OSIsoft LLC: Operational Intelligence Transformed with the PI System

The energy industry has been growing at an unprecedented pace in tandem with challenges and business opportunities alike. A major impediment that exists in this landscape is the dearth of power systems personnel with the skills and training to deal with the aging electric power infrastructure and the increasing amount of intermittent renewable power and electric vehicle charging systems. “For example, most States will not be able to meet their Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requirements without proven solutions to handling intermittency on the grid,” informs Chuck Wells, Industry Principal at OSIsoft. Adding to the list of crises is Obama’s recent executive order regarding Federal leadership in sustainability and greenhouse gas emission reductions, which adds to the complexity of keeping the power grid stable and cost effective. With Phasor Management Units (PMUs) spewing large amounts of data every second (2400 samples per second), data archiving becomes an issue. Addressing these multi-faceted challenges, OSIsoft is continuing to improve the speed and scale-ability of its core products to cope with large increases in the number of measurements and the rate of data acquisition. This ensures that the remaining technical staff of the Utilities can address their issues. OSIsoft—headquartered in San Leandro, CA—enables businesses to capture and leverage sensor-based data across the enterprise to improve efficiency, asset health, productivity, sustainability, quality, safety, and security within their operations.

“OSIsoft facilitates enterprises across a range of activities like exploration, extraction, production, generation, process and discrete manufacturing to leverage streaming data to optimize and enrich their business ecosystems,” says Wells. The company introduced a series of pre-packaged solutions that are being used directly by the Utility companies and system integrators. These include patented methods to handle high volume synchronized data calculations in real time. The resulting information can then be used to improve the security and stability of the grid as well as grid components such as transformers, lines, breakers, and power conditioning equipment.The company’s pre-packaged time synchronization templates can be used directly by utility companies as well as system integrators. These include patented methods to handle high volume synchronized data calculations in real-time.