M A K I N G T H E C A S E F O R

A D V A N C E D D A T A A N A L Y T I C S

Plus, 3 Steps to Evaluating Solutions

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ASSET MANAGEMENT TIDES ARE CHANGING

Infrastructures serving vital human needs are growing in size and complexity, making the labor-intensive management processes still in use at many power plants, water processing plants and other utilities increasingly ineffective and risky. Moreover, regulatory changes have led these organizations to manage multiple sites and operations simultaneously, compounding operational complexity and risk.

These trends, along with the global economic downturn of the past half-decade or so, have led companies to increasingly view asset management as table stakes for survival. Now, more than ever, a fundamental belief is fueling management strategies and corporate cultures across the globe: Smarter asset management will drive more effective performance from equipment.

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Challenges Ahead

estimated connecteddevices will be managed byutility companies by 2020.1

ASSET OVERLOAD

Some companies just seem to have more assets than they can manage. As a result, data from hundreds or even thousands of devices, sensors and systems frequently languish in operational historian systems, usually because companies either lack the means of capturing this data or the capabilities to make effective use of it. Ironically,this data often holds the key to early detection of problems, whether due to asset age, defects or situation-specific factors.

Unfortunately, a couple of fundamental challenges are preventing many utilities from enhancing their asset management processes.

REACTIVE, LABOR-INTENSIVE MONITORING

The sheer volume of assets saddles teams with the near-insurmountable task of processing potentially trillions of unique data points, oftentimes manually using outdated tools in aging infrastructures. Because of this, plant managers and operations engineers often become aware of problems only after failures occur, too late to head off the debilitating costs of productivity loss, downtime, andreputation damage, as well as to avoid crisis-modetroubleshooting and unplanned outages.

1.53 billionof utility companies admit to

having "data challenges".2

Over 80%

of utility companiesreport struggling withaging infrastructure.3

55%

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SMARTER SOLUTIONS ARECOMING ALREADY HERE

The good news is that today’s data-rich plant environments create exciting opportunities to shift infrastructure monitoring and diagnostic processes in a more proactive direction. How? By processing data using tools like advanced analytics, advanced pattern recognition (APR), machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). By enabling early-warning capabilities, faster root cause analyses and the near-real-time quantification of issue risk and criticality, these technologies can provide essential value to organizations under pressure from both regulatory authorities and shareholders to step up productivity, efficiency and environmental stewardship, while simultaneously reducing operating costs.

HOW MACHINE LEARNING AND AIARE BENEFITTING UTILITIES:

• Extending the useful lives of plant and distribution assets• Reducing system failures and derating events• Reducing incidents requiring unplanned outages• Improving productivity for monitoring and

diagnostics teams• Shrinking overhead costs and man-hour

requirements

The power and utility industries have reached a tipping point at which the risk of delaying advanced data-driven asset management solutions now outweighs the risk of perpetuating obsolete labor-intensive spreadsheet- and email-based manual processes.

Asset-related analytics efforts increased by 55% in 2017 alone.4

Global utility analytics spending is expected

to exceed $3B bythe year 2025.5

Utilities selected "improved data-driven

decision making" as one of the top five

demonstrated benefits of ML and AI technologies.6

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What to Consider Before Takingthe Advanced Analytics Leap

IDENTIFY YOUR NEEDS

Some advanced analytics solutions may involve software alone, while others incorporate integrated services. The best way to evaluate potential solutions is to hone in on your operation’s needs and desired outcomes. This may require a substantial audit of existing monitoring and diagnostics processes to identify where your current setup is underperforming.

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FRAME YOUR CHALLENGES

When evaluating asset management and advanced analytics solutions, remember that your needs will differ from everyone else’s. You’ll want to frame your solution by assessing it in the context of your organization. To do this, it can be helpful to consider two vital factors: your people and your processes.

First, your people. Will the solution complement your team’s skills and aspirations? Or will it simply take over the tasks your team enjoys today, and thus make them feel underappreciated? Shore up your success by getting honest feedback and buy-in from your team before you pitch the solution to management.

Next, assess your existing processes. Which ones work well today, and which need improvement? What are the best processes to automate? Which are best left alone? It’s just as important to avoid messing up what isn’t broken as it is to change the processes that just aren’t delivering.

Last, look at the tools you have in place. Do they provide you a real-time look at asset health? Are you able to look across time to see where the anomalies occurred? Are your processes allowing you to be proactive in terms of maintenance and issues resolution or are you still reactive?

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PRIORITIZE CRITICAL FEATURES

Once you’ve framed the challenges, you can compare solutions with a better sense of direction and purpose. With your particular challenges, opportunities and environment in mind, some features and functionality to look for include:

• Rapid anomaly identification and resolution: How effectively does the solution allow you to uncover potential issues before they strike? Does it leverage advanced pattern recognition techniques—such as neural networks and regression—to detect performance degradation and assess risk?

• Centralized alerting, discussion thread and scorecard: Does the solution• support centralized notifications? What about an issue scorecard—that is, a• crisp, tabular view of all issues for easy prioritization? Finally, look for solutions• with integrated discussion threads to communicate and document issue tracking

and resolution status.

• Real-time custom dashboards and reporting: Does the solution allow you to customize dynamic reports that update in real time?

• Holistic management of issues and alerts across time: Can you manage all issues and alerts in real time? Can you look back in time to see commonalities across issues and anomalies?

• Issues management email integration: Does the solution streamline issues management through email integration? How much value will your team get from the ability to respond quickly to issues and update diagnostic and remediation status directly by email?

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Success SnapshotsGREAT RIVER ENERGY

Predictive analytics has helped the not-for-profit electriccooperative realize hundreds of thousands of dollars insavings by extending asset life, reducing outages andachieving other efficiencies. Without a truly proactiveapproach to asset management that includes the ability tomonitor, analyze, diagnose and resolve issues quickly andeasily, they likely couldn’t recognize this value across a servicearea of approximately 1.7 million people.

Read the full story here >>

MINNESOTA POWER

An operating division of ALLETE, Minnesota Powerimplemented advanced data analytics to drive continuousprocess improvement to transform their operations fromreactive to proactive. Taking this approach allowed MinnesotaPower to save $2 million through early issues detection.

Read the full story here >>

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Utilitiesdon’t

have todo it

alone.If you’re looking for a more proactive way of approaching asset management, remember

that one size doesn’t fit all. Finding the optimal solution for your operation requires a solid understanding of existing monitoring and

diagnostics processes and dynamics at the outset, as well as a healthy understanding of

the solutions available. Fortunately, as the need for advanced analytics explodes, a number of solution providers are emerging to help guide decision making for utilities. Partnering with a

data analytics solution provider lets operations teams leverage knowledge and engineering

work invested in the service of numerous utilities and infrastructures with their varied processes and business models. This model

gives solution providers the advantage of scale, which relieves individual utilities of the burden of designing, developing and testing

software code built internally.

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ABOUT ATONIX DIGITAL

Atonix Digital, a Black & Veatch Company, offers digital insights by connecting the power of math and data through a portfolio of products that help simplify asset management by optimizing performance, improving reliability, detecting emerging risks and providing an easily justifiable return on your investment. Our products are powered by ASSET360, a cloud-based data analytics platform that improves the efficiency of operations and planning for complex and distributed assets. Atonix Digital customers leverage our Monitoring & Diagnostics product to simplify and improve operationsby combining advanced analytics and machine learning technologies.

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1EIA, 2016. Major utility system distribution investment by NERC region (1996-2016).

2Smith, S., 2019. 2019 power and utilities industry outlook. Deloitte.

3Utility Analytics Institute, 2018. State of the Market: Trends in the Use of Utility Analytics.

4Bridge Energy Group, 2018. 2018 BRIDGE IndexTM Utility Industry Survey.

5Navigant Research.

6Zpryme, 2016. The Autonomous Grid: Machine Learning and IoT for Utilities.

© 2019 Atonix Digital, a Black & Veatch Company. All Rights Reserved. The Atonix Digital name and logo are trademarks of Black & Veatch Holding Company. The ASSET360 name and logo are registered trademarks of Black & Veatch Holding Company. WW_Monitoring-and-Diagnostics-eBook_EN_v4_032019.