OMNETRIC Group has partnered with KELAG to build its first MindApp for the energy industry. The OMNETRIC Planning and Outage Intelligence Application (PnOI), built on Siemens’ MindSphere, the cloud-based, open IoT operating system, was developed through the collaboration of data scientists, power engineers and IT experts. With the app, this team of experts aims to help utilities enable better asset planning and outage management and improve business performance.
KELAG is an energy service provider in Austria and KNG, KELAG’s distribution grid operator, serves around 300,000 customers via a grid network covering over 7,000 transformers, 18,000 km of power lines and 65,000 poles. The partnership, which commenced in 2016 required a joint team to analyze grid data from KNG and combine it with publically available environmental data. Using the data intelligence generated, OMNETRIC Group developed different outage prediction statistical models for KELAG with a 90 percent accuracy rate. These statistical models are integral to the OMNETRIC Planning and Outage Intelligence MindApp.
The app will enable utilities to more accurately decide when to maintain individual grid assets, improve operations and manage workforce requirements and will ultimately enable better investment planning decisions.
Implementation of the app at energy distributors can be supported by OMNETRIC Group data scientists and IT experts, who offer system integration and consulting for this MindSphere application.
Gerald Obernosterer, Division Manager Grid Management at KNG, said, “As a grid operator we are focused on leveraging digital technologies that enable us to quickly and efficiently improve grid reliability. The OMNETRIC Planning and Outage Intelligence Application, which we are continuing to co-develop, has had an immediate impact on our outage intelligence management and planning. It has allowed us to more accurately predict maintenance tasks on a daily basis and, in doing so, has helped us optimize related costs”.
Heinz Sitter, Managing Director IT & Telecommunications at KELAG Group, said, “We are working with OMNETRIC Group to customize MindSphere applications in order to benefit from the agility and efficiency achieved through the Industrial Internet of Things. Accessing applications built on Siemens’ MindSphere enables us to benefit from global cloud developments while still deploying applications on-premise in our own data center. This allows us to meet the precise needs of a distribution company today, as well as better manage systems integration and security considerations”.
The OMNETRIC Planning and Outage Intelligence MindApp is just one of a number of applications that OMNETRIC Group is porting or planning to port to Siemens’ Mindsphere; part of a vision where apps will help energy providers to quickly and cost-efficiently take advantage of data intelligence to improve business performance.
