Energy investors in search of resilience are rediscovering the power of the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning to guide data-driven decisions in the face of an increasingly volatile economic environment.

Much has happened since I first wrote about the cloud-based IoT platform from Kaiserwetter Energy Asset Management called ARISTOTELES.

“We’re seeing strong interest from investors who want to stay ahead of ongoing shocks related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as all the other variables that impact the energy industry,” said Hanno Schoklitsch, chief executive officer (CEO) and founder at Kaiserwetter Energy Asset Management. “Our customers have been super astonished when they’ve seen how they could use applied data intelligence on a daily basis to benchmark the performance of the assets they have invested in and predict production outcomes of renewable energy facilities throughout the world at any given time.”

Machine Learning and AI Fuel Business Insights

Designed as an executive-level dashboard, ARISTOTELES aggregates, structures, and correlates technical and financial data from wind farms and solar parks. The platform enriches this information with data from third-party sources, such as meteorology or the electricity market. It is built on SAP Cloud Platform and uses a number of SAP solutions, including SAP Internet of Things and SAP Analytics Cloud.

The latest version surfaces relevant insights from SAP Data Intelligence to give financial institutions, banks, and other investors the full picture of what is taking place in and around their assets and credit loan facilities. Machine learning algorithms use facility data to perform an early failure detection, allowing investors to make the right decisions for maximizing returns and banks to better manage their debt-service coverage ratio.

“Connecting IoT with AI means that there are basically no limits to the amount of real-time and trend data we can integrate and analyze on our platform,” Schoklitsch said. “Customers have at their desk the information they need to maximize the performance of their investments every day.”

Sustainable and Profitable Business

Kaiserwetter’s co-innovation with SAP began about five years ago, and this year ARISTOTELES won its second SAP Innovation Award. In many ways, the platform has evolved to epitomize SAP’s strategy around business that can be both sustainable and profitable. Schoklitsch said that German banks have begun pilot projects to identify credit risks and get ahead of a highly changeable market.

“Sustainability is the only way forward, and sustainable finance is part of that push,” he said. “Weather forecasting is among the crucial issues that impact business in many aspects. Using AI and SAP Data Intelligence, our platform can provide more reliable predictive analytics based on detailed data coming from the IoT layer in our system architecture.”

Early Warning Signals Drive Better Decisions

Originally launched to help investors and local renewable and affordable energies – especially in emerging countries – ARISTOTELES is now at the forefront of informed decision-making platforms, supporting all stakeholders involved in renewable energy investments.

“We’re just at the start of what AI can do to help people make better predictions about energy equipment, like the power of wind turbines in the context of weather forecasts or deviations that constitute early alerts,” Schoklitsch said. “Customers also have more benchmarking possibilities from integrated real-time data for investment performance comparisons against their own financial KPIs and peers. For example, investors can predict power production levels for selected time periods at specific locations around the world, and banks can identify potential distressed assets prior to a default situation.”

Coronavirus No Match for Algorithms

It is not news that accurate, real-time data is more important to investors in an incredibly volatile economic environment. What is new are innovations like ARISTOTELES that use algorithms and connected data to help people get the jump on fast-changing trends and make better investment decisions. Having the right insights from relevant data is still among the greatest competitive business advantages.