IWB: Gathering insights on low-level grids with machine learning algorithms
Explore IWB’s journey with SAP
Industrielle Werke Basel AG (IWB) is a Swiss utilities and energy solutions supplier that has served customers in the Basel region for over 150 years. With SAP solutions, it adapted its grid infrastructure so it could handle new photovoltaic power production and consumption and continue to fulfill its mission to create a more sustainable future.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Utilities | Basel-Stadt, Switzerland | 950 employees |
solar plants installed.
hours added to forecast horizons.
active end users.
Head of Asset Management, Industrielle Werke Basel AG
Ensuring continual power with more-agile data management
IWB is a key player within the eco-conscious movement that is becoming increasingly prevalent throughout Switzerland. As a powerful energy supplier, it keeps its goals of becoming more eco-friendly at the forefront of its operations. In previous years, the company served its customers with energy from centralized sources, such as hydroelectric, wind, and solar power stations, with a heavy emphasis on its decarbonization strategy. Due to the growing number of decentralized photovoltaic (PV) power sources in its network, IWB needed to integrate these sources within its grid and ensure that its citizens had a reliable and stable power supply regardless of weather conditions. In combination with the upward trends of e-mobility heat pumps and cooling usage, it understood the importance of flattening power peaks on low-level power grids.
Making the prescient decision to update its very core to meet the needs of its customer, IWB decided to enhance its tool set with modern data management and predictive analytics solutions from SAP. With these solutions, IWB can provide a more secure power supply to its customers through its distribution grid while giving its workers the tools they need to continue with their daily tasks.
Using machine learning and integrated data to forecast solar power energy production
IWB was intrigued by a web of interconnected SAP solutions that would allow it to establish insights of the diversified power sources in its power grid, including the SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud solutions, the SAP Energy Data Management application, and SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), Cloud Foundry environment. The power production of PV systems relies directly on the amount of sunlight individual units receive. So, IWB sought a way to combine current and historical data, cumulative power load profiles, and meteorological forecasting data in an environment that would allow it to forecast the production in the near future. With these modernized approaches to predicting power output, the company could feel more confident in its ability to monitor currents in the low-level grid, allowing it to provide a more reliable power supply to its customers.
Given the isolated nature of its previous methods of data management, this merger would offer IWB a greater level of agility in an increasingly sustainable environment. Accessing its existing data in the SAP Business Warehouse application with SAP Datasphere, including historical electricity production, real-time weather patterns, and weather forecasts, opens this data up for machine learning (ML) capabilities. The predictive analysis library, which is part of the underlying ML engine in SAP Datasphere and in SAP HANA Cloud, is now used to automatically create granular forecasts. With the SAP Analytics Cloud solution, it visualizes cross-enterprise data more clearly. The functionalities within systems such as SAP BTP, Cloud Foundry environment provides the mechanism to automate the data processing.
Fighting climate change with competent utilities and technology excellence
The integration of subject-matter expertise, data, and IT technology provides business users at IWB transparency into the low-voltage grid and the ability to control, decide, and move more actively so they can provide customers with a more reliable power supply.
With the adoption of SAP solutions, each department, including specialists for smart metering, are recognizing the value of their data. Their daily efforts in maintaining a top-quality database is critical for innovative approaches.
By making aggregated and anonymized information more transparent to the public through accessible environments such as open government data platform, IWB has noted a growing number of decentralized solar PV systems. This helps citizens realize that their investment in renewable energy sources has an impact not only for themselves but for the environment.
IWB’s strong commitment to sustainability and renewable energy supports global decarbonization efforts – the energy provider aims to continue its sustainability effort with its integration of the ML capabilities in SAP Datasphere, SAP Analytics Cloud, and SAP BTP.