Santiago, Chile: December 09, 2020. GE signed a contract with Transelec, the main power transmission company in Chile, for the implementation and 10-year support of the GE Asset Performance Management (APM) software for electrical systems. This digitization project has the potential to reduce the risk of unforeseen asset failures in transmission lines and electrical substations and improve the quality of service delivered to end customers located throughout more than 3,200 km of the country.
GE's solution will help define condition-based maintenance and asset replacement strategy that will be more efficient using digital technology. Operation and condition data of 1,350 critical high-voltage assets and 13,500 kilometers of lines will be consolidated and analyzed to predict the behavior of the assets and improve their performance.
GE and Transelec collaborated closely to define this strategic agreement for the implementation and support of the APM program. The selected solution includes a library of health algorithms for automatic data analysis and evaluation of equipment health and remaining life, providing maintenance and replacement recommendations based on the actual condition of high-voltage assets and power lines.
“The implementation of this data analytics platform dedicated to the analysis of the condition of the assets is part of the digital transformation strategy that Transelec started some time ago and which is aimed at maximizing company value through digital technologies, data use and exploration, in order to radically improve business performance, reliability and quality of service, ” said Rodrigo Lopez Vergara, Vice President of Operations at Transelec.
The implementation of the software into Transelec’s infrastructure has already started and is scheduled to operate in mid-2021. GE will integrate APM into Transelec’s IT systems and will create interfaces with maintenance and replacement planning systems, line inspection databases, and geographic information systems. The agreement includes support and maintenance of the software platform until 2031.
"Electricity transmission operators require a global vision of the condition of their assets to predict failures, plan maintenance and replacement and, ultimately, make the right decisions that will improve the availability and reliability of the grid," said Mauricio Alamos, Regional Service Manager at GE's Grid Solutions.
The first country where GE implemented its asset performance management (APM) software was Qatar in 2013 and it has since expanded to other countries. The alliance with Transelec is the second of its kind carried out by GE in Latin America. GE has been recognized as one of the leading companies in offering broad-spectrum asset management solutions across multiple industries, and its customers have achieved a return on investment of up to 180% within two years of implementation.
Today, a global GE team that includes staff from Latin America, Asia, Canada, the United States, and Europe, is providing and supporting asset performance management (APM) solutions. The implementation of the solution with Transelec in Chile is carried out by promoting remote work and with all the safeguards for individuals health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have a fundamental responsibility to supply electricity to 98% of the population in the most populated area of the country and to modernize the electricity grid. We are adopting a condition-based and predictive maintenance approach, backed by a proven APM solution that will help us prioritize and plan the maintenance and replacement of our assets and digitize our processes,” highlighted Alejandro Rehbein Oroz, Manager of Innovation and Digital Transformation of Transelec.
