Dr. Christian Jacobsson will lead Fortum’s newly established Data Science & Analytics unit

Dr. Christian Jacobsson will lead Fortum’s newly established Data Science & Analytics unit

(PRESS RELEASE) ESPOO, 12-Feb-2020 — /EuropaWire/ — Leading clean-energy company Fortum has just announced it is going to establish new Data Science & Analytics unit as part of the Business Technology function that is responsible for the IT, innovation and digitalisation within its structure. As digital technologies are rapidly transforming the energy sector, Fortum is increasingly seeing them as central part of its ability to operate efficiently, compete profitably, and help decarbonise society simultaneously. The newly established unit will grow Fortum’s digital competences with a new, world-class analytics and machine learning team.

Dr. Christian Jacobsson will lead the company’s newly established Data Science & Analytics unit as he will be put in charge to strengthen Fortum’s projects in digitalisation and support the company in reaching its vision of future energy trading and asset optimisation. Dr. Jacobsson will be based in Zürich, Switzerland and will report directly to SVP Arun Aggarwal, Business Technology at Fortum. He will join Fortum on 1 March 2020 coming from Alpiq Digital where he worked as Head of Energy Artificial Intelligence. Prior to that Christian was also the Head of Analysis for advanced energy trading GmbH, and Head of Software Development, Pricing, at E.ON Energy Trading.

Commenting on the new digitalisation unit, Arun Aggarwal, SVP Business Technology at Fortum, said:

“We want to be a digital winner in the ongoing transformation of the energy sector, and for that we need a skillset for digitalisation, optimisation and advanced analytics capabilities. Christian’s appointment helps us to increase speed, quality and the likeliness for success in our digitalisation projects.”

Fortum expects its operating environment on the physical power markets to change considerably within the next few years as the company moves closer to real-time trading on several markets. Simultaneously, both the number of transactions and markets will grow significantly. Fortum sees its new Data Science & Analytics unit as the answer to the changing business environment that will turn Fortum into a player which sets the standards in Nordic energy trading.

Commenting on the future for digital energy trading and asset optimisation, Simon-Erik Ollus, VP Trading & Asset Optimisation at Fortum, said:

“We have a vision of the future for digital energy trading and asset optimisation. Christian Jacobsson has been working with digital applications in this area, developing a number of digitalisation use cases for several years, and he will give us an opportunity to reinforce our capabilities in optimisation, trading and advanced analytics from a new point of view.”

Media contacts:

Arun Aggarwal
SVP Business Technology

Simon-Erik Ollus
VP Trading & Asset Optimisation

News Desk for interviews (9.00-17.00 GMT+2):
Fortum News Desk
newsdesk@fortum.com
+35840 198 2843

SOURCE: Fortum