Energinet expects to Triple Electricity and Gas Capacity with AI

Energinet is an independent public enterprise owned by the Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy. They own, operate and develop the transmission systems for electricity and natural gas in Denmark and aim to triple their capacity within a few years. Therefore, they have integrated AI into a wide range of processes and now, they are among the first in Denmark to give all employees access to Microsoft 365 Copilot.

In just seven years, Energinet must optimize the Danish energy transmission system to transport three times as much electricity across the country to meet significantly higher consumption driven by electrification, Power-to-X, and green energy export.

As a result of that, Energinet is in a hurry.

This urgency has led them to be one of the first Danish companies to provide Microsoft 365 Copilot to all their approximately 2,500 employees.

This initiative comes naturally after years of strategically working with AI to optimize processes and work smarter. Speed is crucial for Energinet.

“It’s challenging enough to produce all the green energy that energy companies need. But the energy also needs to reach the users. Therefore, we must work smarter and faster”

–  Nicolaj Nørgaard Peulicke, Group Vice President and Chief Digital Officer (CDO) at Energinet.

According to the strategy of Energinet, the focus is on making it cheap, safe, and green.

“It is a significant challenge,” he says, emphasizing that the war in Ukraine has further increased the demand for speed. This is partly because even more sectors now need to be covered by electricity.

This also puts additional pressure on Energinet’s IT functions, which must support everything from control centers to construction projects and more.

Energinet Has Been Working with AI for Years

Energinet has been engaged in various AI initiatives for several years. When generative AI and Large Language Models emerged early in 2023, Energinet and Microsoft developed a solution using Azure OpenAI, enabling an experiment in the legal field.

Energinet developed their AI assistant, trained on 50 documents to assist their chief legal officer. The answers to most questions were found in his notes. The experiment went well, with the AI assistant providing precise and accurate responses.

The experiment was then expanded to 200 documents, and other use cases were tested across business areas.
For example, AI was successfully tested with manuals. When a technician encounters a machine error, it’s natural to consult the manual for a solution. But now, with AI, Energinet can chat with the manual. “Why is there no power in the system?” Now problems and machine errors can be solved faster and more efficient then earlier.

At Energinet, AI is also used concerning their building stock. Previously, information was typically found in PDFs, old drawings, and archives. By digitizing and consolidating the material, Energinet can structure data in a way that allows AI to search the massive archive. This creates a single reference point accessible to everyone for searches.

Energinet has a procurement function responsible for purchasing for the many projects. They receive large numbers of proposals that can be challenging to compare. AI helps check if technical specifications are met, and the chat function allows for inquiries about details in the proposals that previously required going through many pages of documentation.

“This results in significant time savings, fewer errors, and enables us to predict maintenance and similar tasks in new ways”

– Nicolaj Nørgaard Peulicke.

Copilot for Everyone

By the end of 2023, it was clear that AI was a great help, but manually developing different models for each department did not make sense. It became a bottleneck.

There was a need for everyone in the organization to have secure access to AI. For Energinet, this meant implementing standard tools in their own, secure environment.

Therefore, at the beginning of the new year, Energinet purchased several Copilot 365 licenses across various user groups and began testing across the organization. Everything from Word to Outlook and Teams was optimized.

For example, Copilot can summarize what was discussed during and after a meeting and send the summary to the participants.

“We do not have a percentage for how much more efficiently we work across the organization, but there’s no doubt that we are more efficient using Copilot. Meeting summaries are the simple example. But within software development, we use GitHub Copilot and are 30 percent more efficient,” says Nicolaj Nørgaard Peulicke.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is a digital assistant that helps you use Microsoft programs like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint more efficiently. It can draft documents for you, help analyze your data in Excel, or create a beautiful presentation from a few keywords. Copilot can also help manage emails and much more. Most importantly, it creates a chat function to help manage large amounts of data.

To ensure Copilot is used and its potential fully realized, a training program has been initiated for all employees, and AI ambassadors have been appointed. Additionally, niche solutions are being developed in specific areas to explore how solutions can be expanded to access other datasets.

“The democratization here is that it’s so easy. It’s embedded in the Office suite and is intuitive. Tests show that employees are excited and quickly learn to use it,” says Nicolaj Nørgaard Peulicke.

Natural for Energinet to Be a Pioneer

At Energinet, it is part of the company’s overall strategy to think digitally from the start of all new projects. With the significant demand to increase capacity, Nicolaj Nørgaard Peulicke believes it is natural for them to be a “pioneer” and one of the first companies in Denmark to work strategically with artificial intelligence and, for example, purchase Copilot licenses for all employees.

“AI is a paradigm shift. It will change both Energinet and many other companies. We see great curiosity and enthusiasm from employees and very little resistance. So, it is natural for us to lead the way”

– Nicolaj Nørgaard Peulicke.

Microsoft’s Senior Client Executive, Brian Debel, believes the collaboration is a great example of how the partnership between Energinet and Microsoft explores innovation opportunities.

In a future with 100 percent green electricity, there will be greater fluctuations in power supply because solar and wind do not provide constant power. Therefore, an energy system must be created that ties everything together—from electric cars to businesses and private homes. Here, technologies like artificial intelligence and high-resolution data will be crucial.

“Energinet is already far in this development with their plans and investments in digital technology and AI,” says Brian Debel, adding:

“Energinet is constantly curious about innovation and exploring opportunities with new digital tools. Their ability to leverage digitalization and data plays a significant role in their work to innovate across the energy grid system. It is one of the keys to success in the green transition,” says Brian Debel.