GE’s digital center in Atlanta uses data from power plants to spot trouble and save money. The center, the largest of its kind in the world, looks a lot like a smaller version of NASA’s mission control center. It has banks of computers and a wall-to-wall colorful LED screen flashing real-time operating conditions inside 5,000 turbines, generators, and other equipment churning away at more than 950 power plants located in 75 countries and serving 350 million people. Every day, 1 million sensors attached to the machines send 200 billion data points to the cloud and to computers sitting directly on the machines. The brain of the center is GE’s new Asset Performance Management (APM) software application, and it will make the center’s predictive powers even more formidable, by giving customers more advanced warning of issues that might trigger an outage. The “brain” also makes it easier for GE engineers and their customers to compare notes in real time and spot problems before they happen. Customers with the software see exactly what GE’s experts see. As a result, they minimize downtime and optimize power plant performance and save utilities money. Come take a look behind the curtain and see how predictive analytics can help you to be more productive and reliable. ** This event is open to end-users only and requires a $25 fee to secure your spot. Tours will run at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Limited Seating. Must have identification with you to go on the tour.

Ensuring personnel safety must be paramount in every industrial setting. Emerging digital solutions are equipping employers with novel ways of ensuring safety—and the value benefits could extend to performance gains, reliability, customer satisfaction, and regulatory compliance.

• Craig Nicholson, Consultant, IEM Energy Consultants
  ×

  Craig Nicholson

  Consultant

  IEM Energy Consultants

  

  Craig has over 20 years progressive power generation experience spanning across US, Canada and UK. Craig’s career progressed from leading gas turbine commissioning teams through to full P&L business management with multiple major Original Equipment Manufacturers. This includes managing Alstom’s North America Controls and Diagnostics Engineering teams, Alstom’s Canadian turbine business as well as a global leadership role in GE’s Cross Fleet organization. Craig brings deep domain knowledge and insights to the power plant controls and automation industry. He previously led design and development of innovative new power plant automation products and continues as a thought leader in Digital Transformation and automation innovation in the power industry. Craig currently consults in the power industry supporting Owners and Operators on a commercial and technical basis, including contract negotiation, plant controls retrofits and digital transformation.
• David Culler, Jr., CAPT USN (ret), General Manager - Energy-Utilities, PrecisionHawk
  Storm Hardening Using Drones

  Storm Hardening Using Drones

  ×
  ×

  David Culler, Jr.

  CAPT USN (ret), General Manager - Energy-Utilities

  PrecisionHawk

  

Optimizing Workforce Performance during Shutdown, Turnaround, and Outage Execution Presented by: Paul Muir, Chief Revenue Officer, Mobideo Maintenance Digitalization Platforms connect teams with each other and the information they create and consume at the workface, streamlining collaborative work processes, and dramatically improving manageability while improving quality and real-time communication. This session will look at how a digitally connected workforce moves faster, reacts to change quicker and generates the data to support innovation in a learning organization. Additionally, we will discuss how maintenance digitalization facilitates the automation of coordination and administration tasks, leaving experienced and highly valuable resources more time to manage changing priorities and emerging work effectively.

• Paul Muir, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Mobideo
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  Paul Muir

  President and Chief Revenue Officer

  Mobideo

  

  Following a short career as a Marine Engineer Paul graduated from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh with an honors degree in the then new field of Computer-Aided Engineering. After a short period as a practicing design engineer at Unisys, Paul entered the IT industry ultimately acquiring and growing the UK’s largest Computer Aided Design (CAD) system vendor. In 1997 Paul founded McLaren Software with a focus on Asset Intensive Industries including Oil & Gas, Utilities, and Construction. The business gained a market leadership position and international footprint with 60% of revenues in North America and significant businesses in Europe and Australia. Paul has helped many Fortune 2000 companies improve Capital Project and MRO performance and compliance by leveraging enterprise software and cloud solutions focused on Project Controls, Contract Management, Mobility, and Business Process Management. Today, as President of Mobideo, Paul continues to work with customers looking to leverage emerging Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Enterprise Mobility, Cloud, and Analytics technology to drive service process transformation in the Oil & Gas, Chemical, Aviation and Power Industries. Paul has lived in Houston Texas with his family since 2004.

• Lucian Fogoros, Co-Founder & Managing Director, lloT World
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  Lucian Fogoros

  Co-Founder & Managing Director

  lloT World

  

MAINTENANCE DIGITALIZATION SIMULATION Enjoy a hot breakfast and take part in this interactive session that will provide a unique opportunity to utilize intrinsically safe tablets to navigate procedures as a skilled technician, discover real-time alerts that trigger craft handover workflow, and report a delay as an Inspector. Throughout this simulation, you will assume the role of Connected Manager™ and witness firsthand the real-time visibility for enhancing, streamlining, and expediting decision making by leveraging Mobideo’s Digital Wall Chart. Finally, you will examine analytics to drive process improvements for the next shutdown, turnaround, outage or maintenance event. JOIN US! This FREE Simulation is open to all end-user conference attendees! Wednesday, February 26, 2020 – 7:00-7:45am Thursday, February 27, 2020 – 7:00-7:45am

• Sonal Patel, Senior Associate Editor, POWER magazine
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  Sonal Patel

  Senior Associate Editor

  POWER magazine

  

  A national award–winning multimedia journalist, Sonal Patel has covered a wide range of technology, business, and policy issues affecting the power industry worldwide for POWER and its sister publications since 2008. Along with keeping her eye on national and international matters for POWER magazine’s monthly department Global Monitor, she contributes in-depth analysis and spot news pieces for POWER and POWERnews. She also surveys, crunches, and visualizes power generation data and trends from around the world for POWER’s web and print infographics and other multimedia. She is a graduate of the University of Houston.
• Scott Jenkins, Senior editor, Chemical Engineering Magazine
  ×

  Scott Jenkins

  Senior editor

  Chemical Engineering Magazine

  
• Benjamin Blanchette, Sr. Director - Digital Innovation & Transformation, Georgia-Pacific
  ×

  Benjamin Blanchette

  Sr. Director - Digital Innovation & Transformation

  Georgia-Pacific

  
• Dr. Mark Berry, Vice President of Environmental & Natural Resources and Research & Development for SCS, Southern Company
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  Mark Berry

  Vice President of Environmental & Natural Resources and Research & Development for SCS

  Southern Company

  

  Dr. Berry began his career in the Research & Environmental Affairs organization in 1996 as an intern. Over his career he has held positions of increasing responsibility, including director of Research & Technology Management. After a stint outside of Southern Company as a research director at the Southern Research Institute and the Electric Power Research Institute, Dr. Berry rejoined Southern Company in 2015 as vice president of Environmental Affairs at Georgia Power. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Alabama A&M University and a bachelor's and master's degree in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He also earned a master's degree in public and private management from Birmingham Southern College and is a registered professional engineer in the State of Alabama.
• Chris Benson, Principal Artificial Intelligence Strategist, Lockheed Martin
  Artificial Intelligence - Hype/Hope/Potential

  Artificial Intelligence - Hype/Hope/Potential

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  ×

  Chris Benson

  Principal Artificial Intelligence Strategist

  Lockheed Martin

  

  Chris Benson is the Chief Strategist & Communications Lead for Artificial Intelligence, High-Performance Computing, and AI Ethics at Lockheed Martin. He reports directly to the global Chief Data & Analytics Officer. Chris came to Lockheed Martin from Honeywell SPS, where he was Chief Scientist for Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning. He built and operationalized Honeywell’s first dedicated AI team from the ground up. Before that Chris was on the AI Team at Accenture. He is Co-Host of the Practical AI podcast, which reaches thousands of AI enthusiasts each week, and is also the Founder & Organizer of the Atlanta Deep Learning Meetup - one of the largest AI communities in the world, with nearly 3000 members

Like safety, security must be baked into every connected plant application. While security risk mitigation has evolved in parallel with technology application, navigating its complexity in an ever-changing threat environment can be daunting. In this session, learn how effective cyber-risk mitigation strategies can be deployed for operational technology.

• James Goosby, I&C Support General Manager, Southern Company
  ×

  James Goosby

  I&C Support General Manager

  Southern Company

  
• Kenneth Ferguson, Vice President, Nuclear Technology, Global Nuclear Associates
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  Kenneth Ferguson

  Vice President, Nuclear Technology

  Global Nuclear Associates

  

  Kenneth Ferguson has been involved in high profile initiatives for over forty years as an engineer, senior manger, and consultant .His current affiliations include being involved as a technology Vice President as well as providing strategic planning services .Involvements have included the power generation, information technology ,petrochemical industries including the private sector and government agencies. A recurrent responsibility has involved program development, change management, and transforming organizations to respond to key situations ,establishing effective cyber culture is a relevant, high priority involvement. Dr. Ferguson has physics and engineering degrees from the University of Michigan(Ann Arbor) and Carnegie-Mellon University. Past affiliations have included as employee of Westinghouse Electric, and then Price-Waterhouse Coopers. He has operated his own consultancy for over ten years.
• David Foose, Security Program Manager, Emerson Power & Water Solutions
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  David Foose

  Security Program Manager

  Emerson Power & Water Solutions

  

  David Foose is the Security Solutions Program Manager at Emerson Automation Solutions, Power & Water Solutions. In this role, David is responsible for setting the direction of Emerson’s security solutions business including establishing product and service roadmaps, providing sales support and leading the Ovation Cyber Emergency Response Team. David frequently presents on the topics of cybersecurity and industrial control system protections at industry conferences and trade shows and is active in the threat intelligence community ensuring Emerson is able to provide timely notification to its user base regarding current threats and malware campaigns. Previously, David was the Ovation Security Technology Development Manager responsible for the overall design, development and implementation of security controls for the Ovation control system as well as Emerson’s Power and Water Cybersecurity Suite. Prior to joining Emerson in 2008, David worked for more than 10 years in a commercial IT environment as a network administrator responsible for security hardware and software evaluation. David’s educational background includes a Bachelor’s degree complemented by a Master’s of Science degree in IT Security and Assurance from Robert Morris University along with several industry certifications focused on the security and defense of Industrial Control Systems. David resides in Gibsonia, PA with his wife Jaime and two daughters Paige and Piper.
• Shahrul A. Rashid, Custodian, Instrument and Control, Petronas
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  Shahrul Rashid

  Custodian, Instrument and Control

  Petronas

  

How do you implement an operational technology network that will adequately support your digitalization plan? This session offers approaches that can be utilized to "connect" your plant and realize effective and secure systems integration.

• Lauhael S. Godinho, Director, Digital IT: Logistics, Controls, PCN & Operational Systems, Phillips 66
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  Lauhael Godinho

  Director, Digital IT: Logistics, Controls, PCN & Operational Systems

  Phillips 66

  

  o Lauhael Godinho is the Director IT for SCADA, ICS, Controls & Operational Systems for Refining & Midstream at Phillips 66. He has a BE in Information Technology (IT), MS in Computer Information Systems (CIS) & MBA in Management of Technology. A large portion of his career has been focused on bridging the OT ~ IT divide, and enabling Digital Transformation with an eye towards ICS Cybersecurity across the Refining & Midstream business units.
• Bradley G. Houk, PE, Senior Engineering Advisor ExxonMobil Open Process Automation Project Manager, ExxonMobil Corporation
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  Bradley Houk

  Senior Engineering Advisor ExxonMobil Open Process Automation Project Manager

  ExxonMobil Corporation

  

  Brad is a Senior Engineering Advisor with ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company. Brad has more than 30 years’ experience in the refining and chemicals industry. Most of his career has been focused in the control and optimization areas having been involved in the full range of activities from regulatory controls through raw materials valuation. Since October 2017, Brad has been the Program Manager for ExxonMobil’s Open Process Automation R&D program which is leading the development of a standards-based, open, secure and interoperable process control architecture. During his career Brad has worked in R&D, engineering and manufacturing roles.
• Juan Panama, Global Business Development Manager, Emerson
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  Juan Panama

  Global Business Development Manager

  Emerson

  

  Juan Panama is the Global Business Development Leader for the Power Industry and has been with Emerson for six years. He is focused on helping utilities increase availability, reliability, safety and workforce effectiveness using wireless technology. He has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering as well as a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis Minnesota.
• Benjamin Blanchette, Sr. Director - Digital Innovation & Transformation, Georgia-Pacific
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  Benjamin Blanchette

  Sr. Director - Digital Innovation & Transformation

  Georgia-Pacific

  

Turnarounds and outages are ridden with high risks, and critical delays can be costly. This session will survey digital tools that can help identify, with more precision, the scope of work required. Tools can also enable more efficient scheduling, helping to ensure safety during a turnaround, and ensuring a project will be completed on time and on budget.

• Matthew Peters, Manufacturing Engineer, 3M
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  Matthew Peters

  Manufacturing Engineer

  3M

  
• James Del Rossi, Mobile Hardware Architect, Dow Water & Process Solutions
  ×

  James Del Rossi

  Mobile Hardware Architect

  Dow Water & Process Solutions

  
• David Harper, Chief Manager - Digital Sales Transformation, GE Power
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  David Harper

  Chief Manager - Digital Sales Transformation

  GE Power

  

  David has more than 30 years of global experience in the energy industry from design, manufacturing and servicing of power generation equipment to developing advanced Digital Industrial software solutions to transform the energy industry. He has held a variety of engineering roles in the UK, France and the USA for Alstom and GE, always at the forefront of new technology, connecting people and ideas to find innovative ways to satisfy customer’s needs. In his current role he promotes development of new digital products and services that leverage GE’s industrial expertise and domain experience to deliver valuable outcomes to customers, delivering clean, reliable and affordable energy. David previously held other roles of increasing responsibility including General Manager, Services Engineering for GE’s Distributed Power business, General Manager of Power Services Product Support and Power Services Engineering Regional leader for Europe. David graduated in 1990 with an M.A. degree in Engineering from Cambridge University, England, specializing in turbomachinery.
• Ares Panagoulias, Sales & Engineering Manager- Wireless Condition Monitoring, Test Lab Manager, Hydro, Inc
  The Advantages of Wireless Condition Monitoring over Route-Based Monitoring for Developing a Successful Predictive Maintenance Strategy

  The Advantages of Wireless Condition Monitoring over Route-Based Monitoring for Developing a Successful Predictive Maintenance Strategy

  ×
  ×

  Ares Panagoulias

  Sales & Engineering Manager- Wireless Condition Monitoring, Test Lab Manager

  Hydro, Inc

  

  "Ares Panagoulias manages the sales and engineering of IIOT Wireless Condition Monitoring product and services. He works directly with customers to utilize wireless data collection to improve rotating equipment maintenance strategies, increase availability, and reduce downtime in the Nuclear, Power Utility, Pipeline, and Oil & Gas industries. Ares is also responsible for the operations and management of all functions related to testing of high energy pumps, primarily for the Nuclear (safety and non‐safety related), Power Utility, Pipeline, and Oil & Gas industries at Hydro’s Pump Test Lab. Ares is a Category III ISO 18436-2 Vibration Analyst. He has contributed to numerous internal and external R&D projects, including the pump test software for the Hydro Performance Test Lab, a testing program for Toshiba VLP Drive Software, a preventative maintenance software based on measurement fluctuations in motor volt and amp levels, and ongoing efforts to improve condition monitoring equipment in field installations.
• Bhanu Srilla, Director of Product Marketing, Grace Engineered Products, Inc
  Using Technology to Enhance Plant Electrical Safety and Maintenance Operations: A Reliability Topic

  Using Technology to Enhance Plant Electrical Safety and Maintenance Operations: A Reliability Topic

  ×

  Maintenance personnel at facilities spend most of their time “fixing stuff” to keep up with their productivity and operational metrics. On the other hand, industry reports and data suggest that most work related injuries are directly contributed to reactive maintenance work. While qualified a workforce with hands-on experience is hard to find in the digital age, it has also become increasingly difficult to retain a knowledge base due to high employee turnover. This session will dive into some of the use cases where technology can really complement facility maintenance personnel to get out from their reactive mode (AKA unplanned work routines) and systematically transition to proactive mode with the use of new tools and technology while justifying small investments and realizing incremental gains. This session will also explore some of the personnel, cultural, and behavioral challenges that come in the way of this transition and how to address them. Learning objectives: a. Relationship between work related injuries and reactive maintenance work b. Transitioning from reactive to proactive maintenance c. Importance of culture and behaviors in driving the change
  ×

  Bhanu Srilla

  Director of Product Marketing

  Grace Engineered Products, Inc

  

  Bhanu Srilla is the Director of Technical Product Marketing at Grace Engineered Products, Inc. He led diverse programs in electrical power distribution and control system projects in IEC and ANSI applications for low and medium voltage systems. Bhanu is an IEEE member, and a member of Standards Technical Panel (STP) for UL 1436, UL 61010, UL 508, and 508A Standards. Bhanu is also a certified electrical safety compliance professional (CESCP) by NFPA, certified Project Management Professional (PMP), and holds advanced degrees in Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing Systems, and Technology Management.
• Anne-Marie Walters, Industry Marketing Director, process & Resources, Bentley Systems Incorporated
  Digitalizing Substation Upgrades – Saving Time and Money

  Digitalizing Substation Upgrades – Saving Time and Money

  ×

  Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) owns and operates more than 1,000 transmission and distribution substations, spanning two-thirds of California. With the push to modernize the electric grid, 95 percent of its USD 1 billion substation budget is spent on brownfield locations and PG&E had been manually converting existing 2D drawings to 3D models for use on retrofit projects. PG&E replaced this traditional design process with a combination of photographic techniques using unmanned aerial vehicles, man lifts, and on-ground photographic equipment. Using advanced digitalization software, the team generated highly accurate reality meshes that were integrated into intelligent 3D design models for the upgrades, and shared among design teams and stakeholders. The automatically generated reality meshes are accurate within inches and eliminate the need to take field measurements. As a result, personnel travel to and from the substation facilities half as often. With the adoption of this technology, PG&E reduced project design time by 40 percent and saved an estimated USD 5.7 million across about 120 substation projects each year.
  ×

  Anne-Marie Walters

  Industry Marketing Director, process & Resources

  Bentley Systems Incorporated

  

  Anne-Marie Walters joined Bentley in 2004 as a global marketing director. In this capacity she is responsible for the marketing and positioning of Bentley’s solutions and products that address the needs of the industrial sector including oil & gas, process & discrete manufacturing, and mining industries. Ms. Walters, who is a chartered chemical engineer, has represented Bentley on the board of the Construction Industry Institute and is also heavily engaged in the activities of FIATECH. She sat on the board of the Engineering Contractors and Constructors Association between 2005 and 2010 and was the Chair in 2009. In addition, she is a founding member of the Process Industries STEP Consortium (PISTEP) committee and has served on the boards of CIMsteel and the United Kingdom’s chapter of the International Alliance for Interoperability (IAI). She is frequently a guest speaker at industry events sponsored by these and other organizations.

Behind the digital tools that make the industrial internet of things (IIOT) in the power generation and chemical process industries are people. At this session, open to all attendees, the editors of POWER and Chemical Engineering will recognize the achievements of individuals and companies who are fast risers in the field, and through insight and experience, have championed “game changing” innovations, solved problems, or made extraordinary improvements.

MAINTENANCE DIGITALIZATION SIMULATION Enjoy a hot breakfast and take part in this interactive session that will provide a unique opportunity to utilize intrinsically safe tablets to navigate procedures as a skilled technician, discover real-time alerts that trigger craft handover workflow, and report a delay as an Inspector. Throughout this simulation, you will assume the role of Connected Manager™ and witness firsthand the real-time visibility for enhancing, streamlining, and expediting decision making by leveraging Mobideo’s Digital Wall Chart. Finally, you will examine analytics to drive process improvements for the next shutdown, turnaround, outage or maintenance event. JOIN US! This FREE Simulation is open to all end-user conference attendees! Wednesday, February 26, 2020 – 7:00-7:45am Thursday, February 27, 2020 – 7:00-7:45am

As the use of innovative digital technologies becomes more widespread in the power sector, emerging cases demonstrate how these solutions are yielding better and more profitable outcomes for associated plants. Echoing this theme, the first two presentations in this session examine how application of digital solutions relate to a fleet of plants that are more flexible, productive, and, at the same time, less costly to operate. In the last presentation, the focus shifts to the operator as a key driver to plant success. In this presentation, the presenter will convey experiences and lessons learned in upgrading operator human-machine interface (HMI) across a large fleet of plants.

• Jon Towslee, Advanced Services Leader, Americas Industrial Automation, Energy Industries (IAEN), ABB
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  Jon Towslee

  Advanced Services Leader, Americas Industrial Automation, Energy Industries (IAEN)

  ABB

  

  Jon Towslee is the Advanced Services Leader, Americas for ABB Inc. based in Cleveland, OH. Jon has 29+ years of energy industry experience. He has spent the last 19+ years leading, growing, and managing energy related businesses. Throughout his career, Jon has worked on both sides of the electrical industry from utility transmission, distribution, and generation on the supply side to commercial and industrial energy management, power distribution, and advanced energy analytics on the demand side. In his current capacity, Jon is responsible for leading ABB’s advanced services and digital sales for its Industrial Automation Energy Industries business unit. Jon joined ABB in 2016. Throughout his career, Jon has held numerous business development, management, and leadership positions. Prior to joining ABB, Jon was the Sr. Vice President, Industrial Segment for an energy analytics company, starting in 2011. He was also the Vice President, Strategic Accounts for a commercial energy management company which he joined in 2006. Prior to that, Jon was the Business Manager for an industrial / utility energy system integration business, which he joined in 1994 and held positions of increasing responsibility including: system engineer, project engineer, project manager, program manager, and business manager. Prior to that, Jon was the Engineering Manager and Supervisor of Electrical Engineering for an electrical equipment manufacturer, responsible for the design and application of metal-clad switchgear, capacitor banks, and harmonic filters. Jon earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from The University of Akron and his MBA from John Carroll University. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Ohio.
• Tom Cross, ABB
  Leveraging Digital Solutions to Increase Operator Effectiveness & Plant Performance

  Leveraging Digital Solutions to Increase Operator Effectiveness & Plant Performance

  ×

  Operator effectiveness is fundamental to power plant performance. With daily decisions of control room personnel directly impacting safety, production, process availability and quality, it is important to keep the operator in focus. This session will cover an end user case study and best practices of Operator HMI upgrades across their large fleet. It will cover the integration approach to High Performance Graphics, the migration strategy, including benchmarking and Key Performance Indicators. The discussion will also include how a step-by-step migration approach made the process more manageable for the Operators as well as some possible future next steps.
  ×

  Tom Cross

  ABB

  

  Ed Dupre is a Strategic Account Manager working with Wheelabrator and a select few other of ABB’s most important customers. Ed works with customers that need consultation at the corporate level with such things as long term budget optimization, life cycle management, standardization across the fleet, multi-plant long term service agreements, and many other initiatives. Ed has been with ABB for 23 years, holding front line, management and executive positions in Sales and Marketing, with both domestic and international responsibilities. Ed started his career with AEP at their Muskingum River Power Plant and then moved on to Bailey Controls Company, which was subsequently acquired by ABB.
• John Korsedal, Principal Digital Product Manager, GE Digital
  Digital Worker and Remote Power Plant Operations for Safer and Cost Effective Plant O&M

  Digital Worker and Remote Power Plant Operations for Safer and Cost Effective Plant O&M

  ×

  Remote Operations is a suite of software and hardware solutions designed to enable power generation operators to further optimize and reduce the power plant staffing required to operate and monitor a power plant. This on-premises and off-premises solution will allow an operator to operate and monitor a power plant away from the control room: • Location somewhere in the plant (mobile fashion). Mobile solutions within the plant are provided to enable full plant control, electronically take plant logs and rounds, access CMMS, create Permit to Work , and Lock Out Tag Out – (Optional). • Location outside of the plant boundaries- fixed location. allows for the consolidation of operators across several peaking plants to a single, centralized location. The solution is applicable for Single cycle and combine cycle gas power plants As it is today, Fossil fueled power plant O&M cost is becoming too High. There is no Plant centralized operations capability in the market as well as not fully automated / autonomous Plant operation. The work force is changing very fast and Cyber Security and power plant vulnerability are in customer concern focus. Regional / Governments Regulations and Standards are very much diversified and not aligned. Insurability cost and Plant total installed cost stays high as well. With proven technology backed by extensive industry expertise GE provides remote plant operations as a solution with the highest security and reliability, and best value for worldwide power producers on plant and/or subsystems level to enable profitable power generation.
  ×

  John Korsedal

  Principal Digital Product Manager

  GE Digital

  
• Steven Seachman, Principal Technical Leader, Electric Power Research Institute
  Role of Process Controls and Automation in Plant Digitization

  Role of Process Controls and Automation in Plant Digitization

  ×

  Flexible operations and asset management are becoming increasingly essential for the viability of conventional power generation in their mission of providing, safe, reliable, and environmentally responsible electricity to the public. Many units are cycling much more often than originally anticipated in the design of these plants. Additionally, the burden on operators during these transient and non-base load conditions has increased substantially. The industry’s transitioning workforce has also posed challenges in determining the right skillset for plant operations and maintenance. These issues can result in accelerated component failure rates and additional incremental fuel costs. Advances in monitoring and diagnostic capabilities continue to provide deeper insight to asset health. However, taking action using that insight is typically a manual operation. Furthermore, the control systems installed on these units have not been properly configured to account for flexible operations. Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) Instrumentation, Controls, and Automation Program is conducting collaborative research to meet the industry need to demonstrate improved process control and automation techniques to reduce damage, improve thermal performance, and lessen the burden on operators during flexible operations. This presentation will highlight several of these activities within EPRI’s research portfolio.
  ×

  Steven Seachman

  Principal Technical Leader

  Electric Power Research Institute

  

  Steven Seachman is a Principal Technical Leader in the Instrumentation, Controls, and Automation Program (P68) at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). P68 is part of the Emerging Technologies group within the Generation Sector at EPRI. His interests include Advanced and Adaptive Controls, Instrumentation, and Data Analytics. Steve graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s in Mechanical Engineering from West Virginia University. Following his education, he worked the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, West Virginia. There, he performed research, managed projects, and eventually became the Technology Manager for the Crosscutting Research Division. Steve’s 12+ years of experience has led to several publications in the areas of instrumentation, controls, automation, and data analytics as well as numerous projects at industry conferences. Steve is also a Project Management Professional and a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.
• Joe Michienzi, Vice President, Asset Management, Competitive Power Ventures, Inc. [CPV]
  3 Essential Elements to Realizing Value: The Business of Digitization with Competitive Power Ventures

  3 Essential Elements to Realizing Value: The Business of Digitization with Competitive Power Ventures

  ×

  According to Gartner Group, in 2018 more than one third of utilities began to bring digital technologies into their organizations. As this change happens across the industry, utilities are not only introducing brand new digital technologies, but also implementing new solutions into their workflow to maximize the systems that have kept the lights on for their customers for centuries. Together, the speakers will address how new technology solutions are helping create better outcomes for utilities and their customers by reducing asset maintenance costs and increasing profitability with novel dispatch and production planning solutions for a fleet of power plants. They will provide specific examples as to how a combination of modular edge-to-cloud solutions, combined with domain expertise and Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, create additional value in daily operations with intelligent asset management strategies, reduce manual processes, increase operational flexibility and more accurately generate day-ahead forecasts. They will also share how the adoption of the new technologies has impacted output and performance.
  ×

  Joe Michienzi

  Vice President, Asset Management

  Competitive Power Ventures, Inc. [CPV]

  

  Joe joined CPV in 2006 and currently provides technical and overall Asset Management support throughout all of CPV. He focuses on high reliability and optimal thermal performance. Joe is currently serving as the Lead Asset Manager for the Middletown Energy Center. Prior to joining CPV, he worked for the independent engineering firm, R.W. Beck, Inc. (now known as Leidos) as an Operations and Performance Consultant and for PG&E NEG, where he held engineering positions at power plant sites and corporate offices. Joe has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
• Rachel Farr, Principal Digital Product Manager, GE Power Digital
  3 Essential Elements to Realizing Value: The Business of Digitization with Competitive Power Ventures

  3 Essential Elements to Realizing Value: The Business of Digitization with Competitive Power Ventures

  ×

  According to Gartner Group, in 2018 more than one third of utilities began to bring digital technologies into their organizations. As this change happens across the industry, utilities are not only introducing brand new digital technologies, but also implementing new solutions into their workflow to maximize the systems that have kept the lights on for their customers for centuries. Together, the speakers will address how new technology solutions are helping create better outcomes for utilities and their customers by reducing asset maintenance costs and increasing profitability with novel dispatch and production planning solutions for a fleet of power plants. They will provide specific examples as to how a combination of modular edge-to-cloud solutions, combined with domain expertise and Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, create additional value in daily operations with intelligent asset management strategies, reduce manual processes, increase operational flexibility and more accurately generate day-ahead forecasts. They will also share how the adoption of the new technologies has impacted output and performance.
  ×

  Rachel Farr

  Principal Digital Product Manager

  GE Power Digital

  

  Rachel is a Principal Digital Product Manager for GE Digital, responsible for delivering software solutions that improve productivity and production planning for power generation. With over 17 years of experience in Digital, Power and Aviation, she brings extensive knowledge in gas turbine and plant technologies, product and technology strategy and has been recognized throughout her career for bringing people and teams together to innovate and deliver value. Rachel holds a B.S. and Masters in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and the Ohio State University, respectively.
• Dave Magill, Senior Vice President, Asset Management, Competitive Power Ventures, Inc. [CPV]
  3 Essential Elements to Realizing Value: The Business of Digitization with Competitive Power Ventures

  3 Essential Elements to Realizing Value: The Business of Digitization with Competitive Power Ventures

  ×

  According to Gartner Group, in 2018 more than one third of utilities began to bring digital technologies into their organizations. As this change happens across the industry, utilities are not only introducing brand new digital technologies, but also implementing new solutions into their workflow to maximize the systems that have kept the lights on for their customers for centuries. Together, the speakers will address how new technology solutions are helping create better outcomes for utilities and their customers by reducing asset maintenance costs and increasing profitability with novel dispatch and production planning solutions for a fleet of power plants. They will provide specific examples as to how a combination of modular edge-to-cloud solutions, combined with domain expertise and Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, create additional value in daily operations with intelligent asset management strategies, reduce manual processes, increase operational flexibility and more accurately generate day-ahead forecasts. They will also share how the adoption of the new technologies has impacted output and performance.
  ×

  Dave Magill

  Senior Vice President, Asset Management

  Competitive Power Ventures, Inc. [CPV]

  

  Dave has been with CPV for more than 15 years, and until 2020, led CPV’s asset management business. He is now a senior advisor, providing operational and strategic support and advice to CPV’s management team. Prior to joining CPV, Dave was Director of Mergers and Acquisitions at AES Corporation, and led transactions that made AES one of the five largest operators of wind power projects in the US. From 1993 to 2003, he worked at PG&E National Energy Group where he led their mergers and acquisitions group. Dave is a graduate of Middlebury College (B.A., Economics) and New York University (M.S., Accounting), and obtained a CPA license in New York State.

This technical presentation will shed light on how Nova Scotia Power has leveraged a common equipment hierarchy across multiple software platforms to create operational intelligence for their fleet of assets. Nova Scotia Power is currently in the middle of a pilot project that uses the Element Analytics PI Asset Framework Accelerator to construct a PI AF hierarchy that matches the master hierarchy in the MMS system and in GE APM. This PI AF framework is used to contextualize equipment assets with their associated tags and to construct asset templates for the major asset classes that can be cloned across the fleet.

• Mike Greene, Operational Technology Lead, Nova Scotia Power
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  Mike Greene

  Operational Technology Lead

  Nova Scotia Power

  

  Mike has over 25 years of experience with Databases, Information Systems and Plant Automation. He is currently the Operational Technology Lead for the Enterprise Asset Management Office of Nova Scotia Power, the utility for the province of Nova Scotia. He is responsible for the successful integration of NSPs many Operational information systems into a platform that provides end users with a dynamic asset based Operational Risk across the NSP Thermal fleet.
• Jacqueline Grunwald, CIO, AdvanSix, Inc.
  End to end Digital Engagement/ From Value Estimation to Adoption to Value Realization

  End to end Digital Engagement/ From Value Estimation to Adoption to Value Realization

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  "The debate over ‘why’ companies need to embrace digitization is over. Despite this shift, the actual results and value derived from digital investments remain mixed. As we enter 2020, digital investments will continue to rise, so too will the expectations for value – from shareholders, executives (CEO, CFO, CIO), employees, and yes, most importantly, customers. Current research indicates that the odds are against those companies embarking on Digital Transformations with several reports suggesting that over 2/3rds fail to meet expected results. In most cases, technology is not the culprit of these failures. This two forces are shifting leaders and decision makers to focus on ‘how’. While we have sat through several presentations that touch on this topic, many remain at the strategic level leaving lots of gaps on the details of how companies realized the value from a cultural and change perspective. Our presentation will take the audience inside a real on-going digitization initiative sharing and discussing the frameworks and best practices that are making this transformation successful as well as some of the obstacles and learnings along the way. This is a use case that would be presented to the audience while highlighting the frameworks, best practices, and key learnings experienced from over 16 months of the engagement. We would periodically pause for audience questions and lively discussions. Example speaker outline: End to End Engagement Cycle: From Value Estimation to Adoption to Evaluation 1. Identifying and Estimating Potential Value: Top Down and Bottoms Up Approach 2. Outcome Mapping – from Corporate KPIs to Operational Milestones 3. Data Mapping – creating a data collection strategy and visualization for Operational and Executive Decision Making 4. Change Management Plan – Cross Functional Ownership (CIO/Business) who owns what? 5. Culture & Behavior Change – Sub Use Cases that Delivered quick wins and drove adoption (e.g. mobility) 6. Communications Strategy – How do you effectively communicate with Maintenance & Reliability Teams to drive adoption? 7. Measuring, Evaluating, and Sustaining Value
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  Jacqueline Grunwald

  CIO

  AdvanSix, Inc.

  
• Jared Hartness, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, GE Digital
  End to end Digital Engagement/ From Value Estimation to Adoption to Value Realization

  End to end Digital Engagement/ From Value Estimation to Adoption to Value Realization

  ×

  "The debate over ‘why’ companies need to embrace digitization is over. Despite this shift, the actual results and value derived from digital investments remain mixed. As we enter 2020, digital investments will continue to rise, so too will the expectations for value – from shareholders, executives (CEO, CFO, CIO), employees, and yes, most importantly, customers. Current research indicates that the odds are against those companies embarking on Digital Transformations with several reports suggesting that over 2/3rds fail to meet expected results. In most cases, technology is not the culprit of these failures. This two forces are shifting leaders and decision makers to focus on ‘how’. While we have sat through several presentations that touch on this topic, many remain at the strategic level leaving lots of gaps on the details of how companies realized the value from a cultural and change perspective. Our presentation will take the audience inside a real on-going digitization initiative sharing and discussing the frameworks and best practices that are making this transformation successful as well as some of the obstacles and learnings along the way. This is a use case that would be presented to the audience while highlighting the frameworks, best practices, and key learnings experienced from over 16 months of the engagement. We would periodically pause for audience questions and lively discussions. Example speaker outline: End to End Engagement Cycle: From Value Estimation to Adoption to Evaluation 1. Identifying and Estimating Potential Value: Top Down and Bottoms Up Approach 2. Outcome Mapping – from Corporate KPIs to Operational Milestones 3. Data Mapping – creating a data collection strategy and visualization for Operational and Executive Decision Making 4. Change Management Plan – Cross Functional Ownership (CIO/Business) who owns what? 5. Culture & Behavior Change – Sub Use Cases that Delivered quick wins and drove adoption (e.g. mobility) 6. Communications Strategy – How do you effectively communicate with Maintenance & Reliability Teams to drive adoption? 7. Measuring, Evaluating, and Sustaining Value
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  Jared Hartness

  Sr. Product Marketing Manager

  GE Digital

  

  Jared Hartness is a Sr. Product Marketing Manager with GE Digital, working with GE’s Asset Performance Management suite of solutions. Jared also serves as the industry lead for GE Digital’s oil & gas market segment. Prior to joining GE Digital, Hartness began his career with Meridium serving in a number of different capacities ranging from product marketing, marketing programs and digital marketing for their Asset Performance Management software solutions. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Communication and Media Studies from Radford University.
• Michael Magerstädt, Manager, Global Industry Division Chemical, KROHNE AG
  Chemical Plant Instrumentation IOT and Industry 4.0 – the last 12 months and the future

  Chemical Plant Instrumentation IOT and Industry 4.0 – the last 12 months and the future

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  Last year, we reported on developments on digitalization of chemical plant automatization and particularly on process instrumentation. Core automatization of chemical processes has assured a very high level of safety as well as ever-improving efficiency in this industry over decades. Feedback loops that are designed to maintain chemical reactions within the safe and most efficient range consist of a process control system (PCS), instrumentation to monitor process conditions, and actuators to control the process according to the PCS’s instructions. The advent of large data processing capabilities allows acquisition and utilization of large amounts of data that can make chemical plants self-reliant. These data have neither been acquired nor utilized in the past. In addition, over the last years, almost an entire generation of technicians and engineers is retiring. Up to two decades of reducing headcount in chemical plants combined with a worldwide focus of education systems away from science over a large part of this time led to a generation gap. Since the renewed interest of young people in science and technology has yielded graduates, highly qualified young technicians and engineers began entering the industry. Still, a generation gap exists that needs to be filled. Hence, the driving force to combine the data processing capabilities of today and the data available from chemical plant instrumentation to „industry 4.0“ is the need to make chemical plants more self-sufficient. Intelligent systems are required that assess large sensor data volumes and that derive information by sophisticated pattern recognition algorithms. These systems are able to emulate the knowledge about a process which the human brain can acquire by subconscious connection of seemingly unconnected sensory input once a certain level of experience has been reached. In last year’s conference paper, we showed how chemical operators and instrumentation manufacturers are approaching the challenges of industry 4.0 and are utilizing the possibilities that an internet of things can provide. Examples for additional data transmission channels, wireless data transmission, and the modular plant concept MTP (Module Type Package) were presented. In this presentation, progress that both the global chemical players as well as the process instrumentation industry have made over the last twelve months, will be reviewed. A specific look will be taken on the actual need as well as the requirements for so-called M&O data, i.e., sensor data that are not part of the data acquired for the core instrumentation of a plant, but that are providing additional data for monitoring and optimization. M & O information can be gathered by installing additional sensors that are transmitting information relevant to maintenance. A very simple example would be measurement of environmental temperature or humidity that may have a long-term influence on the lifetime of chemical plant components. More efficient and economical than adding new sensors is the utilization of data that process instrumentation can provide beyond the data the instrument generates by fulfilling its original purpose. This presentation will describe the options to do this from an instrument manufacturer’s perspective.
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  Michael Magerstädt

  Manager, Global Industry Division Chemical

  KROHNE AG

  

  Michael Magerstädt received his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from Berlin Technical University. Later, he completed a postgraduate study in business administration, focus marketing. Michael holds the position of Manager, Global Industry Division Chemical at KROHNE Group, a leading global supplier of innovative products, solutions, and services for the process industry with close to 4000 employees and manufacturing plants on 4 continents. He also is the CEO of the KROHNE subsidiary KROHNE AG located in Switzerland. After graduating, Michael spent 4 years conducting research in the United States; first at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA and later at the National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD. Then, he spent 13 years at Hoechst AG (later on Hoechst-Celanese, Frankfurt, Germany), formerly one of the three largest German chemical and pharmaceutical companies. After his time at Hoechst, he spent 19 years as CTO and CEO of privately owned manufacturing and technology companies in in Germany and Switzerland before joining KROHNE, the most recent of which was ROSEN, world leader in pipeline inspection and a major player in Asset Integrity Management. Michael is author of one scientific book as well as numerous publications and patents. He was and is active in building and developing technology startup companies. Michael Magerstädt is member of a number of professional organizations, including Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, American Chemical Society, VDI (German Engineering Association), SME (Society of Mining Engineers), AWWA (American Water Works Association), and NACE International (National Association of Corrosion Engineers), where he co-chairs a Technology Exchange Group on “Corrosion in Mining/Slurry Pipelines”. Michael is married, and has two adult children; one son and one daughter. His non-professional interests besides his family include flying single-engine aircraft, skiing, and his international network of friends.

Industrial companies are sitting on a tremendous amount of data - a treasure that grows every single day. With the advent of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) technology mining this data for value is quickly becoming reality. This session will focus on providing an understanding of some of the building blocks needed to deploy AI and ML, as well as provide a few examples and learning journeys for specific applications of AI and ML for predictions, creating insights and taking further steps towards automation (predictive maintenance, corrosion detection and plant operation, to name a few).

• Mr. Pete Davies, VP of Digital Engineering Solutions, Uniper Enerlytics
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  Pete Davies

  VP of Digital Engineering Solutions

  Uniper Enerlytics

  

  VP, Head of Digital Engineering Solutions Uniper Jul 2015 – Present4 years 4 months Nottingham, United Kingdom • Founder of Enerlytics by Uniper. • Business development of solutions to support the energy transition for optimising fossil and renewable power generation. • Partner with organisations to deliver the energy transition. • Develop Uniper’s and other organisations Digital capabilities. • Leadership and disciplinary of Global teams. • Accountable for resulting P&L. • Founder of Enerlytics by Uniper. • Business development of solutions to support the energy transition for optimising fossil and renewable power generation. • Partner with organisations to deliver the energy transition. • Develop Uniper’s and other organisations Digital capabilities. • Leadership and disciplinary of Global teams. • Accountable for resulting P&L.
• Dr. Yves Gorat Stommel, Head of Cognitive Solutions, Evonik Corporation
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  Yves Gorat Stommel

  Head of Cognitive Solutions

  Evonik Corporation

  

  Yves Gorat Stommel is currently working as the head of the Cognitive Solutions team, with a strong focus on setting-up and implementing a comprehensive, company-wide Artificial Intelligence and data analysis strategy. In his current function, Yves’ motivation stems from bringing together people, technology and positive change. By continuously questioning, improving and re-imagining operational and business processes – amongst others by looking at the company through the new “lens” of enabling and disruptive Artificial Intelligence – value is created for both the company and its employees. This does not only require identifying, benchmarking and implementing best practices, but more importantly targeted communication, linking knowledge and an emphasis on global instead of local mindsets and approaches.
• Dr. Berk Birand, CEO, Fero Labs
  Leveraging Explainable Machine Learning to Drive Plant Optimization

  Leveraging Explainable Machine Learning to Drive Plant Optimization

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  Power and chemical plants produce and store significant amounts of data. Yet, the machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques that have revolutionized the technology sector have not been widely adopted amongst operations improvement groups. A major shortcoming of the popular ML methodologies in use today is their black-box nature. Google may identify a specific image with high precision, but neither the developers nor the consumers know why the algorithms think those pixels define the target image. As long as most predictions are accurate, they are happy. At a plant setting having mostly reliable prediction is not enough; a single false negative can lead to the costly shutdown of critical operations. Plant engineers need to go beyond accurate predictions and understand the whys and hows and corroborate these insights with their subject matter expertise before they can actually trust the software. Lack of explainability of popular ML techniques is why engineers still rely on methods such as Six Sigma. Yet Six Sigma doesn’t scale with data and engineers can conduct only so many single shot design of experiments. Fero, with its Explainable ML technology based on Bayesian machine learning, addresses this problem. Explainable ML continuously learns from the entire plant’s data. The models reveal root-causes of production problems, map input/output relationships for emission reduction, and enable what-if simulations for planning optimal asset performance. By explaining the reasons behind the predictions, Explainable ML builds trust with the user. The easy-to-use software comes with automatic data cleaning and ML modeling features. As a result, engineers without data science training can easily conduct advanced data analytics projects. By simplifying ML modeling and making models transparent, Fero builds trust between ML technology and human users and makes these powerful new techniques accessible to subject matter experts of the plant. Publicly available information: Uniper Energy: https://www.littlegatepublishing.com/2019/05/endeavour-magazine-june-2019/ (page 48-49) AkzoNobel: https://www.chemicalprocessing.com/articles/2018/imagine-chemistry-challenge-awards-support-to-startups/ Session Takeaways: - Truly explainable machine learning techniques do exist and pave the way for a wide range of applications not possible with black-box methods - Democratizing ML and empowering subject matter experts with powerful, modern ML tools is the only scalable approach - Using ML purely for predictions is a loss of opportunity; these new techniques can be used for various process and quality improvement projects
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  Berk Birand

  CEO

  Fero Labs

  

  Berk holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from Columbia University. His academic research focused on optimizing wireless and optical networks with efficient cross-layer algorithms. He developed scheduling algorithms for LTE-A and fiber-optic networks. He holds a patent in IoT systems for resilient fiber-optic networks.
• Ben Berwick, Strategic Marketing Specialist, Honeywell Connected Plant
  The Importance of Good Data Science in Effective Asset Performance Monitoring

  The Importance of Good Data Science in Effective Asset Performance Monitoring

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  The rapid pace of predictive analytics, artificial intelligence and digital twins for industrial assets is proving revolutionary in how industry can benefit from the actionable information provided by modern asset performance management (APM) software. A key element of deriving value from APM solutions is the ability to detect asset issues early, yet to do so effectively, APM systems must be underpinned by expert knowledge and good data science. In this presentation, Honeywell provides an inside view of the data science that underpins the analytics of Honeywell Forge Asset Performance Management solution. Honeywell will provide several examples of how their experts and data scientists successfully identify the early onset of asset and process issues in Chemicals, O&G, Aerospace, and structural integrity applications.
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  Ben Berwick

  Strategic Marketing Specialist

  Honeywell Connected Plant

  

  Ben Berwick is a Strategic Marketing Specialist for Honeywell’s Asset Performance Management solutions. He joined Honeywell in 2018 with over 20 years of experience in various roles, including electronic and software design engineering, new product development management, and operations leadership for GE/Bently Nevada, Rolls-Royce and Dresser-Rand. Throughout his career, Ben’s work has focused entirely on creating machinery diagnostics and intelligent asset solutions that improve the reliability and productivity of industrial machinery. Ben possesses a B.Sc. Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University and an MBA from the Jones School of Business at Rice University.
• Javier Martinez Sanchez, O&M Supervision Director, Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.)
  Why Breakthroughs in Scaled Asset-Centric Modeling Are Critical for the Connected Plant

  Why Breakthroughs in Scaled Asset-Centric Modeling Are Critical for the Connected Plant

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  Plant-wide predictive maintenance programs are only as good as the accuracy and deployability of their predictive models, but traditionally, these models have required significant overhead to develop and maintain. This has resulted in disparate systems and processes that are deployed only on select assets, maybe delivering below-average results, and may have resulted in other business trade-offs. However, with recent advancements in both science and automation, machine learning models offer a clear path to improved accuracy, standardization, and scale based on asset-centric modeling. This session will explore the techniques and fundamentals for building asset-centric machine learning models quickly without sacrificing accuracy and will discuss best practices around successful deployments at plant-wide scale. These concepts will then be mapped to a customer project at Mitsui, where they have moved AI out of the lab and have deployed it at scale across their thermal power plant. After this session, operations executives, managers, and leads will: 1) Understand the differences and performance trade-offs between generalized and asset-centric models and link it to their business problem 2) Be able to identify the requirements, technology, and process for developing and deploying these asset-centric models 3) Have learned best practices from a live, scaled deployment in a complex production environment
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  Javier Martinez Sanchez

  O&M Supervision Director

  Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.)

  

  After more than 5 years leading O&M in Power Plants, Javier joined Mitsui Power Americas (MPA) in December 2011. MPA is a 100% subsidiary company of Mitsui & Co., Ltd., one of the most diversified and comprehensive trading, investment and service enterprises in the world, with 138 offices in 66 countries as of October, 2018. MPA is leader in providing O&M services to power generation assets, including digital services to optimize key plant indicators of these plants. Javier main responsibility is to lead the Monitoring Area of MPA with more than 3 GW of installed capacity in Mexico. In addition, he is collaborating with Mitsui HQ in the Digital Transformation of the company through several pilot projects including Cloud computing, Big data, System integration and Machine Learning technologies. Javier holds an MBA in Digital Business from the University Rey Juan Carlos of Madrid, and a Master Degree in Energy Engineering from University of Seville in Spain.
• Slavek Zaremba, Chief Technology Officer of Predictive Maintenance, SparkCognition
  Why Breakthroughs in Scaled Asset-Centric Modeling Are Critical for the Connected Plant

  Why Breakthroughs in Scaled Asset-Centric Modeling Are Critical for the Connected Plant

  ×

  Plant-wide predictive maintenance programs are only as good as the accuracy and deployability of their predictive models, but traditionally, these models have required significant overhead to develop and maintain. This has resulted in disparate systems and processes that are deployed only on select assets, maybe delivering below-average results, and may have resulted in other business trade-offs. However, with recent advancements in both science and automation, machine learning models offer a clear path to improved accuracy, standardization, and scale based on asset-centric modeling. This session will explore the techniques and fundamentals for building asset-centric machine learning models quickly without sacrificing accuracy and will discuss best practices around successful deployments at plant-wide scale. These concepts will then be mapped to a customer project at Mitsui, where they have moved AI out of the lab and have deployed it at scale across their thermal power plant. After this session, operations executives, managers, and leads will: 1) Understand the differences and performance trade-offs between generalized and asset-centric models and link it to their business problem 2) Be able to identify the requirements, technology, and process for developing and deploying these asset-centric models 3) Have learned best practices from a live, scaled deployment in a complex production environment
  ×

  Slavek Zaremba

  Chief Technology Officer of Predictive Maintenance

  SparkCognition

  

  Slavek is the CTO for Predictive Maintenance solutions at SparkCognition where he is leveraging his 20+ years of experience in the area of power generation and utilities. Before joining SparkCognition he worked for 8 years at FPL and NextEra Energy Resources, where he was responsible for driving new technology and daily operations of NextEra’s remote monitoring and operations teams spanning all of the company's generation equipment (including combined-cycle, fossil, hydro, nuclear, wind, solar, and battery storage, over 120 sites, 40GW). Before that he worked for 12 years at GE Energy with the focus on predictive analytics, remote monitoring & diagnostics, and implementation of AI technologies to power generation and smart grid operations.

Digitalization’s potential is vast. As uptake of the multitude of connected industrial devices becomes more widespread, efforts are ongoing to explore how they can better monitor, collect, exchange, analyze, and deliver valuable new insights to drive smarter, faster business decisions for industrial companies. Technologies like fourth-generation sensors, Big Data, edge intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and blockchain promise to open up a vast realm of intelligence for new applications. However, their complexity must be understood within the context of current limitations. This session will delve into why and how some technologies on the horizon are worth considering from a value perspective

• Sydni Credle, Ph.D., Project Manager and General Engineer Enabling Technologies & Partnerships, US Dept of Energy/National Energy Technology Lab
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  Sydni Credle, Ph.D.

  Project Manager and General Engineer Enabling Technologies & Partnerships

  US Dept of Energy/National Energy Technology Lab

  
• Mr Chris Welch, Enterprise Improvement, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
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  Chris Welch

  Enterprise Improvement

  Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

  

  I’ve been involved in some fantastic projects over the years. They tend to be bleeding edge technologies, which is a blast! Wired networks, wireless networks, servers, and everything in between are my modus operandi. My goals in life include solving problems with new technologies, and using technology to make a difference in the lives of those around me. Specialties: My specialties include engineering solutions, and translating between those who speak technology and those who need it. I love to build strong/passionate teams that can reach the moon and beyond. Come to us with your problems, and we will solve them. Recent Projects: Industrial sensors (IIoT), non-ip based wireless communications, machine learning, AI, robotics, hybrid manufacturing, and changing the world bits at a time. Putting the techy stuff aside for a bit, my other passion is developing leadership and making connections between amazing people. Taking advantage of my experiences from a broad range of fields, I have been able to leverage my time around some very different thinkers. I like to share those thinking styles to others over discussions and sessions while we develop ideas and solutions. I cannot think of anything that is more fun than that at work.
• Hannah Davis, Blockchain Project Lead, EPRI Electric Power Research Institute
  The Growth of Blockchain

  The Growth of Blockchain

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  Hannah Davis

  Blockchain Project Lead

  EPRI Electric Power Research Institute

  

  Hannah Davis is the project lead for the Utility Blockchain Interest Group (UBIG) at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). UBIG is a utility focused interest group that uses a collaborative approach to accelerate industry learning and applications by sharing use cases and lessons learned and developing best practices. EPRI is an independent, non-profit organization that conducts research, development, and demonstration projects for the benefit of the public in the United States and internationally. EPRI is focused on electricity generation, delivery and use in collaboration with the electricity sector, its stakeholders and others to enhance the quality of life by making electric power safe, reliable, affordable, and environmentally responsible. Hannah holds a Master of Public Policy degree from Georgetown University and bachelor’s degree from Franklin and Marshall College in Environmental Studies.
• Kim Gilbert Ph.D., Director of Technical Commercial Engineering, Beyond Limits
  Increase Efficiency in Power Generation with Artificial Intelligence That Encodes Human Knowledge, Expertise, and Experience

  Increase Efficiency in Power Generation with Artificial Intelligence That Encodes Human Knowledge, Expertise, and Experience

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  Operators are fundamental to a power plant achieving optimal performance day in and day out. This talk will highlight how explainable Cognitive AI can increase performance by keeping your plant functioning as if it’s being run by your leading operator 24/7, while also filling the knowledge gap left when your best plant operators and experts retire. Session attendees will learn how Cognitive AI is able to capture essential human knowledge, expertise and decision-making, then combine this with data to deliver actionable, explainable intelligence. Join this talk to find out why Cognitive AI is critical for increasing efficiency and reliability in power generation.
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  Kim Gilbert

  Director of Technical Commercial Engineering

  Beyond Limits

  

  Kim Gilbert, PhD is Director of Technical Sales Engineering at Beyond Limits, a pioneering AI company creating advanced software solutions for the world’s most demanding industries. Kim leads a team of Sales Engineers to develop prototypes of cognitive solutions that solve industry challenges. Prior to Beyond Limits, Kim served as Director of R&D at ALOVIAM, a renewable energy startup. In 2015, Kim received her PhD in High Pressure Geochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin. Kim’s graduate research included creating a novel method to predict carbon dioxide solubility in aqueous solutions, which provided insight into the molecular interactions between carbon dioxide and dissolved ions in deep subsurface conditions. In 2016, her work was published by the peer-reviewed Journal, Applied Geochemistry. For over five years preceding graduate school, Kim worked at National Instruments - initially as an Applications Engineer, and ultimately as a Product Strategist guiding the development of a control hardware platform. Kim earned a PhD in High Pressure Geochemistry in 2015 from the University of Texas at Austin, and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BSc degree in Chemical Engineering in 2000 from Arizona State University. In addition, Kim taught graduate-level Aqueous Geochemistry and undergraduate Research Methods courses at the University of Texas at Austin.
• Brian D. Wolf, Lead Performance & Optimization Consultannt, Black & Veatch
  Next Generation Operations using Smart Data Analytics

  Next Generation Operations using Smart Data Analytics

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  Lessons learned across industries show that a combination of a focused remote Monitoring & Diagnostics (M&D) team and advanced data analytics enhances facility operations and maintenance activities. A successful M&D solution combines the right mix of people, processes, and tools to get the right information to the right people at the right time. The proven formula combines a mix of subject domain expertise and tech savvy resources together with a well-defined processes to properly vet issues before they are escalated to the plant to minimize false alerts and help the plant staff focus on high value tasks. Mature M&D solutions foster collaboration between the M&D Center and plant staff, which can take the data analytics effectiveness to the next level. Through several examples we demonstrate how the collaborative effort between a remote monitoring center and a fleet of facilities identified emerging issues early before problems developed resulting in significant avoided cost. Further, the successful outcomes have spurred plant staff to think of innovative ways to further leverage data analytics solution to drive value.
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  Brian Wolf

  Lead Performance & Optimization Consultannt

  Black & Veatch