The Vestas Data Platform

Peter Enevoldsen

Module Owner
Modelling and Analytics

Published on the 30th of March 2023

Delivering the increasing demand for digital innovation in the energy sector

Digitalization plays a critical role in achieving a sustainable energy future, enabling us to manage our energy resources more efficiently, reduce waste and carbon emissions, and increase the reliability and resilience of our energy systems, including accelerating development of sustainable energy technologies​ [1]​​ [2]​. The sole purpose of the sustainable energy industry is naturally to reduce the man-made impact on climate change by transitioning global energy consumption to be based on 100% renewables​ [3]​, and wind energy is positioned in the forefront​ [3]​. 

However, digitalization comes with higher energy demands [4]. It can therefore seem counterintuitive that the wind industry, with its increased focus on sustainable matters such as environmental and social impact [5], turns towards digitalization. The energy industry expects digital innovations to improve energy efficiency and ensure the stabilization of large-scale energy grids by managing energy consumption against the stochastic nature of renewable energies using and supporting initiatives such as smart meters, sector coupling, etc. As necessary, sustainable cloud positions us to enter circularity and deliver on our sustainability targets ​[4]​

Vestas, being a data-informed company, is no stranger to digitalization and has spearheaded industry development through in-house investments, collaborations, and acquisitions. Over the years, it has changed how we look at and use data, and coupled with the expected growth rate of connected renewable assets, we are expecting an unprecedented scale in the volume, velocity, and variety of data to power our vision. 

Introducing the new modular cloud-based Vestas Data Platform

The ever-growing amount of data produced across and consumed by multiple services across Vestas’ value chain demanded a migration from a centralized monolithic enterprise data warehouse towards a data platform that embrace a distributed ‘data product’ mindset. As a response, Vestas Data Platform has been introduced to support Vestas’ vision and strategy. Vestas Data Platform supports a sustainable energy solution fleet on a bigger scale, through multi-asset and multi-branding. Effortless and reliable digital integration of energy solutions is vital for Vestas whole value chain when scaling. The data platform is the foundation of the digital transformation enabling new data-driven business opportunities, utilizing e.g., stream processing of high frequency plant data. Moreover, the modular setup of the data platform is built on DevOps principles and is capable of scaling compute resources as needed, making it flexible and deployable. 

Figure 1 The Vestas Data Platform Exemplified

Data Products: The digital cornerstone for data-driven value generation

Vestas has established a data product architecture grounded in data mesh principles that constitutes a foundation of data products which is configurable and can be selected to fit the specific needs of the individual products. The data mesh, at core, is founded in decentralization and distribution of responsibility to people who are closest to the data in order to support continuous change and scalability

A data product is based on Code, data, infrastructure and is event – and domain driven [7]. It provides value to its users by transforming data into insights, predictions, or other forms of intelligence. The justifiable business case and associated value propositions of data products are therefore based on the ability to deliver data-driven insights and solutions that can improve business outcomes, increase efficiency, and drive growth. Some of the key benefits of data products in Vestas include:

• Reusability – produce once, consume many: Data sharing and re-use across data products will minimize data duplication and reduce the digital footprint.

• Allows focus on data insights: Self-service offerings will leverage the full potential of the organization by enabling domain teams to develop and govern their own data products on the platform.

• Reduces organizational bottlenecks: Faster time-to-market.

• Changing from batch processing of data to stream processing of data has the potential to significantly reduce the latency of data delivery and lower the compute costs​, which e.g., enable high-frequency and certain operational configurations for Vestas’ assets. 

Nevertheless, as data products leverage the power of data and algorithms to provide more accurate, relevant, and valuable insights, data products can be sold as a service, embedded within a larger solution, or offered as a standalone product.

The future is green and digital

A recent study derived from the International Energy Agency Task 43 highlighted the three grand challenges of digitalization in the wind industry [8], namely 1) Creating reusable data framework, 2) Connecting people and data to foster innovation, and 3) Enabling collaboration and competition between organisations. 

The new cloud-based Vestas Data Platform is a significant step in the direction of ensuring that Vestas as a digital leader in sustainable energy solutions can bring more flexibility and ensure faster time to market, and simultaneously a significant step towards solving the beforementioned three grand challenges.  Data users can now also spend their time on value-adding activities. Conclusively, this allows Vestas to drive data modelling and analytics to support the products enabling the global green transition.

Come and help us #PowertheSolution! If you work in software development and are interested in being part of the team, search for our open positions here.
 

References

​[1]  ​A. Fernández-Portillo, M. Almodóvar-González, J. L. Coca-Pérez and H. V. Jiménez-Naranjo, "Is Sustainable Economic Development Possible Thanks to the Deployment of ICT?," Sustainability , vol. 11 , no. 22, p. 6307, 2019.  

​[2]   G. Del Río Castro, M. C. González Fernández and Á. Uruburu Colsa, "Unleashing the convergence amid digitalization and sustainability towards pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A holistic review," Journal of cleaner production, vol. 280, 2021.  

​[3]  M. Z. Jacobson, M. A. Delucchi, Z. A. Bauer, S. C. Goodman, W. E. Chapman, M. A. Cameron, C. Bozonnat, L. Chobadi, H. A. Clonts, P. Enevoldsen, J. R. Erwin, S. N. Fobi, O. K. Goldstrom and S. Harrison, "100% Clean and Renewable Wind, Water, and Sunlight (WWS) All Sector Roadmaps for 139 countries of the World," Joule, 2017.  

​[4] S. Lange, J. Pohl and T. Santarius, "Digitalization and energy consumption. Does ICT reduce energy demand?," Ecological economics, vol. 176, p. 106760, 2020. 

​[5] Accenture, "[https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/strategy/green-behind-cloud]," 2020. [Online]. 

​[6]  P. Enevoldsen, "A socio-technical framework for examining the consequences of deforestation: a case study of wind project development in Northern Europe," Energy Policy, vol. 115, pp. 138-147, 2018.  

​[7] Z. Deghani, Data Mesh- Delivering Data-Driven Value at Scale, O'Reilly, 2021 

​[8]  A. Clifton, S. Barber, A. Bray, P. Enevoldsen, J. Fields, A. M. Sempreviva, L. Williams, J. Quick, M. Purdue, P. Totaro and Y. Ding, "Grand Challenges in the Digitalisation of Wind Energy," Wind Energy Science, 2023.