by day risk scores to assets, and immediately catch any anomalies or changed operating conditions that forecast emerging maintenance issues. This #AI powered predictive capability enables Enel to improve reliability, reduce its operation costs, provide greater flexibility in scheduling of maintenance tasks, significantly extend the life cycle of its assets, and improve customer satisfaction.

key innovations in this project include :

1. The ability to construct Enel's as operated network state at any point in time using an advanced graph network approach

2. The use of an advanced #machinelearning #ML based framework that continuously learns to improve the performance of predicting asset failures.

Leveraging elastic cloud computing, the predictive maintenance application is able to aggregate petabyte scale, real time data from Enel's grid sensors and smart meters, correlate those data with operational systems data, and importantly, extend operational insight by subjecting those data to a comprehensive set of power analytic and machine learning #ML #algorithms.

the second use case to highlight is revenue protection. Enel transformed its approach to identifying and prioritizing electricity theft "No Technical Loss" to drive a significant increase in the recovery of unbilled energy, while improving productivity. Enel's vision for this transformation was an enterprise AI and IoT SaaS application that could be deployed across all of Enel's operating entities globally within a 6 month period. Delivering on this vision required building a machine learning #algorithm to match the performance delivered by Enel experts, who used a manual process honed over 30 years of experience. While this was a significant challenge in and of itself, Enel set an ambitious target to double the performance achieved in recent operating years.

A key innovation that enabled this #transformation was replacing traditional non technical loss identification processes. this focused primarily on improving the success of field inspections with advanced #AI algorithms to prioritize potential cases of non technical loss at service points, based on a blend of the magnitude of energy recovery and likelihood of #fraud. The #AI powered revenue protection application enabled Enel to reach its target and double the average energy recovered per inspection - a significant achievement, given that Enel's original process was based on three decades of expert experience.

#Digital #Transformation has delivered enormous value and impact for Enel. its efforts even earned the company a spot on #Fortune's2018 "Change the World" list (one of only 57 companies globally). the #Fortune (https://fortune.com/) list recognizes companies that, through their core business strategy, improve living conditions on both a social and environmental level #ESG. Enel has imbued #innovation and #Digital #Transformation throughout its organization, and it has paid off with a project annual economic benefit that exceeds $600 million per year.