AboitizPower data strategy programme named Asian Power Awards’ Innovative Power Technology of the Year

With the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) being used as a main tool in harnessing large amounts of data, competition between tech giants on the global stage continues to heat up, with companies pouring billions of dollars into developing AIpowered technologies that could either chat with you, create art, write essays, or even generate an AI version of your face.

But it’s not only in Silicon Valley where exciting things happen in the world of tech. Recently, the “Oscars” of the power industry recognised a Philippine energy company that exemplified gamechanging innovation, by strategically using and processing data to improve power plant efficiency and reduce operational threats.

For this, the 19th Asian Power Awards honoured AboitizPower-Coal Business Unit’s D2D Stage 1: Data Advantage Strategy as the “Innovative Power Technology of the Year” for 2022.

“Being a recipient of this award is a stark validation that AboitizPower is on the right track with its trajectory into the future,” said Celso Caballero, President and Chief Operating Officer of Therma Luzon, Inc. Coal Business Unit.

“AboitizPower’s Thermal Business Group has tangible assets to support the country’s energy transition. And as custodians of these assets, we need to protect, optimise, and advance them to provide reliable, reasonable and responsiblyproduced power,” Caballero added.

Transforming data into value

With vast amounts of assets available at power plants, the opportunities to access data and the possibilities for analytics study are endless. But simply using raw operational data won’t suffice in optimising analytic studies. Thus, the Data Advantage Strategy was conceptualised and developed to turn data into value.

The programme is part of AboitizPower’s forwardthinking ‘D2D (Data to Decision) Project,’ which strategically applies data science and AI, by using algorithms and machine learning models, to detect and preempt issues at the power plants.

The Operations Technology team anchored upon the proven foundations of the Data Advantage Strategy to successfully carry out its goal of achieving operational excellence through in-depth, crossfunctional analysis, and applying insights by providing available data-on-demand.

Data is organised by arranging it in a catalogue, per process, and follows the global power plant organising system. This ensures standardised naming and coding across the organisation.

Then, data is shared across multiple locations of the AboitizPower Thermal Business Group. Through operators and decision-makers. It also helps improve efficiency at the power plants, so as to ultimately deliver a reliable stream of electricity to the grid. a single source, data is made available almost anywhere in the organisation.

In the beginning, the team was faced with millions upon millions of “dirty data”—items that didn’t have tags and identifiers.

Cybersecurity was also a major concern. The team had to make sure that the data transfer to its open communication platform was secure and free from cyber threats. This was resolved by subscribing and transferring data with the observance of the highest compliance to operational technology and cybersecurity practices.

With regard to the bulk of unprocessed data, the team took an unconventional route. AboitizPower tapped the capabilities of a 61-strong, all-women AI and data annotation team, who identified and classified the data set, comprising 2,870 asset tags, in just three days.

This digitalisation initiative by AboitizPower is a testament to its thrust in Transforming Energy for a Better World and is indeed worthy of recognition.

“The bedrock of AboitizPower Thermal Business Group is to build the future of energy by leading that energy transition and ensuring energy security and equity. Together, we continue to move in becoming the first techglomerate in the Philippines,” Caballero said.

Finally, data is monitored by having a single dashboard for any team member to look at, making it easy to spot issues and hand down decisions right away.

The programme tries to make sense of millions of data points in a power plant and provides insights that allow for quick strategic thinking amongst plant

The AboitizPower Thermal Business Group manages and operates the thermal power generation assets of Aboitiz Power Corporation. Our coal and oil assets provide much-needed reliable power to the Philippine grid. Our promise is the same across all our facilities — to advance business and communities through our mission of providing reliable, reasonable, and responsibly-produced power. Together with you as our partners, we can continue to transform energy for a better world.