An integrated approach to managing today s energy and utility assets

Transcription

1 IBM Software Thought Leadership White Paper September 2011 An integrated approach to managing today s energy and utility assets IBM Maximo Asset Management addresses physical, human and technology challenges

2 2 An integrated approach to managing today s energy and utility assets Introduction Energy and utilities companies are not like the products they deliver. Electric, water, wastewater and natural gas the flow at the customer s end is simple and straightforward. But the behind-the-scenes generation, transmission and distribution of these services can be extraordinarily complex. And recent trends are only increasing the challenges companies face. These complex challenges affect all your core assets physical, human and technology. For years, physical infrastructures grew with the towns and cities they served, and now they can be a century or more old. A stable workforce stayed with the company for years, but now it is gearing up for retirement, taking knowledge and experience with it. Technologies implemented for individual business units conquer specialized needs, but in doing so they have created operational and data silos that stand in the way of required company-wide processes. If energy and utilities companies are to realize the promise of today s smarter planet, where everything from smart meters to water pumping stations to cross-country gas pipelines are instrumented, integrated and intelligent, they must become more like their products always-on, seamless and empowering. Companies need a steady flow of asset-related information and management capabilities. Today an integrated approach to managing assets is more important than ever. Overcoming the past to meet future needs Energy and utilities companies are rapidly moving into the future. The worldwide demand for electricity, for example, is projected to be greater than the demand for any other energy source increasing 2.2 percent per year through But meeting utility needs can be daunting because while energy and utility companies play a significant, forward-looking role in meeting societal and business needs, they have to overcome challenges rooted in the past in their aging infrastructures and workforces and in their siloed, disconnected systems. For years, utility company departments and business units have had their own ways of doing things. capabilities varied widely. Personnel often had deep knowledge in their own areas but were unable to share across the organization. The result has been fragmented, inefficient systems and assets typically in place for years that would serve the utility and its customers better if it could be replaced with a unified system of asset management and reporting across the organization. Instead of operating units making purchases as needed, unfettered by corporate policies and standards, a unified approach can align service levels with business objectives. Instead of multiple silos of non-standard, nonintegrated systems, a unified approach can manage asset deployment, specifications, monitoring, calibration, costing and tracking all from a single system.

3 IBM Software 3 A unified approach can support long- and short-term planning. It can enable preventive, reactive and conditionbased maintenance planning inventory to meet maintenance demand. It can manage vendor contracts with comprehensive support for a full range of contracts. A unified approach to asset management not only can enhance processes, it can create a new way of offering energy and utility services on a smarter planet. The challenges of infrastructure, people and applications Energy and utility companies today must reduce the cost of managing assets while simultaneously maintaining reliability. They can no longer afford the liability and maintenance costs of aging physical infrastructures and disparate systems across operational and IT environments. They cannot risk losing operational knowledge and skills through a brain drain of retiring employees. To meet the challenges, energy and utility companies need to address the complete life cycles of resources that span operations with asset management solutions that can: Manage and maintain an aging infrastructure by: Extending asset life and maximizing return on assets while meeting financial and operational compliance requirements and mitigating risk. Enabling condition-based maintenance to reduce asset downtime and extend useful life. Supporting new smart grid initiatives, such as meter asset management for smart meters. Control the brain drain among employees facing retirement by: Capturing the knowledge and critical skills of long-time employees with proven workflow, enforced best practices and training initiatives. Optimizing processes and allowing a shrinking workforce to work more efficiently and cost effectively. Consolidate operational applications by: Supporting work and asset management for all lines of business transmission, distribution and generation for electric, water, wastewater and natural gas. Allowing a single system to manage all types of assets including production, facilities, transportation and IT. Providing a lower total cost of ownership, one version of the truth and best practices enforced with standard software at all sites. Reducing the need to acquire, implement, train for and maintain siloed solutions from different vendors to manage different parts of the asset and service management infrastructure. Enabling employees with an innovative, fully integrated supply chain management system designed for assetintensive industries.

4 4 An integrated approach to managing today s energy and utility assets Physical infrastructure: Old systems with new complexity The core assets of electric, water, wastewater and natural gas infrastructures have been in place for years. Pipes, wires, filtration stations, electric substations, pumps, transformers and more crisscross service areas with aging systems that require constant monitoring, maintenance, repair and replacement. Now on today s smarter planet, new devices such as smart meters are replacing some of those assets. But they, too, need management. A smart meter s ability to automatically transmit operational and revenue information may eliminate the need to physically read a traditional dumb meter, but it too, is an asset that must be monitored, maintained and repaired. This mix of new and old technologies adds complexity to asset management processes. For the fact is, despite all the attention that smart devices and smart grids receive, utilities already contain vast existing infrastructures that cannot be replaced overnight and managing old and new assets together is critical to uninterrupted service and operations. An effective asset management system, however, can manage assets regardless of age and regardless of whether the assets are smart or dumb. From testing and calibrating new meters when they first arrive from the factory to proactively reducing repairs by scheduling regular maintenance for fire hydrants, an asset management system can address the entire life cycle of a company s physical assets. Advanced asset management, network automation and analytics solutions can optimize assets and reduce costs and risks while helping the utility cost-effectively build and extend new services to customers. Managing the flow of asset-related information across the enterprise can span the grid to enhance functions such as distribution management, finance and administration, customer management, human resources and procurement. Better service from a 19 th century system A major metropolitan water and wastewater system serving more than 2 million customers has 1,300 miles of water pipe averaging 76 years old and 1,800 miles of sewer pipe installed as early as the mid-1800s. An IBM asset management solution helped improve asset reliability and streamline business processes with: A 36 percent reduction in customer calls through increased preventive maintenance and automated meter reading. A 93 percent increase in emergency investigations dispatched in less than 10 minutes. A decrease from days to seconds required to generate reports for regulatory compliance and management review. Significant reduction in asset downtime.

5 IBM Software 5 Aging workforce: Avoiding a brain drain With populations and cities growing, electric and utility companies traditionally have been stable places to work. Many employees have been with companies for years, providing a solid base of knowledge and skills for the full range of utility operations. This will soon change, however, as baby boomers begin to reach retirement age. One recent study noted that by 2015, utilities will need to replace 46 percent of skilled technicians due to retirement or attrition. By that same year, approximately 50 percent of engineers at utilities companies will be eligible for retirement. 2 These projections come on top of trends in all businesses and industries for employees of all ages to change jobs taking knowledge and skills with them more frequently than previous generations. Arriving simultaneously with the growth of the smart grid, this demographic shift in the workforce will require significant training and transfer of knowledge to ensure continued efficient workflow and use of best practices. While some employees reportedly are excited enough about the smart grid or concerned enough about environmental issues to delay retirement, 3 the inevitability of a changing workforce also has been called the electric industry s central challenge in the next decade. 2 An effective asset management system can help. By enabling energy and utilities companies to capture best practices, policies, procedures and lessons learned, it can help companies retain the knowledge of older employees with specialized capabilities and skills. By incorporating into business process tools and applications the information that long-time employees have been carrying in their heads, organizations can not only help ensure that capabilities are not lost; they can provide a top-to-bottom alignment of functions that will help the utility company move forward. produces real results An effective asset management solution can provide quantifiable results for energy and utilities companies. From IBM client experience: A major electric and water utility achieved a 25 percent inventory reduction and US $33 million savings. A power generation utility achieved a five percent reduction in planned overhauls and eliminated five percent of forced outages, saving US $4.6 million annually. A world leader in waste-to-energy production achieved greater visibility into asset conditions, to help achieve 91.6 percent facility availability.

6 6 An integrated approach to managing today s energy and utility assets Functional silos in conventional asset management systems Fossil generation Nuclear generation Transmission and distribution Vehicle maintenance Corporate functions: IT asset management Facilities management Action tracking Compatible units Warranty management Service desk Pop-up applications Pop-up applications Pop-up applications Pop-up applications Pop-up applications A unified asset management solution can span the siloed environments of most energy companies to make information and capabilities available for use across the enterprise. Operational applications: Breaking down business silos While wide-ranging physical assets such as transformers, power lines, pumping stations and water treatment plants support the delivery of utility services to customers, a corresponding array of operational applications supports the physical infrastructure. As the smart grid and its smart components becomes more firmly established, in fact, more and more utility assets are beginning to act like or actually be IT assets. The increased role of IT that results is creating a need for an integrated management strategy with standardization of business processes and enhanced technology asset support across the enterprise. From generation to transmission to distribution, utilities need to support business processes with solutions that drive crossenterprise reporting, adoption of common best practices, and cross-business sharing of physical, human and information resources. Utilities need comprehensive, enterprise-wide solutions that can replace the multiple, siloed applications that may serve only certain divisions or departments. They need integrated suites that can provide specialized capabilities to reduce the number of pop up applications on employees local systems that serve niche areas such as vehicle maintenance but that are not available to others in the organization. They need the reduced cost, simplified management and enhanced governance that a comprehensive, unified approach can provide.

7 IBM Software 7 Companies likely will have some capabilities in these areas. A supply chain management system can integrate processes such as strategic sourcing, requisitions, and order and materials management. A business process management solution can support and enforce workflows and best practices, including regulatory compliance. But companies typically need to expand their application capabilities to increase their focus on managing assets. A unified approach to enterprise assets can not only improve monitoring and measuring of asset performance, but it can proactively reduce the risk of an asset s failure. It can assess and manage the cost of asset operations as it supports better decision making and optimization of financial returns. A comprehensive, unified IBM solution IBM Maximo Asset Management is an integrated solution designed to assist with the procurement, operation, maintenance, repair and disposal of enterprise assets. For energy and utilities companies, it can be used to manage the full life cycle of assets such as power generation or water purification plants, office buildings, energy or water delivery infrastructure, transportation fleets and IT equipment and networks. It also supports the inventory, supply chain and human resources processes associated with maintaining those assets. Widely used for work and asset management by electric, water, wastewater and natural gas utilities, Maximo Asset Management consists of six key management modules asset, work, service, contract, materials and procurement management and targets the needs of utilities companies with additional components: IBM Maximo for Utilities: Supporting work and asset management for transmission and distribution, from managing crew type and makeup to integration with fixed-asset accounting tools IBM Maximo for Nuclear Power: Addressing regulatory requirements and improving productivity by modeling nuclear objects and business processes including technical specifications, clearances, permits, surveillance testing and corrective actions IBM Maximo Spatial Asset Management: Providing visibility to see asset relationships described by complex global information systems to improve reliability, longevity and efficient work execution IBM Maximo Asset Management Scheduler: Enabling planners to view any upcoming work graphically, compare required resources against those available and adjust accordingly to help resolve over-allocation and under-utilization of assets IBM Maximo Health, Safety and Environment Manager: Integrating health, safety and environmental processes with work and asset management to achieve best practices in safety, reliability and quality initiatives. Addressing all assets that impact business performance and accountability, the unified, single platform Maximo solution can eliminate siloed information and enable shared best practices. It supports the development of comprehensive programs for preventive, predictive, routine and unplanned maintenance and contributes to reducing costs and increasing asset uptime. Why IBM? In supporting today s energy and utilities industry, IBM understands the increased interdependency of assets, the way individual assets impact customer service, and how asset visibility relates to risk management and compliance. IBM has played a lead role in enterprise asset management implementations worldwide, with solutions validated in successful deployments with energy and utilities companies of all sizes.

8 Maximo Asset Management solutions serve energy and utilities business units ranging from fossil, hydroelectric and nuclear electricity generation, transmission and delivery to natural gas delivery, water and wastewater services and information technology that supports utility operations. For more information To learn more about IBM Maximo Asset Management, contact your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit: ibm.com/tivoli/maximo About Tivoli software from IBM Tivoli software from IBM helps organizations efficiently and effectively manage IT resources, tasks and processes to meet ever-shifting business requirements and deliver flexible and responsive IT service management, while helping to reduce costs. The Tivoli portfolio spans software for security, compliance, storage, performance, availability, configuration, operations and IT lifecycle management, and is backed by world-class IBM services, support and research. Copyright IBM Corporation 2011 IBM Corporation Software Group Route 100 Somers, NY U.S.A. Produced in the United States of America September 2011 All Rights Reserved IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com and Maximo are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. If these and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol ( or ), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the web at Copyright and trademark information at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. References in this publication to IBM products and services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates. Product data has been reviewed for accuracy as of the date of initial publication. Product data is subject to change without notice. The information provided in this document is distributed as is without any warranty, either express or implied. IBM expressly disclaims any warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or noninfringement. IBM products are warranted according to the terms and conditions of the agreements under which they are provided. The customer is responsible for ensuring compliance with legal requirements. It is the customer s sole responsibility to obtain advice of competent legal counsel as to the identification and interpretation of any relevant laws and regulatory requirements that may affect the customer s business and any actions the customer may need to take to comply with such laws. IBM does not provide legal advice or represent or warrant that its services or products will ensure that the customer is in compliance with any law or regulation. 3 Kovacs, Joe, When we re or 22: Older + wiser - Aging workers won t leave utilities in the dark, Intelligent Utility Magazine, November/December 2009, magazine/article/when-we-re-65-or-22 1 International Energy Agency, World Energy Outlook 2010: Executive Summary, WEO2010_ES_English.pdf 2 Rowland, Kate, Smart grid workforce trends: GridWise Alliance report: cross-functional skills needed, Intelligent Utility Magazine, August 9, 2011, Please Recycle TIW14107-USEN-00