IBM acquires renewables AI firm Prescinto

  • October 21, 2024
  • Steve Rogerson

IBM has acquired Prescinto, a provider of asset performance management (APM) software-as-a-service (SaaS) for renewable energy.

Indian firm Prescinto’s capabilities leverage AI to enable monitoring, analytics and automation to streamline renewable energy operations and manage clean energy and storage assets.

Organisations are increasingly turning to alternative energy sources such as wind, solar and energy storage to help reduce emissions and lower energy costs. Yet, it can be daunting to manage and increase the performance of high-tech devices such as turbines, solar panels and inverters, which generate power from renewable energy assets. In addition, environmental factors such as weather and debris can contribute to reducing energy output, system effectiveness and system uptime.

According to Allied Market Research, the value of the global utilities asset management market is expected to grow from $4.3bn in 2022 to $12.4bn in 2031, with a CAGR of 11.3 per cent (www.alliedmarketresearch.com/utilities-asset-management-market-A27917).

The acquisition of Prescinto should enhance the capabilities of IBM’s Maximo Application Suite (MAS, www.ibm.com/products/maximo) for asset lifecycle management. Moreover, it will further IBM’s position in the energy and utility space, an industry undergoing significant transformation to manage and optimise wind, solar and other renewable energy storage assets. Water, natural gas, oil, nuclear, and other energy and utility enterprises globally already use MAS.

The acquisition should help IBM support clients’ sustainability initiatives and net-zero goals, allowing users to track and monitor the performance of solar, wind and energy storage assets in near real time; identify root causes for underperformance; and recommend actions to optimise generation.

For example, a solar power plant can become less efficient over time due to accumulated dirt and debris on its panels. Renewable APM software can use visual recognition to help monitor these assets, identify issues before they become critical, and prompt the necessary actions to restore optimal efficiency. This would allow for real-time tracking of panel performance, streamline required cleaning, and enable organisations’ prompt response before energy output decreases.

Prescinto (prescinto.ai), founded in 2016 and headquartered in Bangalore, India, works with and services global customers across 14 countries with 16GW under management. Its APM capabilities help organisations simplify operations and maintenance to increase RoI.