140 V I EWPO I NT Microsoft and AVEVA solutions have helped energy companies to facilitate digital transformation and unlock significant gains across their value chains, and now other industrial players can learn from their experience RÓNÁN DE HOOG E : AV E VA Powering the future of energy Digital transformation proved its worth over the pandemic, with 94 per cent of respondents in a McKinsey survey affirming that Industry 4.0 tools helped them to keep operations running throughout the recent disruption. Now, data-led digital technologies are delivering tangible operations and efficiency gains for early adopters across the industrial spectrum, while helping to support the global energy transition. Globally, digital innovation has facilitated gains of between 2 and 10 per cent in production and yield, and 10 to 30 per cent reductions in cost, according to McKinsey data. In practice, those gains vary according to each specific business case and the digital approach taken. Microsoft and AVEVA have been at the forefront of digital transformation in the energy sector. Together, the partners are empowering leading energy companies globally to accelerate the energy transition to achieve the decarbonisation targets. By combining the power of artificial intelligence (AI), digital twins, big data, and sector-specific analytics with the scale, breadth and latency of cloud, the two companies enable enhanced human insights and empower energy customers’ data-driven sustainability innovations with realtime collaboration. Companies leading the energy transition have witnessed significant gains after partnering with Microsoft and AVEVA, offering actionable takeaways for other organisations operating in the sector. When information is shared with internal and external partners, companies can leverage value chain efficiencies, improve collaboration and build more flexible and resilient operations. REG, a biodiesel producer based in Iowa, USA, relies on an external vendor’s solution to detect performance irregularities in its centrifuge units, an essential plant asset that supports the production of clean fuel. Once anomalies are detected, the solution recommends targeted maintenance actions to prevent unplanned downtime, repair costs and revenue loss. Until recently, manual data collection meant the external solution’s analyses and suggestions were outdated before they could be implemented. In search of a way to share real-time system data, REG and the vendor deployed AVEVA Data Hub to create a closed-loop data highway for an automated, two-way flow of operations data. With secure data-sharing, the vendor identifies unexpected asset and process behaviour in near-real time, while REG can quickly leverage the vendor’s analysis and recommendations. This ensures downtime and maintenance are conveniently planned, avoiding production interruption. Overall, the solution maintains data integrity without unwanted exposure, and all results “Microsoft and AVEVA have been at the forefront of digital transformation in the energy sector”
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