EDP: powering the global energy transition using Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform, AI and IoT technology

“More than the technology itself, it’s the impact this project is having on our people that’s truly outstanding. You can just see how much more empowered, aware and inspired to innovate they’ve become.”

Nelson Pinho, Global Director for Digital Strategy & Architecture, is describing his company’s sustainability commitments and the initiative that’s helping to drive them.

As one of the largest renewable energy providers in the world, EDP has a mission: to lead the global energy transition. From becoming net zero by 2040, to reinforcing its position in renewable energy market and supporting clients towards decarbonization, EDP wants to play a leading role in tackling the climate change crisis – and wants to do it empowered by cutting-edge technology.

“At EDP, we pursue ground-breaking green ambitions that help us to make a tangible impact worldwide. We have important challenges to solve, which we believe we’ll achieve thanks to data and AI,” says João Nascimento, Global CIO of EDP. 

“These are central in our Digital Strategy and a lighthouse for EDP’s future, as well as fundamental to accelerate our journey towards a better world.”  

It’s an ambition that EDP has been working towards for years. One that recently led them to embrace data, cloud technology and AI as key enablers – and elect Microsoft the partner behind them.

Unlocking the power of the cloud

EDP is one of the largest multinational utility companies in the world, with more than 40 years of experience in the sector. It produces more than 75% of its energy from renewable resources and delivers gas and electricity to over nine million customers

Present in 29 markets, EDP prides itself on its highly international profile. 

From an IT perspective, however, this doesn’t come without challenges. For years, EDP was running its entire IT ecosystem on on-prem legacy systems and siloed applications that made orchestrating all these markets rather difficult.

This became particularly clear in 2016, when EDP’s expansion and growth goals started requiring levels of flexibility and speed that its IT system was struggling to meet. 

That led to one conclusion: moving to the cloud. And for the ambitions EDP had on Data and AI, Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform appeared as the best option.

Embracing an end-to-end transformation

Six years since first approving its migration, EDP has now shifted more than 80% of its workloads on to the cloud (most of which on Azure) – with plans to complete the migration by 2025. 

But that is just the beginning. Seeing the scalability, agility, data sovereignty and security benefits that come from running on Azure, the company has continuously been building on top of it. 

EDP has now implemented Microsoft 365 E5’s full suite of modern workplace tools and is also using Microsoft Dynamics 365 as system of records for our field services.

In addition, it has embraced a full suite of cybersecurity tools coming from Azure and the E5 stack.

Most recently, the architecture has been expanded to help EDP use its data in an even more intelligent way. 

This has meant implementing a number of Azure IoT solutions such as Stream Analytics, IoT Hub and Event Hubs, and Artificial Intelligence technologies, including Azure Machine Learning, Azure Cognitive Services (now including Azure OpenAI Service), and Analytics services like Azure Data Factory, Azure Databricks, Azure Synapse Analytics, Power BI, Storage Account, and SQL Server.

Use of these solutions has grown exponentially over the past few years. The data lake, for example, has gone from 70TB used in 2020 to 1PB in 2022, with 60 apps currently sending data into it. In addition, the company has identified 239 initiatives related to data analytics and AI since 2019. 

To date, more than ten IoT initiatives have already been kicked off across various EDP business platforms since the establishment of an IoT reference architecture.

Inside EDP’s most innovative projects

With such a wealth of new technologies now at hand, EDP has started using its solution to power ground-breaking projects all around the world. 

One such case is the field of electric mobility, which EDP considers as fundamental towards global decarbonization efforts. “Key to powering our electric mobility mission is identifying the best places to install electric chargers in the public roads,” explains Marco Pinheiro, Head of Data and AI Competence Center at EDP. 

“Using our machine learning and data analytics capabilities, we can do this by combining geographical data, customer demand, road information and all sorts of other insights.” 

A similar approach is being applied to Analytics4Vegetation – a project that studies the vegetation present in areas where aerial power lines are to be installed. By applying analytics to various types of data, EDP can forecast with greater precision whether any vegetation will intercede with the lines in the long and short term. 

“We have so many more,” adds Pinheiro. “For example, we’re applying Azure Machine Learning to predict the power curve that comes from the over 100,000 power transformers that we have in Portugal. 

“Using our AI solutions, we can be more prepared about anything that might happen to our operations in the future, while also tying them back to our energy transition goals. 

Get the full workforce on-board AI and cloud technology

After years of building its Azure stack, EDP is now taking crucial steps towards becoming a fully data-driven organization. 

“Our present goal is to turn data into power and intelligence into action, so that we can change even more of our future operations, starting now,” says Pinho. “That’s why we recently started two projects: one that aims to rush the implementation of our data and AI Strategy and Governance, and another that aims to accelerate the adoption of Generative AI across all business units – in a move that we hope will make our EDP the lighthouse for data and analytics in the energy sector.”

That, however, cannot happen without the full and knowledgeable support of the people who use them. 

“We don’t want to leave anyone behind when it comes to these solutions,” he continues. “More than technology itself, it’s the impact this project is having on our people that’s truly outstanding. You can just see how much more empowered, aware, and inspired to innovate they have become.”    

EDP has been holding training and upskilling programs that aim at training workforce on using AI for business. The Microsoft AI Business School and the Microsoft Enterprise Skills Initiative are both essential components to the program.

Organized alongside a Global Black Belt program designed for upskilling, the initiative is further testament to EDP’s commitment to the energy transition – and the technology that can make it happen.