We deployed a dual-purpose self-hosted AI platform over 14 weeks — one cluster for grid operations (SIIV-adjacent, air-gapped) and one for customer operations (connected to the operator's business network). (1) Dual-cluster French sovereign infrastructure. Grid operations cluster: 24 NVIDIA H100 GPUs across 3 nodes, deployed in the operator's primary grid control centre in Ile-de-France. Air-gapped from external networks — connected only to the grid management SCADA network and the operator's OT (operational technology) systems. This cluster processed sensor data, performed demand prediction, and supported real-time grid decisions. ANSSI-aligned security: access restricted to cleared grid operations personnel (security clearance verified by ANSSI), physical security meeting ANSSI Instruction Generale Interministerielle 1300 requirements, and logging/audit capabilities meeting SIIV compliance requirements. Customer operations cluster: 16 NVIDIA H100 GPUs across 2 nodes, deployed in the operator's customer operations data centre (separate facility from grid control).
Connected to the operator's business network (customer CRM, billing systems, contact centre platforms) but segmented from grid SIIV systems. This cluster handled customer inquiries, document processing, and fraud detection. Total GPU capacity: 40 H100 GPUs (3.2TB GPU memory) — sufficient for current workloads with headroom for growth. DR: model weights and configurations replicated to the operator's DR facility — enabling 2-hour recovery for customer operations and 30-minute recovery for grid operations (grid operations having stricter RTO due to safety implications). (2) Grid management AI: real-time French grid intelligence. Demand prediction model: fine-tuned time-series model (Temporal Fusion Transformer architecture) processing: historical demand data (5 years, 15-minute intervals across 14 million connection points), weather data (Meteo France forecasts — temperature, wind, solar irradiance, cloud cover), calendar data (French public holidays, school vacation zones, industrial schedules), and economic indicators (French industrial production index, GDP growth).
Prediction accuracy: mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 1.8 percent for day-ahead demand prediction (versus 3.2 percent for the operator's previous statistical model). Improved accuracy saving EUR 12M annually in energy procurement costs (reduced need for expensive balancing energy). Renewable output prediction: model predicting wind and solar generation output based on Meteo France weather data, satellite imagery, and historical production data. Wind prediction MAPE: 4.2 percent (versus 8.1 percent previous model). Solar prediction MAPE: 5.8 percent (versus 11.4 percent). These improvements reducing balancing costs as the operator integrated more intermittent renewable generation into the grid. Fault detection: LLM-based anomaly detection processing real-time sensor data — identifying patterns indicating: transformer overheating (oil temperature, dissolved gas analysis), cable insulation degradation (partial discharge measurements), circuit breaker mechanism issues (operating time deviations), and vegetation interference (current patterns indicating tree contact with overhead lines). The system processing 2.
8 million data points every 15 seconds, flagging anomalies for grid operator review. False positive rate: 8 percent (versus 34 percent for the previous rule-based system) — dramatically reducing alert fatigue for grid operators. Early fault detection enabling preventive intervention for 142 potential failures in the first 12 months — each prevented failure avoiding an estimated EUR 200K-2M in outage costs and customer impact. (3) Predictive maintenance AI: extending asset life. Asset health scoring: AI integrating data from 14 maintenance systems into unified asset health scores for 280,000 major grid components (transformers, circuit breakers, switchgear, overhead line sections). Each component receiving a health score (0-100) and a predicted remaining useful life estimate — enabling the operator's asset management team to prioritise maintenance and replacement investment.
Health score model trained on 8 years of maintenance history, failure records, and condition monitoring data — learning which sensor patterns preceded failures for each equipment type and manufacturer. Maintenance optimisation: AI-recommended maintenance schedules reducing: unplanned outages by 28 percent (preventive maintenance on AI-flagged equipment before failure), maintenance costs by 18 percent (shifting from time-based to condition-based maintenance — maintaining equipment when needed rather than on fixed schedules), and extending average asset life by 2.4 years (EUR 180M in deferred capital investment over 5 years through better-timed replacement decisions). (4) Customer operations AI: French-native customer service. Customer inquiry automation: Mixtral 8x22B fine-tuned on 45,000 French-language customer interactions — learning the operator's specific customer service protocols, billing terminology, and resolution procedures.
The model handling: billing inquiries (explaining charges, tariff options, payment plans — in natural conversational French), meter reading submissions (processing verbal and written meter readings, validating against expected consumption), service modifications (processing address changes, tariff changes, power level modifications), and Linky smart meter questions (explaining data, consumption monitoring features, and privacy). Automation rate: 62 percent of customer contacts resolved by AI without human escalation (meeting quality standards validated through customer satisfaction surveys). Customer satisfaction for AI-handled contacts: 3.8/5.0 (versus 4.1/5.0 for human-handled — monitored continuously with threshold triggers for review). Revenue fraud detection: AI combining smart meter data analysis, customer behaviour patterns, and network analysis to identify electricity theft. Smart meter anomaly detection (consumption patterns inconsistent with meter readings or network losses), customer pattern analysis (payment behaviour, identity changes, address history indicating potential fraud schemes), and geographic network analysis (areas with high technical losses indicating potential theft clusters).
Fraud detection results: 4,200 confirmed fraud cases identified in first 12 months (versus 1,800 identified by previous manual investigation process — 133 percent increase). Estimated annual fraud prevention: EUR 48M. (5) French language mastery: native-quality processing. The platform's French language capability was a core differentiator: customer service AI communicating in natural, colloquial French (not translated-sounding outputs), understanding French energy terminology without confusion, and processing French regulatory documents (CRE decisions, CNIL correspondence, prefectoral environmental authorisations) with full comprehension of French administrative language. Fine-tuning data: 45,000 customer interactions, 8,000 internal technical documents, 2,400 regulatory filings — all in French, annotated by French-speaking domain experts. French language quality: evaluated by the operator's communications department — rated as "indistinguishable from human communication" for standard customer interactions.