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Asset Lifecycle Information Management

Digital Transformation of Power Plants: Need of the Hour for the Indian Market

The-Indian power sector has historically been characterized by power-cuts, economic losses, system inefficiencies and archaic last-mile networks.-- 

India has seen extraordinary successes in energy development, but challenges always remain. While the sector has been undergoing an overhaul, challenges over the last few years have underscored the need-for-an-accelerated technological upgrade.-- 

Focusing-on-digital-transformation-is helping to-enhance-this-seemingly traditional, manpower-heavy sector into a smarter, more efficient power system. This enables-each element in the value chain-to-reimagine-its-processes and streamline-infrastructure.- 

Power-plants-often suffer from a lack of visibility into operations and an inability to take predictive action to avoid-reliability, safety and compliance-issues, as the data needed to operate the facility can be scattered and siloed. To overcome this, power plant operators need a connected ecosystem that provides a platform-to help ensure-operational intelligence,-enhance-safety and-meet internal and external-regulatory compliance.- 

The digital-transformation of-power plant-operations equips operators-with essential-tools-to address a wide range of issues that could compromise the-safety and efficiency of production.- 

By-converting manual procedures to-a-digital environment,-plant-workflows-improve;-that-means-you can better manage regulatory-compliance,-including safety and environmental-regulations.- 

The primary benefit of-a digital-ecosystem-is-that it reduces operational risk. Many-incidents-in the-power industry begin with human error.-The more you-improve processes with-digital-transformation,-the more you can reduce human error. 

For-power-plant-operators, quick access to the most up-to-date information in a-digital twin-for operations-from the plant floor to the boardroom enables better decision-making, improved business processes, enhanced productivity-and reduced-operational risk.- 

According to-Gartner:-“A-digital twin is a digital representation of a real-world entity or system. Implementing a digital twin is an encapsulated software object or model that mirrors a unique physical object, process, organization, person or other abstraction. Data from multiple digital twins can be aggregated for a composite view across a number of real-world entities, such as a power plant or a city, and their related processes.”- 

To help companies achieve these digital twin benefits, Hexagon's Asset Lifecycle Intelligence division provides interoperable solutions throughout the asset lifecycle. Digital twins — for example, a digital twin for engineering and a digital twin for operations — and the digital thread — that connects multiple digital twins throughout the asset lifecycle — is the glue that connects these enterprise solutions and their data on one platform, enabling a single version of the truth concept. Digital twins can be built gradually using Hexagon solutions in different stages to prevent barriers to adoption. The extent of digital twin maturity required is based on an organization’s level of digitalization already in place.- 

Overall, the goal of any-digital-twin is to increase asset efficiency and offer a digital representation of current and historic plant configurations, along with related performance information. Enlightened, data-driven decision-making becomes the norm, and the easy sharing of-digital-twin data with multiple departments increases collaboration and reduces operational risk.-- 

Another important aspect of digitalization in power plants is shift operations management. Inadequate shift operations management is often highlighted as a contributory factor in plant accident investigation reports by-industry and government agencies. A digital shift operations platform allows teams to efficiently create logbook entries, manage tasks, acknowledge orders and collect and analyze real-time data throughout their shifts to address anomalies and communicate effectively with incoming shift teams.- 

Automatic and instantaneous information empowers-workers, keeping them connected-and focused, freeing their time and ensuring clear communication during-safety-critical-activities.- 

j5 Operations Management Solutions-provides a tried-and-tested-digital-solution with spreadsheet-like configurability and enterprise scalability. This comprises the j5 Framework, j5 Shift Handover, j5 Operations Logbook, j5 Standing Orders and j5 Work Instructions.  

If you want to know more about-our solutions,-please-visit the-j5 Operations Management Solutions website or reach-out-to-our-team in-India.--

About the Author

Sathish is Senior Sales Manager for Hexagon’s Asset Lifecycle Intelligence division in India. Sathish has 20+ years of experience with software solutions such as CAD/CAM/PLM/Plant Information Management segments. He has worked closely with owner operators & EPCs in oil & gas, power industries and more. At Hexagon, he is responsible for sales in the southern region of India. He holds an engineering degree from Annamalai University and an MBA from Madurai Kamaraj University.

Profile Photo of Sathishkumar Velampalayam