GE Power has announced an agreement with the New York State Power Authority (NYPA) to provide software that will monitor, analyse, and enhance the performance of NYPA electricity generating assets across its 16 generating facilities and electricity transmission network. The collaboration will help accelerate NYPA’s 5-year Strategic Vision plan by improving the efficiency, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of facilities across the entire organisation.
NYPA is the first US power provider to sign such an enterprise-wide digital transformation agreement with GE Power.
The collaboration will focus on improving system-wide performance and operating costs of NYPA’s hydroelectric and gas-based electricity generating capacity, while at the same time reducing carbon emissions. NYPA’s hydropower and natural gas plants are responsible for 15-20 per cent of the state’s daily electricity output.
To accomplish this, GE will provide Asset Performance Management (APM) software. The software leverages data analytics to monitor power generation and transmission equipment health in order to predict potential failures, thereby reducing unplanned downtime, lower maintenance costs, and reduce operational risks.
The announcement supports New York State’s Reforming the Energy Vision (REV), a strategy to build a cleaner, more resilient and affordable energy system with NYPA leading on many of the grid and transmission modernisation and reliability efforts across the state.
The process starts by merging the physical and digital – connecting energy-producing machines via sensors to analytics software. This software then provides operations leaders with predictive alerts which accurately forecast possible failures weeks before they might occur. GE’s APM solution, which runs on its Predix operating system for the Industrial Internet, enables operators to better detect problems that could affect the NYPA ecosystem, resulting in increased plant efficiencies and productivity, reduction of unplanned downtime, lower maintenance costs, and lower operational risks.
NYPA’s Smart Operations Centre is scheduled to begin operations in December 2016. NYPA plans to extend the capabilities of the Smart Operations Centre over time to include digitally-enabled communications, network operations, cybersecurity, and physical security across its generation fleet and transmission system.