As Brazil experiences rapid economic growth, outpacing many of its North American neighbours, its vast size, large population, and rising energy demands underscore a critical truth: energy consumption is inseparable from national prosperity. For Energisa, one of the country’s top energy companies, the ability to create and distribute cheap, renewable energy is a major factor in Brazil’s success.

Securing Brazil’s Energy Data

Energisa is now building an energy network to power the next leap in the Brazilian economy. This modern, nationwide energy network will take energy from Brazil’s remote hydro plants and solar farms to its booming cities. The Energisa smart grid will deliver energy more effectively and efficiently than ever before. At the same time, Energisa relies on Citrix to securely share thousands of data points from sites nationwide throughout its critical infrastructure.

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Substantial cost saving, reducing 18 data centers down to 2

50
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Faster functionality due to Citrix environment

Improved performance & faster response times

Consistent, Secure Access to Data, From Anywhere

Energisa chose Citrix DaaS to securely provide its more than 20,000 employees with access to all the apps and files they need. No matter where they are, every employee now uses a single, secure entry point to start their workday, whether these are maintenance teams working on a distribution center in Paraíba in the northeast of the country, or customer support teams in Minas Gerais in the southeast. 

The combination of Citrix DaaS, with screen rendering optimization, and hyperconverged hardware, allows Energisa to centralize all access, maintain control over data transmission and authentication, ensuring each user connects securely and safely, even across vast distances. 

This access is critical as the business accelerates the digitization of its processes. Energisa has already digitized much of its procurement and customer support procedures. Projects underway include the real-time analysis of power plant performance, and autonomous operation. 

“Brazil is a very large country, and we distribute energy to over 40% of the national territory. With Citrix, our 20,000+ collaborators and employees can access the apps and data they need, securely and safely, on one unified platform,” explains Leonardo Pinheiro, Energisa's Head of Infrastructure. "It is the portal to the company." 

This consistent, secure access is crucial for a company that relies on high bandwidth data and hundreds of different apps—many of them created in-house, such as the ERP and CRM systems. Energisa's workforce is spread out across the country, with teams working around the clock in remote locations, as well as field teams such as electricians, meter readers, and commercial attendants. 

Thanks to Citrix’s zero trust approach to network access, around 10,000 employees can be online at the same time ensuring every session is authenticated and isolated, protecting sensitive operational data and maintaining compliance with Brazil’s critical infrastructure standards. 

“By ensuring secure access never slows productivity, Citrix helps Energisa deliver consistent service across every region, enabling us to unify national operations,” says Paulo Langenegger, IT Director, Energisa.

 

With Citrix, our 20,000+ collaborators and employees can access the apps and data they need, securely and safely, on one unified platform,”
- Leonardo Pinheiro - Head of Infrastructure, Energisa

Securing the Most Critical Energy Projects

Energisa's most important project is its new Advanced Management Distribution System (ADMS), to be delivered in 27 phases over the next two years, serving 20 million people. The system that manages this grid includes the replacement of SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) and OMS (Outage Management System) systems and the implementation of an advanced integrated EMS (Energy Management System) and DMS (Distribution Management System) modules. 

It is the largest system of its kind but has only a small group of users—about 600 to 700 people. But because it's so critical, it is completely isolated from the internet and can only be accessed from inside the company network. 

This setup makes the ADMS incredibly secure. Gustavo Valfre, Energisa’s Vice President of Technology, says Citrix helps accelerate the value of the ADMS project. By centralizing management and speeding up processing, Citrix has played a major role in helping Energisa scale up its operations. 

“The centralized management, the sync time, the processing speeds…Citrix has been an important factor in helping us achieve scale,” he says. 

Driving Productivity, Reducing Infrastructure, and Saving Millions 

By providing more reliable energy, Energisa is helping to boost Brazil's economy. A big part of its success comes from the efficiency gains it has achieved with Citrix. 

In the case of the ADMS project, the Citrix environment enabled Energisa to reduce and optimize the proposed architecture. Initially, 18 local data centers (two per state) were planned to provide local access, due to the need for low latency and near-immediate system response time. With Citrix HDX’s ability to deliver superior user experience over high latency connections it was possible to centralize with just two data centers without compromising on performance. This reduction resulted in savings in infrastructure, communication links, and headcount, resulting in substantial financial savings. 

Energisa is halfway through the implementation. The focus going forward will be on integrating new datapoints as Brazil’s energy sector continues to change. 

“The smart grid is essential to efficient energy supply, but the cost of the project has to be viable,” says Valfre. “This level of virtualization had never been done in Brazil before. Citrix’s scalability and security have made that leap possible, providing the backbone for Energisa's national smart grid.”

This level of virtualization had never been done in Brazil before. Citrix’s scalability and security have made that leap possible, providing the backbone for Energisa's national smart grid.”
- Gustavo Valfre - Vice President of Technology, Energisa

Creating a Secure Digital Foundation for the Future

Citrix enables Energisa to manage all its apps from a central location, ensuring quick and consistent updates. Unifying these different operations provides Energisa an easy way to integrate new acquisitions, resulting in a faster time to value.

With Citrix, Energisa has created a secure digital foundation for innovation one capable of powering Brazil’s energy future.

“Energisa is known for its innovation,” says Valfre. “Today, we are a company with bytes, electrons, and molecules. Increasingly, we are an energy company, a tech company, and a finance company. Citrix sits at the center of that evolution keeping it all connected, efficient, and secure.”

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