ABB to implement Asset Health Center solution at American Electric Power

RALEIGH, N.C., Nov. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ABB (NYSE: ABB), the world's leading power and automation group, announced today that American Electric Power (AEP), one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, will implement the new Asset Health Center solution from ABB to further enhance the performance and reliability of its electric transmission network. The Asset Health Center solution will be applied across all AEP transmission substations system-wide.

The Asset Health Center builds on the AEP-ABB Transmission Technology Alliance, which combines AEP's operational innovation with ABB's research and development depth to deliver unique new capabilities to the transmission industry. In 2007, AEP first outlined the industry benefits of what it termed an "asset health center" concept, and then encouraged the development of a platform that would integrate AEP-provided infrastructure and systems, together with condition models that transform data into practical decision-support information.   

The Asset Health Center solution integrates equipment-based operational technology (OT) from ABB, and enterprise information technology (IT) from Ventyx, ABB's industrial enterprise software group, while also leveraging deep operational and diagnostic expertise contributed by AEP. It is designed to automate what can otherwise be a time-consuming process requiring highly skilled individuals to gain visibility into the condition of critical assets, recognize performance issues, and prioritize maintenance and repair activities. AEP is leveraging existing infrastructure and designs to feed digital equipment history records, online monitoring and operational data to the Asset Health Center.   

"We have been working to automate situational awareness of asset conditions for some time. We now are poised to realize valuable operating and maintenance benefits from those efforts," said Robert W. Bradish, vice president – grid development, AEP. "Integrating this new solution will also help to identify assets requiring replacement as they reach the end of their useful life. The Asset Health Center is an example of the technical innovation we always pursue to achieve the highest standard of safety, efficiency and reliability in our electric transmission system."

Specifically, the Asset Health Center combines ABB's condition-monitoring and performance algorithms – which are an extension of ABB Service's patented Mature Transformer Management Program™ condition-assessment program – with the Ventyx FocalPoint business intelligence solution. At the heart of the solution is its ability to bring together a wide range of disparate asset information, asset algorithms based on deep subject-matter expertise, and smart software solutions into one cohesive system. By leveraging this convergence of OT and IT, leading utilities such as AEP can unlock the true value of their smart grid investments, capture and institutionalize years of employee know-how, and deliver actionable intelligence to key stakeholders across the business.

"The North American power industry is faced with an aging infrastructure, which requires continuous care and strategic upgrades," said Roger Bailey, president of ABB Power Products division, North America. "Bringing together ABB's operational technology and Ventyx's information technology into our new Asset Health Center solution can dramatically change the way utilities approach transmission equipment maintenance. We are excited to partner with market leaders such as AEP on such a significant initiative to maximize network performance by enabling increasingly intelligent transmission grids."

"The Asset Health Center provides a new industry standard for end-to-end condition-based maintenance that can help utilities ensure the reliability of critical infrastructure assets upon which the nation's power grid depends," said Jeff Ray, CEO of Ventyx. "By transforming real-time and historical data into meaningful and timely insights into the health of their assets, utilities can ensure greater uptime and uninterrupted service delivery for customers, while lowering their own operations and maintenance costs." 

American Electric Power (www.aep.com) is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP also owns the nation's largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined.    

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 145,000 people. The company's North American operations, headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, employ about 27,000 people in multiple manufacturing, service and other major facilities.

Ventyx, an ABB company (www.ventyx.com) is a world-leading supplier of Industrial Enterprise Software for essential industries such as energy, mining and public infrastructure. Ventyx solutions bridge the gap between information technologies (IT) and operational technologies (OT), enabling clients to make faster, better-informed decisions in both daily operations and long-term planning strategies. Some of the world's largest organizations rely on Ventyx solutions to minimize risk, enhance operational and financial performance, and execute the right strategies for the future.

For help with any technical terms in this release, please go to: www.abb.com/glossary.

SOURCE ABB