In 20 years, he has created a company-wide knowledge science program at Duke Energy.
Published 6 hours ago
Shipped Through Duke Energy
By Jessica Wells Lighting Team Editor
Ben Zhang’s teammates are knowledge scientists to help Duke Energy plan for the future. Some help consumers become more energy efficient as electric cars and solar installations increase, and others help charge new technologies and carbon-free energy sources. All his works are linked.
Zhang, vice president of business knowledge analytics at Duke Energy, has noticed that the strength of knowledge has grown since the beginning of his career at the company. After completing his Ph. D. in finance and econometrics in 1999, Zhang hired through Cinergy, which became Duke Energy in 2006. Then, he basically used his knowledge to help commercial and marketing teams buy and sell electric power and fuels.
He developed models that were based on knowledge of the company’s money markets, meteorology, electricity demand and forced plants to show how much electric power the company would produce and, in turn, how much fuel it would want to buy or sell. Today, knowledge is bigger and faster thanks to wise meters, sensors, social media and other virtual sources.
“It’s much more exciting because you can see how the generation is developing,” Zhang said. “Today we have a lot more data, but we also have a lot more computing power, so we use all that data to make decisions to satisfy and interact with customers. “
Zhang studied mathematics and investment control science in China and thought he would be a teacher. He learned that he was more interested in applying his skills to perceive how economies work. He moved to the United States to examine the use of monetary models at Duke University at the age of 30 with the goal of running on Wall Street. With a developing power market, he instead joined Cinergy.
“At first, I started with math, but I think I was drawn to understand how things work in real-life conditions,” Zhang said. “I got to work in the energy industry and I’ve never regretted it. “
Over time, his day-to-day jobs have evolved into creating models for other departments to work more efficiently, and he has now established a company-wide knowledge science program. His team works with other departments to identify demanding situations they can solve with knowledge. and modeling.
“We know we want to upgrade the grid to meet long-term demand,” said Bonnie Titone, senior vice president and chief data officer at Duke Energy. “But how do you know where to invest first, where the desires will be greatest” Knowledge provides those answers. The paintings that Ben’s team makes allow knowledge to be concentrated where our time and resources want to be concentrated. “
One of his team’s first assignments earned the company more than $60 million between 2016 and 2018 by creating an earnings coverage team that uses knowledge science to identify and repair faulty meters and force theft. From there, they built several models, some of which helped are waiting for maintenance wishes at nuclear power plants, present products and consumers, and plan the typhoon reaction to repair the force more successfully after typhoons. the satisfaction and power of strength have also increased.
The team has about 30 projects ranging from reducing methane emissions to operations at solar, wind and battery sites. Duke Energy plans to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and finding cutting-edge tactics to apply the knowledge will help the company achieve that goal.
Batteries, solar, wind, microturbines and electric vehicles, he said, “present a huge opportunity, but at the same time, they can be a huge challenge to our formula if we don’t have cutting-edge tactics to harness the power of data. “
To trust and perceive the most productive tactics for investing in the network, Zhang’s team is working with other IT professionals and within the company to expand a suite of products and programs called iGrid. These teams can expect and analyze electrical demands, energy efficiency, sun adoption and electric cars on rooftops. Using the models, Duke Energy can expect the evolution of electric power demand over the next 10 years to prioritize upgrades so that circuits are not overloaded or under pressure due to fluctuations in electrical power. generated by the sun and wind.
With a generation and knowledge that was not had when Zhang began his career, he is excited about the odds ahead.
“We are just beginning to use synthetic intelligence and device learning to help our business grow and achieve net-zero carbon emissions,” Zhang said. “The opportunity is limitless. “
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Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N. C. , is one of the largest energy portfolios in the United States. Its unregulated unit Duke Energy Renewables.
Duke Energy is transforming the visitor experience, modernizing the electric grid, generating cleaner energy, and expanding herbal fuel infrastructure to create smarter, long-term energy for the other people and communities it serves. retail electricity consumers in six states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. The gas infrastructure and utility unit distributes herbal fuel to more than 1. 6 million consumers in five states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The Duke Energy Renewables unit operates wind and solar generation services in the United States, as well as microgrid projects and power garages.
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