Strategic Power Systems has a data first philosophy, and their business is based on collecting performance data from operating plants all over the world and aggregating that information into their ORAP® database to provide industry best-practices and benchmarking information. In the past year, SPS established a partnership with OSIsoft. Through PI Cloud Connect, SPS has been able to provide customers with a scalable, maintainable, infrastructure to capture process data from their control system and send that data securely to the SPS data center. They then transform the data to provide customers with information for data-driven decisions, including on-demand reliability and availability benchmarks, NERC GADS reporting compliance, aging parameters on capital parts, and thermal performance metrics. Additionally, through Connected Services, SPS leverages a customer’s existing infrastructure to collect and securely transfer data so it can be processed centrally. With PI Cloud Connect, SPS has reduced the cost and logistic issues associated with maintaining multiple remote hardware and software systems, while Connected Services has eliminated the need for additional site hardware, communication protocols, and associated costs for configuring and maintaining these.
Speaker
Robert Steele
Robert Steele is Vice President – Information Systems & Technology at Strategic Power Systems. In this role, he is responsible for the ongoing support and maintenance of the information technology systems and all software development activities at SPS. Prior to this role, he served in various positions within Project Engineering and Customer Support at SPS. He has over 25 years of experience performing studies in the areas of Reliability, Availability and Maintainability (RAM) and has co-authored and published papers on reliability issues. He has been involved in all aspects of engineering and operation of the ORAP® system at SPS, including data collection, processing, analysis, and reporting. He is a past chairman of the ASME Subcommittee on Gas Turbine Operation, Maintenance, Reliability and Safety and is a current member of the API-691 Task Force. He has systems engineering experience supporting the Navy on combat system development as well as project engineering experience in a paper mill. Mr. Steele has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.