Oracle Helps Utilities Identify and Fix Asset Issues Faster

Every year, millions of avoidable asset failures go unnoticed until the damage is done. While the proliferation of smart sensors and devices are enabling assets to “talk” about their health, utilities have struggled to decode this barrage of new data to hear and understand them. With advanced analytics and pre-built data visualizations in Oracle Work and Asset Cloud Service (WACS), utilities can quickly reveal the story their assets are telling to drive faster, more accurate decisions at a fraction of the cost.

“With a new natural gas-fired plant coming online in 2023, it was critical that we had a modern asset management system in place to track our diverse assets,” said Steve Saunders, director of information technology, Seminole Electric. “Oracle WACS will enable Seminole to quickly visualize all of our assets so that we can focus on delivering the most reliable service to our members.”

Breaking down data silos, WACS brings together best-in-class capabilities for asset and operational device management, GIS and mobile field service in one platform. Unlike other solutions that only offer the star schema for reporting, WACS today offers 118 pre-defined visualizations and 57 base calculations out-of-the-box, with additional visualization options planned. With data displayed on easy to consume dashboards, utilities gain the ability to bypass the need for costly data manipulation and can get key intelligence into the hands of business stakeholders quickly. And with all the data coming from the same reporting structure, utilities can compare metrics and benchmark their performance against set goals and KPIs.

“Asset failures are consistently linked to costly and devastating issues for utilities,” said Dan Byrnes, SVP of product development, Oracle Utilities. “It’s critical that utilities do less guessing and more listening when it comes to the health of their assets. Being able to not only manage the massive amounts of data coming in but also visualize it in a way that elicits action is the holy grail in keeping assets performing effectively and safely. WACS enables utility stakeholders to make sense of their data right out-of-the-box—no business analyst degree needed.”

The pre-built visualizations allow users to slice data such as failure count or cost by elements like the asset type or manufacturer. Users can also choose from an extensive library of pre-built calculations such as Mean Time Between Failure or Asset Availability to quickly build their own visualizations sliced any way they want. With data also flowing freely into the system from smart, connected assets and devices, utilities can identify and easily visualize infrastructure weaknesses throughout the lifecycle of the asset. This includes asset acquisition, set-up, and performance—such as predictive maintenance, repair, and inspection activities—through to the purchasing and inventory of parts.

WACS empowers electric, gas, and water utilities of all sizes to cost-effectively measure and continually improve performance by providing centralized support of fixed and linear assets and a growing portfolio of intelligent devices, to help:

• Prevent failure: by providing ways to identify risks of asset failure faster and easier; eliminating the day-to-day tasks of collecting data and maintaining separate systems of record, and; having the full breadth of asset performance data at the ready to make business and investment decisions.
• Enhance intelligence: 118 prebuilt visualizations, nine data subject areas, and 57 base calculations, with more planned to be added regularly, make it easy for utilities to visualize and “hear” what their assets are saying. Utilities can also integrate data coming from their other investments, such as SCADA systems, to give a truly holistic view of their operations and asset health.
• Take action: effectively without losing time and resources to investigate faults; create work orders based on the criticality of the asset and schedule the field visits and crews accordingly, and; manage and monitor work progress via dashboards.
• Optimize performance: of an asset maintenance program by benchmarking performance. This enables utilities to accurately plan their investments based on asset conditions and to implement ISO 55000 plans quickly to generate results faster.

In a recent study, sixty-four percent of utilities noted that cloud computing is critical to their company’s future success, in large part due to the need to better manage an ever-growing pool of data coming from smart meters, IoT sensors, etc. Utilities realize that it is becoming too great a task and risk to manage this influx without a significant investment in tools that can capture and analyze data quickly. To learn more about how Oracle WACS is helping utilities manage this deluge of data, visit here.