The COP Collection
Getting CERius about managing emissions with AI-driven software in Cote d'Ivoire
How do you harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI), digital twin technology, and machine learning (ML) to help energy companies meet their emissions reduction goals? That was the question that a team at GE Vernova set out to answer. The result is CERius™, a software solution being deployed at Azito, the largest gas power plant in Côte d'Ivoire.
Digitalization and climate action
The role that digitalization has to play in reducing GHG emissions is in the spotlight at COP29, which will see the launch of the COP29 Green Digital Action Declaration.¹ This recognizes the huge potential that digital technologies have to play in increasing energy efficiency. The Declaration will commit endorsers to pursuing digital tools for climate action, including enhancing data-driven decision-making. Digitalization is an approach that is being pursued at Azito, a power plant in Côte d'Ivoire. The plant is a significant part of the West African country’s energy infrastructure, generating approximately 30% of the country’s electricity.
Azito power plant, Côte d'Ivoire
In Côte d'Ivoire, the particular challenge of the energy transition is how to increase the supply of reliable electricity to support the growing population and economy, while also decarbonizing and reducing emissions. While 95% of the urban population had access to electricity in 2022, less than half of the rural population did, with 70.4% of the total population having access.² The country has committed to a 30.41% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030.³ Although Côte d'Ivoire’s per capita carbon emissions are low compared to the global average, and emissions from fuel combustion contribute only 0.05% of the global total,⁴ the energy transition requires every producer to do what they can as soon as they can to hit targets.
70.4%
of the total Côte d'Ivoire population has access to electricity
Taking the next step in reducing emissions
The Azito power plant, owned by GlobalEq and IPS (West Africa), had already made significant strides toward improving its efficiency and reducing its emissions by converting to combined-cycle gas turbines. However, the challenge was how to continue reducing emissions long-term. Enter CERius™, GE Vernova’s AI-powered emissions data management software.
Designing a customer-centric solution
“We designed CERius to meet the evolving need for managing emissions data,” says Veerappan Mutaiah, the lead software engineer behind the project, who is giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the software and how it was developed. “We conducted interviews with more than 100 customers to identify pain points and, through rapid iteration, we developed a product that provides intelligent insights essential to emissions data management.”
“We conducted interviews with more than 100 customers to identify pain points and, through rapid iteration, we developed a product that provides intelligent insights essential to emissions data management.”
Veerappan Mutaiah,
Director of Engineering, GE Vernova’s Software Business
CERius is built not just to track emissions, but to also provide actionable intelligence to help organizations decarbonize. With AI and digital twin⁵ technology at its core, the software brings automation and validation to how emissions data is collected, reported, and monitored. Furthermore, the software provides companies the ability to measure the impact of current decarbonization programs and unlock meaningful investment strategies.
GE Vernova's carbon emissions management software, CERius™
“Azito has been looking at how it can monitor and understand its current baseline so it can manage its emissions while increasing its electricity supply. CERius offers the insights into how to achieve this balance,” Veerappan explains. CERius extends the range of offerings that GE Vernova customers can benefit from to include emissions monitoring, measurement and reporting. For example, GE Vernova already has a multi-year agreement to supply gas turbine technology and services for Azito’s phase IV power plant in the Yopougon district of Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire. Azito also uses the company’s Asset Performance Management (APM) software, which helps reduce risk, improve efficiency, and increase availability of assets. CERius brings together emissions data from multiple sources - sensors, historians, control systems, continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMs), and even equipment not directly connected to a centralized system. This data is processed and validated through AI and the use of digital twin technology, which identifies and resolves issues in source data. Azito is seeing early results, resulting in up to 99% data completeness.⁶ The data is also auditable and traceable to its source.
Providing high quality data and actionable insights
“The regulatory demands around emissions management have ratcheted up over the last twenty or so years,” notes Veerappan. “Today, the standards have evolved significantly. Companies are facing increasing pressure from stakeholders, including sustainable investors, to meet these expectations. CERius addresses this by enabling organizations to first report emissions, establish a baseline, and then set goals and measure in real time for future reductions.”
“The software is continuously tracking and becoming a model of how the plant operates. It correlates asset performance to emissions, which helps in making informed business decisions.”
Veerappan Mutaiah,
Director of Engineering, GE Vernova’s Software Business
The software’s AI and ML capabilities are essential in this context. “We use AI to identify data quality issues and predict emissions, which gives us a lot of confidence in the system,” Veerappan says. “CERius can understand data paths under different conditions for the plant. The software is continuously tracking and becoming a model of how the plant operates. It correlates asset performance to emissions, which helps in making informed business decisions.” CERius uses historical operational emissions data to predict through ML the expected GHG emissions not only for carbon dioxide, but also for methane and nitrous oxide, at similar operating modes and settings, and can therefore spot variations that occur. Day-to-day, the operations and maintenance teams get actionable insights to better manage the performance of equipment. Data visualisations make it easy for ESG analysts in the company to access the information they need – and can free up time from the task of manual data collection for reporting to look at the bigger picture.
Guiding near-term and long-term decision-making
CERius provides not only a record of historical data and real-time data in the present, but can help in future planning by offering powerful scenario analysis tools. As Veerappan explains, “There are multiple ways to plan and invest for decarbonization. CERius helps provide credible pathways for investment, enables comparison between scenarios, and aids planning for near and long-term investment.” Gionata Visconti, Chief Operating Officer of GlobalEq, has seen on-the-ground benefits of using CERius. “CERius makes it easier for our team to monitor and report our emissions, giving them access to timely and accurate information, collated from multiple sources. At the same time, it enables us to look ahead, and make important planning decisions on how we can reduce and abate our emissions with better and more insightful data. All of this helps us to play our part in reducing emissions as we continue to supply reliable electricity to Côte d'Ivoire and meet growing demand.”
“it enables us to look ahead, and make important planning decisions on how we can reduce and abate our emissions with better and more insightful data.”
Gionata Visconti,
Chief Operating Officer, GlobalEq
It will take all of us
In a world where data accuracy is paramount, AI-driven tools like CERius are leading the charge toward a more sustainable energy future. By providing real-time data validation, advanced emissions tracking and reporting, and scenario-based planning, CERius empowers power plants like Azito to navigate the complex challenges of decarbonization - and the pathway to a lower carbon, electrified future - with more confidence. We finish by asking Veerappan what’s one thing he wishes people knew about the energy transition. “It’s not the job of one industry. It’s a world challenge. It needs to involve local communities, governments, NGOs. All of us. We’re making the transition for the planet and for future generations.”
“The energy transition needs to involve local communities, governments, NGOs. All of us. We're making the transition for the planet and for future generations.”
Veerappan Mutaiah,
Director of Engineering, GE's Software Business
In conclusion
Digital technologies have a key role to play in climate action, including providing tools to increase energy efficiency
CERius is a software which leverages AI, ML and digital twin technology to provide accurate and auditable emissions data
It can also help with future planning and investment decisions through its scenario analysis tools
Teams gain actionable insights, from on-the-ground operations and maintenance teams through to company ESG analysts
¹ https://cop29.az/en/pages/cop29-presidency-action-agenda-letter ² https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS?locations=CI ³ As set out in the Côte d'Ivoire's Nationally Determined Contribution. ⁴ https://www.iea.org/countries/Côte-divoire ⁵ A digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical asset, process, or system. ⁶ Results may very based on configuration, operating environment and implementation. ⁷ This article contains forward-looking statements, which provide current expectations based on certain assumptions. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation to update these statements.
