For the first time anywhere in Canada, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been used to optimize energy dispatch in a utility. The municipality of Summerside, on Prince Edward Island, was already well-established as a leader in renewable energy use, with 46% of its energy coming from wind power, the highest percentage on the continent. Summerside Electric is working with BluWave-ai's machine learning platform and Microsoft's Azure cloud services to optimize the renewable energy mix in its grid, to reduce both costs and emissions. BluWave-ai's predictive technology has yielded up to a 50% improvement in energy scheduling accuracy over the utility system baseline.   

"The City of Summerside is determined to grow a greener energy-producing community. Driving this ambition means maintaining an open mindset to new renewable ideas," said Bob Ashley, Chief Administrative Officer at the City of Summerside. "We started planning to move our grid to AI-enabled real-time operation in 2018. The low-risk onboarding of BluWave-ai allowed us to run a set of AI-enabled tests over several months, in effect test-driving the platform in our own environment. Working shoulder-to-shoulder with BluWave-ai put us in the lead nationwide with a machine learning solution to refine operational efficiencies and offset carbon use. We have no doubt that many other utilities are sitting on a wealth of data which can be leveraged with the BluWave-ai offering." 

With BluWave-ai deployed, Summerside Electric is achieving an annualized average CO2e emission reduction of 4,100 tonnes. That amount is equivalent to driving a passenger vehicle more than 10,000,000 miles, or the amount of carbon sequestered by planting almost 68,000 tree seedlings after 10 years of growth (equivalencies courtesy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator). 

BluWave-ai's platform uses data from IoT sensors and global weather feeds to predict renewable energy generation and utility energy needs in real-time, optimizing both sides and minimizing how much transmission grid energy is required. The BluWave-ai Edge product is deployed in multiple locations. BluWave-ai Center manages them, carries out the intensive computing of input data, and continuously adapts AI models to predict, optimize, and dispatch control back to the Edge.   

"Our utility and industrial partners are grappling with how to use data from a multitude of sources in real-time to make better automated energy dispatch decisions, and as a result are turning to BluWave-ai, "said Devashish Paul, CEO and Founder of BluWave-ai. "This industry first is another step towards building the premier global renewable energy AI company, accelerating the transition to a decarbonized energy industry."  

The real-time AI-enabled energy optimization is made possible by Microsoft Azure services, specifically IoT Edge, which is built on Azure IoT Hub. Microsoft Azure was the perfect choice for deploying the cloud workloads required and to control the Edge devices at Summerside Electric.   

Catherine McKenna, federal Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, adds, "The Canadian Government is proud to support BluWave-ai in achieving this industry first in the nation's utility market. Summerside Electric is an inspiring example of a municipality punching above its weight to realize more sustainable energy choices. Imagine the acceleration towards a cleaner environment with utilities from coast-to-coast-to-coast realizing a 10-20% optimization in the use of renewables. That's the truly inspiring story here.

BluWave-ai will be showcasing its full suite of solutions, including the one deployed at Summerside, during European Utility Week in Paris, France from November 12-14, at Booth J40 in the Team Canada Pavilion. BluWave-ai will be also be part of the Team Canada Trade Mission at Trafalgar House, High Commission of Canada, London, UK on November  11.

BluWave-ai | www.bluwave-ai.com