The OSIsoft Super Regional is OSIsoft’s second largest event in North America. The event is positioned to help current and new OSIsoft System users learn more about all the features that OSIsoft offers through trainings and shared use cases. This includes everything from basic historian functionality to massively scalable data access solutions for the entire enterprise. This year’s event took place in Washington D.C. and was packed with content to help users expand their understanding of the OSIsoft PI System and its value. Read all the event's highlights and our takeaways now...
Dr. Sanjiv Malhotra, Director at Energy Investor Center – DOE, kicked off the event discussing ways technology is changing the energy industry. Over the course of his diverse career, he has found that data continues to play a huge role in optimizing renewable energy. For example, in 2017 wind represented 6.3% of the US power generation. Much of that initial investment was based on modeling potential energy output formed by sampled wind speeds and modeled turbine efficacy. Now that a huge number of turbines have been deployed coast to coast, measured time series data is going to help drive future investments.
Today’s turbine is a very expensive system with over 8000 parts, which makes determining the true ROI for a single machine critical in predicting how much additional cost can be added to the machine. For example, wind speeds further from the ground are much faster, which can create more energy but also additional costs. Higher towers directly impact the cost of a turbine due to these factors. This makes it difficult to determine the optimal height of a system without measured data over a long period of time. The performance of a future wind field will be directly impacted by the knowledge gathered from today’s systems.
This discussion about data set the stage for the next two days of the conference. Greg Martin, Senior Manager of Environmental Engineering ICS from BNSF, shared the data from their wastewater and storm water treatment systems. He discussed how the data collected across all their facilities during maximum capacity operation is being used to optimize future CAPEX spending. This provides them with proactive information which has allowed them to reduce risks, increase efficiencies, lower costs, increase reliability and to continuously improve.
In the following presentation, the University of Maryland showcased how they used the OSIsoft PI system to connect multiple power generation systems across their campus to respond faster to electrical outages. They are now able to respond faster to outages, reduce energy use in classrooms by 60% and have drastically reduced costs with mechanical room flood prevention.
Several analytics firms at the event presented examples of leveraging historical PI data to gain insights on operations. In each case, companies have developed ways to process customers data without taking ownership of the data itself. These techniques make it easier for companies to share their data with experts without losing control of the information itself.
While the power of data continues to be explored, it is clear from this event that having a significant set of historical data can payoff. In some cases, the near-term value of the data may not be as clear, but that should not prevent companies from recording the information they are already generating daily. With data storage costs continuing to fall, capturing and storing data for future use is a no brainer.
One of the focuses of the event was that we are in an “operational data drive world”. The technology demonstrated showcased how attendees are bringing that concept into the future. The visibility that the OSIsoft PI System provides allows users to gain deeper insights into their operations, enabling a more cost-effective operation. HMS Networks was proud to be a part of this year’s event to showcase our Flexy Edge Gateway to PI System connector live demo. This solution allows user to pull that valuable data from their machines to the Flexy which sends it to the PI system.