POWER November 2021 - 32

TECHNOLOGY
Ensuring Power Grid Health
Through Better Asset Management
The power sector has been evolving for years and technology has been instrumental
in the change. Today, asset performance management and predictive maintenance
tools can help power companies avoid outages, extend the lifespan of equipment,
reduce operational costs, and improve safety.
Keith Hock
I
t's no secret that the energy business
has been turned upside down
over the past several years. Political
change, market forces, and advancements
in sustainable energy technology
have knocked down most barriers
to energy production at the edge of
the network and in people's homes.
Producing power is no longer the primary
focus of value creation for most
electric utilities. Instead, we now find
ourselves in the business of delivering
power across an increasingly complex,
dynamic electrical grid (Figure 1).
Ameren, like many electric utilities, has
turned our focus to being a customercentric
service provider.
Lifelong utility veterans like myself
are witnessing an unprecedented
transformation in societal behavior,
which is driving change to our utility
business model. We're conservative by
Renewable energy provided 12% of the
electrical energy consumed in the U.S. in
2020-a figure that will continue to grow
in the years and decades ahead.
But It's Not All Doom and Gloom
Bolstered by the push to convert gaspowered
vehicles to electric vehicles,
electricity usage will continue to grow.
President Biden has announced that
half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S.
by 2030 will be electric. General Motors
said it will phase out gas-powered cars by
2035. Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and Daimler
have made similar pronouncements
while Ford released an electric version
of the F-150 pickup truck. The switch to
electric vehicles alone is predicted to increase
electricity consumption by 25%.
The country's power grid will handle
these challenges, but it will require
an investment by the power companies
that own and operate these grids.
It's critical that utilities eke every bit of
value out of our largest asset-the electrical
grid. This can be done by proactively
maintaining an electrical grid that is old,
outdated, and getting increasingly more
complex.
nature, because that's what is necessary
to satisfy our mission to deliver
safe, reliable, and secure energy to
our customers. In the past, that meant
building, owning, and operating centralized
coal- and gas-powered plants.
These provided the electricity that fueled
America's growing economy while
delivering shareholder value unprecedented
in economic history.
Those days are behind us. Wind, solar,
geothermal, and tidal energy sources are
not only the future, but also the present.
32
Power generated on the edge of the
network
will need to be managed,
modulated, and delivered on demand to
wherever it is needed, across increasingly
complex electrical infrastructure.
Consumers expect to flip a switch and
see the light. If the lights go off or the
assembly line shuts down or the data
center goes dark-that's on us. And
people will know it.
The biggest problem is the outdated
business model of utilities. As we switch
to a service-oriented business, we need
www.powermag.com
1. The electric power generation, transmission,
and distribution system becomes more
complex every day as new wind and solar resources
are integrated into the grid. Courtesy:
Hitachi Energy
to consider that traditional revenue
streams are going away and margins are
shrinking. It's critical that utilities eke every
bit of value out of our largest asset-
the electrical grid. This can be done by
proactively maintaining an electrical grid
that is old, outdated, and getting increasingly
more complex. Many transformers
and other equipment are approaching
40 years old. These things were built to
last-and many will be in the field for
decades longer-but they need to be
regularly maintained and their capacity
managed. Unfortunately, an aging workforce
means less onsite skill and experience
within operations, maintenance,
and engineering teams. It's clear that the
increasingly complex and dynamic nature
of the grid is outpacing capabilities
of human operators.
The Art of Doing More with Less
Doing more with less can be solved
with
innovative
technology.
Unfortunately,
utilities do not have a culture of
innovation to fall back on. We've spent
the past 100 years maintaining the status
quo, and we're not going to all of a
sudden become lean organizations with
POWER | November 2021
http://www.powermag.com
POWER November 2021

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