Aging infrastructure in utilities' sector:

Worldwide, aging infrastructure challenges utilities' ability to provide reliable and cost effective energy supply.

Use case identification:

Within the  broad range of technological innovations, solutions with actual value for business and operations have to be identified.

We supported our utility client in the digitalization of its grid asset management activities following a four step approach:

• We identified major pain points in grid maintenance today and developed digital use cases to address them.
• In a second step, we reviewed and prioritized these use cases based on expected technical and commercial benefits, feasibility as well as capital requirements.
• Then, a proof of concept study was performed to demonstrate the technical feasibility for the most attractive use cases.
• In a last phase, the developed pilot activities were scaled to reap the full business potential associated with the prioritized grid asset management use cases.

1. Developed maintenance 4.0 use cases: Visual asset inspection and audit of power distribution lines

• Vehicle-based asset scanning and provision of visual inspections through AI-enabled image recognition

2. Storm damage and vegetation assessment

• Replacement part list generation through image taking and analysis of associated asset registry
• Provision of full transparency with regards to vegetation management needs

3. Risk-based modeling of social/environmental factors

• Generation of risk assessment through evaluation of social and environmental impacts of asset failures