Descrizioni dei prodotti:
Plenitude è un'azienda di proprietà di Eni che integra la produzione da rinnovabili, la vendita di energia, i servizi energetici e una vasta rete di punti di ricarica per veicoli elettrici. Plenitude sfrutta dati e AI per ottimizzare l'efficienza in tutta l'organizzazione. Migrando alla Databricks Data Intelligence Platform sul cloud, l'azienda ha ampliato l'uso dei dati, migliorando l'efficienza operativa e il coinvolgimento dei clienti attraverso previsione della domanda, segmentazione e personalizzazione.
Uno strumento frammentato basato su cluster
Plenitude fornisce energia a 10 milioni di famiglie e aziende in Europa e opera in oltre 15 paesi in tutto il mondo. L'obiettivo di Plenitude, che si trova a gestire centinaia di TB di dati provenienti da vendite di energia, servizi e punti di ricarica, è di avere un impatto positivo sulle persone, le comunità e l'ambiente. L'organizzazione aveva bisogno di una piattaforma di gestione dei dati più sviluppata per il suo ambiente legacy on-premise.
"Il nostro vecchio modello aveva costi più elevati. Questo ha influenzato la capacità dell'organizzazione di fornire valore all'azienda e ha ridotto le opportunità di collaborazione tra i team che gestiscono i dati, inclusi quelli di data science, data engineering e analisi", ha detto Sergio Leoni, Head of Data Engineering and Data Platform presso Plenitude.
Paolo Maltese, Head of Data Engineering and Data Platform presso Plenitude, ha spiegato: "Le sfide legate alla gestione di sorgenti e tipi di dati diversi hanno impattato sulla nostra capacità di abilitare team di dati e stakeholder a eseguire analisi a valle per task di BI, SQL e ML, con conseguenze negative in termini di time-to-market dei prodotti di dati, diffusione delle competenze per l'analisi e la comprensione dei dati e qualità e fiducia nei dati." Non potendo contare su dati unificati in una struttura democratizzata e matura, Plenitude consumava risorse per mantenere il suo approccio legacy, cercando di scalare le licenze per l'analisi dei dati, acquisire nuove risorse di calcolo e gestire la governance e i cicli di vita del software.
Breaking down silos to democratize data with Databricks
To unlock new use cases, Plenitude needed to migrate to the cloud and consolidate tooling with more advanced, user-friendly solutions. To centralize data, they chose the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, aiming to “invest our money not in data integration, but into more valuable, stable and trustworthy data products,” Paolo said.
Using Delta Lake on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, Plenitude maximizes the flexibility and scalability of their infrastructure to manage and analyze their large data volumes. Accelerating job execution are table storage features, such as managed tables and liquid clustering, along with automated workflows. Additionally, Databricks SQL distributes data for downstream analytics and matches computational power with business needs to avoid downtime due to shared services. Integrated with Power BI, Plenitude is also delivering compliant reporting and dashboarding via single sign-on (SSO) access to the Databricks Platform, and their serverless SQL assists in interactive queries against the data. Additionally, cluster management and autoscaling ensure balanced workflows and optimal resource allocation.
Unity Catalog propelled Plenitude forward by consolidating data on a single platform, providing unified visibility and communication across silos. Paolo explained, “We use Unity Catalog to secure the data, grant access with profile-based controls and comply with GDPR. It helps us reduce data integration, better classify and understand data and share data throughout the organization for collaboration.”
Forecasting energy demand with customer propensity and forecasting renewable production
Since migrating to the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform in the cloud, Plenitude has enabled easier cross-organization data sharing, guaranteeing secure access. Sergio reported, “Moving to a cloud-based platform like Databricks provided value by enabling us to think about data investments more modularly and flexibly to connect costs to the value produced. Benefits include reduced time to market, continuously updated software and no additional costs for upgrades.” This shift has allowed Plenitude to capitalize on data team productivity and automation, giving it a competitive advantage in the rapidly changing energy market.
Leveraging advances in data, statistical models and ML, Plenitude’s Energy Management Function implemented accurate demand forecasting models that predict customers’ consumption, with hourly and daily granularity, supporting a fast and effective decision-making process.
In addition, Plenitude manages an integrated portfolio where customer consumption is supplied by a renewable asset portfolio. This requires advanced forecasting models for the expected generation, as renewable sources production is strictly dependant on weather conditions, which have been implemented both for wind and solar assets by Plenitude’s Energy Management Function.
Finally, Plenitude is optimizing sales through customer segmentation and propensity planning, proactively identifying customers most in need of products and services. Analyzing up to 500 reports and dashboards, Plenitude has implemented up to 60 use cases to understand customer behavior and future needs. Applying this data in marketing, product development and communications helps Plenitude develop campaigns and services designed for specific customer needs.
Looking ahead, Plenitude will continue expanding use cases while moving toward federating data for multicloud use. Sergio concluded, “With Databricks, we can spread our data-driven culture and facilitate our goal of integrating our businesses while remaining resilient in the rapidly changing market. The scalability, performance and cost management are extremely supportive in achieving future organizational goals.”