Interview with Antonio Delgado Rigal,\u00a0Artificial Intelligence<\/b> PhD \u00a0and Director General of AleaSoft, whithin the Spanish Newspaper Cinco D\u00edas. The article was published on Tuesday September 8th, 2015.<\/p>\n
„The only chance to survive lies in continuous innovation“<\/p>\n
Nowadays Aleasoft is a leading company specialized in the energy forecasting<\/b> field. With constant innovation as a leitmotiv, after conquering the European market, they are now working to become a global benchmark.<\/p>\n
Tell us about AleaSoft. What does it offer to the market?<\/p>\n
We offer forecasting<\/b> solutions for the energy industry<\/b>. We have been providing our clients with products and services that focus on demand<\/b> and prices<\/b> within the energy forecasting<\/b> field for 16 years now, but we also offer renewable energy forecasts<\/b>, such as wind<\/b> and solar power<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Currently you are leaders in your industry, but you haven\u2019t achieved all this overnight. Which are the origins of the company and how did it evolve?<\/p>\n
Our origins date back to research projects in the university environment. AleaSoft was founded in October 1999 as a spin-off of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). In fact, back then the UPC held a stake in our company.<\/p>\n
Within our first year, Endesa was already our client and a few years after the foundation of our firm, the main electricity<\/b> companies in Spain and in the rest of Europe became our clients.<\/p>\n
What can you tell us about AleaSoft’s investment in R&D&I?<\/p>\n
R&D&I represents the basis of the development of any innovative company. In a globalized world, the only chance to survive lies in continuous innovation.<\/p>\n
At AleaSoft we try to engage professionals and high-level specialists in the technical and scientific field and we use a part of our benefits to continue to investigate and improve the quality of the models and the results of our forecasts<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Which companies of the energy sector<\/b> do you address to?<\/p>\n
We offer energy forecasting<\/b> to transmission system operators (TSOs), generators, traders, retailers, distributors and big consumers in both the electricity<\/b> and gas industries<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Today can we ensure that the use of new tools of Artificial Intelligence<\/b> represents a competitive advantage?<\/p>\n
Undoubtedly! We have developed a methodology that combines the most modern part of Classical Statistics with Artificial Intelligence<\/b> techniques, more specifically, Neural Network<\/b>. This allows high quality results and makes sure that the model automatically captures changes in the time series predictions.<\/p>\n
Could the increase in electricity demand<\/b> have been predicted by using your tools during the heat waves of this summer?<\/p>\n
We can create scenarios for forecasts<\/b> of very hot or cold months. This way, electricity<\/b> companies can adopt measures concerning what they may need in order to generate enough electricity<\/b> or predict very high prices. Furthermore, we have tools that not only allow us to make forecasts<\/b>, but also probabilistic confidence intervals for both demand<\/b> and price energy forecasting<\/b>.<\/p>\n
What is the future of AleaSoft?<\/p>\n
AleaSoft<\/b> plays an important role in the European market and has ambitions to provide products and services globally. We have a plan of growth and quality improvement, because we want to become a world reference within the energy forecasting<\/b> field.<\/p>\n