Innovative Condition Monitoring at EnBW with Artificial Intelligence
The cloud-based application developed by EnBW, called Asset RADAR, utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to detect data anomalies at an early stage in wind, hydro, and photovoltaic plants. The goal: to prevent failures and consequential damages, and to reduce maintenance costs.
With its cloud-based application called Asset RADAR, EnBW is setting new standards in intelligent plant monitoring. The system uses advanced artificial intelligence to detect anomalies in wind, hydro, and solar power plants at an early stage. The goal is to minimize downtime, prevent consequential damages, and reduce maintenance costs.
In the various facilities, numerous sensors continuously record operating data – such as temperature, rotational speed, and energy yield. This information is centrally collected in the cloud and analyzed using AI. As soon as irregularities occur, the system reports them immediately, enabling experts to initiate targeted repairs or maintenance in a timely manner.
The interdisciplinary EnBW team currently monitors around 500 power plants with Asset RADAR, employing more than 23,000 AI models that constantly evaluate millions of data points. Compared to traditional monitoring solutions, which often detect defects only at specific components, Asset RADAR offers an effective early warning system for the entire system. An important added value: the system enables direct comparison between plants, making it possible to quickly identify particularly error-prone units.
The development of the platform began in 2013 and has been continuously optimized ever since. Within the “Condition Monitoring 4.0” project, which is being promoted with the support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, the team aims to achieve largely automated diagnosis by the end of 2025. While the AI currently primarily detects anomalies, in the future diagnoses will also run automatically, so that experts can focus specifically on complex problems.
As the amount of data per plant continues to rise, automation is becoming increasingly important—manual evaluations will soon no longer be practical. Even today, Asset RADAR is considered a benchmark by both market participants and SaaS providers, setting new standards for early fault detection in the renewable energy sector.
Author: Dr. Meik Schlechtingen, Team Lead Condition Monitoring & Structural Health Monitoring, Renewable Energy Operations, EnBW
