Paris Olympics taps AI cloud solution to measure power consumption

The Paris Olympics International Olympic Committee (IOC) will deploy Energy Expert, a data-driven and cloud-based solution, to help measure and analyse smart meter-gathered power consumption data from across all 35 competition venues of the forthcoming Paris 2024 Olympics Games.

According to computer software company Alibaba Cloud, which owns Energy Expert, migrating intelligence on power consumption and demand of the competition venues to the platform will enable more accurate analysis and better-informed power consumption planning for future Olympic Games.

Alibaba Cloud – based in Hangzhou, China, with operating centres also in Beijing and Silicon Valley – says in a release that the solution will enable the Olympic Committee to consolidate all energy-related data during the Olympics and Paralympics.

Olympian energy consumption

Specifically, data on electricity consumption, power demand contingency, venue capacity, competition-related information and onsite weather conditions, will be consolidated into one dashboard.

Real-time power consumption data at the level of operational spaces on-venue will be gathered from a selection of Paris Olympics competition venues with 100 smart electric meters installed to gather more comprehensive datasets.

These include spaces such as playing fields, broadcast and media working areas, technology operational spaces and specific equipment, food and beverage equipment and a host of other temporary operational areas and equipment.

Datasets collected will vary, taking into account temperature conditions and real-time occupancy of the areas at different times of the day.

The collection of these detailed datasets will enable a more accurate context for the Organising Committees for the Olympic Games (OCOGs) when referring to the energy consumption data from the Paris Games.

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Commenting in a release was llario Corna, chief information and technology officer at the International Olympic Committee:

“Sustainability is one of the three pillars of the Olympic Agenda 2020+5 alongside credibility and youth. With Energy Expert, we can now forecast our energy-related impacts well into the future and accurately measure our progress.

“Electricity consumption is a large contributor to the Olympic Games’ carbon emissions. The data-driven insight produced by Energy Expert will help us learn from each Games edition and apply that knowledge intelligently to make future events even more energy efficient.”

AI cutting carbon

According to Alibaba in a release, Energy Expert is based on integrated cloud-based intelligence and deep-learning based AI models, aiming to provide more accurate analysis to produce venue-specific forecasts and recommendations such as power demand optimisation to minimise power wastage.

Said William Xiong, vice president of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence and general manager for international industry solutions:

“Energy Expert will further prove its value in the most high-profile and challenging arena of all the fast-paced and highly competitive world of international sports. The insights Energy Expert delivers, will form part of the solution to assist the IOC and future Games to be more sustainable.”

Outside the competition venues, Energy Expert’s AI-driven recommendations have been applied to help Alibaba itself to optimise the energy consumption and minimize carbon emission at its temporary exhibition venues during Paris 2024.

For example, at the Alibaba Wonder Avenue in the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, sustainable wooden materials and recyclable steel will be used for the main structure of the venue. The semi-open design of the space, states the company, also contributed to optimising the energy consumption and minimising carbon emissions, primarily by leveraging the natural lighting and ventilation.

Introduced in June 2022, Energy Expert’s first application at a sports event was in 2023 at the first Olympic Esports Week in Singapore.

The solution was trialled to measure and analyse carbon emissions from temporary constructions built to host the Olympic Esports Week, to generate data-driven insights on the choice of materials and equipment used at the event.

A series of metrics – including the impact of energy consumption, waste management, signage and decoration – were assessed, enabling the comparison of the relative impacts of several types of materials and equipment used at the event.

To support OCOGs in undertaking a more comprehensive analysis of Games energy consumption trends, electricity data from previous Games, including the Olympic Games London 2012, Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 and Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, will also be available for analysis within Energy Expert.

The Paris Olympics 2024, taking place from 26 July until 11 August, aims to cut the carbon footprint of the Games in half compared with previous editions. The previous Summer Games emitted an average of 3.5 million tonnes of CO2.