Implementing an asset management platform to provide operational awareness, integrated with PI Vision and Esri ArcGIS.
To design and build an Asset Management Information Platform (AMIP) primarily to provide operational awareness by combining real time data (from 2 different SCADA systems) with asset information, maintenance information, logs, manual measurements, and data from various other business sources.
The data was organised into a single data model using PI AF and a series of displays built using PI Vision. Certain data was also provided to ArcGIS via the PI integrator to provide a map-based dashboard with links to PI.
Transgrid had stand-alone instances of siloed data across SCADA and corporate systems. Users would log into up to 13 different systems to gain an understanding of what was happening (or had recently happened) when investigating incidents or anomalies.
As such, there were no unified reports or dashboards relating the different sets of real time and event data, with the asset list. Any form of data relationships was performed manually on a case by case basis dependent on criticality of any incident or anomaly. While a GIS system was available, no data was published up to this layer for geographical contextualisation.
Architecture
The PI System was selected as the core technology for the AMIP project, offering a single layer for users to access for all 13 underlying systems and any others that may be added in the future. This was designed to be an enterprise data repository and operational intelligence portal by GTS due to its proven reputation in performance and security. PI interfaces allowed connections to be made to the multiple real time data sources in SCADA environments and other systems in a secure manner, before transmitted recorded values to the corporate layer PI Data Archive. A single hierarchical asset data model was built by GTS using PI AF, linking assets to these recorded tag values. Further integrations were made with the Events and Measures to ensure all data was made available reliably and securely. Significant work was done to fully understand, document and transform the data from the 13 sources in order for consistency to be realised.
This single model was synchronised daily with an asset structure using GTS ADS technology from a source “system of record” to align with Transgrid’s current physical asset deployments and account for any infrastructure changes that occur in the future. Consultations were made with internal and external subject matter experts to ensure the sync process would have up to date information to the end user in a timely manner, while having no performance impact on any component of the system during day-to-day operations.
GTS championed the project to:
Visualisation
New reporting options were then made available from this single model, with the web-based technologies PI Vision and Esri ArcGIS being chosen.
Dashboards within PI Vision were created to offer a dynamically generated portal into the assets of Transgrid, and drill down through successive screens into any part of the network down to individual assets. Each of these dashboards captured the local network infrastructure and any KPIs that may be relevant to the end user. At the deepest level, asset specific events and measures, as well as raw sensor values were made available on the dashboard in a secure manner, without the user having to understand the relationship of the asset to the 13 backend data systems or having to make any sort of connections to a SCADA environment.
GTS worked with Esri to implement the data publishing with the PI Integrator to an Esri frontend. The published data set involved the real time and event data represented in the asset model, as well as geographical information that had been made available. The geographical breakdown shows the location of each Transgrid asset as icons on a map of the greater Sydney area, and interactivity with the icons brings up pop up summary information of the asset for immediate action, as well as a link to historical events and measures that have occurred. This all occurs within the user’s web page to transform how the users interact with data.
Training
Training was also conducted by GTS with a select number of staff at Transgrid to better understand the new context in which data has been made available. This covered the PI AF model used to organise the assets into a hierarchical and the data exposed at each layer, as well as how to build their own PI Vision screens.
The training gives the operators and managers at Transgrid the opportunity to build dashboards that are relevant to their day-to-day operations to quickly and easily get at the data they need for any anomaly or incident investigations.
The Asset Management Information Portal (AMIP) brings together real-time data, asset specifications, maintenance records, manual readings and many other data sources into a single data model in the PI System; and provides a single point of reference offering tactical information to users through intuitive PI Vision and ArcGIS dashboards; as well as providing a solid foundation for the future development of analyses.
