Aggreko driving data efficiency with Microsoft

UK-based power rental specialist Aggreko has started using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics to drive data efficiency across the business as digital technologies are increasingly integrated into its operations and the company responds to the energy transition.

Azure Synapse is an analytics platform that brings together enterprise data warehousing and big data processing into a single service environment.

The Azure Data Lake Storage provides a central platform that can be accessed by data analysts and scientists from across the business.

Aggreko says the time taken to identify inventory shortages will be cut from 8 hours to 5 minutes as a result of using the platform, and the insights gained from it will help to create greater value for customers.

Elizabeth Hollinger, Director of Data Insights at Aggreko, said, “Data has an absolutely critical role to play in energy efficiency and as the global energy transition continues, this will become even more important.

“Previously, we were in a position where we didn’t have the ability to fully utilise our data history to avoid exceeding our storage limits. By utilising Azure Synapse’s limitless analytics platform to our data lake, we now have a single environment in place to explore and query data without needing to remove it.”

As the adoption of renewables and volume of local power generation increases, Aggreko expects it will become increasingly complex to keep supply and demand in balance.

The company says sophisticated systems and controls are needed to integrate an ever-wider set of energy sources and interact with traded energy markets, all while ensuring stability, reliability and maximising efficiency.