Constellation Energy deploys Transpara Visual KPI

February 02, 2010
Case Study

Summary

Management uses Visual KPI to monitor and manage operations, predictive maintenance engineering, vibration analysis, emissions tracking and daily reports.

February 2, 2010 – Transpara announced that Constellation Energy deployed Visual KPI in their central Performance Management and Diagnostics center. All levels of management use the Visual KPI data visualization solution to monitor and manage key performance metrics – such as operations, predictive maintenance engineering, vibration analysis, emissions tracking and daily reports – from their PDAs and SmartPhones.Visual KPI’s lightweight analytics aggregate operations data from Constellation’s existing IT systems – including the OSIsoft PI System data historian and SmartSignal – and deliver actionable information in the form of rich scorecards and trends directly to users’ mobile devices. A decision support tool employed by more than 100 users on a daily basis, Visual KPI extends the value of Constellation’s existing investments for improved operations and business performance.“The most critical business activities in the utilities industry, like decreasing environmental emissions or reducing outages, depend on having immediate access to pertinent operations data,” said Steve Noel, director of IT, Constellation Energy. “By allowing us to repurpose existing data across the entire organization, Visual KPI has become a valuable business analytics tool that’s an extension of the control room. When members of the executive staff check Visual KPI before doing anything else in the morning, you know it’s a must-have tool!” Constellation Energy uses Visual KPI for a variety of operational performance management functions, including:

Remote tracking of generation totals, generation units running and status, as well as real-time energy pricing data.

Predictive maintenance engineering, including performance monitoring and vibration monitoring – predictive maintenance technicians, performance engineers and vibration specialists rely on Visual KPI’s easy access to real-time data and alerts for monitoring and diagnostics.

“Manage by Exception” for controllable losses (e.g. steam pressure and temperature), ensuring all stakeholders are engaged and can easily access alerts and drill-down information.

Remote monitoring of emissions tracking and vibration analysis, enabling subject matter experts to identify early warnings before problems become critical, thereby increasing plant availability.

Remote PI Server health monitoring, issue diagnosis, database back-up aging and tracking via PDAs.

SmartSignal Watchlist alerts on Blackberries and Mobile Windows, which improve users’ ability to catch equipment-related issues and allow stakeholders to remain in the loop without adding burden to the Performance Management and Diagnostics staff. “A cornerstone of daily operational performance strategy, Visual KPI turns the massive amounts of operations, financial and infrastructure data generated from disparate sources into meaningful information,” said Michael Saucier, CEO of Transpara. “Easy to configure, deploy and use on any Smart Phone or PDA, Visual KPI continues to help utilities like Constellation to avoid hundreds of critical situations, save significantly more money than their total solution cost, and derive even more value from their existing technology investments.” The only solution custom-built for delivering data to users on any mobile device or PC without any additional programming, Visual KPI gives customers instant access to their most important KPIs, scorecards and trends. By helping users throughout the organization to monitor their processes and asset base, Visual KPI improves performance, reduces operating costs and lowers business risk.About Constellation EnergyConstellation Energy is a leading supplier of energy products and services to wholesale and retail electric and natural gas customers. It owns a diversified fleet of generating units located throughout the United States, totaling approximately 9,100 megawatts of generating capacity, and is among the leaders pursuing the development of new nuclear plants in the United States. The company delivers electricity and natural gas through the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), its regulated utility in Central Maryland. A Fortune 500 company headquartered in Baltimore, Constellation Energy had revenues of $19.8 billion in 2008.About Transpara Corporation Transpara delivers Visual KPI, on-demand dashboard software that provides customers in the process and utility industries with role-based, actionable KPIs on any web browser. Visual KPI presents operating information from multiple data sources to users in context and on-demand, enabling timely, informed decision making from any location. By helping users throughout the organization to monitor their asset base, Visual KPI improves performance, reduces operating costs and lowers business risk. Learn More

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