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Utility Asset Maintenance Comes with Hidden Challenges Companies Can Get Ahead Of

Utility asset maintenance carries hidden challenges that often go undetected until they become costly failures. Proactive monitoring strategies and data-driven approaches can help utilities identify and address invisible asset problems before they escalate. Companies that adopt these methods can reduce downtime, extend asset life, and improve operational efficiency.

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By Dominique Meyer, Ph.D. · · Asset MaintenanceDr. Dominique MeyerEnergyExperts Talk
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Key takeaways

01

Invisible asset degradation is a significant but underrecognized cost driver for utilities.

02

Proactive monitoring and predictive maintenance strategies can help utilities get ahead of failures.

03

Closing the gap between known and hidden asset risks requires systematic data collection and analysis.

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Putting the world of utility management in focus, the maintenance of infrastructure assets plays a critical role in ensuring reliable service delivery. Recent discussions have highlighted a significant gap in how utilities monitor and manage these assets, particularly those parts that are not immediately visible or measurable. As utilities increasingly rely on a blend of telecommunications and electrical infrastructure, the importance of understanding and addressing these hidden variables comes to the forefront.

What strategies can utility companies employ to better manage the uncertain factors of asset maintenance? How can advancements in data integration transform the effectiveness of asset care?

At the heart of a recent Experts Talk discussion regarding the modernization of the power grid, these questions were answered by Dr. Dominique Meyer, Founder and CEO of Looq AI. He detailed just how connected the intersection of technology and utility management is. Dr. Meyer also emphasized the potential of data-driven approaches to uncover and address the less observable aspects of utility assets.

Here are some takeaways he raised from his interview:

  • Many components of utility assets, like underground cables or concealed wiring, aren’t easily monitored yet significantly affect utility operations.
  • Combining data from various sources, including meters and telco data, can provide a more comprehensive view of asset condition and performance.
  • Enhanced insights can lead to more proactive asset management, potentially preventing failures before they occur.
  • With better data, utilities can prioritize maintenance actions, focusing resources where they are needed most, thus improving cost efficiency.
  • Ultimately, improving the maintenance of utility assets leads to more reliable service delivery to millions of customers.

Dr. Meyer underlined the need for utility companies to adopt more sophisticated data analytics strategies to navigate the hidden challenges of asset maintenance.

Utility companies need to adopt more sophisticated data analytics strategies to navigate the hidden challenges of asset maintenance.

Video TranscriptExpand ↓

I I wanna touch on bullet on the, parts of the assets that you cannot see or cannot measure. Right? And I think the meters are placed that you can have very clear observables to grid behavior, between that substation into, you know, homes, into into businesses. But there are a lot of uncertain factors that utilities care about. That's where the interplay between telco and electric utilities resource mattering. Is it, a failed wire conductor because a tree come back came down and that also affected the fiber? Is it an undergrounding, scenario where you have aging of of cables? All those factors really foster, I think, a thought process beyond what you can easily measure into how can you combine different data sources. Right. And I think when you start finding what, for example, a meter can show into what physical assets, degrade or the physical conditions are, all of a sudden, you have so much more information to work off of to be able to understand how how do you deal with this large scale problem and how do you efficiently resolve this for millions of customers that you need to service reliably.

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Dominique Meyer, Ph.D.
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Dominique Meyer, Ph.D.

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