Colombia. At one time, utilities ensured network safety and reliability with limited information on assets from substations, RTUs, relays, transformers, meters and lines. The operation of the network was based on an overdesigned system that allowed a large margin of error and strong redundancy.
Current capex limits and increasing pressure on operating costs (opex) cause utilities to turn to IT to better manage their assets. The result is that the industry is experiencing a radical change in the management and operation of the same, which wants to better maintain the assets and even prolong their life expectancy, since the network faces different problems that are booming.
Maximize investments in utilities
The ultimate goal is to maximize investments by exploiting physical assets, through optimized operations and dynamically improved configurations. That requires information. However, utilities often strive to collect data and process it in a way that involves a wide variety of assets that support operations from various areas such as engineering, accounting, and maintenance, among other business processes.
With asset management functionality commonly extended across various software applications, network owners must manage a tedious process across multiple databases. This often leads to a decoupling of operation and planning, and prevents strategic planners from capturing holistic insight and anticipating network weaknesses.
That is why from an operations management perspective, asset data must be integrated into systems and applications so that operators can handle a single version that provides the true picture that is being had.
Leveraging IoT
So how can these types of companies overcome these challenges? Part of the answer lies in the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart tools.
To make an analysis you have to take a look at the past and how for years traditional IT information was managed. Think customer databases, billing systems, call center software, and personnel management tools. Now think of Operations Technology (OT) where measurement data, transformer and switch states, and relay positions among others were located, which were coordinated in monitoring and data acquisition (SCADA) software systems. There IT and OT existed as distinct domains managed by different corporate resources, usually by the IT department on the one hand and the Operations department on the other hand. But this paradigm is undergoing a radical change since OT systems are connected through recognizable IP (Internet Protocol) addresses to the same networks as IT resources.
At this point the IT-OT convergence appears
The convergence of IT and OT give a fundamental role to the Internet of Things and the proliferation of big data for asset management in the digital age. This free and structured data management allows utilities to control energy flows with a real-time understanding of the state of their assets. This can help operators optimize their systems based on the actual capabilities of their equipment.
Maintenance practices are another area where IoT offers great opportunities for cost savings. While routine maintenance schedules are an important part of the asset management process, they represent a huge waste of time for network administrators. As updated hardware and software applications are integrated into the network, equipment performance in the field is measured remotely through a central control panel. The maintenance of the substation can be adapted to the actual operating conditions that the interior of the equipment must withstand.
Predictable asset monitoring
These connected technologies also enable new predictive models, where monitoring offers weakened assets to be proactively discovered and replaced, saving hundreds of hours and thousands of euros or dollars a year by avoiding failures and not requiring unplanned (therefore expensive) emergency services.
It is clear that as the era of the smart grid progresses, the integration of IT and OT, and the Internet of Things, will be critical to the development of efficient asset management programs.
With information from Schneider Electric.
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