WHITE PAPER

The three-step approach: How power companies

can maximize the value of industrial data

Authored by:

Douglas Nunez
Power Industry Global Marketing Manager, AVEVA

Executive summary:
Imagine a world where manual tasks are replaced by automated processes. You can
prevent asset failures before they occur, and power industry hurdles are overcome with
digital tools and data. By taking a three-step approach to digital transformation, power
companies can use a data infrastructure, predictive analytics, and visualization tools to
make this dream a reality.
Introduction
Is digital transformation delivering?
For years, digital transformation has been positioned
as the cure-all for the power industry’s ailments. But
what is digital transformation and, more importantly,
has it delivered on expectations? By definition,
digital transformation digitizes manual or non-
digital processes, which may involve deploying new
technology or replacing antiquated solutions.
Despite several digital initiatives, many leading power
and utilities companies are struggling to grow both
reliably and efficiently and differentiate themselves
both in the market and to shareholders. They must
continue to improve reliability, resiliency, and safety,
all while managing the ever-increasing integration of
renewable electricity and stricter emission regulations.
While many power companies know that the answers
to overcoming these challenges lie in data, they’re
unable to extract the insights they need from the ever-
growing pool of information.
Thermal Power
Residential
Use
Wind Power
Professionals at every link in the chain face challenges that threaten to disrupt power resources
The modern power grid requires new data solutions.
By building the right data management foundation that
enables predictive analytics and visualization,
power companies can create a launchpad to overcome
these challenges to deliver reliable, resilient, and
sustainable power.
The increasingly complex power
generation landscape
Renewable energy and distributed generation have
grown rapidly, changing the electricity flow in the
grid from one-way to two-way flow and blurring the
lines between power provider and consumer. As more
renewables integrate into the grid and technology
becomes more connected, power companies
are becoming prosumers – both producing and
consuming energy. Those roles switch frequently,
even unpredictably, as output from distributed solar
resources fluctuates. New flows and new roles bring
new challenges – and power generation companies
must solve a dynamic, complex equation to ensure
uninterrupted, reliable power.
Nuclear Power Solar Power
Commercial
Use
Industrial Use
Hydro Power
02 The three-step approach: How power companies can
maximize the value of industrial data
 Three power generation challenges

1 2 3
Meeting availability and Keeping assets profitable Gaining real-time situational
reliability requirements in competitive markets awareness of distributed assets

With fewer generating
reserves available to meet
peak load, power compa-
nies have little room for
error. They need accurate,
data-driven weather and
market forecasts to inform
operational decisions.
Companies must address current
market conditions while finding
the balance between maximizing
generation during peak wholesale
prices and minimizing generation
when prices are below production
costs. Both providers and grid
operators need relevant data to
make real-time adjustments and
dispatch the lowest-cost resources
while meeting consumer demand.
From wind farms to small-scale
rooftop solar, distributed
generation asset installations are
increasing. Outage prevention
and response are critical to
keeping the grid online, and data
gives asset managers and grid
operators the real-time
situational awareness they need
to improve strategies.

The increasing amount of renewable energy capacity and the expanding deployment of distributed, customer-
owned generation requires power generation companies to make better, faster decisions to balance supply and
demand. Data is at the heart of overcoming these challenges, and a data infrastructure serves as the foundation for
digital transformation.

Data produced in vast quantities

350 data streams per wind turbine(300-1000) range

Tracked every one min = 504,000 reads per day

Over 70K turbines in the US = 36 billions reads per day

Wind turbines produce massive amounts of data every single day.

03 The three-step approach: How power companies can

maximize the value of industrial data
Step 1: Data Infrastructure: The foundation
for digital transformation success

As the amount of available data increases, power plant

operators and fleet and grid managers have access to
billions of signals. With the right data infrastructure, they ERCOT by the numbers
can disseminate that data to all stakeholders, giving
them the insight to make rapid, informed decisions. y 570 generators reporting every two seconds
y Synchrophasors report voltage and current
The importance, volume, and complexity of data are
information up to 60 times per second
changing the role of IT departments within utilities.
Now, IT departments are responsible for turning that y 10,000,000 smart meters report
data into a reliable and available enterprise asset consumption data four times per hour
that can inform decision-making and help companies
effectively integrate renewable power. To maximize
the value of data, IT departments need a data
infrastructure that is capable of managing increasingly
complex data that is used in a variety of new ways.

Data management is complex and

requires a complex solution with a
streamlined user experience. Any data
management infrastructure must:

y Aggregate, organize, standardize,

and contextualize raw data from
any source.
y Seamlessly interface with numerous
control systems, such as SCADA,
transmission-energy management
systems, and generation management
systems.
y Enable data-sharing across the
entire enterprise, from operations
to business.
y Rapidly process data and
display it clearly so users get
near-instantaneous situational
awareness in an OT network or
other environment.
y Create a passive copy of critical,
real-time operational data to give
personnel insight into control
room data without interfering with
actual controls.

04 The three-step approach: How power companies can

maximize the value of industrial data
Step 2: Predictive Analytics: Moving
from reactive to proactive maintenance
Traditional maintenance strategies use a reactive,
run-to-failure approach that relies on visualization
and alerting tools to identify a problem after it’s
already happened. In contrast, predictive maintenance
uses advanced analytics, which help users identify
anomalies so they can prevent catastrophic failures or
other costly issues before they occur.
The maintenance journey
Moving to predictive or prescriptive
maintenance strategies doesn’t happen
overnight. The right data foundation must
be laid and change management strategies
enacted to ensure optimal outcomes.
It’s a journey
Strategic,
proactive,
Risk-based
optimized
maintenance
Predictive and
prescriptive maintenance
Condition-based
maintenance
Preventive maintenance
Reactive maintenance
Getting started with predictive maintenance requires a strong data
foundation and effective change management.
Predictive analytics use deep learning tools that
capitalize on the wealth of available data to forecast
the remaining useful life of assets. They give teams
critical information and prescribe how to trade off costs
versus risk to devise plans that maximize efficiency and
profitability. Users can define meaningful operating
criteria based on data and quickly determine how even
subtle changes will influence asset performance.
Connects the asset strategy
to the corporate strategy
Diagnostics to predict
impending failure
Rules-based logic using
sensor data
Planned based on time or
usage statistics
Run to failure
05
Teams gain visibility into each asset, from critical to
least vital, and can use this information to manage
maintenance plans based on urgency, criticality,
necessary action, and spare part availability.
In addition to preventing asset failure, these AI-driven
insights help companies optimize energy use, compare
asset performance, and diagnose anomalies. Not only
do these predictive insights help power plants stay
in regulatory compliance, they also help them meet
contractual obligations by enabling better asset and
process outcomes.
While the benefits of predictive analytics are great,
transitioning to using them can be difficult. Often, such
advanced capabilities require specialized software
or personnel, and they’re not accessible to operators.
When companies develop predictive models in-house,
they may lack complexity without insight from a
data scientist.
Some homegrown solutions don’t scale easily and lock
data away in functional silos – and it’s difficult to give
them the significant retraining and refinement they
need before they can be operationalized.
By combining contextualized operational data with
predictive analytics technology, companies can quickly
and easily deploy a predictive analytics project that
circumvents these issues.
Maintenance and engineering teams can proactively
work together to evaluate assets before they fail,
optimize maintenance schedules, and ensure the
best teams and resources are available to minimize
downtime and disruptions. This approach gives power
generators visibility across entire asset portfolios so
they can proactively maximize operational efficiency,
resiliency, and sustainability.
The three-step approach: How power companies can
maximize the value of industrial data
Step 3: Improving operational awareness
with data visualization
While a well-implemented data management system
is the foundation for any successful asset performance
strategy, adding state-of-the-art data visualization
increases operational awareness and collaboration
across functional departments. Visualization tools help
teams share information and coordinate daily activities
and processes by giving them a single-pane-of-glass
view that everyone can work from.
The best applications let users tap into a wide variety
of data to create graphical displays or conduct ad
hoc analyses to better understand plant operations.
Workers can use tools like these to increase efficiency,
resiliency, and sustainability. Any visualization tools
should be both intuitive and web-based so teams
get fast, easy, and secure access to real-time or
historical data.

Power Revenue
delivery generation

Weather Security
forecasting

Asset
management Alarm
Battery Field rationalization
storage operators

Visualization gives all stakeholders access to a single view of plant operations.

Case studies

Southern Company: Using digital twins to The company’s data management platform acts as
empower the connected worker a digital thread, enabling users to perform predictive
analytics on its vast network of assets. The company
is not just using its data to conduct predictive and
prescriptive maintenance for single assets, it’s
also creating a digital twin of an entire generation
portfolio – without the help of software developers and
data scientists.
Southern Company is using a single source of Staff no longer have to track down performance data
operational data in conjunction with predictive in different systems and manually upload it to analytics
analytics to accelerate the time-to-insight for software and every person within the business can
operations, maintenance, planners, and easily analyze and gain insights from operational data.
business analysts.

06 The three-step approach: How power companies can

maximize the value of industrial data
Ontario Power and Duke Energy: Centralizing
asset monitoring and predictive maintenance
to reduce OPEX
If a wind turbine fails, companies must deploy cranes
to remote locations, which is expensive and time-
consuming. In addition, some kinds of plants, such as
solar, may lack procedures for plant maintenance or the
necessary support systems to aid in decision-making.

To increase availability and create a roadmap for a

Ontario Power and Duke Energy use predictive analytics
to monitor their power generation fleets from centralized
monitoring and diagnostic centers. By monitoring and
managing assets in real time using AI-enabled tools,
teams are predicting failures before they occur, cutting
maintenance costs, and reducing unplanned outages.
Not only that, by connecting data across the industrial
enterprise with analytics solutions, they are streamlining
innovation, boosting productivity and profitability, and
helping to identify new market opportunities.
EDF Renewables: Using predictive and
prescriptive maintenance to maximize
generation
Equipment condition
more sustainable future, EDF Renewables integrated
operational and business data with analytic software.
The company first established a data infrastructure to
manage operational data and formed a maintenance
strategy around its most critical assets. By monitoring
rotating parts of wind-turbine generators to ward off
bearing and component wear and prevent unplanned
maintenance, EDF Renewables now operates more
efficiently and teams can take preventative action
before a catastrophe occurs.
Estimates show that unscheduled corrective
maintenance for offshore turbines accounts for
66% of total maintenance budgets.
P
Point of Ultrasonic
detection detection Vibration
detection
Oil analysis detection
Audible noise

Hot to touch
Major degradation
in performance
Conventional
alarm Ancillary
damage

Catastrophic
As renewable energy adoption increases, so do the Opportunity window failure
F
unique challenges of maintaining these new renewable Time
power assets. Renewable assets produce massive
The earlier the point of detection (point P), the more time plant personnel have
amounts of data, often in several formats, all streaming to solve the problem
from remote locations, making predictive maintenance
incredibly difficult. For example, wind farms consist of
large-scale rotating equipment, often located in remote
areas. Assets are expensive: the cost of a single wind
turbine is approximately $2-4 million depending on the
generating capacity.

07 The three-step approach: How power companies can

maximize the value of industrial data
Centralizing data and insights to build a
reliable, resilient future
About the author
Today’s power-generation market demands that
Douglas Nunez is the Power
electric utilities deliver power reliably and efficiently – Industry Global Marketing Manager
all at a low cost and while reaching sustainability goals. at AVEVA. With over 20 years in
However, many facilities still use multiple, disparate the Power and Utility area, Douglas
data systems, limiting visibility and leaving companies has a deep understanding of power
market dynamics, including key
to rely on static asset assessments and reactive
issues, policies, and trends affecting
maintenance strategies. By taking an integrated, three-
renewable energy development.
step approach to digital transformation, companies can
use data, predictive analytics, and visualization to build
a reliable, resilient future.

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