ENGIE engages C3 to roadmap its digital journey

By William Girling
When French electricity utility company ENGIE needed a partner to help implement an enterprise-wide digital transformation, it turn...

When French electricity utility company ENGIE needed a partner to help implement an enterprise-wide digital transformation, it turned to C3.ai.

Ranked as among the largest power producers in the world, ENGIE’s requirements ranged from optimising gas power plants, managing heating and cooling plants, energy analysis, fault-detection on wind turbines and more. 

With a total energy production capability of 114.4GW and staffed by over 153,000 people, ENGIE’s reputation as a leader in the sector is well established, yet the company still envisaged a better and more integrated way of operating.

“Together with C3.ai, we’re determined to be one of the rare leaders that will invent the new world,” said Yves Le Gelard, CIO and Chief Digital Officer.

A large-scale undertaking

Implementing a digital transformation within ENGIE’s vast operational framework (24 units in 70 countries) was always going to be a challenge, but C3.ai was determined to make the substantial commitment of time and resources that it would entail.

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Part of this preparation necessitated training 70 new staff, including data scientists, on how to operate and optimise the C3 AI suite. 

With ENGIE’s global operations pooling data from more than 1mn devices in one minute to 15-minute intervals, the data collection capabilities of the company are huge, with the expectation that the number of devices could quintuple by the end of 2020.

The relevant solutions selected as relevant for ENGIE’s requirements included Predictive Maintenance (Gas Chain, Production of Electricity, Solutions for Cities & Territories), Sensor Health (Gas Chain) and C3 Enterprise (Solutions for Business). 

In total, C3.ai devised a roadmap for digital transformation that made use of more than 30 applications from its suite, all linked to the maintenance of essential aspects of the company’s business. 

In addition, to streamline the uptake, ENGIE established its own ‘Digital Factory’ and hired 100 technical staff to help promote the ideas and resources granted by C3.ai’s technology. 

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