Data Analytics in Energy: What If Your Power System Could Predict the Future?

Imagine a big nuclear power plant where multiple reactors operate under extremely high pressure and temperature. Suddenly, one of the reactors fails, resulting in serious leaks. If these disruptions go unnoticed, they may not only cause downtime but also environmental damage because of the radioactive leaks. Clearly, not a desirable scenario.

Not to end up there, it’s crucial to monitor variables like temperature fluctuations, flow rate, coolant chemistry, and radiation levels, preferably in real time. This will ensure identifying any potential issues early on, thus minimizing the risk of serious consequences.

All of this could hardly be achievable without data analytics in place. Understanding this, organizations are actively employing this innovation into their energy software, thus streamlining and safeguarding their entire energy systems operations.

With this in mind, we’ve prepared an article covering all the crucial points you should know about the role of data analytics in energy management. Let’s jump straight into it.

Core Technologies Behind the Insights: Tools Driving Energy Analytics

To collect the necessary variables for robust data analytics, you first need to leverage the right tools. To achieve this, the energy sector typically relies on two technologies — sensors and smart sensors.

Well, you may say that sensors are a thing of the past. However, in some factories, they are still in use. But you probably understand that in the age of innovation, it’s nearly impossible to get things done without smart sensors. Let’s give a short overview why:

Compared to sensors that merely output a signal like temperature, pressure, vibration, or motion, smart sensors come with a built-in microcontroller and a modem (e.g.,3G/4G, NB-IoT, or LoRaWAN). This allows them to collect critical data and instantly transmit it to the external system.

But the capabilities of smart sensors don’t end there. They can be a real treasure trove to monitor the performance of equipment in remote areas. As soon as you turn sensors on, they send JSON data to the SCADA system or the cloud right away. Besides, they may process data, quickly detect potential threats, and react immediately, without waiting for a server response. Thus, preventing serious issues.

Now, let’s have a look at the core technologies that assist in data collection from smart sensors:

Mobile Networks

Typically, energy facilities are placed in distant areas where fixed networks may encounter disruptions. However, you need a stable connection to receive and process data from sensors; here is where 3G, 4G or 5G modems come in handy.

These networks can ensure smooth and continuous data transmission to your system in real time. Thus, empowering you to promptly detect any potential threats.

Internet of Things

Another crucial technology to leverage for smooth data collection is IoT devices. Plus, they are highly reliable in remote facilities thanks to the LoRaWAN network, which ensures connection over pretty long distances compared to WiFi.

This is not the only capability of IoT. Besides collecting and transmitting data, it can promptly detect anomalies and take proactive steps like sending alerts or shutting down equipment to prevent further disruption.

Read more about the Use of IoT in Energy

SCADA Systems

Next up on our list is supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. In particular, they ensure smooth data collection across the entire industrial and infrastructure processes.

Besides, SCADA comes with visualization capabilities, simplifying the representation of complex datasets. But the cherry on top is probably that SCADA systems, like IoT, can send real-time alerts in case of any issues and even take proactive steps to avoid serious disruption.

Discover more on how you can Visualize Data with Low-Code / No-Code

Drones

While these innovations are not so common when it comes to data analytics for energy management, they can be pretty useful. Generally speaking, drones do not directly collect and transfer data from factory sensors. Instead, they utilize their built-in sensors.

Plus, drones take high-resolution photos, thus giving a solid picture of weather conditions, cloud movement, gas leaks, and other critical factors needed for robust analytics and timely interventions.

From Production Optimization to Digital Twins: Why Does Data Analytics Make Sense in Energy?

Data analytics in the energy sector is like a safety belt. You may rely on it for a variety of purposes. Minimizing downtime, cutting waste, and predicting possible issues are just a name of few examples. But instead of sharing the large list of data analytics use cases in energy, let’s highlight the ones that may be of the most interest to you.

Predictive Maintenance

Let’s say you’re in a sustainable energy business. One of the core technologies you utilize is wind turbines. Now, imagine one of them gets damaged during a sudden storm and falls, injuring some of the workers.

Losing time and resources on repairs won’t be your only headache. You’ll likely face potentially heavy fines due to safety violations.

This incident will not only make you pay through the nose but can also seriously damage your business reputation. Meanwhile, you may prevent this from happening with predictive analytics in place.

Specifically, by integrating SCADA systems, you’ll be able to track critical variables like vibrations, wind speed, temperature, and weather conditions to ensure your turbines operate safely and efficiently.

Another wise move to support your environmental goals is integrating machine learning. In particular, ML algorithms learn from historical data and provide predictions about possible turbine breakdowns or forecast storms that could damage your equipment

You see, data analytics in renewable energy, combined with ML, can work wonders for your sustainable efforts.

Learn more on how to Elevate Your Sustainability Efforts

Digital Twins

Imagine you have the ability to appear in the future and see the impact of your actions and business decisions. Sure thing, this would help keep your operations secure and safe. Who doesn’t wish for it? Well, but how can you predict the future?

Actually, today, with the help of digital twins, you can do just that. For example, you may design a digital twin of your reactor and try some changes on it before going live. Then, employ data analytics to get insight into virtual reactor performance. This will help you adjust your project to make it as secure and efficient as possible.

Plus, it will assist in creating a relevant incident management plan, which, ideally, you should have to smoothly navigate any potential breakdown.

Energy Theft Detection

Data analytics and energy management play a crucial role in monitoring energy consumption, which helps not only detect leaks but also thefts. In general, illegal connections are pretty challenging to identify.

But you can hit the spot by leveraging ML algorithms. With historical data at the forefront, ML analyzes consumption patterns in real time and can promptly find out any unusual behavior.

Production Optimization

The next thing you can do with data analytics in place is optimize production. Let’s say you want to streamline your oil production processes. By utilizing crucial variables like pressure, temperature, and water consumption, it’s possible to optimize the overall oil pumping process.

This not only saves time but also cuts unnecessary costs and helps prevent possible ecological damage.

Check out how we helped our client to Streamline Oil Production

Resource Allocation

Lastly, energy management analytics may assist in resource allocation. With a deep overview of your operations, you can pinpoint high energy consumption areas and forecast demand to allocate energy supply more efficiently.

For example, by analyzing energy usage data, you may find that one of your solar panel warehouses uses more electricity for climate control compared to others. As such, you can allocate resources more effectively by prioritizing upgrades or maintenance in that warehouse and reduce energy consumption.

Check out our case study on how we developed a powerful Inventory Management Software

The Innovation Shift: How AI Powers Energy Analytics?

According to Grand View Research, the AI in the energy market is projected to reach $54.83 billion by 2030, with a 30.2% CAGR from 2025 to 2030. Today, this innovation is being used for plenty of reasons in the energy sector, from business process automation to in-depth data analytics. Let’s skim through the top opportunities artificial intelligence offers for analytics:

• More secure systems: Employing AI in your analytics system will keep sensitive and private data more secure. Specifically, that’s because AI algorithms can promptly identify unusual patterns and send real-time notifications or take action to prevent breaches.
• 3D model of the system: AI helps build 3D models of grids, turbines, or pipelines to conduct tests and analyze insights, leading to better outcomes.
• Chatbots: Using AI algorithms, chatbots provide accurate answers to queries. Plus, if trained appropriately, they can assist and educate engineering staff.
• Drone and satellite analytics: AI powers these innovations with computer vision and thermal imaging, thus helping promptly identify any potential serious issues like fire, leaks, or equipment damage.

Energy Data Analytics Is Not Always Perfect: Pitfalls to Keep in Mind

Though we’d love to say that you can simply employ data analytics for your energy operations, it’s not that simple. The process of ensuring secure, smooth, and efficient data management is a challenging path. Here are the core pitfalls to keep in mind:

1. Data Accuracy

When collecting data from various sources, you often have to deal with unstructured data. This means you need to transform variables to process them effectively. But that’s not the only consideration. You see, sensors may fail, either transforming data with disruptions or stopping transmission altogether. Neither option is good for robust analytics.

Read our guide to discover how to Prepare Your Data for Powerful Analytics

2. Legacy Systems

Oftentimes, old factories rely on outdated systems, which rarely support new technologies and tools. As such, employing innovations to collect crucial insights becomes almost impossible.

Understanding that their legacy system conflicts with new technologies, not all companies may feel inclined to invest in switching to modern enterprise software. As a result, they can’t gain a clear view of their entire business processes to optimize and improve them.

Discover core signs that it’s Time to Move from Legacy Systems

3. Cyber Threats

You collect plenty of sensitive, and in some cases confidential, data in your system. Just imagine what could happen if hackers managed to breach your power plant or oil pipeline systems. This could lead to serious consequences, and even to economic collapse.

You probably remember the hack of the largest oil pipeline in the U.S. in 2021. Pipelines were shut down for several days, which became a reason for long lines at gas stations due to fuel shortages and a jump in gas prices.

Given that, you need to ensure a secure environment for your data, which is not that simple. To get there, you should implement crucial security protocols like MFA, authentication, data encryption, access control, and intrusion detection systems. Some of them may not be cheap pleasures, but when it comes to data protection, there is no alternative.

4. Skilled Professionals

Aiming to achieve robust data analytics, you definitely need skilled professionals on board. The energy industry is highly specific, so having only data analysts is not enough. Ideally, you require a team with deep engineering knowledge as well.

Hiring such experts may be pretty costly. Plus, it may not always be easy to find someone with deep knowledge in both engineering and data analytics.

Harness the Full Potential of Data Analytics for Your Energy Business

Managing an energy business is far from straightforward. It’s like playing chess — you need to think a few steps ahead. Only this way can you ensure secure operations, optimize your business processes, and allocate resources wisely.

To get there, data analytics can serve best. You probably understand that achieving strong data analytics necessitates investments and a professional staff. If you are currently looking for a trustworthy vendor, then Velvetech will be happy to bring its years of proven expertise in your robust energy software development. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

About the author

Henry Evans

Being involved in a spectrum of complex technology projects, Henry shares his all-round expertise on Veltetech’s blog to help companies advance their business with digital solutions.