Learning From Paris: How Data-Driven Approaches Can Significantly Cut Down on Power Usage for Upcoming Olympics

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Data currently being collected at all competition venues at the Paris Olympics will provide insights that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) hopes can help reduce the carbon footprint of future Games.

The IOC is tracking data on power consumption across 35 competition venues, using a combination of smart and conventional meters installed across these sites. The datasets then will be collected and analyzed via Alibaba Cloud’s sustainability platform, Energy Expert, with the insights generated used to identify ways the IOC can improve power efficiencies at future games venues.

The data will include real-time energy consumption at selected competition venues, where 100 smart electric meters have been installed to provide “more comprehensive datasets”, Alibaba said. These include sites such as broadcast and media working areas, food and beverage equipment, and playing fields, the Chinese cloud vendor added.

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The real-time data will be analyzed alongside historical data – measured by the conventional meters – which will be provided by the IOC. The data collected also takes into consideration environmental conditions, such as weather and surges in power consumption, Alibaba said.

The datasets should collectively offer a more accurate indication of energy consumption at the Games, Alibaba said. It added that the IOC can consolidate all energy-related data from the Paris Olympics and Paralympics into a single dashboard, including consumption, power demand contingency, venue capacity, onsite weather conditions, and competition-related information.

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Data on energy consumption at previous games, including the London Olympics 2012, Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, and Tokyo Olympics 2020, will also be available for analysis via Energy Expert, Alibaba said.

Alibaba launched Energy Expert in June 2022 and deployed it at its first sporting event in 2023 at the Olympic Esports week in Singapore , where it measured and analyzed carbon emissions from temporary constructions built on-site. The data insights were used to compare materials and equipment used at the event, Alibaba said.

“Electricity consumption is a large contributor to the Olympic Games’ carbon emissions,” llario Corna, IOC’s chief information and technology officer, said in a statement. “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.”

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The IOC has committed to cut its direct and indirect carbon emissions by 30% this year and another 50% by 2030, in line with The Paris Agreement.

A third-party vendor engaged by the IOC installed the 100 smart meters at this year’s Olympic Games, alongside the local utility provider, Alibaba told ZDNET.

ZDNET also asked if the IOC had provided sustainability guidelines for Alibaba’s cloud data centers, which are used to support the service, as part of its third-party supplier agreement. Alibaba did not comment directly on whether IOC had laid out these guidelines, but it noted that all data collected via the smart meters will be stored at its cloud data centers located in Frankfurt.

One of these three German facilities uses 100% green electricity to power its operations, Alibaba said, adding that it also monitors and optimizes the data center’s daily carbon footprint to ensure a more sustainable operation.

The Chinese cloud vendor has committed to powering all its data centers with 100% clean energy by 2030.

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It is also providing the backbone infrastructure for Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) at this year’s Games, which features the launch of OBS Cloud 3.0, according to Alibaba.

The platform will support several critical functions and encompasses OBS Live Cloud, which will facilitate the remote distribution to media rights-holders. It marks the first time this is delivered via cloud infrastructure rather than by satellites, which have been used since the Tokyo Olympics in 1964.

For Paris Olympics 2024, two-thirds of booked remote services encompassing 54 broadcasters are delivered via OBS Live Cloud, Alibaba said, including two Ultra High-Definition (UHD) broadcasters. The cloud platform is set to transmit 379 video feeds, including 11 UHD and 368 HD, as well as 100 audio feeds.

OBS’ content delivery platform, Content+, which is hosted on Alibaba Cloud, is expected to deliver an estimated 11,000 hours of content this year, up 15% from Tokyo 2020. This content will include live sessions, athlete interviews, and social media streams.

Alibaba added that Content+ offers features that allow media rights-holders to generate their own highlights from anywhere and push content that can be downloaded in three different resolutions, including for digital and social media consumption.