Edenor charging forward with cloud migration, eyeing AI integration

Argentine electricity company Edenor completed the migration of its entire data architecture to the cloud and is now preparing to integrate more generative artificial intelligence (AI) into its operations.

The company chose the AWS cloud for its Big Data project, and application development and modernization, allowing it to improve its operations and become more cost-efficient.

“It's a foundational project because it allows us to generate the bases to be a data-driven company and to be able to apply all machine learning technologies, predictive models, advanced analytics and process large volumes of information that otherwise wouldn't have been possible to process,” Diego Hernán Poggetti, director of technology and telecommunications at Edenor, told BNamericas.

The company is currently processing 2.5bn transactions per day on its platform. These include customer information, consumption measurements, billing, and human resources information, among other things.

“The idea is to be able to move towards a self-service model so that the business can consume its own data,” he added.

All data uploaded to the platform goes through a governance model that defines quality rules, who owns the data and which system it belongs to, among other parameters that ensure it is secure, accurate and protected.

The data project took a total of two years and allowed data that was previously housed in silos to be condensed into a single repository. “We had multiple silos where the same information was possibly duplicated in different systems,” Poggetti explained.

Edenor uses AWS public cloud services from its area in the US. It also uses the AWS public cloud for business continuity and disaster recovery systems.

Edenor currently uses local datacenters primarily for network operations. It also has SAP systems in the local cloud and a plan to migrate to SAP Rise, also on the AWS cloud. That migration would be completed in the second half of the year.

In addition to AWS, Edenor uses the Microsoft Azure cloud for office automation services.

AI AND CUSTOMER SERVICE

Edenor began conducting generative AI tests as an evolution of its work with machine learning and predictive models for issues of fraud, debt collection, late payment, equipment maintenance and prevention.

The company plans to incorporate AI technology to analyze customer emotions based on conversations in contact centers and to improve consumption projection tools.

“Nowadays we do surveys, we do analysis of the calls they make, why those calls are made, so the only thing that AI would do in this case is make the process much more efficient,” said Poggetti.

The company has also built its self-management application for clients on AWS.

Currently, 70% of interactions with clients are carried out virtually through the Edenor Digital system, WhatsApp and social networks, while 29% are carried out through contact centers and 1% through commercial offices.

That breakdown has been maintained since the pandemic, although the number of interactions has grown, reaching close to 21mn in 2023.

Edenor has nearly 3mn clients.

Internally, the firm is also planning to use AI to replace repetitive tasks.

SMART NETWORK

Edenor is also in the process of transforming and digitizing its network to make it smarter. It currently has smart meters deployed for large clients.

“The idea is to continue incorporating smart meters. We depend a lot on the economic context at the country level, but the idea is to increasingly incorporate more remote-controlled devices,” Poggetti said.

According to the executive, investments in remote control helped improve the frequency and duration indicators of power outages.

“These devices that we're adding to the network need to be measured and controlled, so having this data platform helps us optimize the reading process and then, of course, exploit all this information,” he added.

The company did not report the number of devices and smart meters deployed on the network.

The investments made will also help the company prepare for the grid transformation involving distributed generation.

CULTURAL CHANGE

“Going beyond being technological changes, they are deeply cultural changes. And in that, the AWS team has helped us a lot, adopting the best practices, organizing teams to be able to form more agile work cells that are product-oriented," said Poggetti. 

“We're working closely with the human resources team to help us with this transformation and try to create this innovation-oriented culture,” he added.

Edenor has around 4,500 of its own employees and around 9,000 including contractors. In the IT and telecommunications area alone there are 190 staff.