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Working Group
B3.06 TF05
April 2014
IT STRATEGIES FOR ASSET
MANAGEMENT OF SUBSTATIONS -
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
WG B3.06 TF05
Members
J. Smit, Convenor (NL), N. Barrera, Secretary (CH),
Alan Wilson (UK), Nicolaie L. Fantana (DE), Jan Bednarik (IRL), Ravish Mehairjan(NL), Paul Leemans
(BE), Iliana Portugues (UK), Paul Myrda (USA), Gerd Balzer (DE), Jan Bruinenberg (NL), Gilles
Buffiére (FR), Paulino Aparicio (ES), Bente Bakka (NO), Hylco E. Hoekstra (NL), Serge Laederach,
TF05 convener (CH), Thomas Melkersson (SE), Arthur Mackrell (UK), Tatsuru Kobayashi (JP), Qikai
Zhuang(NL), Zhao Ma (UK), Ferenc Bodrogi (HU), Petr Spurný (CZ), Cawir Ginting (IDN), Dagmar
+
Kopejtková (CZ), Ph. Wester (NL)
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ISBN: 978-285-87327-15
IT STRATEGIES FOR ASSET MANAGEMENT OF SUBSTATIONS - GENERAL PRINCIPLES
ISBN: 978-285-87327-15
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 12
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Conclusions .............................................................................................. 31
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REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 92
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
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making. This TB establishes general principles for the information strategy for asset
management and in particular, for substation asset management.
Description of the TB
In chapter 1, a brief introduction is given of this TB describing the reason for initiating a
joint working group between the substation and system committees to consider the topic
“Information Strategies” from an asset management point of view. The contents of the
remaining chapters are explained as well as the contributions which were derived from
each subsequent chapter.
Chapter 2 starts with the “hourglass model”. A model which is described in this TB is as an
information strategy that, essentially, consists of two parts. These are:
The risk management in a business relevant environment: this helps in utilizing and
addressing the requirements on asset data
The data management: this supports the decision making process through
constructing a system to acquire, warehouse and transmit data.
The linkage of the above mentioned two parts is the critical connection. This connection,
named “intelligent hub” in this TB, aligns the translation of the information requirements
from the “risk management side” to the requirements understandable by the “data
management” side. In the remainder of the TB this conceptual “hourglass model” will be
used to describe the information strategy process.
With the goal to determine the status of current information strategy practices, an
international survey was carried out. The survey comprises 19 utilities from Europe, North
America, Middle East and Australia. The main results are highlighted in chapter 2, showing
that within utilities the focus of data management is more on the technical level and less
on economic and social data. While, a multi criteria decision making process needs
matching technical, economic and social data.
In chapter 3 the role of information strategy within asset management is defined. This
asset management regime is based on the generic asset management functional model,
which contains three domains, namely operation, maintenance and management. These
domains are used to structure the asset management decision process. Moreover,
decisions are supported by information in three categories, which are:
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the technical category, which specify the condition for individual component and
offers solution scenarios;
the economic category, which assesses the benefit of technical scenarios on
reliability;
the societal category, which assesses the benefit of technical scenarios on risks and
make the final decision.
The “information pyramid” is presented and describes a framework to realize the multilevel
and categorized information model, which can be used to support decision processes in a
stakeholder oriented risk management regime.
In chapter 4, a practical approach of implementing an asset management information
strategy was outlined using the “hourglass model” to explain the transition from risk
management into data management. The value of the different stakeholder groups are
used for the process of risk management, which is in line with stakeholders needs with
regard to the three earlier mentioned information categories. Furthermore, the “intelligent
hub” is utilized to explain methods and approaches to transform information requirements
into data requirements. This information process can be regarded as one of the most
important features for asset managers. In relation to the requirements of data, the
processing methods (data extraction from existing data bases), usually referred to data
warehousing, is described. The described information process has an iterative character
with a lead line coming from the business relevance instead of, nowadays still often
feasible, technical relevance.
An information strategy focussed on stakeholder oriented risk management is described in
chapter 3. In chapter 4 a data architecture design applicable for substation replacements is
given. Chapter 5 makes the link by describing an implementation of an information
strategy to support utility asset management. This chapter firstly expands the decision
making process of chapter 3 into a complete information flow model. The model
enumerates the available technical, economic and societal information source at
component, network and corporate level, respectively. Based on a set of simplified
scenarios of substation replacement, a detailed key performance indicator (KPI) dictionary
is given as a general guideline for further design of database and software.
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The decision making process needs a holistic approach in the field of replacement,
renewal and maintenance strategies. The results indicate that mixed strategies are
common in most of the utilities, depending on the type of the components.
By following the “hourglass model”, which is described in this report, the “right
information” should be extracted from the huge amount of available data with the
focus to support asset management decisions.
The survey results indicate the remarkable need for enterprise resource planning
(ERP) systems in the utilities, with the purpose of integrating the existing raw, or
rather unprocessed data.
Accordingly, the “hourglass model” shows that there is a need to link information
requirements with data requirements. In order to obtain such a link, it is necessary
to have integrated data containing technical, economic, social information, and a
well-defined enterprise-wide data model.
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Technical data is found to stand supreme in comparison to economic and social data in
existing models at utilities. But then again, the decision making processes require data
models that describe data needed in mixed strategies, and match technical, economic and
social requirements from a holistic approach. Succeeding in closing this gap is a
prerequisite for obtaining superior decisions in the field of asset management.
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INTRODUCTION
In a first step the asset management business, the decision process and the information
requirements have been analysed. The results of this work are published in a scoping
paper in Electra which is reproduced in Chapter 3.
In a second step the study went more into details. Stakeholder orientation and business
relevance were leading to a risk management approach which balances economic,
technical and societal aspects. Also important issues of work were the data management
to allocate and to share raw data and the intelligence to translate data into the necessary
information. A summary of this work has been published during the A3 & B3 joint
colloquium 2005 in Japan and it is reproduced in Chapter 4 [1].
Additional studies were done to consider in more detail the business relevance for risk
based asset management decision making process as well as for information requirements
and data modelling. The results of these studies are given in Chapter 5.
During the process it became clear, that the work should be followed by investigations into
the present status of application practice. These investigations focused on skills and tools
as applied in utilities. A survey was initiated with the task to report about practical
application of asset management information strategies. The survey results are presented
in Chapter 6.
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As asset management is a synonym for risk management a model “from risk to data
management” (Fig. 1) is used. It recognizes the essential differences between: risk
management in a business relevant environment and data management support for the
decision making process. The model expresses the need to align the translation of data
into information according to the risk based decision process. This process takes into
account all relevant areas as social, technical and economic.
Following this “hourglass” model, setting a business point of view will be described in
Chapter 4.
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RISK MANAGEMENT
decision + control
Business relevance
Information based
scenario approach
+ risk balancing
informa on
requirements
Intelligent hub
data
Technical relevance
requirements
data processing +
Data based
warehousing
data system PQ
data sources cost/ economic data
asset performance data
DATA MANAGEMENT
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description of the specific data sources for this data processing concludes the data
management chapters. It is emphasized that the described process has an iterative
character and it is mainly driven by the business relevance and not by the technical
relevance.
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Summing up, results show that existing models within the utilities themselves remain
strongly focus on technical data and less on economic data. Social data is only present in
some models. The decision-making process on the other hand requires data models
describing data in mixed strategies and matching technical, economic and social
requirements from a holistic point of view. Succeeding in filling this gap is the first step in
obtaining better asset management decisions.
Conclusions
Based on analysis of the total asset management process, the requirements of the different
stakeholders need to be considered. In this connection it makes sense to define various
key performance indicators (KPI) depending on defined scenarios and to perform a risk
assessment. This procedure requires a significant amount of data with suitable quality.
This data needs to be up to date, an appropriate data model should be used and
furthermore a master data set has to be maintained. Finally the survey provides an
overview of currently used strategies and information systems in the area of power supply
companies.
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In 2000 the JWG B3/C2-14, covering the area of maintenance and reliability, was
requested to begin work regarding Information Strategy for utilities. A task force was
established based on a terms of reference document [2]. These terms mentioned the
extreme strategic importance of setting up a well-considered Information Strategy within
utilities as a basis for decision making in the application of Information Systems. The
Information Strategy should focus on how utilities hold and manage data and information
on their facilities. Decisions that may involve substantial investment in Information
Technology must be based on an analysis of the business processes of the utility and its
needs.
During the period following the initiation of the work mentioned above, liberalisation of
utility processes has continued and this has had a major influence on utilities’
organisational structures. As such, a separation between independent market and system
operators and asset managers and service providers has been recognised. The separation
between these functions, even to the level of complete independent corporations, has
directed the work of the task force to concentrate on the Information Strategy as
applicable in one of the separated utilities’ functions. This paper describes an information
strategy applicable to the asset management function. Service provider functions will
generally focus on satisfying the information needs of the asset management function.
According to the Cigré Working Group C1-01 on Asset Management 3, with which
agreement this work is published, the asset management responsibilities of a transmission
or distribution business operating in an electricity market involves the centralisation of key
decision making for the network business to maximise long term profits, whilst delivering
high service levels to customers, with acceptable and manageable risks.
The asset manager’s processes should guarantee the satisfaction of the stakeholders (e.g.
customers, shareholders, employees, the assets owners, asset operators and the
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regulator), who will be benchmarking performance against other utilities 3, 4. The asset
manager’s function can thus be placed in context and further details are explained in
Chapter 3.
The purpose of the functional model is to present a structured functional approach to the
asset management process. The accountabilities are described to form a basis for the
investigation of information requirements for particular units within a utility. Chapter 2.4
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explains the procedures and associated data/information requirements related to the main
asset management process steps:
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The asset management function must be flexible enough to respond to the changing
demands and expectations of stakeholders, regulators/legislators and customers.
Accordingly, an iterative and evolving process must be defined as illustrated in Fig. 4. This
indicates where and how data and information relating to the process is used within each
of the main process steps.
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Adjustments are often made based on changing demands and feedback from the
organisation’s performance.
Step 3: Planning
The planning step is normally concerned with the production of a detailed annual activity
plans. To accomplish this, a long term planning exercise (typically 5-7 years) is needed.
This plan is based upon forecasts (that take both load and non-load related issues into
account) with regard to maintaining system functionality. When problem areas are
identified, the asset management function must define one or more solutions (design,
building and/or maintenance) for each issue while maintaining a system-wide perspective.
The chosen resolutions form the basis of an annually-reviewed long-term plan (containing
estimates on start/end dates and costs). The forthcoming year of this plan is annually
extracted and forms the initial workload for the service provider(s) to the asset
management function.
Step 4: Realisation
The plan is executed in an ongoing fashion by the service provider on behalf of the asset
manager, who is responsible for monitoring and auditing the process. The results provide
the asset manager with essential knowledge for the future and are input to the long term
planning process.
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Decision Process
The asset management process as described in the previous section necessitates decision
support tools to choose the best option when presented with a number of alternative
options in a decision-making environment. This can effectively be viewed as a
continuously running decision process based upon technical, economic and social
information. Upon further analysis, this decision process can be seen as being comprised
of three separate levels, as illustrated in Fig. 5.
The asset information level consists of technical asset data/information and condition
assessment of components, bays, substations and networks. The financial information
level combines the economic and technical and risk data/information for these assets and
is mainly reliability-focused. The social information group applies the economic
data/information relating to the business; combined with social information, to make
decisions about risk which mainly have a corporate focus.
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Risk/condition assessment
Based on the inputs the S3 (“Safety”, “Social” and “System – oriented”) risks are evaluated.
A framework for this S3 risk assessment is provided by external inputs, stating constraints
and basic conditions of system operation. The data analysed during the risk assessment
also includes financial data/information and asset data/information. Different scenarios
are obtained from the S3 risk assessment. By combination of these scenarios with outputs
from condition assessment and financial inputs the reliability of an asset can be controlled
with respect to adequate costs and sufficient levels of asset reliability. System risks related
to the particular level of asset reliability are also evaluated.
Decision flow
The decision process as illustrated in Fig. 5 can be further explained by presenting it as a
decision flow diagram (Fig. 6). This details an overall view of the step by step decision
process. A detailed description of the different levels can be found in chapter 5.1.1.
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The main task of the first level is the assessment of the condition of the equipment.
Condition assessment is provided based on technical asset data/information. As an output
of condition assessment the probabilities of assets’ expected behaviour modes are
obtained (probability of failure, expected life, system constrains etc.).
The costs and benefits of the scenarios are combined with the risks involved with each
scenario to reach the optimum decision regarding the external requirements (social
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information) with the best-managed risk. The social and economic data/information,
together with the reliability of the equipment inventory and network topology forms the
ingredients of the risks involved.
Information Requirements
Having analysed the asset management accountabilities and decision processes, the next
step is to extract the information required to support asset management decisions (Fig. 7).
Asset management decisions applied in the processes described earlier employ different
levels of data processing, often provided by a plethora of existing IT systems. During the
last decade many commercially available IT tools have been developed. The available tools
may be grouped into three categories:
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM): Such tools are directed at asset data storage and
management, work flow management, monitoring & diagnostic systems, geographical
information systems.
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Enterprise Resource Programmes (ERP): These are directed at the support of business
process management, financial and spares control.
High end and transactional information processing tools such as data warehouses and
expert systems are also available. These can provide support in the area of gathering and
processing data in order to provide decision support.
Data Categories
The changing market environment demands effective whole-of-life management of the
assets in order to optimise economic performance while ensuring that technical
performance and any risks associated with the assets are kept within acceptable limits.
Ultimately, asset managers will be judged on their ability to satisfy the needs of
stakeholders by minimising the necessary capital and operational expenses while
simultaneously managing environmental safety and quality (sustainability). This approach
necessitates having access to data and information relating to technical, economic and
social categories (Fig. 8).
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Figure 8: Data categories approach within asset management: event risk consequences
(example)
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related expenditure. Failures may result in major damage to network components and
their environment, which will lead to high maintenance and repair costs. The need for
economic data/information finds its origin in the requirements of operating a business.
For example, penalty costs from customer contracts, possible claims from customers,
costs associated with undelivered energy, damage to reputation/share price, etc.
Information Pyramid
The practical implementation of IT tools to support the decision-making process is a
challenging problem as the final architecture of information systems can strongly influence
the processes and organisation of a utility.
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decision level
decision
decision input
analysis tools
front
informa on
ERP EAM assets EOS Masterplan system
level
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Referring to the decision process (Fig. 5), this layer allows organising, processing and
integration of data belonging to the three data categories. The data warehouse supports
the decision process level by ensuring quality, consistency and validity of data and
information.
Decision support should facilitate the final decisions to be made by the asset manager
through the provision of a list of ranked recommendations with explanatory information.
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The responsibility for the decision should always lie with a suitably qualified person – the
user of the information system. It is therefore essential for the information delivered by
the system to be fully reliable, transparent and well understandable.
Conclusions
Sustainable asset management processes are directed at maintaining the functionality of
the system while respecting the (sometimes conflicting) expectations of the various
stakeholders. The information strategy should focus on how utilities hold and manage
data and information on their transmission and distribution plant and facilities. Based
upon the approach described in the paper, information technology should focus on the
provision of support for asset management decision-making processes. The task force
recommends the application of a layered methodology in order to organize the decision
process and application of specific IT tools to the different decision and control levels. This
focussing is necessary in order to minimise the costs involved in the design or purchase of
information systems.
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As asset management is a synonym for risk management a model “from risk to data
management” Fig. 1 is used to format this brochure. It recognizes the essential differences
between:
The model expresses the need to align the translation of data into information according
to the risk based decision process and this process that takes into account all relevant
areas including social, technical and economic [2]. This chapter follows this “hourglass”
model; a business setting point of view will be described as well as further design of the
decision processes and data/information. The values of the different stakeholder groups
are used for the process of risk management. The process described will be in line with
stakeholders needs with regard to social, economic and technical values. In the data
management part a chapter “intelligent hub” will describe methods and approaches to
transform information requirement into data requirements. On one hand, this
transformation process can be regarded as one of the most important features for asset
managers. On the other hand, it can assist data managers to construct the asset
databases. Related to the data requirements are data processing methods (data
warehousing) and these are described that realise data extraction from existing data
bases. A description of the specific data sources for this data processing finalizes the data
management chapters. It is emphasized that the described process has an iterative
character with a “demand” or lead line coming from the business relevance instead of,
nowadays still often feasible, the technical relevance.
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Stakeholder orientation
The context of an asset manager is quite complex. He has to satisfy requirements from
many different stakeholders. Fig. 10 shows the asset management context and the
different types of relevant stakeholders.
The electricity market players – generation, trading and sales, consumer, public and
environmental bodies as well as system operator, asset owner and service provider –
should agree upon rules, quantification of service levels and payment and penalties.
Therefore the identification and quantification of the key indicators is necessary, and this
can be done by analysing the impact on the stakeholders. Most of the impact can be
expressed in monetary terms, for example: Direct costs or profits by means of additional
costs, losses, penalties, profits and indirect costs by means of costs of secondary defects,
losses through delays etc. Social and ecological impact as environmental loss, loss of
image, safety etc. can be difficult to quantify and to express in financial terms. They can
be measured by stakeholder satisfaction, e.g. a score card system. Transparency, an open
minded and honest attitude as well as respect and confidence are important factors to
increase satisfaction.
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Risk management is seen as one of the most important instruments for asset
management. Considering the above mentioned aspects possible risks for all stakeholders
have to be identified and the impact has to be analysed.
Technical
Asset
Economic Management Societal
Process
Environment
al
Figure 11: Sustainable asset management process in which risk balancing of technical,
societal, economic and environmental aspects is of importance
Multiple scenarios can be found to demonstrate the influence performance at all three
levels: e.g. increasing or decreasing maintenance and inspection intervals, replacement or
refurbishment, changing the maintenance strategy. But also the combination of technical
information with relevant economic data and future system performance will result in
quantifiable benefits. Not exclusively to be expressed in economic terms but also in terms
of reliability. On the corporate level, balancing the cost and benefits of the scenarios with
the risk involved with each scenario will result in the strategic decision with the best-
managed risk outcome. On this level, all stakeholders’ expectations can be taken into
account when they are formulated as business values, resulting in a set of performance
indicators to give expression to those expectations. The societal and economic
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information, together with the reliability of the equipment inventory and the system
performance form the ingredients of the risks involved. A balancing of the risks will lead to
the final decision.
The first direction is from the business risk/asset management strategy (i.e. high-level
decision-making processes) towards the data that is required to provide information for
decision making. In this “top-down“ path the overall business objectives are leading to a
set of information requirements that can support decisions and can be considered as the
foundations of the risk management process. From these information requirements the
basic data requirements for the source systems can be derived. Those requirements also
include “how” and “when” data should be presented to the users and other processes. All
of these requirements influence data organization and architecture.
The second direction comes from the data sources towards the business risk/asset
management strategy. In this “bottom-up” path data is extracted from the operational
systems, transformed and stored in a data warehouse and finally presented as valuable
information, taking into account “how” and when” the data should be used to support the
decision making in the risk management environment. The top-down path is the typical
view when ‘designing’ the system and specifying the requirements. Sometimes there is a
misunderstanding that the information systems can deliver strategic recommendations by
themselves, which may lead to an underestimation of the necessary effort required in the
“top-down” part of the process. In fact, it is the “top-down” path of specification of
information requirements and key indicators resulting from the strategic goals, which form
the core know-how of the whole risk management process. The “bottom-up” path is then
used in day-to-day operations for translating data into information on the predefined
basis. This two way transition needs intelligent support provided by humans, software or
both. For further clarification this point is identified as the “intelligent hub” with the
structure and mechanisms proposed further in this chapter.
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The detail of hierarchical structure breakdown needs to be carefully defined with regard to
the required level of information detail. Too much detail information can sometimes
decrease effectiveness of its use. Essential to an asset oriented model is the separation
between functional objects and physical objects (equipment). This concept allows
connecting ERP, Geographic and SCADA type of information systems. An example of such
an object approach and tree structure is shown in Fig. 12.
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As stated previously standards in definition are very important. As such a standard, which
allows a differentiated approach, a dual asset description is proposed. In this model the
asset is described from two points of view:
Functional object approach involves the description of assets as non-material objects, i.e.
its function and relative position in the system. Thus, an object can be seen as a part of
the scheme with possibility to build a hierarchical structure of objects (see Fig. 12). Each
object can have a “parent object” and a “successor object” (e.g. network of given voltage,
substation, bay, generic position of a given instrument etc.). A functional object is system
inherent and doesn’t change unless a reconstruction of a system or its part takes place.
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Both approaches are complementary and allow separate solution of complex problems. It
is not only a method of representing and processing asset data, but a philosophical
approach to the support of the asset management function. It also identifies the unique
assets for the key register as a part of the data warehouse.
Dimensional model
Another way of structuring data is with regard to its value for the asset manager. A
technique of dimensional modelling can be used to organize data in a manageable way. A
simplified example is added in the Fig. 13.
This technique describes dimensions required and measures on a certain subject, each
with its own level of detail. Using this technique, results in a single A4 format paper can
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represent many different kinds of reports. Explanation of the diagram: two possible
reports or information needs are described.
In red: A manager is interested in quarterly costs per substation per main process
(e.g. maintenance) per department.
In blue: A business analyst is interested in a monthly report on hours on handling
outages (= as a selection of one of the sub processes) for the whole enterprise.
Many other information needs could be described this way. Adding one dimension (e.g.
“location”) or one measure (e.g. “number of outages”) reveals a whole new set of
information needs. This dimensional diagram is one of the principles of “data
warehousing”. Based on that concept, data is collected in the data warehouse from the
source systems and presented in a way set by the model set-up so that an asset manager
or asset analyst can easily navigate through the data.
Processing data
The asset manager is interested in the coherence between Technical, Economic and Social
data on three levels: “Corporate”, “Network” and “Asset”. The integration of information
therefore is essential in this point. The second issue of high importance is data quality in a
means of complete, correct and actual data. Experience shows, that assuring the data
quality can consume 10-50% of the total (information) project budget and is also the cause
of trespassing many deadlines.
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In the figure above, the circle represents examples of present applications (ERP’s,
Geographical Information System, Maintenance system etc.) that support the processes of
the asset manager. Organisations or departments are free to choose their own applications
as long as they refer to the key register. All systems then hold different information
(technical, financial, environmental, etc.) about the same data object (e.g. a circuit
breaker). The key part of the system placed in the centre is a key register. This register
synchronizes key data concerning the main data objects as defined in the former chapters.
The essential fact is that this register only contains keys, pointers to keys in connected
systems and a very limited number of data elements that identify the object in the real
world, so that data duplicity is avoided. As an example for a circuit breaker this can be
serial-number and manufacturer.
For analysis and reporting purposes relevant data of the circuit breaker [i.e. location (from
GIS), last date (from the maintenance system), costs (from ERP) etc. are periodically
extracted from the source systems and loaded into the data warehouse. This way data
history can be built for trend analysis.
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A presentation layer provides the end user with data in a readily usable way. Based on both
a pull and a push strategy one can analyse and report on data both from the warehouse
and from the key register. This way of presenting data is often referred to as BI or Business
Intelligence.
Since data has the tendency to degrade with time, data needs to have the constant
attention of the organization. Data monitoring and improvement related to the real world
is therefore needed. Audits can contribute to maintaining data quality. The organization
should also use the advantages of available techniques to maintain synchronization of the
systems and to support new systems with required data obtained via the data warehouse
from the source systems.
Benefits
It offers the business one holistic view. This reduces search-time and work (typing)
for the user;
Better data quality by easily comparing data in different systems;
The key register offers a better “time to market” for data warehouses;
Systems can be disconnected without the loss of data;
Reduced “time to market” for new systems because they can be loaded with good
quality data;
New service providers can be easily attached even if they use different systems. This
principle also counts for decentralized business units; and
Service providers or decentralized business units can choose their one
functionality/systems while central departments or the asset manager, as a spider in
the web, can keep the necessary data.
These benefits can be reached with minimal costs and without interrupting the operational
process as the present applications stay in operation.
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The first information strategy publication [2] as per chapter 3 concluded that Information
Strategy focuses on risk management, being the most important responsibility for the
asset management function. Risk management identifies all credible risks; ascertaining
and quantifying their potential impact and incorporating this information into all asset
management decision processes. Risk management takes into account all relevant
consequences from economic, technical and social perspectives. This risk-based decision
process is complicated by the fact that both short-term, day-to-day decisions and longer-
term strategic decisions must be supported. Furthermore, there are several, sometimes
conflicting constraints and conflicting stakeholders’ requirements that must be taken into
account. The different activities should be executed in an order that depends on the
contribution to the quality of energy supply. It must, however, also satisfy the
requirements regarding economic added value and safety aspects. The asset manager is
thus facing a continuous process of decision-making based upon 5
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1:
Equipment Technical
information
Maintenance and diagnostic evaluation,
Component level
Maintenance
Economical information 2:
(on assets) Economical evaluation of scenarios,
Technical information creation of maintenance strategies,
Maintenance (on grid) calculation of non-delivered of energy
Failure cases
level Corporate level
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From a technical point of view, multiple scenarios can be used to illustrate influence on the
performance of assets. For example, scenarios could be increasing or decreasing
maintenance and inspection intervals, replacement or refurbishment, but also changing
the maintenance strategy from corrective maintenance to time based or condition based
maintenance.
The scenarios are found by analysis and combination of the equipment inventory, the
maintenance actions already performed on the equipment, the current rules that exist for
maintenance, and condition assessment, that results from diagnostics, in combination with
statistical evaluation of practical failure cases, reliability evaluation and ageing models
result. All these scenarios will have a different effect on the technical performance (in
terms of reliability and availability) of the asset. At this stage, scenarios should not be
excluded based on their effect on technical performance, because in the next levels, the
scenarios will be combined with other relevant data, which even may cause a scenario with
a negative effect on technical performance to be the most economic while having the
smallest risk. The stakeholders’ expectations for example will be taken into account at the
third level.
The decision to replace equipment by different scenarios may not only depend on the
increased failure rate but also for example on the acceptance of the used technique, the
know-how of the service department, availability of spare parts, or the current capability
of the considered equipment.
Technical information of the scenarios with relevant economic data is not exclusively
expressed in economic terms, but could also be expressed in other terms such as
reliability or expected lifetime.
The main aspects of the system performance such as network topology and development,
changing of the generation and demand and so on may influence the decision process
regarding the asset. Possible consequences and impacts on the system with different
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scenarios are obtained from reliability calculations (system reliability, operating conditions,
risk of fatal failures etc.). The reliability calculation of the non-delivered or supplied
energy at certain system nodes is an important result to assess the performance of the
system from the customer point of view (Delivery Point Performance or DPP). This will lead
to a reliability centred approach to maintenance for the complete system.
On the corporate level, balancing the costs and benefits of the scenarios with the risk
involved with each scenario will result in the strategic decision with the best-managed
risk. On this level, all stakeholders’ expectations can be taken into account when they are
formulated as business values, resulting in a set of performance indicators to give
expression to those expectations. To make the process complete, the safety and social
risks must also be taken into account. On this level (“Risk management”), the overall risk
related to the final decision is evaluated and controlled. It concerns not only the technical
and financial aspects, but respects also the personal and environmental safety, impact on
external bodies, stakeholders’ demands and other “social risks” aspects as described
above. Safety risks represent impact on personal and environmental safety. Social risks
represent impact on external bodies directly dealing with the company, on the public and
the environment, but also internal personnel-related impacts (change of work procedures,
personnel reduction etc.).
The societal and economic information, together with the reliability of the equipment
inventory and the system performance form the ingredients of the risks involved. A
balancing of the risks will lead to the final decision.
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The current used performance indicators were collected and summarised by the WG CIGRÉ
1.11 and published in Brochure 367 “Asset Management Performance Benchmarking”
(2008) [9]. In this chapter the different Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are related to five
classes: finance/business, safety, reliability, customer and employee, which can be
allocated to the overall groups: technical (reliability); economic (finance/business) and
social (safety, customer, and employee) as mentioned in chapter 3.2.3 and 3.4.1 of this
brochure.
For every decision to be taken there are a certain number of possible scenarios [7]:
To assess the risk each of the scenarios has to be checked on the mentioned key aspects
and the key performance indicators (KPI’s). Which of the indicators is used depends on the
actual project and the corporate level’s interest to achieve the target of the company, for
example in the area of social aspects. The information which should be used defining the
key performance indicators are listed in 5.2.3 and Table 1 shows an example.
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Requirements
Stakeholder Requirements
The electricity market players – generation, trading and sales, consumer, public and
environmental bodies as well as system operator, asset owner and service provider –
should agree upon rules, quantification of service levels and payment and penalties.
Therefore the identification and quantification of the key indicators is necessary, which can
be done by analysing the impact on the stakeholders. Most of the impact can be expressed
in monetary terms:
Direct costs or profits by means of additional costs, losses, penalties, profits and
Indirect costs by means of costs of secondary defects, losses through delays etc.
Social and ecological impact as environmental loss, loss of image, safety etc. is difficult to
quantify and to express in financial terms. They can be assessed by stakeholder
satisfaction, e.g. using a score card system. Transparency, an open minded and honest
attitude as well as respect and confidence are important factors to increase satisfaction.
The following Table 2 shows the most important requirements of the particular
stakeholders. Economic aspects are of most importance for all stakeholders which are
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The table shows the tendency from economic aspects of purely business driven
organisations towards the societal aspects of more public, human and environmental
oriented organisations. In any case, stakeholder satisfaction is directly proportional to the
fulfilment of his particular requirements and inversely proportional to the risk of not
fulfilling his particular requirements.
Information requirements
The aspects of information needed to support asset management decisions can be divided
in three main categories according to the described aspects of Fig. 11:
Technical aspects;
Economic aspects; and
Social aspects.
TECHNICAL ASPECTS
The technical aspects consist of two different parts: information about the single
equipment item as well as information about the system development.
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type, the history and the operating conditions of a network (sub) component. In order to
decrease the probability to a failure, condition assessment can be used. A combination of
diagnostic tools for condition assessment is chosen and applied, depending on the
different types and locations of insulation defects induced degradation sites.
The technical aspects cover amongst others, condition assessment, aging models, and
failure probability, but also information on the equipment inventory, the system
performance (quality of energy supply), the available spare parts, the current maintenance
procedures, the history of maintenance actions, the history of failures and the
manufacturer. Consideration of the equipment condition or the probability of outages is
the basis to evaluate the system performance by utilization of reliability calculations. In
principle there are two levels to perform reliability calculations:
Equipment approach: This can be called as outage-oriented criteria. That means the
probability of an equipment outage is evaluated on the basis for example on several
condition information.
System approach: Complementary to this there are the customer-oriented criteria.
In this case the frequency and duration of the interruption of supply at certain
system nodes is calculated (non-delivered energy), which is caused due to the
outage of equipment in the network. The result is that the non-delivered energy has
to be considered to determine if this situation is acceptable for the customer or not.
In the same way the non-supplied energy needs to be considered for example, that
a power plant is not able to feed the system.
In principle customer-oriented criteria are only useful to fulfil the requirements of the
customer as well as the utilities and therefore to apply certain maintenance measures.
ECONOMIC ASPECTS
As every technical aspect will have its financial counterpart, economic aspects include the
costs of maintenance, repairs and failures, but also the costs of condition assessment and
the investment costs for equipment and spare parts (life-cycle costs). These costs will be
called the economic information on assets.
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The costs related to a failure are dependent on the outage-related expenditure. Failures
mostly result in major damage to network components and their environment, which will
lead to high maintenance and repair costs. In case of major critical damages, professional
solutions are needed to restore the energy supply as quickly as possible, eventuating in
higher expenditures. In addition minor failures which are repaired during planned outages
have also to be taken into consideration, because they will also influence the costs.
Outages can result in customer compensation and responsibility claims in the form of
penalties. The need for economic information finds its origin in the fact of driving a
business, e.g. penalty costs from customer contracts, possible claims from customers and
the costs of undelivered energy. These aspects will be called the economic information of
the business.
SOCIAL ASPECTS
However, within the asset management decision process, technical and economic aspects
are not the only aspects to consider. As an example, risks are not only determined by the
economics. There are also some societal aspects that have to be considered, such as the
impact on society of outage and failures.
Failure acceptability can be reflected as the degree in which a failure is acceptable from the
social point of view. The failure impact is dependent on the criticality and number of
connections, which is further affected by the time to restore the particular failure. Even so,
frequent energy interruptions in a short period of time will not be acceptable from a social
point of view. For example, power losses related to buildings with a high social standard,
e.g. hospitals have a low acceptability level.
Furthermore, the social impact of utility’s policy is determined among others by two
factors: the image to the public and the feeling of safety. Power supply disturbances in
buildings with high public exposure e.g. shopping malls, congress centres; hotel office
towers, airports etc. have an impact on public opinion of safety.
Some of the societal aspects will be guarded by the regulator, which will translate these
aspects in proper regulation. This regulation will result in economic impacts such as
penalty costs. Other societal aspects such as the image of the power utility or the personal
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safety of its employees cannot be easy translated into economic aspects, but should also
be covered when investigating risk.
This societal impact can have very strategic consequences for an organisation. Customers
can show the tendency to change energy supplier so a successfully operating asset
manager (from the perspective of lower maintenance costs) can cause a utility large
damage (due to high failure rate).
The key parameters for risk management purposes are typically the results of a previous
processing and combination of available information in a data condensing and information
extraction process based on human experience, artificial intelligence and software tools.
Also they may contain other decision relevant information, on the system, on the
environment, or social/legal context and which should help towards decision making. This
data or information is obtained from the real or virtual data warehouse of the enterprise.
Economic information:
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Penalties
Costs of secondary defects (e.g. environmental or medical defects)
External additional costs or loss of profit because third parties could not make
business
Business opportunities
etc.
Technical information:
Social information:
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100
A
Erneuerung
replacement
80
Instandhaltung
service
Zustand
60
condition
40
20
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
importance
Wichtigkeit
B 80
Dringlichkeit
ranking
60
40
priority 1 priority 2
20
0
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N
circuit-breaker
Figure 16: Example of combining different KPI’s for a group of equipment (A: Condition
and importance assessment. B: Prioritisation of the service activities).
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Conclusion
This part has in general a stakeholder orientation. The top – down approach from all
stakeholder requirements to information and data requirements as well as methods
supporting risk assessment are discussed. Risk management has been concluded as core
business for sustainable asset management.
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The task force distributed a survey in the year 2006/2007 to obtain more information on
the applied asset strategies and their related data management. The focus of the questions
was on:
Experiences, current practices,
How IT-tools can support?
Which methodologies are being used?
This brochure presents the survey results from 19 utilities from Europe, North America,
Middle East and Australia. The answers in the diagrams are therefore always related to the
total number of respondents (19). To keep the survey within a manageable size, not all
fields of interest could be addressed in detail. The fields of interest covered and the results
obtained are presented in chapters 6.4 to 6.9.
Experiences
Experiences and usage of current software tools in a practical way are considered.
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What use do the suppliers claim to fulfil and how far do they actually fulfil the
utility’s requirements,
Perceived deficiencies.
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What management information systems (MIS) are available which are in line with the
requirements (focus on risk management and decision making)?
What is the reasonable functionality of software tools?
Data Sources
The survey covered data sources with a total of 18 questions (Table 3) regarding:
data recording of primary and secondary equipment (Q7- Q9)
outage and performance data (Q10 - Q13)
maintenance/repair and history (Q14 - Q16)
diagnosis and monitoring data (Q17, 18)
actual and planned data collection in IT systems (Q19, 20)
actual and planned front-end IT systems (Q21 - Q24)
Question Question
number
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20 How do you plan to collect data and enter it in your systems in the
future?
This is less distinct in the installed automation, control and protection equipment, for
which 63% of the respondents use the enterprise-wide equipment database. Registration
in other data sources is slightly higher than with high voltage power equipment.
The highest information detail is recorded at the substation (68%) and bay levels (74%).
Some utilities (32% of the respondents) register equipment location also using geographic
coordinates – Fig. Q9.
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Q7: How do you regis ter ins talled power equipment Q8: How do you regis ter ins talled automation, c ontrol and protec tion
equipment
c oordinates 0,32
bay 0,74
Still, a substantial part of recording is done outside the enterprise-wide database. This
raises questions on the data-integration, hence questions on data quality and decision
quality.
WG remark: Only 63% of respondents are reporting major failures according to CIGRÉ
definitions. It is possible that companies use internal standards to define major failures,
which are not in compliance to CIGRÉ’s definitions. Most respondents (75%) record this
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kind of operational history data and use it for decision-making Q13. The kind of data used
is shown in Fig. Q12.
Q10: How do you rec ord failures for power equipment Q11: How do you rec ord failures for c ontrol and protec tion equipment
operational events
time in operation
load pattern
peak values
not recorded
WG conclusion: Although only failure data have been considered in the survey, mainly due
to focus on asset issues, also system performance data, such as un-planed and planed
outages, and load optimization/balancing, are important to the asset manager. It is
therefore recommended to keep asset performance data and system performance data
separately with mutual links between related events to enable cause – consequence
analyses. Another important issue is that besides the existence of an enterprise-wide data
source, departmental data sources for equipment also exists. This could lead to
inconsistent data within the same enterprise.
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but time and worker information is less well traceable. Also, to know something about the
contractor is more important than knowing something about a "Worker" (Fig. Q15).
Maintenance is well recorded. From the respondents, most can reconstruct
maintenance/repair history for more than 10 year back depending on type of equipment
(Fig. Q16). Respondent refer to digital and paper records.
Q14: Do you rec ord maintenanc e and repair data? Q15: C an you re-c ons truc t the maintenanc e/repair his tory from your
rec ords ?
c ontrol/protec tion 0,63
detailed information 0,58
ins t. trans formers 0,74
c ables 0,74
part repaired 0,58
trans former 0,79
Q16: How long bac k c an you re-c ons truc t the maintenanc e/repair
his tory?
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WG remark: Information on the present condition and the trend of an asset is very
important. Both options diagnostics and monitoring are valuable and should be
considered. Future developments on intelligent grids will probably provide much more
valuable information about asset condition than obtained from present grids.
0,16
for cables 0,68
0,58
for transformers 0,89
0,21
for circuit breakers 0,95
According to the survey results, the respondents intend to increase their data collection
actions in several ways: planned actions, time- and event triggered actions. However, the
answers also indicate that data-collection is not rapidly changing since there are no
significant differences between the “how do you collect data now” and “how do you collect
data in the future” questions.
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automatic 0,63
0,42
by-hand 0,47
0,68
Questions were also asked on the usage of systems (Fig. Q21-Q24). The questions focused
on which systems utilities use nowadays and which systems utilities plan to implement.
Answers show that the whole range of (systems) functions commonly needed in the field of
asset management are used or are planned for. Since some utilities indicate that they plan
to add some of the systems it can be concluded that not all the utilities own the complete
range.
Answers also indicate that systems for Enterprise Asset Management, planning/scheduling
systems (not ERP), MS office and specific systems and proprietary databases are most
commonly (> 50% of the respondents) used. On Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) a
significant increase on adding those to the existing system landscape can be seen.
WG remark: Many utilities have needs to integrate basic data. The integration of technical
and non-technical systems is not common in the branch. Evidence of this is also found in
the widely used dedicated systems and proprietary databases. Also, presently there is a
combination of ways how data is collected.
WG remark: Enterprise Asset Management highlights the need for data-integration. The
questionnaire indicates that many utilities are at the beginning of this integration. The
advice is not to focus on a point-to-point interface between systems, as one can end up
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with a “spaghetti” of interfaces. Best practice is to focus on aligning the data in the system
landscape based on a common data model and based on good data management. One
should focus for “one single version of the truth” for the most important business objects
(e.g. customer, substation, transformer, outage etc.). The asset manager is the owner of
the process and is in charge to set-up the IT system requirements. This calls for
collaboration between business and IT departments. A variety of technical solutions can
help to integrate on an automation level.
MS O ffic e 0,21
0,63
P lanning/s c heduling 0,26
s ys tems 0,68
E nergy 0,11
Management 0,32
E nterpris e A s s et 0,26
Management 0,58
G eographic 0,21
Information S ys tem 0,42
E nterpris e 0,47
R es ourc e P lanning 0,26
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Find the current practice regarding the synchronization of data warehouse data with
the source systems like ERP, EAM, GeoIS, CRM etc. (Q36),
The current practices to ensure data quality and for validation of data (Q37).
Question Question
number
35 How is the data -needed for these data warehousing and decision support
systems- retrieved from the source systems
36 Do you synchronize data between source systems (SCADA, EAM, ERP, GIS
and CRM)
Systems in use
The answers to Q30 to Q33 show that 37% of the respondents use business-intelligence,
analytical or decision support systems to analyse data, whereas 42% have plans on using
those systems in the future, some users have not answered this question.
58% of the respondents are merging data in data warehouse (DWH) and currently 25% are
reported as being operational. The subjects that are met in those data warehouses are
mostly technical (53%) and economic data (58%). With a 10% score the social data is not
well represented. Data warehousing is mostly used for analysing on structured data. Non
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structured data is only partly available for analysis purposes (47%) and not many
respondents are planning for it. According to the results above data warehousing and
decision support systems are not commonly used in the field of asset management.
Q30: Do you use business-intelligence, analytical or desicion support Q31: Do you merge data in a data warehouse
systems to analyze your data?
No No
Yes Yes
Q32: What subjects are in the data warehouse Q33: Is non structured data available for analyzes purposes?
Yes
For technical data
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Q34: W hat s ys tems give input for the data warehous e? Q35: How is the data -needed for thes e datawarhous ing and dec is ion
s upport s ys tems - retrieved from the s ourc e s ys tems ?
C us tomer R elation Management
0,21
S ys tem (C R M)
A utomatic ally by
G eographic al Information S ys tem 0,42
0,26 E TL
(G IS )
B y hand 0,11
S C A DA 0,21
42% of the data coming from these sources is handled with ETL tooling (Automated
Extraction, Transformation and Load into the data warehouse). 32% of the respondents
indicate that this ETL process needs human interference or data is entered by hand (Fig.
Q35).
Synchronizing of data
Respondents (42%) say that only part of the data is synchronized between source systems
(Fig. 36). For the working group this is a key point for data quality. Although a key point
for data quality, the problem is only partly recognized since only 20% plan to improve the
situation.
Q36: Do you s ync hroniz e data between s ourc e s ys tems (S C A DA , Q37: How often is data quality addres s ed or data validated
E A M, E R P , G IS and C R M)?
Never 0,05
No 0,37
L onger 0
Y early 0,26
P artly 0,42
Monthly 0,42
Y es 0,05
Daily 0,32
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However, most respondents indicate that they address data quality or data validation
aspects within a month (graph Q37). Results also show marginal synchronization of data
between sources systems and only some plan for improvement.
WG remark: Beside the synchronization among data sources, in the case of time series
data like from transient recorders, monitoring systems, protection, control system etc., the
time synchronization is important to insure a proper analysis.
Data requirements
The survey covered decision and control with a total of 4 questions referring to data
modelling (Q26-Q29) are presented in Table 5.
Question Question
number
26 Do you have a data model that translated information requirements into data
requirements
27 Does the data model distinguish between the situation of today (AS-IS) and the
future (TO-BE)?
29 Do the installed IT systems and applications match with the data model
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The data requirements are derived from information requirements and are made visible in
a data model. Both structured- and unstructured data are present in the utilities. Only in a
few cases unstructured data is modelled in a data model.
When it comes to data modelling of structured data 74% of the respondents answered that
IT systems or applications match at least in part with the data model (Fig. Q29). Also 48%
of the respondents say that unstructured data is part of their data model (Fig. Q28).
Results for the differentiation between technical, economic and social data match the
expectations of the Working Group; there is a strong focus on technical data. The
economic aspects are less represented and data models for social data are not established
(Fig. Q26). Also around one fourth (26%) of the respondents say that they differentiate
between AS-IS and TO-BE data models (Fig. Q27).
WG comment: Results show that enterprise-wide data models exist but that data models
from source systems do not match. This is understandable since suppliers are developing
for a broad range of customers and customer requirements. Data models, once designed,
cannot be easily changed and are a well-kept secret among suppliers due to competition.
Cost of changing data models is high and full of risk in perspective of future releases and
this is not likely to change in the future.
Q26: Do you have a data model that trans lated information Q27: Does the data model dis tinguis h between the s ituation of today
requirements into data requirements ? (A S -IS ) and the future (TO -B E )?
F or s oc iologic al
0,05
data
No 0,47
F or ec onomic al
0,26
data
Y es 0,26
F or tec hnic al data 0,68
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Q28: Is non s truc tured data inc luded or us ed in the data model? Q29: Do the ins talled IT s ys tems and applic ations matc h with the
data model?
No 0,32
No 0
P artly 0,32
P artly 0,58
Y es 0,16 Y es 0,16
WG remark: The management should keep full attention to master data and focus on
defining a basic “mean and lean” data model. This master data acts then as an integrator
for your system landscape. The data should not be modelled from the beginning but only
the part that is needed enterprise-wide. Standardization of business objects for “master
data” for main primary and secondary equipment is recommended. This master data
should be organized and managed in one database, as source for all other information
systems.
Information requirements
The survey covered information requirements with one question “how issues of interest for
the asset manager are translated into information specification”. The responses obtained
are shown in the Fig. Q25.
yes - On maintenance
0,79
strategy
yes - On risk
0,58
assessment/consequences
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Half of the respondents have translated their asset management issues into information
requirements; the other half has plans to implement this. However, for the ones that
formulate their information requirements only about 11% are doing this on an enterprise-
wide basis. With a score of 79% positive answers, information requirements are formulated
for maintenance strategies. This is followed by a score between 50 and 60% showing that
information requirements are formulated also for AM-strategies and risk assessment.
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Question Question
number
39 .. is it - risk assessment
40 .. is it - condition assessment
44 .. is it – corrective
45 .. is it – mixed
48 .. is it -risk assessment
49 .. is it -condition assessment
52 .. is it –corrective
53 .. is it –mixed
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54 .. is it -nothing/no strategy
55 Do you use the risk assessment? If yes, for which type of equipment?
58 Do you take into account for an outage consequences like ... --> this
question is subdivided and continues on following lines
59 .. like economic
60 .. like environmental
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Q39-46a: W hat is the applied philos ophy for a replac ement/renewal Q39-46b: W hat is the applied philos ophy for a replac ement/renewal
s trategy on c irc uit breakers s trategy on pwr. trans formers
Q39-46c : W hat is the applied philos ophy for a replac ement/renewal Q39-46d: W hat is the applied philos ophy for a replac ement/renewal
s trategy on c ables ? s trategy on ins tr. Trans formers ?
importanc e (e.g. non delivered energy) 0,26 importanc e (e.g. non delivered energy) 0,21
financ ial life time 0,11 financ ial life time 0,16
tec hnic al life time 0,16 tec hnic al life time 0,32
c ondition as s es s ment 0,37 c ondition as s es s ment 0,26
ris k as s es s ment 0,32 ris k as s es s ment 0,26
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The most prominent philosophies applied to the equipment types are summarized as
follows:
The risk, as well as the condition assessment, is often applied in case of replacement or
renewal strategies whereas the technical lifetime is off minor interest. The exceptions are
the instrument transformers, for which the time-based or the corrective maintenance are
the favourite strategies. The reason is that the condition based maintenance needs an
assessment of the technical condition, which will lead to further financial expenses and
these costs have to be compared to the investment costs of the considered piece of
equipment.
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Q39-46b: W hat is the applied philos ophy for a replac ement/renewal Q48-54a: W hat is the applied philos ophy for the maintenanc e
s trategy on pwr. trans formers s trategy on c irc uit breakers
nothing/no s trategy 0
nothing, i.e no s trategy
ris k as s es s ment
ris k as s es s ment 0,32
0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1
0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1
Q48-54b: W hat is the applied philos ophy for the maintenanc e Q48-54c : W hat is the applied philos ophy for the maintenanc e
s trategy on pwr trans formers s trategy on c ables
nothing/no s trategy 0
nothing/no s trategy 0
mix ed 0,42
mix ed 0,58
c orrec tive 0,16
c orrec tive 0,16
importanc e(eg non delivered energy) 0,16
importanc e(eg non delivered energy) 0,16
fix ed time (time bas ed) 0,26
fix ed time (time bas ed) 0,37
Q48-54d: W hat is the applied philos ophy for the maintenanc e Q48-54e: W hat is the applied philos ophy for the maintenanc e
s trategy on ins tr. trans formers s trategy on G IS
importanc e(eg non delivered energy) 0,11 importanc e(eg non delivered energy) 0,21
fix ed time (time bas ed) 0,32 fix ed time (time bas ed) 0,32
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Also in this case mixed strategies are used. The most prominent philosophies applied to
the equipment depend on the type of equipment:
Equipment Philosophy
circuit-breakers: time-based
The answers show that the importance of the asset in the system influences the choice of
the replacement strategy followed, whereas for the maintenance strategies it is of less
interest.
For the risk assessment the overall cost of an outage as well as the cost for maintenance /
replacement to avoid the outage should be taken into consideration too. The responses
show that except in case of power transformers, the costs due to an outage are not widely
considered, whereas considerations of the maintenance/ replacement costs are often used
for all asset groups, mainly for the power transformers, circuit-breakers and GIS (Fig. Q56
- 57).
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Q56: Do you c alc ulate the pos s ible outage c os ts of an equipment? Q57: Do you c alc ulate the pos s ible maintenanc e/replac ement
c os ts ?
G IS 0,21
G IS 0,74
ins trument
0,11
trans former ins trument trans former 0,58
c ables 0,26
c ables 0,53
In many cases, the outage consequences (as per question Q58-62) are taken into account
for the decision making process by the utilities and the following point of views are
considered. In any case, the quality of supply plays an important role, followed by
economic aspects:
Economic 95 %
Environmental 74 %
In theory it makes sense to apply a "risk map" to visualize the risk assessment, because
the risk is defined as a product of probability of an outage and its consequence. But the
answer on corresponding question (Q63 / no figure) show that this type of risk
interpretation is not frequently used (20 %)
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Question Question
number
66 Have you defined measurable economic criteria and on what are they based
67 Have you defined measurable technical criteria and on what are they based
68 Have you defined measurable social criteria and on what are they based
69 Have you measurable risk criteria and on what are they based
Technical,
Economic,
Condition assessment,
Risk assessment,
Social.
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Q64: Is your dec is ion polic y bas ed on an IT s upport s ys tem (in Q65: Do you apply defined dec is ion c riteria
addition to written reports and demands )
partly 0,63
c ondition
0,63
as s es s ment
s oc iologic al 0,37
no 0,21
yes 0,11
ec onomic al 0,74
It is noted that the decision policy is most commonly based on technical (84%) and
economic (74%) criteria than on other soft-skill considerations such as social (37%) criteria
(Fig. Q65).
Economic criteria
Almost all respondents, who base their decision policy on economic considerations (79% -
Fig. Q65), use economic criteria such as the net present value (NPV) and life cycle cost
(LCC) methodologies beyond the simple consideration of investment costs alone (Fig.
Q66).
Q66: Have you defined meas urable ec onimic al c riteria and on what
are they bas ed
minimum
0
inves tment c os ts
minimum life c yc le
0,37
c os ts (L C C )
ec onomic al value
0
added (E V A )
Technical criteria
Decision making has historically been based on technical criteria, reflected on the amount
of responses obtained under this category. The respondents were asked to indicate which
from the following specific technical criteria was commonly applied:
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Reliability information,
Condition information,
Age information,
Availability of spare parts,
Availability of know-how.
All of the above mentioned criteria were represented in the survey responses, with a slight
lower percentage for the use of know-how availability (Fig. Q67).
Q67: Have you defined meas urable tec hnic al c riteria and on what are
they bas ed
other 0,05
Social criteria
The respondents who consider social criteria in their decision policy mostly include
personal safety and environmental aspects (Fig. Q68): however, it must also be considered
that the measurability of these criteria is highly difficult and subjective and that the
regulatory bodies do have a strong influence in their application.
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Q68: Have you defined meas urable s oc iologic al c riteria and on what
are they bas ed
other 0
environmental
0,74
rec laim ris ks
power quality
0,26
rec laim ris ks
equipment s afety
0,58
ris ks
Risk criteria
Another important criterion refers to the application of risk assessment regarding the
economic, technical and social aspects considered, and the definition and application of
corresponding measurable risk criteria to their own decision policy. From the total of
respondents, who include risk assessment criteria (84% according to 8.1) in their decision
policy, criteria including technical risks are predominantly used (79%), followed by the
inclusion of economic (53%) and social (47%) risks. A consolidation of the risks to define
measurable criteria is not commonly used, being adopted by only 21% of the respondents
(Fig. Q69).
Q69: Have you meas urable ris k c riteria and on what are they bas ed
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Conclusion
Utilities have a huge amount of raw data available, which needs to be managed to support
the decision making process. Quite a lot of front end data acquisition such as ERP’s
(enterprise resource planning) and EAM’s (enterprise asset management) systems are
available nowadays. From utility point of view to support decision making process all
available IT Systems should be integrated in an overall methodology.
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FINAL CONCLUSIONS
The report presents an overview of the methodology used for defining IT-strategies for
asset management based on the WG work and results from a survey on this topic. The final
goal of IT-strategies for AM is to obtain better decisions for asset management and for
that it needs to have a holistic point of view including technical, economic and social
aspects. The key aspects to be considered are grouped below:
About integration
About data
To support asset management decisions a huge amount of data is available and the “right
information” should be extracted from it as shown in the leading model, Fig. 1. Primary
equipment is mostly stored in enterprise-wide databases, but this is less common with
secondary equipment. The level of detail of this information is mostly recorded on asset
level. It becomes clear that failure, outage, performance and maintenance data are very
important in the decision making process; this data is well recorded. In addition there is a
high degree of recording diagnosis (offline) data. Most of this data is collected by hand but
this is, with the migration to intelligent grids, definitely going to change according to the
respondents. Still a substantial amount of data is recorded outside the enterprise wide
database. From a data management point of view the utilities should focus on integrating
these existing datasets.
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About IT-systems
This survey further shows a remarkable need for ERP systems in the utilities and the
integration of basic data as described above. Integration of technical (e.g. SCADA GeoIS,
EAM) and non-technical systems (e.g. CRM, ERP) are not common in the branch. Asset
management strategies urge the need for data- integration and results show that many
utilities are only at the beginning of this integration, starting to buy and to implement
enterprise-wide systems and introducing data warehouse solutions in an attempt to
integrate data. From a utility’s point of view these systems are not sufficient to support the
decision making process since they are not integrated in an overall methodology. That’s
probably the reason why decision support systems are not commonly used in the field of
asset management.
About modelling
According to the leading model (Fig. 1) there is a need to link information requirements
with data requirements. To obtain that link it is necessary to have integrated data and a
well-defined enterprise-wide data model. The survey shows that enterprise-wide data
models do exist but that data models from source systems do not fully match. Source
systems therefore often do not match the requirements of the asset manager. But this is
only part of the gap.
In addition, results also show that existing models, within the utilities themselves, strongly
focus on technical data, less on economic data and social data is only present in some
models. The decision-making process, on the other hand, requires data models that
describe data needed in mixed strategies and matching technical, economic and social
requirements from a holistic point of view. So existing models within the utilities itself
often do not match the needed holistic approach. Succeeding in filling this gap is the first
step in obtaining better decisions in the field of asset management.
In the opinion of the Working Group and based on the responses of the survey it is
important to consider the following items.
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Take the master data source as a reference point. Use this reference point in all
related systems. System by system, and prioritized by the business relevance. This
synchronization varies with the complexity of the system landscape. It is therefore
also a natural incentive to “clean” the system landscape and to improve the quality
of the data.
Organize that every ICT-project and every system-change respect the defined set of
master data.
Its common practice that every ICT-project and every ICT-change or -interface has
to be evaluated before it is implemented. Re-use those processes for
implementation of master data.
By defining, maintaining and synchronizing this set of master data over the entire system
landscape the data quality will rapidly improve. The master data also serves as the most
important reference for use in data warehouse and decision support systems.
An IT strategy for asset management requires a strong partnership between Business and
ICT in a utility. In this partnership business is responsible for the data itself; the contents
and the data quality. ICT is responsible for the structure, tools and availability of data
through the IT-system. This partnership can be enhanced by creating an organisational
unit that facilitates it and even further governance of information throughout the
enterprise. This leads back to the middle of the previous presented leading model (Fig. 1);
it suggests how utilities can form the creation of the intelligent hub.
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REFERENCES
[1] Cigré JW Group B3/C2 “Maintenance & Reliability”, Task Force 03: Implementation of
information strategy to support utility asset management, Cigré A3&B3 joint colloquium
Tokyo 2005, Paper no. P1-04
[2] Cigré JW Group B3/C2 “Maintenance & Reliability”, Task Force 03: Information Strategy to
support utility asset management, Electra No. 207, April 2003
[3] Cigré Working Group C1.1: Asset Management of Transmission Systems and Associated
Cigré Activities, Cigré Brochure 309, December 2006
[4] Cigré JW Group 23/39.14: Maintenance Outsourcing Guidelines. Cigré Brochure 201,
August 2001
[5] Bartlett, S. (TF23.18): Asset Management in a deregulated environment, Cigré Paris 2002,
report 23-303
[6] Cigré Working Group C1.16: Transmission Asset Risk Management. Cigré Brochure 422,
August 2008
[7] Cigré Working Group 37-27: Ageing of the System – Impact on Planning, Cigré Brochure
176, December 2000
[8] Balzer, G.; Bakic, K.; Haubrich, H.-J., Neumann, C.; Schorn, C.: Selection of an Optimal
Maintenance and Replacement Strategy of H.V. Equipment by a Risk Assessment Process.
Cigré 2006, Paris, rep. B3-103
[9] Working Group C1.11: Asset Management Performance Benchmarking, Cigré Brochure
367, February 2008
[10] Balzer, G.; Schorn, C.: Risk assessment of high voltage equipment. CEPSI 2004, Shanghai,
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[11] Cigré Working Group B3.03: Guidelines to an Optimized Approach to the Renewal of
Existing Air Insulated Substations. Cigré Brochure 300, August 2006
[12] Balzer, G.; Gößmann, T.; Schorn, C.; Benz, T.: The General Asset Management Process of
Power Systems. CEPSI-2008, Macao; report 1052
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