Enhanced Data and BI Capabilities Drive Major Cost Savings for Tier 1 Consultancy
Our customer is a global leader in energy intelligence and analytics. Its data scientists and analysts help organisations across the energy value chain make informed decisions by turning data into actionable insights. With comprehensive market intelligence models, our customer helps energy companies identify opportunities, manage risks, and improve performance.
To enhance its capabilities, the organisation partnered with Colibri to connect the tooling to a Central Data Hub. This hub has unlocked advanced features, standardised business intelligence, and enabled scalable modelling for better scenario evaluations.
Services:
- Data Hub
Technologies:
- Kubernetes
- Postgress from RDS
- Aurora Serverless v2
- Airflow and Managed Airflow
- S3
- Elastic File System (EFS)
- Databricks
Our goal
Colibri was tasked with creating a geospatial analysis tool that makes it easy to link renewable energy generation with existing infrastructure and geographical locations worldwide. In just a few clicks, the tool helps users find the best locations for renewable energy projects without the need for technical knowledge.
The platform is capable of running models across hundreds of locations and scenarios. It can also handle data from over 75 internal and external sources and considers more than 100 user parameters in its searches.
Customer challenges
Generating these information-rich reports was once a manual process, with each report taking days to run and up to two weeks to turn into actionable insights. The organisation wanted to replace labour-intensive manual analysis with an automated tool that could handle large amounts of data and deliver insights quickly.
The organisation also wanted to improve the accuracy of its reports by including more sources of historical infrastructure and geographical data. This would lead to more informed decisions and better return on investment for its clients.
The solution
The tool combines geospatial data on resource quality, land use, and infrastructure with current renewable energy cost outlooks. It offers global coverage and provides detailed insights into energy costs and capacity factors, down to the hourly level.
The tool is designed to be flexible, accommodating different renewable technologies and GIS layers. With interactive dashboards, heatmaps, and business intelligence (BI) tools, users can easily analyse data and make informed decisions.
The technical setup for the tool used several AWS services to ensure scalability and efficiency. Kubernetes managed the main application pods, while Managed Airflow handled workflow automation. Data was stored using PostgreSQL from RDS and Aurora Serverless V2, along with S3 buckets and Elastic File System (EFS) for flexible storage.
API Gateway manages API functions, and IAM roles handle user verification and access. Colibri also integrated the solution with Okta for single sign-on and Splunk for logging and monitoring. These services allow the tool to process large volumes of data and quickly deliver reliable insights to users.
Project delivery
Colibri began the project by engaging with one of the organisation's analysts, who acted as the product owner and outlined the business needs and existing setup. Colibri then teamed up with a technical product owner within the organisation to define the solution in detail.
Colibri's experts followed Agile processes, including two-week sprints, daily check-ins with the business's development team, and weekly updates with stakeholders.
The core geospatial analysis and display functionality was built within 10 weeks with additional features added as required by the customer using an Agile approach. This iterative process ensured the final product met the organisation's requirements within a 6-month timeframe.
Customer benefits
The tool has reduced report production time by 90-95% and cut both operational and execution costs by the same margin. Overall, the organisation is saving up to $14,000 a month with Colibri's solution and can support multiple clients simultaneously at a fraction of the cost.