Energy and Utilities

AI-powered use cases for the energy and utilities sector

The capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse data on a massive scale to find actionable insights have made day-to-day life easier for people across the board. Manually analysing such massive datasets would be extremely inefficient, not to mention riddled with errors, especially in the case of the energy and utilities industry. And as the volume of data increases, the integration of AI in utilities becomes necessary to get valuable actionable insights. AI in the energy and utilities industry is not a novel concept; however, businesses must leverage these solutions to streamline operations, manage resources, and optimise output. In this blog, we will discuss some of the AI-powered use cases in the energy and utilities industry, which enhance operational efficiency.

Seven AI-powered use cases for the utility and energy industry

AI is a data-fuelled technology. The more data it consumes, the better it interprets data. From that reference point, AI can transform the functioning among energy companies. Likewise, AI's effect is significant in many aspects of the energy and utilities sector.

• Demand management:

  AI-powered predictive analysis monitors energy consumption data to understand the customers’ energy consumption behaviours. This delivers two-fold benefits. One, the energy company can better predict and plan for future energy demand. Two, these patterns help customers understand their usage behaviours and optimise consumption for energy conservation.

• Resource management:

  AI-powered solutions help energy and utilities companies build a digital supply network that is dynamic, flexible, and efficient. Such an interconnected supply network facilitates efficiency in logistics, inventory management, and procurement. This simplifies the supply chain complexities of the energy and utilities industry to deliver efficient outcomes.

• Optimal energy production and scheduling:

  Cost and schedule overruns are some of the critical challenges facing the energy and the utilities industry. Many external factors, such as weather delays, resource limitations, and government regulations, add further complexity to such problems. Robust planning and scheduling potentially solves such problems. AI-powered solutions helps overcome such challenges — and optimise production — via advanced analytics capabilities that flag anomalies and predict the event of a breakdown by consistently monitoring equipment.

• Asset tracking and maintenance:

  AI-powered solutions for the energy and utilities industries monitor and track all the assets, including on-site equipment, mobile devices, end-user equipment and personnel, for effective asset management. These monitoring and advanced analytics capabilities detect or even predict faults and schedule maintenance to reduce equipment downtime. Moreover, the image processing applications of AI in the energy and utilities industry tracks potential breaches of safety protocol and suggest appropriate actions for enhanced workplace safety for personnel working with heavy equipment in potentially hazardous situations.

• Cyber security:

  As automated computer applications power most of the energy and utilities infrastructure, they remain vulnerable to cyber-attacks, fraud, and theft. AI-powered applications can strengthen the energy and utilities infrastructure and protect it against potential cyber-attacks. Additionally, in case of theft, either informal connection or smart meter hacking, AI applications can detect anomalies in consumption patterns, payment history, and customer data. Insights from such analyses help companies during physical inspections and protect the energy and utilities companies from losses due to fraud and theft.

• Emission tracking:

  As the world is trying to achieve sustainability, many energy and utilities companies have set net-zero targets. AI applications are helping companies track volumes of greenhouse gas emissions throughout their supply chain and enabling better emission control through analytical insights.

• Disaster recovery:

  In the case of a natural disaster, AI-powered solutions offer enhanced damage assessment and facilitate faster decision-making by enabling the availability of necessary information. As a result, energy and utility companies have managed to restore operations faster during such eventualities.

For organisations on the digital transformation journey, agility is key in responding to a rapidly changing technology and business landscape. Now more than ever, it is crucial to deliver and exceed organisational expectations with a robust digital mindset backed by innovation. Enabling businesses to sense, learn, respond, and evolve like living organisms, will be imperative for business excellence. A comprehensive yet modular suite of services is doing precisely that. Equipping organisations with intuitive decision-making automatically at scale, actionable insights based on real-time solutions, anytime/anywhere experience, and in-depth data visibility across functions leading to hyper-productivity, Live Enterprise is building connected organisations that are innovating collaboratively for the future.

How can Infosys BPM help?

Infosys BPM offers value-driven business process management services for the energy & utilities industries. Avail services like master data management, flexible staffing, supplier enablement, and engineering documentation and harness the power of AI in the utility and energy industry for better operational efficiency.