As part of its release of the Ovation™ 4.0 Automation Platform, global automation and technology leader Emerson (NYSE: EMR) is delivering transformative generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) that will enhance data to inform decisions, helping power and water companies accelerate growth, improve efficiencies and drive more predictive, reliable and resilient performance to their operations.
With the digital transformation of the power and water industries, utilities and municipalities now have vast amounts of rich production, reliability, safety and sustainability data for their operations – yet much of it is fragmented and siloed. Operators require a modern, future-proof computing environment that can confidently mine large and complex data sets and harness the power of GenAI for better, more efficient operational insights.
Emerson’s Ovation 4.0 Automation Platform with integrated and dedicated GenAI deployment, trained on a secure foundation of knowledge-based data, will augment workforce expertise and thought processes to enhance productivity by prioritising and automating tasks. The platform will provide predictive guidance and recommend appropriate actions to increase reliability, improve customer experiences and optimise overall operations.
“While global power operators are experiencing unprecedented demands, we are also on the precipice of technological advances that will forever change how we and our customers work,” said Bob Yeager, president of Emerson’s power and water business. “The digital revolution is generating so much valuable data that our Ovation Automation Platform with GenAI can harvest to create accessible, usable insights to inform smarter and more timely action.”
Through its AI-based capabilities, the new platform will help support:
• Workforce empowerment – AI assistants will work side-by-side with operators of every experience level to optimise workflows for more effective operations and help diagnose issues and suggest or implement control actions to return to normal, safe operating conditions.
• Remote operations – AI will work in tandem with operators at centralised control centres that monitor multiple assets, acting as autonomous guardians that provide prescriptive guidance to help with information processing and decision support.
• Reliable, continuous operations – The Ovation GenAI assistant will predict maintenance requirements, helping to mitigate the impacts of common reliability issues such as faulty sensors, mechanical wear, temperature fluctuations and pressure deviations. In addition, real-time digital twin simulation, coupled with AI models trained on plant-specific historic operations and maintenance, will recognise abnormal conditions to identify how and why processes are diverging from baseline operations.
• Grid optimisation – Facilitated by AI-assisted predictive maintenance, the platform will offer advanced situational awareness that improves decision-making from power generation to delivery, resulting in increased grid stability.
• Security – Robust AI models will be used as a tool to enhance cybersecurity by improving threat detection, response automation, vulnerability management and overall security protocols.
Initially released on Microsoft Azure’s OpenAI service, the Emerson Ovation GenAI will also be available on other large language models that rely on closed, proprietary and secure data sets.
“Today’s most forward-thinking power and water companies will use our new Ovation 4.0 Automation Platform with GenAI to help sort through their vast amounts of data,” Yeager said. “By contextualising data from the intelligent field, edge and cloud to make better, safer decisions, this technology will enable what we call ‘Boundless Automation™’ – breaking down data silos to liberate data and unleash the power of software.”
Emerson announced its new Ovation GenAI today (July 29, 2024) at its annual Ovation Users Group Conference in Pittsburgh.
Related articles: Emerson’s New Ovation 4.0 to Deliver Software-Defined, AI-Ready Automation Platform for Power and Water Industries
