asset management

cates and overlapping software. Utilities continue to mix and match
their asset management solutions, but view them as a necessary part
of a whole. “Work management, asset management and financial are
integrated into one system,” says Connie Woo, vice president and CIO
at Toronto Hydro. “The rest (CIS, SCADA, GIS) are stand-alone systems.
We definitely would like to see all of these systems integrated to
support seamless processes.”
“Seamless processes across all asset groups and functions” is
the mantra of most utilities today, especially the large investorowned
entities that dominate 75 percent of the market. That includes
systems that deal with assets all the way to the residence or business.
“I mentioned field service automation and SCADA, which are two areas
I would like to see improved,” Woo says. “We also have a distribution
management system, but we would like to expand it.”
Even industry analysts categorize the asset management marketplace
in different ways. Some will rank work management vendors in one
study, EAM vendors in another, supply chain management (SCM) in yet a
third category, and ERP vendors in a fourth or fifth category — sometimes
even adorning the term ERP with Roman numerals for good measure.
Vendors will stake claims to being the No. 1 solutions provider in
one category or another. Sub-segments in the marketplace often are
applied, for example, defining industry categories in different functional
ways (energy companies including oil and gas as well as electric, or separate
categories for electric generation vs. transmission vs. distribution),
or by using three “tiers” to distinguish large-, mid-, and small-sized
companies before analyzing the different vendors’ market shares.
But for utilities, the main interest is in developing integrated software
systems that enable them to improve the processes involved in
dealing with their assets and doing so system-wide. “A major area that
I’m really looking at where there needs to be a breakthrough is in business
process orchestration,” says Gene Zimon, senior vice president,
Information Technology, NSTAR, based in Westwood, Mass. “If you buy
the logic that you’re implementing processes by assembling legacy and
new software components, you end up with a set of systems that has
to be integrated in order to deploy an effective business process.”
Thus one important “asset” being sought from technology is
improved “process,” making the definition even more complex.
The complexity of the undertaking was expressed by Mahvash
Yazdi, senior vice president, business integration and CIO, Edison International
and Southern California Edison,
in Rosemead, Calif. “Our engineering
organization is looking into application
of technology wherever it makes sense
in terms of both transmission and distri-
bution assets,” he says. “We also have a
group that we call our technology watch
group, and we are looking at informationrelated
technology, such as automation of
field tools. We are providing our linemen
and trouble men with computers in their
trucks and with tools that will enable
them to manage their work in a real-time
fashion, and have the right material
[assets] at the right location. We’re looking
at power line carriers in a private
fashion, potentially for a narrow-band
automated meter reading. So, we have
technology groups that are doing technology
evaluation as well.” That means
meters and the systems and individuals
who read them are assets, as well.
Toronto Hydro’s Woo also views asset management as part of
Vendors will
stake claims
to being the
No. 1 solution
provider in one
category or
another.
“service-oriented architecture.” Woo says: “We are planning an
upgrade of our EAM system, which is the system from Mincom that
encompasses all our work management, human resources, asset
management, our financials, our supply chain, and all of our back office.
So we’re planning to upgrade to the next version of that system. Hopefully,
that will move us to a new architecture — the service-oriented
architecture. Hopefully that will position us better for the Web and
future automation.”
Despite the attempt by vendors and analysts to quantify and
“pigeonhole” asset management, it continues to be elusive in terms
of definition at utilities. But due to their asset-intensive nature, utilities
know they need to be involved in it. They understand that assets
include everything from the pole or transformer in the field to the
business intelligence provided to the boardroom by integrated enterprise
systems that enable executives to see the status of those poles,
transformers, generating plants, and field service crews.
www.energybizmag.com ENERGYBIZ MAGAZINE 41