15 November 2024
IBM is announcing the general availability of IBM Maximo Renewables. This solution is designed to provide our clients the insights, tools, and expertise they need to successfully manage and maximize the efficiency of their renewable energy assets. IBM Maximo Renewables can help accelerate organizations’ sustainability initiatives by allowing them to track and monitor the performance of solar, wind and energy storage assets in near real-time—helping to identify causes for underperformance and recommending actions to optimize renewable generation capacity.
Companies are increasingly relying on renewable energy for on-site operational generation and to support grid reliability. According to the International Energy Agency, in 2023, renewable electricity capacity reached an estimated 507 gigawatts, almost 50% higher than 2022. Not only that, but renewable power capacity additions is expected to increase in the next five years. I foresee asset lifecycle management (ALM) for renewable assets being a top priority for organizations across multiple industries.
Managing renewable energy assets can be overwhelming for organizations due to their high volume of assets and their complexity. External factors like weather and debris can negatively impact energy output, system efficiency, and uptime—and routine inspection can be costly, time-intensive, and requires specific asset expertise. Therefore, a predictive maintenance solution that monitors energy generation of these assets, helps the user identify potential root-causes in the event of decreased energy generation, and recommends corrective actions is crucial.
Businesses are also facing high operating and maintenance (O&M) costs for these assets, and rising pressure on margins from stakeholders. In turn, operators of renewable power plants are left with an imminent need to effectively coordinate and optimize O&M decision intelligence across complex portfolios. IBM Maximo Renewables is designed to help tackle this challenge by enabling operators to monitor and analyze wind, solar, and energy storage assets, access insights on underlying performance issues, and get actionable recommendations to maximize their return on investment.
The release of IBM Maximo Renewables will enhance the capabilities of IBM Maximo Application Suite (MAS), IBM’s solution for asset lifecycle management. Moreover, it will further IBM’s leadership in the energy and utility space, an industry undergoing significant transformation and seeking solutions to manage and optimize renewable energy assets.
This renewable energy management technology is already helping organizations better visualize the performance of their renewable asset portfolios. For example, Param Renewables is using this technology to manage 6 gigawatts of renewable assets. This organization is the operations and management arm of Gensol, one of India's leading operations and management solution providers.
Designed to help bridge the gap between target and actual energy generation by zeroing-in on potential root causes of energy losses to optimize performance. Features such as the Map View can help organizations monitor and assess the health of their entire renewable asset portfolio in one view, highlight which assets need technical attention, and quickly understand the overall performance of each plant.
Empower operations and site managers with the right data visualization, leveraging custom dashboards and analytics to ensure they have the correct information at their fingertips. Users can access different analytical tools that help them gain actionable insights to achieve target generation, identify weak modules, and pinpoint systemic losses with drone thermography.
Action insights effectively by tracking and managing site operations to optimally operate and maintain critical renewable assets. Clients can optimize performance by automating workflows such as identifying underperformance, recommending actions, and generating work orders.
With the growth of renewable energy adoption accelerating, there is a need for actionable intelligence and automated workflows to help improve asset efficiency and operational productivity for renewable energy generation and storage. IBM Maximo Renewables is designed to help enterprises manage these challenges by optimizing renewable asset efficiency and providing insights from potential root-cause identification, on which to base their operational and maintenance decisions. This technology can ultimately help extend the health of their assets and increase energy output.
Learn more about IBM Maximo Renewables.
Explore IBM Maximo Application Suite for energy and utility asset management solutions.