Global automation and technology leader Emerson is updating its industry-leading Ovation™ automation platform to include a software-defined architecture that will help utilities better leverage data, new technologies and artificial intelligence (AI). This enhancement will enable the industries to achieve new levels of operational excellence and meet the increasing demand for reliable, affordable and sustainable power and water.
Today’s progress towards energy transition, global sustainability targets and ‘electrification of everything’ is transforming the power and water industries. These complex challenges require modern, adaptive technologies that interconnect previously siloed data and provide a holistic operational view to improve performance and availability.
Emerson’s Ovation 4.0 automation platform builds upon the company’s Boundless Automation™ vision to integrate and deliver valuable reliability, safety, production and sustainability data across enterprises to optimise operations. The software-defined platform enhancements include advanced automation, simulation and AI capabilities.
“Our next-generation platform will help modernise power and water operations, unlocking predictive strategies to help utilities meet the evolving pressures of the industries,” said Bob Yeager, president of Emerson’s power and water business. “Ovation 4.0 offers a single automation platform with real-time data, enabling customers to keep pace with rapidly changing markets, providing the insights they need to work smarter, better and faster.”
Power or water operators with a complex portfolio of distributed energy resources (DERs) – including combined cycle plants, wind farms, hydro facilities, solar panels, battery storage, microgrids and electric vehicle charging stations – can rely on Ovation 4.0’s grid edge ecosystem to manage real-time, bidirectional inputs and deliver distributed data across their entire network. Grid edge controllers provide a more granular view of the grid through high-speed, localised computing environments across DERs, securely putting rich data closer to operators to improve load and demand management.
Emerson’s newest Ovation software-based platform is part of a robust solutions portfolio designed to help future-proof utilities, including a full suite of advanced pattern recognition and machine learning technologies to monitor, control and optimise assets. These technologies can be used in local or remote operation control centres to centralise knowledge, predict maintenance requirements and optimise operations. The new Ovation View human machine interface and integration of Ovation Green renewable supervisory control and data acquisition software provide a clear view of operations, advanced analytics and forecasting tools. This Ovation 4.0 integration, combined with these new features, improves holistic awareness across traditional and renewable generation and energy storage segments, reducing costs while increasing plant safety, reliability and sustainability.
The Ovation 4.0 platform also offers generative AI models trained on a foundation of secure Ovation knowledge-based data that will offer prescriptive guidance on operational and maintenance practices. Ovation digital twin technology with AI models will provide infinite analytical computing power that enables data-driven decisions, business-wide collaboration and on-demand support.
All Ovation 4.0 technologies will be seamlessly supported through the Guardian™ digital customer experience, a single point of access to real-time monitoring, in-depth analytics and actionable insights.
“With our extensive portfolio unified under the Ovation 4.0 automation platform, power and water companies now have access to a comprehensive technology ecosystem, unmatched industry expertise, cohesive customer support, and decades of engineering innovation and efficiencies,” Yeager said. “This enhancement will help us strengthen our position as a go-to partner, helping our customers modernise with a software-defined architecture that provides the most advanced control systems without completely overhauling existing infrastructure.”
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