Antonio Delgado Rigal, the Director General of AleaSoft, was interviewed by the Spanish Newspaper La Vanguardia, which published the article on Monday 18 thMay within a special edition, called “Monográfico Especial”, focusing on Key Spanish Companies in the Research, Development and Innovation Sector. Below you can find the original version of the interview
A professional of acknowledged prestige
Antonio Delgado Rigal is one of the founders of AleaSoft and his career has always been linked to the world of Research and Teaching. As a former teacher of Statistics at the “Escuela de Ingenieros Industriales” of The Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) he wrote his doctoral thesis on the linking of Classic Statistics with the Neuronal Network and the Artificial Intelligence. In 1999 he founded AleaSoft and from then on he participated in the monitoring of all the projects delivered to the company.
“We help customers optimise their energy management”
AleaSoft is the leading company in Spain in solutions for demand and price forecasting within the energy market. In order to know more about his work, we decided to talk to Antonio Delgado, founder and Director General of the firm.
What are the origins of AleaSoft?
AleaSoft was founded in 1999 as a spin-off of the UPC, and more concretely of Research groups in Artificial Intelligence and Statistics. Since then we have been making progress to offer our clients products and services, which help them make accurate decisions within the energy sector.
We talk about forecasts…
Right! We offer operators, distributors, traders, retailers and generators – mainly in electricity, but also in gas and alternative energy – forecasts that focus on two major aspects: demand and prices. Before the liberalization of the industry that occurred in the 90’s, the market was a pure monopoly. Following the opening process, there was an increase in the number of agents who needed methods to know those variables, such as demand and price, which would allow them to make better decisions in search of greater profitability. That is where AleaSoft can help them.
Which kind of forecasts?
The combination of statistics and technology we use allows us to make forecasts that can be both short and midterm. In addition, this combination gives clients the opportunity to know the price in order to buy in future markets. AleaSoft provides them with technologies and monthly report services for them to perform in a more efficient manner, optimise energy costs and purchase in the best conditions.
What is the profile of your clients?
Basically we work for all the agents of the industry: generators, distributors, retailers, big consumers… and we do that in both Spain and other European countries, such as Greece, Norway, Belgium, UK, Germany and Italy, just to name a few. In short, we help customers know when it is the right time to produce more economically or the best time to trade, but we also indicate to those companies – which base their profitability on the optimization of energy costs – when it’s time to buy. For instance, I’m thinking of cement, iron and steel industries.
What are AleaSoft’s ambitions?
The future depends on the empowerment of the international activity. We have been working in other countries for many years now and our aim is to become more and more efficient and proactive. On the other hand, we will continue to invest in Research and Development in collaboration with UPC and we will intend to end the year with a team of 24 individuals, which will be double what it is today.
Plese find the original article at the following link
