Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)

EPRI delivers the Nuclear Promise Initiative with CHAMPS Analytics to drive cost savings in Preventative Maintenance strategies to better compete with natural gas in the nuclear power industry

“By partnering with CHAMPS Analytics we are now able to solve the hardest data analytics problems for the entire industry. Never before can could we give each utility a one stop shop to analyze their PM data and performance and while also allowing each utility to compare and contrast their spending patterns against their peers. By providing the analytics powered by Qlik, we are projecting tens of millions of dollars in savings across the entire US fleet of nuclear reactors.”

- Jeff Greene, EPRI Senior Technical Leader

Challenges

The nuclear industry is facing cost pressures due to cheap, abundant natural gas. One of the best ways to lower costs and improve efficiencies to the bottom line is to analyze data to see where the most expensive Preventive Maintenance dollars are being spent and determine if altering the PM strategy can result in lowering costs while maintaining the same reliability for various equipment and assets at the plant. The data is difficult to mine and the reliability engineers struggle to generate good analytics.

Solution

EPRI was introduced to CHAMPS Analytics by Arizona Public Service / Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station to work on a solution to bring the entire industry together on a common platform. Qlik was selected to be the platform of choice due to its flexibility and ability to work with large and complex data. Today, every utility in the nation can see their spending for any asset class across their entire fleet and quickly determine the high value assets that can immediately target for PM optimization. The whole solution was implemented in less than 6 months.