Energy forecasting app developed by ABB

By OEM Update Editorial November 9, 2019 2:05 pm IST

ABB is deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help commercial and industrial buildings revolutionise their energy management and tackle rising electricity peak tariffs. The company has added two new AI-powered applications to the ABB ability Electrical Distribution Control System (EDCS): energy forecasting and intelligent alerts.

ABB has developed the AI functions in partnership with Silicon Valley AI specialist Verdigris technologies as part of the company’s open innovation program. The energy forecasting app will enable users to reduce their electricity bills by reducing peak demand charges. The intelligent alerts app uses machine learning algorithms to help customers better manage their assets, identifying underlying issues before they become problems.

Andrea Temporiti, digital leader for ABB’s electrification business, said: “Our use of AI to help customers make better energy management decisions demonstrates ABB’s commitment to innovation in our products and quality in our services. With the new energy forecasting and smart alerts apps, AI drills down into the facility’s power data to pinpoint actionable opportunities for productivity improvements and energy cost savings. This innovative digital service makes it easy to take the necessary corrective actions to minimise any peak demand charges. The precision of the forecasting reduces hedging positions, narrows variability and produces meaningful energy cost savings for commercial and industrial buildings.

ABB ability energy forecasting uses AI to give facility managers accurate power consumption predictions. Energy forecasting enables them to take timely action to reduce unplanned consumption spikes by re-scheduling or switching off non-critical loads – and taking full advantage of Time of Use (TOU) tariffs.

The energy forecasting AI uses neural network methods to identify and learn patterns in a circuit or a building’s energy consumption, while also factoring in weather data. Using weather forecasts and historical data, energy forecasting is then able to predict power consumption (kW) for the next 24 hours, updating its forecast every 15 minutes with best-in-class accuracy.

ABB ability intelligent alerts uses machine learning to help customers better manage critical assets. Intelligent alerts learns how various factors affect the building and key assets so that it can minimise the distraction of false alerts and information overload, allowing facility teams to focus their time more productively. Intelligent alerts also identifies the relevant circuits and makes potential recommendations to ensure any response can be swift and decisive.

Thomas Chung, Head of Product Strategy at Verdigris said: “Verdigris AI is 10 times more effective than traditional energy management methods. Our partnership with ABB enables our AI capabilities to reach a significantly larger ecosystem of ABB users. These energy and asset management tools will cut through the noise to deliver actionable insights, identify real energy savings and make resource allocation more effective.”