Now more than ever, our world is powered by energy and utility companies. They keep the lights one, deliver an uninterrupted flow of clean water, and allow us to connect to jobs, services, families and friends. In the face of so many other disruptions, these essentials continue to flow so seamlessly that it often feels like magic. But for those that must ensure consistent operations and optimal performance to deliver them, it can feel like anything but.
Under normal circumstances, it is a constant and delicate balance to maintain for essential infrastructures like power stations, water or gas lines. When faced with extraordinary circumstances, the pressure on these companies can be staggering: a surge in demand, employees who need increased safety protocols, and unwavering vigilance against increased cyberattacks. The new watchword is “resiliency.” and for today’s E&U organizations, it starts with insights.
A systematic approach to keeping the lights on
To stay operational, companies often use insights from their asset performance and history. But to build greater operational resilience , we now see customers using those connected-asset insights plus information from other untapped data sources, such as weather. This more robust data set is critical to maintain equipment, avoid downtime, control costs, and improve reliability. For example, predictive maintenance alone can reduce costs by 15-20 percent, improve asset availability by 20 percent, and extend the lives of machines by years.1
We also see many of our E&U customers use a three- pronged approach to create a more flexible and responsive operation:
- Maintain: predictive maintenance of assets and management of vegetation to avoid downtime and disruptions
- Prepare: utilize analytics to monitor and predict potential issues before they happen, such as impending weather issues
- Restore: quickly, effectively and safely resolve issues due to outages or main breaks
Consider vegetation management. Power lines and trees do not mix well, but it is often difficult to know where trees are and how soon their overgrowth will pose an issue for the power lines nearby. However, with predictive technologies, power utility companies can map where vegetation lies, evaluate risk, and contract out resources to maintainlines as needed as part of their preventive maintenance efforts. Or if an impending storm is coming to the area, they can prepareby looking across the impacted territory, identifying the highest risk areas, and focusing outage prevention in those specific areas. This puts crews in the right place at the right time for both prevention and quick restoration.
Many of our customers are putting additional focus on a fourth prong: plan, as these unprecedented disruptions highlight the need for robust disaster planning. For example, should a severe storm arise, a utility company could implement their enhanced contingency plan that leverages predictive weather data and enhanced mobility tools. This plan would take into account needed repair time while also keeping workers safer, whether it’s a lone worker or a field crew that is right-sized to adhere to new social distancing norms. Or a company might activate a plan to isolate critical staff on-site, protecting both workers and critical operations.
Put data to work
This is what it means to truly put data to work. Data by itself feels overwhelming. Insights generated by data give us critical information. But it is only when those insights are mapped back into the operational workflows and translated to work orders and crew adjustments that they truly help contain costs, improve the customer experience, and reduce safety incidents. Utilities have never had insights like this before, nor have they ever needed them more, either. Yet it’s how they are driving a smarter business.
Hear industry leader, Terry Saunders, discuss how to drive innovation in energy and utilities. It’s all about reducing operating costs, attracting and retaining talent, improving customer engagement and increasing worker safety. And learn more about IBM services for intelligent connected operations and solutions for asset performance management and vegetation management.
Ensure efficient and reliable equipment operations
Insights from connected assets and untapped data sources are critical to understanding the preventive, predictive, and prescriptive actions needed to maintain equipment, optimize performance, and avoid downtime. Fortunately, IBM possesses the essential combination of software, services, and industry expertise to build intelligent workflows that respond to rapidly changing conditions. Wherever you are in your digital journey, we will partner with you to deliver the AI-powered insights and consultative services required for more resilient business operations. We invite you to speak with one of our industry experts.
1 “IDC Manufacturing Insights: Transforming Asset Management at the Edge,” Reid Paquin, IDC, April 2019, https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=US44976019
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