INTELLIGENT VERTICAL: ENERGY
“
preventive maintenance strategies ineffective
in managing equipment downtime and
maximising equipment lifetime.
Against this backdrop, predictive
maintenance (PdM) – a set of technologies
that determine the condition of in-service
equipment to predict when maintenance
should be performed – is becoming
increasingly relevant for African utilities.
As utilities struggle to maintain ageing
transmission and distribution equipment,
manage costs better and extend the reach,
quality and reliability of their infrastructure,
PdM promises cost savings over routine or
time-based preventive maintenance.
Utility organisations that implement
emerging sensor technology in conjunction
with a strong enterprise asset management
solution complete with advanced analytics
will be able to operate more efficiently
and cost effectively while providing safer
environments for their employees and better
reliability for their customers.
A new-age business system is key
PdM requires not only the ability to
continuously monitor asset performance
through sensors such as vibration
monitoring, but also a predictive engine that
can process input and provide intelligent
responses automatically.
Colin Beaney, Global Industry Director for
Asset-intensive and Energy and Utilities
at IFS
can result in savings of 8% to 12% over a
programme utilising preventive maintenance
alone. Predictive maintenance can reduce
energy and maintenance costs by up to
30%, breakdowns by 35% to 45% and
downtime by up to 75%. Realising these
benefits starts with putting the right
enterprise backbone in place.
Monolithic legacy systems do not have the
capability to embrace new technologies
MONOLITHIC
LEGACY SYSTEMS
DO NOT HAVE THE
CAPABILITY TO
EMBRACE NEW
TECHNOLOGIES
AND PLATFORMS
WITHOUT
EXTENSIVE,
COSTLY
MEASURES.
and platforms without extensive, costly
measures. Best-in-class utilities look to run
leaner with agile solutions that are built for
easy integration and scalability.
The future of PdM success begins with
internal change management, a solid IT
infrastructure as a foundation and software
solution that can process and apply new
strategies as the world and expectations
continue to change. n
For the strategy to be effective, the collected
data and resulting responses must all be
captured and processed in a streamlined
enterprise asset management system
to ensure compliance, effective business
intelligence and customer satisfaction.
With PdM, a sensor is put in place to monitor
gas levels of a transformer. After comparing
historical data with real-time operating
data, an alert triggers a utility organisation’s
enterprise asset management software to
automatically schedule a technician with the
right skillset and the right parts to fix the failing
transformer. A chain of events is triggered that
unify and optimise the entire process from
inventory management to human resources.
Cost savings of up to 12%
According to the US Department of Energy,
a maintenance programme that uses PdM
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