Bayernwerk Netz, E.ON Empowers Field Workers

Overview

Bayernwerk Netz, a German grid operator and E.ON subsidiary supplying energy to roughly seven million people, partnered with E.ON Digital Technology to build a generative AI field operations assistant on the Databricks Data + AI Platform. Using Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Agent Bricks and AI Search for retrieval-augmented generation, the assistant compiles source-linked briefs on safety procedures, technical specs and incident notes for field workers, piloted with 60 users and planned to scale to roughly 4,000 employees to support the company's Vision Zero safety goal.

The challenge

Fragmented technical specs, HSE policies and Standard Operating Procedures lived across various systems (SharePoint, MAQSIMA), causing users to spend excessive time searching for documents or verifying versions, creating bottlenecks that drained operational costs and increased operational risk from outdated or incomplete information.

The solution

Bayernwerk partnered with E.ON Digital Technology to build a generative AI field operations assistant on the Databricks Data + AI Platform. Delta Lake stores structured and unstructured data ingested from SharePoint and MAQSIMA; Databricks Pipelines extract, clean and normalize documents for a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipeline; Unity Catalog enforces source-level, permission-aware access; Databricks AI Search retrieves relevant grounded content; and Agent Bricks AI Gateway routes queries to lightweight or advanced LLMs depending on task complexity, enabling the assistant to autonomously break down complex queries and gather specific inputs.

Reported business value

The assistant reduces safety risks, minimizes costly downtime and cuts time employees spend searching for information. Piloted with 60 users, it is planned to scale to roughly 4,000 employees (with an initial rollout to around 600 field workers), aiming for a massive saving of working hours every year and supporting the company's Vision Zero safety goal.