Aboitiz Power Corporation is considering the use of data science and artificial intelligence (DSAI) to improve the operations of its power plants, including the 1,336-megawatt (MW) GNPower Dinginin coal-fired power plant in Mariveles, Bataan.
Through the Aboitiz Group’s new subsidiary Aboitiz Data Innovation (ADI), DSAI would be used to gather data regarding the status of the power plants with the goal of improved operations.
AboitizPower President and CEO Emmanuel Rubio said the company has been reaping the rewards of the early data collection they have gathered through DSAI even though they embarked on predictive analytics only in 2019.
“We believe in the technology. Although being used still too early, we need to get some more data. As we go on, the analytics [will] become more accurate and that’s the basis of artificial intelligence we’re looking at,” Rubio said during ADI’s virtual press launch.
AboitizPower has begun deploying DSAI for some of its operations. Its 300MW Davao baseload power plant uses DSAI to help the facility cut on emissions, while the company also employs DSAI for its power trading platform.
Rubio also said that AboitizPower is also considering the use of DSAI for the facilities under subsidiary Therma Power, Incorporated’s coal-fired facility in Pagbilao, Quezon.
GNPower Dinginin began partial operations last March, but tripped sometime after, which partly caused brownouts in Metro Manila and other areas in Luzon. The plant, which scheduled an outage for three weeks starting the last week of May, is expected to be completed by next year.
Neighboring GNPower Mariveles coal plant’s 316MW Unit 1 has been on forced shutdown since February due to boiler damage and is expected to be back online by August. AboitizPower has denied being involved in “economic sabotage” due to the outage.
Photo from Aboitiz website.
