Ventyx Cloud Risk Analytics Solution to Help Energy Companies Improve Profitability and Mitigate Risks

ATLANTA, Sept. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Ventyx, an ABB company, today announced in conjunction with Wipro Ltd. and Microsoft the introduction of a new cloud-based solution that will enable electric utilities and power generation companies to improve profitability by enhancing mitigation of market risks, while avoiding costly investments in IT infrastructure and ongoing maintenance.

For years, power generation companies and utilities have used Monte Carlo simulations to model revenues/profit and analyze hedging strategies related to their physical assets (e.g., power stations) in order to make key financial decisions. Such complex simulations consume vast computing resources, and companies typically need to wait many hours for the results of critical analyses. Accelerating the process to deliver simulation data within a few hours would enable energy market participants to better mitigate risk and seize trading opportunities. 

"We are moving risk analysis from overnight, to over lunch," said Tom O'Meara, General Manager for Ventyx Energy Portfolio Management. "In a secure, high-performance environment, our solution enables customers to analyze more variables, in more iterations, run more frequently, which ultimately delivers a better understanding of market position and related risks."

With this new solution, Ventyx will move its Planning & Risk solution onto the Windows Azure cloud platform, providing generation companies with a high-end computing environment to analyze their asset portfolio more frequently. Modeling asset portfolios in this way helps customers to improve fuel budgeting, resource planning, transaction evaluation and risk management.

"Managing generation portfolios has never been more complicated than it is today," said Dr. Gary M. Vasey, partner and managing director for commodity technology market advisory firm ComTech Advisory. "Yet, committing the computational resources required to optimize risk analytics is an expensive and time-consuming proposition. Off-loading these complex simulations to 'the cloud' provides numerous potential advantages – allowing companies to perform more frequent analyses without a requisite increase in IT infrastructure spending."

Wipro will deliver the Ventyx risk analytics application as a managed service on Windows Azure, allowing Ventyx customers to pay for the advanced infrastructure on a pay-per-use basis. By taking advantage of the cloud, customers will quickly realize returns through timely and accurate analysis and by lower overall IT costs. Additionally, information is encrypted for off-site processing, an environment as secure as on-site environments.

Subbi Lakshmanan, Domain Practice Head, ENU, Wipro, said, "We believe this could be a 'game changing' solution, bringing together the best-of-breed business tool from Ventyx and the latest technology platform from Microsoft. This offers business users the flexibility to perform extensive risk analysis at short notice without heavy IT infrastructure investment upfront and pay only for what they use. The solution can be extended to other computation-intensive business scenarios like end-of-day processing, generation optimization & planning and asset valuation studies; hence, a promising first step."

Hosted on the Windows Azure cloud platform, this solution provides a cost-effective option for generation owners to perform detailed hourly deterministic or stochastic  simulations for short- and long-term analysis, risk assessment and modeling of a portfolio of assets, whether existing or potential, including physical or financial contractual positions, generation, customer loads and fuels, for improved budgeting, planning and reporting. 

"Analysts indicate that cloud solutions for utilities will experience dynamic growth in the coming years, and the Microsoft Azure cloud platform provides companies with high levels of performance, scalability and resilience," said Jon C. Arnold, managing director, Worldwide Power and Utilities Industry, Microsoft. "Wipro's choice of Microsoft is an excellent example of how we collaborate with innovation leaders to help customers gain the benefits of cloud services."

The cloud-based risk management solution is available immediately. For more information, contact your Ventyx sales representative or email [email protected].

About Ventyx
Ventyx, an ABB company, is a world-leading supplier of Industrial Enterprise Software for essential industries such as energy, mining and public infrastructure. Ventyx solutions bridge the gap between information technologies (IT) and operational technologies (OT), enabling clients to make faster, better-informed decisions in both daily operations and long-term planning strategies. Some of the world's largest organizations rely on Ventyx solutions to minimize risk, enhance operational and financial performance and execute the right strategies for the future. For more details, see www.ventyx.com.

About Wipro
Wipro Ltd. (NYSE: WIT) is a leading Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing company that delivers solutions to enable its clients do business better. Wipro delivers winning business outcomes through its deep industry experience and a 360 degree view of "Business through Technology" – helping clients create successful and adaptive businesses. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, a practitioner's approach to delivering innovation and an organization wide commitment to sustainability, Wipro has over 140,000 employees and clients across 54 countries. For more information, please visit www.wipro.com.  

SOURCE Ventyx