EDF, Bharat Light renew green energy tie-up for AI-powered IoT platform

French renewable energy group EDF Energies Nouvelles has renewed its partnership with Indian green energy firm Bharat Light and Power to deploy Orion, an IoT platform providing operation and maintenance solutions for solar and wind energy installations.

The artificial intelligence-powered tool was developed jointly by an EDF Energies subsidiary, which looks after operations and maintenance activity in Europe, and Bharat Light.

According to a statement, both companies are looking to improve the performance of wind and solar farms by leveraging big data analytics, cloud and machine learning.

“The Orion platform, which EDF and BLP have been developing in partnership since 2015, increases the competitiveness of operations and maintenance, and optimises and improves asset performance by harnessing the insights gained from predictive analytics to deliver efficient management of renewable energy assets,” the companies said in a joint statement.

“The extended partnership between Bharat Light and Power, and our European team of renewable experts will provide the highest standards of operations and maintenance services to a large number of customers by leveraging the platform, Orion. This innovative digital tool supports the renewable part of the Indo-French partnership to increase clean energy globally and make it affordable by utilising disruptive new technologies such as AI and big data analytics,” said Thierry Muller, the CEO of EDF’s subsidiary dedicated to operations and maintenance.

Orion can monitor, report and use predictive intelligence for operations and maintenance providers, asset owners and utilities through the Bharat Light control centre in Bengaluru, the company said. Using customised algorithms and machine learning, the platform can also generate round-the-clock personalised reports, which can be accessed on its mobile application and web portal.

“This partnership reflects the disruption occurring globally in the energy sector,” said Bharat Light CEO Tejpreet S Chopra. “With the significant decline in renewable energy prices, AI driven IOT platform Orion brings together deep global renewable energy expertise from EDF Energies Nouvelles with deep IT and domain expertise in India to provide cost-effective actionable intelligence that improves the performance of energy assets.” 

According to a report by business information provider IHS Markit, the number of connected Internet of Things devices will grow to more than 31 billion globally by 2018, primarily driven by the need for intelligent connected devices in industrial and commercial applications.

“IoT is not a recent phenomenon, but is now working hand in hand with other transformative technologies like artificial intelligence and the cloud,” said Jenalea Howell, research director for IoT connectivity and smart cities at IHS Markit. “This is fuelling the convergence of verticals such as industrial IoT, smart cities and buildings, and the connected home, and it is increasing competitiveness.”