Powering Efficiency: How Enerjisa Üretim Mastered Sustainable Energy Management with Microsoft Azure & AI
In a sector where even a fraction of a percentage in efficiency counts, Enerjisa Üretim is reshaping the energy landscape in association with Senkron Digital
The company transitioned to a cloud-native ecosystem with Microsoft Azure four years ago as part of its digital transformation. It has since built Senkron ROC, a Remote Operation Center that oversees 20 hydropower, wind, and solar plants, 24/7. Through advanced AI analytics, Enerjisa Üretim can now monitor real-time performance, forecast production levels, and predict maintenance requirements. It also fortified operations with a specialized Security Operation Center, processing 3.3 million security events per day. All this translates to increased operational efficiency with well-timed preventive maintenance, and a safer, more secure future for sustainable energy management.
Enerjisa Üretim is the leading player in Türkiye’s energy sector
57%
energy portfolio consisting of domestic and renewable resources
27
Active operating power plants comprising wind, hydroelectric, solar, natural gas, and domestic lignite
3.7
GW
of diversified generation capacity - enough to power 2.5 to 3.6 million homes
But the energy sector requires constant innovation and vigilance.
"The stakes are high. Increasing a power plant's efficiency by just one-third of a percentage can yield massive financial gains,” explains Ali İnal, Deputy General Manager of IT and Digital Business at Enerjisa Üretim. ”For instance, an incorrect prediction in maintenance of a single component within a plant can halt the whole operation, leading to financial loss and safety risks.”
Four years ago, Enerjisa Üretim decided to go beyond traditional approaches and embark on a digital transformation journey. “First, we wanted to improve operational efficiency. We also aimed to elevate the data analytics capabilities within our organization,” recalls İnal. To bring this vision to life, Enerjisa Üretim partnered with Microsoft and started using cloud-based tools to enable data-driven decision-making across its extensive network of power plants.
Building a solid foundation for energy management
Enerjisa Üretim decided not to use a “lift-and-shift” approach. “When we transitioned to Microsoft Azure, we decided to redevelop all of our applications from scratch to be cloud-native,” İnal notes. The team developed applications integral to its core business in-house, maximizing Microsoft Azure capabilities in computing, storage, and analytics. All Enerjisa Üretim data was consolidated in Azure Data Lake: a centralized platform for robust analytics and reporting.
The next move was to standardize workflows with Microsoft 365 E5, replacing a disparate set of collaboration and security tools. Alongside this, the company switched its business intelligence to Power BI for reporting and analytics, resulting in greater system synergy. “Today, nearly 90 per cent of our workloads have moved to the cloud,” says İnal.
Introducing remote monitoring operations
Two and a half years into its digital transformation, Enerjisa Üretim established a Remote Operation Center under the title of Senkron Digital. “The center operates 24/7 and has transformed our operational strategy,” says Inal. “More than 50 thousand signals per second are currently sent from more than 20 hydropower, wind, and solar plants to our central operation center. This data is then processed in the Azure cloud.” Using cloud technologies, such as Azure IoT Hub, digital twin technology, and machine learning, Senkron delivers real-time monitoring and data analytics on power plant performance — all from one secure, centralized location.
Senkron ROC also uses Microsoft HoloLens to enhance remote operations and knowledge transfer. “During COVID-19 travel restrictions, maintenance experts couldn’t visit our sites,” İnal explains. “But with HoloLens, we could transfer knowledge from one plant to another, enabling us to conduct maintenance, remote asset counts, and consult with external maintenance parties.” What’s more, Enerjisa Üretim’s experts can view 3D models of power plants through HoloLens, enabling them to assess turbines and heat pumps in real time.
"Correctly identifying a fault helps us prevent losses ranging from US$20,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars."
Deputy General Manager, IT and Digital Business
Ali İnal
With Senkron ROC, the company can even remotely manage ‘dark plants’, or unmanned facilities. Maintenance teams are dispatched only when digital red flags, like an oil-level issue or unexpected heat pump behavior, are raised. "Nearly 99 percent of flags can be handled remotely," İnal adds. Enerjisa Üretim currently has two dark plants in operation, with more underway.
Fortifying the digital fortress
The energy company didn’t just focus on operations but also on security. Enerjisa Üretim knew that a cyber threat had the same potential to shut down its operations as a faulty part. To plug this vulnerability, it established an Operational Technology-specific Security Operation Center (OT SOC), located next to its main operational hub. The center employs Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) tailored for operational technology (OT) networks. It also uses Microsoft Defender for IoT, which is installed across its power plants. “We monitor all power plant infrastructure using IDS. Once the network security data is collected, it’s then correlated in Microsoft Sentinel,” says İnal. The company’s OT SOC operates around the clock, processing an astonishing 3.3 million security events daily
Unlike other security groups, the Enerjisa Üretim cybersecurity team members have expertise in both OT and energy sectors. “This dual expertise enables our team to discern whether an incident is a security threat or a routine operational issue,” İnal says. Eliminating false positives and assuring efficient communication with field teams is essential when quick action is needed.
Leveraging GenAI for operational insight
More recently, Enerjisa Üretim embraced the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to redefine energy production. It developed OnePact AI, which uses Azure OpenAI Service, to access and analyze its IOT data collected from ~40,000 data points, combined and correlated with operational data to increase efficiency and ease operations of more than 20 power plants. “We simply input a prompt and get an immediate insight,” says Inal. “Generating this kind of data manually could take hours. With OnePact AI, it’s done in seconds.” Enerjisa Üretim also uses Azure Machine Learning to flag anomalies in plant operations. “We generate alerts tailored to specific needs. Our analytics platform identifies issues, even if we aren’t aware of any correlation between the collected data. Azure’s data and analytics capabilities further enhance our analytics.”
The energy company also uses AI to forecast future outcomes. “We can predict average daily production for turbines for the next two months. The prediction isn’t a simple extrapolation of our current production values; it considers the condition of assets, upcoming site availability, weather conditions, wind speed, and even factors like rain that may reduce turbine efficiency,” says Inal. To put it into perspective: “If you were to do this periodically, you’d need a team with at least an energy expert, a market expert, and a meteorological expert. It would take a week to compile this team. With Generative AI, we get an answer in seconds.”
Expanding Senkron Digital's reach
“After launching Senkron Remote Operation Center, we benchmarked our operations against organizations in Europe and North America and found that they lag in leveraging new technologies for data and condition monitoring,” says İnal. To meet this need, Senkron ROC opened its capabilities to third-party organizations of all shapes and sizes, helping them drive clean energy efficiency for a greener planet.
Enerjisa Üretim launched a pure digital company, Senkron Digital, to offer comprehensive data engineering, monitoring, and management software and services for renewable energy assets, as well as OT Cyber Security aiming to secure the energy sector from cyber threats. It also plans to include an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data estate into its digital offering, to enable companies to make data-driven decisions to decrease their carbon footprint, further enhancing the sustainability of energy production.
Reflecting on the journey, İnal remarks, “Our digital transformation journey has already paid off. With Azure and AI technologies, we have identified inefficiencies we were previously unaware of and gained capabilities that we’ll continue to use in the future. Now, we aim to empower more organizations to thrive in the renewable energy sector.”