MCG Energy Solutions Has Acquired Versify Solutions
We are delighted to announce that MCG Energy Solutions has acquired Versify Solutions, 
effective April 12, 2019. MCG’s rapidly expanding role in the North American energy software industry is furthered by the Versify acquisition, which is MCG’s fourth major acquisition since 2017. This change is marked by the addition of "an MCG company" to the Versify as logo displayed at the top of the page.
MCG is a 24-year old software company specializing in operating and financial systems for wholesale energy markets. Versify is a leading developer of advanced data analytics and workflow software for outage management, operator logging, and compliance that improve operational and financial performance of generation and transmission assets. The integration of MCG’s Energy Software Suite with Versify’s platform will enable MCG to provide our customers enhanced outage management, workflow, and logging with the latest data analytics within their existing MCG systems.
“Versify’s data analytics product suite extends MCG’s OMS and workflow capacities to provide our customers a complete, end-to-end energy management solution” said MCG’s co-founder and CEO, Mike Prickett. “We are excited to add Versify’s products and staff in solidifying MCG’s growing position in the energy software industry.”
“Joining the MCG family allows us to leverage MCG’s strength in the industry and robust infrastructure in delivering high quality solutions to our clients” said Versify’s co-founder and CTO, Dave Ippolito.
Find out more at MCG’s website.
Versify Supports Industry Transition to New Reliability Coordinator Services in the West
With the announcement of Peak RC’s wind down, each Peak RC customer must now put plans in place to transition to a new Reliability Coordinator. As of this writing, most companies have made their selection between CAISO and SPP. Versify has several customers affected by this transition and this paper highlights some of the major considerations for companies going through this process.
What areas must Balancing Authorities and Transmission Operators consider during the transition?
One of the primary interactions between RCs and their customers is outage coordination. CAISO and SPP have different business processes and data requirements than Peak. Each RC defines the data requirements, submission timing and types/causes differently and these attributes may have a significant impact on customer business processes and tools. Some of these attributes include:
- Nature of Work/Cause Codes: represent the cause of the outage or derate including plant maintenance, ambient derates, fuel limitations, testing and communication issues
- Outage/Derate Types: Outages may be planned well in advance or forced outages may be used for emergency maintenance. Outages are assigned as either Forced or Planned based on the time the request is made relative to the outage start time. The distinction between outage types has important implications for reliability metrics and regulatory reporting.
- Approval Types: CAISO and SPP have different outage approval processes and timelines. It is important to understand these processes and timelines, so the true state of the outage is understood by all stakeholders.
Let’s consider some specific examples below.
Transition to CAISO
There are several unique aspects of managing outages in CAISO that are not required by other RCs that customers must consider when transitioning to CAISO. Some of these include:
- Hourly Availability Profiles: allows Available MW changes over time within a single ticket
- Treatment of overlapping derates: if overlapping derates exist generators are required to submit the minimum available MWs for the overlapping period
- Vacated Periods: when the time of an outage is moved, generators must also submit a revised availability for the original timeframe
- Change Requests: generators may withdraw a change request before it is accepted by CAISO
- Treatment of Multi Stage Generators: availability for all configurations within a MSG must be submitted in a single ticket
- Aggregates: CAISO accepts outage tickets for the rollup of smaller generators as aggregates
- Ability to submit adjustments to ramp rates/PMIN/AGC MIN/Max within a single ticket
Transition to SPP
While the outage managements systems deployed by Peak RC and SPP are provided by the same software vendor, there are important differences in data and processes:
- Outage Type (Priority) between SPP and Peak differ materially. SPP types include: Planned, Discretionary, Opportunity, Operational, Urgent, Emergency and Forced
- SPP requires the inclusion of Outage Cause with ticket submission. Valid SPP causes must be selected from a list of 15 options
How should BAs and TOPs create a plan for success to transition to a new Reliability Coordinator?
Planning is a key component to success in any transition that impacts large companies and complex process. Here are few steps to consider in your plan.
Make sure all stakeholders understand the new requirements for the RC selected. Review business practice manuals and attend training for the selected RC and talk to other customers currently working with the RC. Review technical documentation and user guides for the new systems that staff will interact.
Conduct a gap analysis to compare the new processes to the old and look for significant changes that will need to be made. Be sure to consider any data that is not being captured today but will be required after the transition
Assess and update procedures and tools. Do the current processes rely on e-mails, phone calls and paper-based processes? What are the high-risk areas in the current processes? Document how the changes will fit into your organization and impact your customers and stakeholders. Ensure that the procedures comply with the expectation of your new RC. Explore technology upgrades that will help streamline the transition, improve automation and reduce risk
Create a Go-Live Plan. Make sure that all stakeholders and customers understand the new processes and tools as well as the transition plan and timing. Conduct parallel operations to ensure a smooth transition. Plan for managing outages that may cross the cutover to the new RC. Make sure that all scenarios (planned, forced, testing) are explored during the parallel operations.
Versify Solutions, Inc. (www.versify.com) is a pioneer and leading provider of advanced enterprise situational awareness solutions for the electric power industry. Versify is currently supporting Outage Management Customers in Peak RC, SPP and CAISO. Versify’s OMS provides a solid, proven solution for BAs and TOPs transitioning from Peak RC to CAISO or SPP. New customers may deploy Versify’s OMS prior to the transition and utilize Versify’s OMS for parallel operations and a seamless transition to the new RCs.
Versify releases Workforce: Critical Safety Management Software for the Energy, Utilities and Industrial Industry
GLEN MILLS, Pennsylvania: Versify announces the release of Versify Workforce, the latest in their suite of energy, utilities and industrial applications. Versify Workforce streamlines and simplifies the Control of Work procedures in support of OSHA and HSE safety standards and best practices. Key safety procedures such as work permits, job hazard analysis (JHA), job safety analysis (JSA), switching orders, isolations and lockout tagout (LOTO) can be configured by the customer to their requirements.
Versify continues to lead the pack in energy, utilities and industrial software targeted for control room operators, field technicians, maintenance crews, construction crews and engineers. By leveraging digital logbook, workflow engine and electronic form builder that comes standard with Workforce, customers can create their own digital forms and processes and route those forms for review and approval throughout the organization.
Versify Workforce provides the latest technology utilizing Versify’s advanced web-based desktop and mobile platform. Workforce allows field technicians and maintenance crews the ability to access their electronic forms and instructions on mobile devices such as a tablet or smartphone.
“Workforce helps advance and streamline the maintenance and construction process. By making safety management tools available on tablets and smartphones, we can reduce the administrative burden on staff and increase compliance and communications.” stated John Finley, Versify’s Vice President of Client Services.
With OSHA and HSE standards surrounding safety management, a consistent and effective Control of Work (COW) or Integrated Safe System of Work (ISSOW) procedure is critical. Versify Workforce helps customers ensure their workforce is executing safety management the right way at the right time. Versify is helping organizations comply with OSHA, HSE and other compliance and standards by providing digitized starter templates such as:
Control of Work (COW)- Permit to Work (PTW)
- Job Hazard Analysis (JHA)
- Job Safety Analysis (JSA)
- Switching Orders & Isolations
- Lockout Tagout (LOTO)
- Compliance
- Safety Dashboards & Reporting
- Mobile and Workflow Enabled
Versify Solutions, Inc. (www.versify.com) is a pioneer and leading provider of advanced enterprise situational awareness solutions for the electric power industry. Versify’s application suite is a first-to-market software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) platform that uniquely addresses major challenges faced by companies involved in the generation, transmission, and sale of electric power. Renewable energy operators, utilities, merchant power producers and transmission owners alike leverage the Company’s solutions to enable key digital transformation initiatives aimed at increasing revenue, reducing costs, mitigating compliance risks, and operating critical infrastructure assets more efficiently. Versify’s OMS™ Outage Management System provides Generation Outage Management software, Transmission Outage Management software, NERC GADS/TADS reporting and is workflow enabled. Versify’s PORTAL™ provides Asset Management software, Operator Logs, NERC Compliance software and is workflow enabled. Versify ExecView™ provides energy industry business intelligence, analytics and reporting combining data into a single solution including commercial, revenue, market pricing, operations, performance and reliability information. For more information, please visit http://www.versify.com/.
Why Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) Software is the Right Answer for Outage Management in Complex Energy Markets
The Case for “Configurable COTS” in Complex Energy Markets
Energy and Utility Companies and their Agents play a critical role administering power markets around the world. Power markets tend to be very complex and the organizations responsible for their administration must manage huge volumes of complex transactions and payment streams often representing billions of Dollars. To effectively manage their assets, organizations rely on critical Information Technology (IT) systems. The selection of software vendors and service providers for these IT systems can have a huge impact on the ability of Operators to achieve their strategic goals and objectives while providing cost effective services.
Drivers for Change
Several main drivers cause Energy & Utility Companies to make changes to their IT landscape:
- Technology obsolescence – The technology of the underlying solution has reached the end of its useful life and the system must be replaced for technical reasons as opposed to functional shortcomings.
- Regulatory changes – Changes to market designs, introduction of new market features or changes in market administration may require new solutions or major changes to existing solutions. As an example, the increased impact of renewables on the grid and desires to improve market efficiency are driving regulators to demand changes to existing markets throughout the world.
- Expansion into new regions or markets – A new organization is taking responsibility for managing an aspect of region such as the California EIM.
- Strategic ICT Initiatives - Enterprise architecture initiatives with the goal of rationalizing applications and creating an integrated ICT plan. These initiatives include service oriented architecture approaches and a comprehensive integration plan than can only be accomplished by replacing legacy systems with new applications. Often these initiatives, while expensive to implement, offer considerable savings over the life of the software.
- Increasing operational cost and risk associated with the current solution. The cost to maintain the current system and the risk of failure is such that a system replacement is merited based on total cost of ownership.
Energy & Utility companies face a critical decision when considering major investments in IT systems: should they build their own custom solution, procure a Commercial off-the-Shelf (COTS) software solution or extend the life of unsupported solutions?
These options provide inherent advantages and the unique nature of energy markets makes the decision very difficult.
Proven Capabilities
Energy & Utility Companies often select COTS over custom systems due to the proven capabilities of COTS. An off- the-shelf system has already been proven to work, and merely requires adaptation to the specific requirements of the customer. This not only reduces the risk of development – both in cost, duration and user satisfaction, but it also enables the customers to learn from and share best practices with other customers.
While Energy & Utility companies undoubtedly have their own unique requirements, there are many common elements to their needs. Custom designs require developers to “reinvent the wheel” with each delivery which is costly, risky, and inefficient. It is beneficial to take advantage of the economies of scale available with by starting with “tried and tested” software and adapt as required.
The best practices incorporated in COTS significantly reduce the time to market for implementation. The implementation effort focuses on configuration and adapting the unique regulatory and market requirements of the customer rather than business process, administration and integration needs. These requirements are already reflected in the design and development of COTS and the customer benefits from the collective experience of past deployments. The benefits of reduced time to market and focus on the specific configuration needs of the customer reduce overall costs of implementation and reduce the risks for the customer.
Ongoing Updates and Product Roadmap
Perhaps the most important benefit of COTS is customers receive regular technical and functional software updates that ensure that the system is operating efficiently and continually evolving to meet the changing needs of the customer.
Software updates fall into several categories:
- Performance Improvements that increase the speed and processing capability of the application. As data volumes increase, systems age and settlement and billing cycles decrease, performance is crucial for Energy & Utility Companies.
- Defect Resolution addresses issues with the core solution. Resolutions for high-priority defects may be delivered on an emergency basis, while resolutions for lower-priority defects may be released as part of the standard release schedule.
- Functional Enhancements add new capabilities to the solution based upon the product roadmap and vision. These enhancements may include new or improved user interfaces, analytical tools or new calculation capabilities.
- Technology Upgrades do not typically change the functionality of the software, but change how that functionality is enabled by moving the under-the-hood components to more modern technologies. This may include updates to database, integration protocols (such as web services) or user interface technologies.
These updates are typically provided under a support and maintenance agreement that the customer enters into with the COTS software provider. The COTS software provider shares the costs of these enhancements over a large customer base, reducing the cost to each individual customer.
Another advantage of COTS solutions is becoming part of a global user community. In a changing world, where transmission systems are becoming more integrated and the supply mix is becoming more divers, there is much to learn from other Energy & Utility companies, and most COTS providers hold periodic events and can provide access to experts, and support facilities which enable users to interact and discuss resolutions to current and potential future issues and market trends.
With the exception of enhancement requests or reporting defects, there is little or no resource commitment on the part of the customer to request and document individual change requests. Enhancements are driven by a large user base giving customers the ability to receive enhancements that may be useful but that they had not requested.
For COTS solutions, the customer typically pays an initial license price and an ongoing support and maintenance fee. The support and maintenance fee entitles the customer to future product enhancements and upgrades. The product updates include updated technical and user documentation and often training that is provided to the installed base of the COTS vendor. In contrast, this process is often neglected or becomes very costly with one-off deliveries as the process becomes a series of “projects” all requiring approval, budget and extensive oversight from the customer.
COTS software vendors typically ship 1 major release and 1 or 2 minor releases per year. Providing updates on a similar schedule would represent an enormous and costly effort for an organization using custom software deployment.
Configurability and Flexibility
Organizations with complex business processes and regularly changing needs must also consider the level of configurability that they require in a solution. The level of configurability required is driven by the frequency and complexity of changes to the functionality.
Because custom solutions are built with the goal of meeting a set of requirements that reflect an organization’s needs at a certain point in time, they are typically far less flexible than COTS solutions. They lack the ability to be configured as requirements change, and updates generally require changes to the application code itself. A COTS solution with configurable components allows customers and their service providers to more easily incorporate market or other changes. A solution built specifically for today’s requirements without consideration for configurable components will likely not have the flexibility to accommodate change without major development.
The benefits of a flexible architecture manifest themselves in the continually evolving nature of energy markets. The deployment of new technology such as smart meters, energy storage and distributed generation all has significant impacts on the requirements for settling and billing energy. These developments often lead to new applications that augment one-off solutions as they are implemented and the customer’s application landscape becomes more complicated and more costly to maintain. With the flexibility of COTS, many of the developments can be incorporated in the core product.
Non-Functional Requirements
A robust, usable application in a complex business environment must offer tools and capabilities beyond the core business functionality; it must also offer a robust user interface, reporting, audit, security and compliance with industry standards and protocols. Each of these items on its own is a significant investment of time and resources; if not fully and effectively implemented their absence can present a significant obstacle to a system’s usability.
For commercial off-the-shelf software, vendors are able to leverage these capabilities across multiple customers and applications to significantly reduce the incremental costs to deliver the capabilities. Custom development of non-functional requirements increases the costs associated with implementation, with little or no opportunity to scale or leverage this investment in other areas of the enterprise. Some examples of non-functional capabilities are provided below.
User Interface
Users need the ability to view, evaluate, and edit results, and having that ability means a set of interfaces that supports the business process. These capabilities are frequently overlooked in a custom implementation.
COTS solutions also draw upon expertise in user experience and, typically, a development team that has years of experience building user interfaces. These interfaces are designed and built with industry and technical standards in mind and reflect the experience of the vendor designing and implementing interfaces that are robust and sufficiently minimize the impact of underlying application or database updates.
COTS vendors invest in creating flexible, intuitive user interfaces. COTS vendors generally provide a pre-defined set of screens based and proven on previous deployments. These interfaces are designed to be modified to meet specific customer requirements and workflows. Often the base set of interfaces meets the majority of customer requirements and the focus of the implementation is augmenting these screens to meet the customer’s unique requirements. COTS providers typically include user experience architects in the design and development of their interfaces. These experts have extensive experience designing user interfaces that meet the needs of the various types of users that interact with their software.
Reporting
Once integration and configuration are complete, data must be presented to users, analysts, and executive management. For established COTS a base set of reports are offered. These reports can be modified to meet specific customer requirements and are often augmented by an enterprise wide reporting tool. COTS vendors invest in industry trends for data and analytics and often leverage new components as part of the overall product roadmap.
Security and Audit
Comprehensive security should include role-based security at functional and data levels to provide secure access to data. It may also include integration with an organization’s LDAP, AD, or other implementations for authorization. Other key security features include hierarchical roles, application and data-level security, and the ability to restrict access by object, module, screen, or action.
Complete auditing should give administrators the ability to see detailed information about who accessed specific data, including the user or system accessing, original and new values, the date and time of access, and the machine from which the data were accessed. Robust, role-based, application level security and audit can be costly to develop and maintain in a custom developed application.
Cyber security is an ongoing concern in the energy industry and especially relevant to Energy & Utility Companies. COTS vendors are exposed to and must meet the cumulative cyber security of their customers and can stay on the forefront of developing cyber security challenges more cost effectively than one-off deliveries.
Standards
Complying and maintaining compliance with industry standards is generally prohibitively expensive for custom implementations. For large software organizations with an expansive portfolio of solutions in a specific industry, maintaining standards compliance is part of doing business and providing solutions to the industry.
Maintenance Costs and Supplier Services
The ongoing support and maintenance of production systems is generally the largest component of the Total Cost of Ownership of a complex IT system. Customers must decide if they have the resources or can reasonably contract with service providers to support these systems for multiple years.
A typical COTS vendor has an established process for maintaining code, providing defect fixes, training and maintaining customer support staff often at fixed and reasonable costs.
Post-sales support is generally not provided effectively by custom developers, who generally move onto the next project. COTS providers are there for the long-haul, and have an established account management process and 24 hour support and product management network which provides two-way communication to clients throughout their license period. This means that product knowledge is maintained and is not dependent on key individuals within either organization. A key risk of custom developments is that product knowledge tends to get concentrated within a few key individuals – often consultants - who have little incentive to share that knowledge. Over time, that knowledge can become increasingly expensive or difficult to retain; especially as key individuals move roles or leave the company.
Many unique and cost-effective support services models can be implemented with COTS. Often Level 1 and/or Level 2 support are staffed with customer or System Integrator (SI) staff. System Integrators often have experience with COTS from other deployments and COTS providers invest in training and partnering with multiple SIs to create deep pool of knowledgeable implementation and support staff in the industry. This provides customers with options to tailor the support model and providers to their specific needs and geographies.
Integration
When a new solution is added to complex system architecture, integration architecture must be an area of focus, regardless of whether the solution is custom or COTS.
A custom solution may initially integrate more easily with legacy systems – older systems may have outdated file formats or interface protocols that are best supported by custom interfaces regardless of the new solution. A COTS solution will often interface more easily with newer systems and will offer support for newer integration methods. This means a custom solution’s integration tools may be the best answer for this particular snapshot in time, but a COTS solution provides better results over the life of the system.
A robust COTS solution should also offer a number of different options for integration, including file-based, HTTP/FTP, web Services, Oracle PL/SQL API, and direct DB links.
Versify offers a fully hosted web-based SaaS solution for both Generation and Transmission Outage Management software. Speak to a Versify Team Member or Request a Quote to find out more about a solution at your company.
Permit to Work Software (PTW) for the Control of Work
Permit to Work Software for the Control of Work
Versify's Mobile Control of Work software with integrated workflow and electronic forms, improves the effectiveness and procedural compliance of the general permit to work system and control of work processes. Versify's electronic Permit to Work software with integrated workflows enables energy and utility companies starter permit to work templates and samples they can configure and modify to comply with their own internal processes and OSHA standards. Permit to Work policy may differ between companies, so Versify has made sure all of their Control of Work systems are highly configurable by the customer.
Many companies today are using Permit to Work Word templates or paper forms, which can easily be misplaced or not filled out completely. Many of the forms and documents in a Control to Work system are comprised of multiple forms, emails and communication methods. This can be difficult to manage and increases the risk of accidents and safety concerns.
Versify's Permit to Work software is web based and mobile enabled, allowing the workforce to access at any desktop or laptop with a browser or tablet and mobile device. The solution is easy and simple to configure. Processes, procedures, rules, standards and documents can be configured exactly to your needs. Routing and approval workflows can be activated to ensure supervisors or managers can review and approve completed work permits. Your staff and workforce will have full visibility into the activities and events going on at all times, simplifying communications and administration.
Versify's Control to Work software enables our customers to manage all of the processes in a single consistent platform (e.g. Permit to Work (PTW), Operational Risk Assessments (ORA), Isolations, Switching Orders, JSA/JHA, Lock-out-Tag-out (LOTO), etc.)
Additional digital forms and workflow examples are available on Versify's Mobile Control of Work software platform that can be configured for each specific energy and utility business department. For instance, recording compliance events, lessons learned, automated SCADA based events and alarms and shift turnover/handover can also be configured and modeled in the application for a complete solution to effective operations.
All of the events, permits and forms are easily tracked and reported on through Versify's Digital Logbook. The digital or electronic logbook serves as an operators logbook or workbook where all of the business processes and events are being recorded. Utility and power plant management and staff all use the same central repository, which can be configured with different permissions for different roles, where they can quickly review recent or past events and work permits.
Because Versify is a fully hosted solution, there is very little, if any IT staffing or resource overhead required. A complete Control of Work solution with Work Permits and other electronic forms and automated processes you may need can be quickly setup and configured. The intuitive interface reduces training requirements to only a few minutes. Staff can be operational very efficiently and effectively without the need for long training sessions and volumes of documentation!
Speak to a Versify Team Member or Request a Quote for a Control of Work solution at your company.
Versify releases ExecView: Advanced Energy Analytics, Dashboards, & Reporting
GLEN MILLS, Pennsylvania: Versify announces a new release of ExecView™ Application, the newest in their suite of energy industry applications. Versify ExecView™ delivers much needed energy analytics, dashboards and reporting for executives, as well as asset and portfolio managers. Versify continues to lead the pack in energy industry software specifically targeted for renewable and clean energy, utilities and merchant power producers.
Versify ExecView™ provides the latest technology utilizing Versify’s advanced web-based desktop and mobile platform. Seamlessly combining business intelligence and analytics from multiple data sources provides a distinctive edge in revenue and performance management. The robust collection of data sources and KPIs provides insights into the commercial, operational and reliability performance of the portfolio. This next generation of data visualization for renewables and fossil generation is available quickly and easily through standard web browsers and mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.
“ExecView fills the gap in consolidated generation analytics and reporting. No other solution offers such a thorough capability to provide management with portfolio level reporting” stated John Finley, Versify’s Vice President of Client Services.
With Versify’s rapid deployment capability organizations can quickly gain access to highly interactive drill-down dashboards and analytical reporting. The solution facilitates awareness and intelligence about market conditions, commercial opportunities, portfolio performance and standard energy industry KPIs all in a single platform. Here are just a few key benefits of Versify ExecView™:
- Provides near real-time visibility of asset performance across multiple stakeholders
- Eliminates manual report creation and distribution providing huge time savings and do-more-with-less
- Provides standardized reporting across the portfolio that can be shared across the organization
- Provides out of the box industry standard KPIs for rapid deployment
- Easily adaptable to unique customer requirements
- “Normalizes” data across multiple types of generation assets and manufacturers (turbines, inverters, etc.)
- Low IT overhead utilizing Versify’s fully hosted solution
Versify Solutions, Inc. (www.versify.com) is a pioneer and leading provider of advanced enterprise situational awareness solutions for the electric power industry. Versify’s application suite is a first-to-market software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) platform that uniquely addresses major challenges faced by companies involved in the generation, transmission, and sale of electric power. Renewable energy operators, utilities, merchant power producers and transmission owners alike leverage the Company’s solutions to enable key digital transformation initiatives aimed at increasing revenue, reducing costs, mitigating compliance risks, and operating critical infrastructure assets more efficiently. Versify’s OMS™ Outage Management System provides Generation Outage Management software, Transmission Outage Management software, NERC GADS/TADS reporting and is workflow enabled. Versify’s PORTAL™ provides Asset Management software, Operator Logs, NERC Compliance software and is workflow enabled. Versify ExecView™ provides energy industry business intelligence, analytics and reporting combining data into a single solution including commercial, revenue, market pricing, operations, performance and reliability information. For more information, please visit https://www.versify.com/.
Transmission & Substations: Switching Orders and the Switching Log
Simplifying Switching Orders Procedure for the Energy & Utilities Industry
With such high standards for safety and reliability, it has become critical for energy companies to automate and streamline operational procedures. The days of paper checklists, forms and documents, such as used with Switching Orders and Isolation points, are being phased out. They are being replaced with technology and mobile devices. Today's utility field force and system operators are being asked to become more technologically advanced, flexible and streamlined.
Versify’s Solutions meets NERC Wind GADS 2018 Q1 Submission
GLEN MILLS, Pennsylvania: Versify Solutions delivers automated NERC Wind GADS solution to meet the original mandatory NERC reporting deadline for Q1 of 2018. Versify Solutions was one of the few companies to report on time with compliant reports .
“Versify was able to meet the original NERC Wind GADS deadline of May 15th, 2018 with a compliant submission. We worked with our customers throughout Q4 2017 and our solution was tested and ready to go in January. Despite NERC extending the Wind GADS deadline to August 15th and modifying the report content Versify Solutions successfully supported the first quarter reporting on time.” stated Bob Furry, Versify’s Vice President of Product Strategy.
To meet the new GADS-W reporting requirements, Wind Generation owners and operators require an automated tool to manage the data volumes and complexity of reporting. The Versify NERC Wind GADS module automates NERC event creation, event classification based on site level outages (whether planned, forced, or maintenance outages), and report creation for Sub Group, Performance and System-Component Reports. It also provides out of the box operational data integration and KPI calculations.
Versify’s NERC Wind GADS solution is configured to automatically map turbine fault codes from turbine manufacturers such as Siemens, GE, Vestas, Mitsubishi, and Suzlon. Once the fault codes are captured, they are automatically assigned the proper NERC GADS system and component codes. Versify is one of the first software vendors to provide a comprehensive module to generate the required NERC GADS reports based on the automated and manual events along with reporting of the key performance indicators (KPIs) that provide visibility into the wind fleet, wind farm, and turbine performance and reliability.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) finalized data reporting instructions for NERC GADS Wind Turbine Generation (GADS-W) in 2017 with mandatory reporting for large farms starting in 2018. For many years, NERC has required fossil power plant reporting, but it now also requires detailed operational data for each wind turbine in a generator’s portfolio. GADS Wind reporting is much more data intensive, for example a 200 MW wind site generates data for up to 200 turbines that must be monitored and reported on a sub-hourly basis. Event counts for a single farm may total in the thousands for a single month.
NERC has required a four-year phased-in schedule that started in 2017 with voluntary reporting. In year two (2018), wind farms with Total Installed Capacity of 200 MW or larger must start reporting. Year three (2019) requires reporting from wind generators with Total Installed Capacity of 100 MW to 199.99 MW. By year four (2020), reporting will be required from wind plants with Total Installed Capacity of 75 MW to 99.99 MW.
Versify has addressed their customer’s challenges and operational efficiency by supporting the automated capture and reporting to NERC Wind GADS.
Versify Solutions, Inc. (www.versify.com) is a pioneer and leading provider of advanced enterprise situational awareness solutions for the electric power industry. Versify’s application suite is a first-to-market software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) platform that uniquely addresses major challenges faced by companies involved in the generation, transmission, and sale of electric power. Renewable energy operators, utilities, merchant power producers and transmission owners alike leverage the Company’s solutions to enable key digital transformation initiatives aimed at increasing revenue, reducing costs, mitigating compliance risks, and operating critical infrastructure assets more efficiently. Versify’s OMS™ Outage Management System provides Generation Outage Management software, Transmission Outage Management software, NERC GADS/TADS reporting and is workflow enabled. Versify’s PORTAL™ provides Asset Management software, Operator Logs, NERC Compliance software and is workflow enabled. Versify ExecView™ provides energy industry business intelligence, analytics and reporting combining data into a single solution including commercial, revenue, market pricing, operations, performance and reliability information. For more information, please visit https://www.versify.com/.
Mobile Outage Management for Field Workers and NERC Wind GADS Expanded Support
With the great demand from our customers to connect field technicians and operations centers, Versify is going mobile.
OMS Rapid Deployment – Fast, Cost-Effective Deployment of Generation Outage Management
GLEN MILLS, Pennsylvania: Versify announces the release of OMS Rapid Deployment, a pre-configured rapid deployment solution for their Generation Outage Management System (OMS).
The new cost-effective offering enables a two-week implementation of the company’s leading software-as-a-service cloud application. OMS Rapid Deployment provides users advanced outage scheduling, out-of-the-box approval workflows, submission and synchronization with an ISO/RTO, GADS reporting and anywhere access. An economical and practical solution, OMS Rapid Deployment is designed to meet the needs of small to medium sized merchant generators, utilities or municipal energy providers who need to quickly and cost-effectively implement a full feature outage management solution.
“OMS Rapid Deployment is the logical evolution of Versify’s OMS Suite, providing the rich feature set of a large-enterprise generation outage management system in an off-the-shelf, cost-effective package for small to medium size companies.” stated John Finley, Versify’s Vice President of Client Services.
With a typical two-week implementation period, OMS Rapid Deployment enables you to quickly improve operational processes and realize multiple benefits:
- Reduce manual data entry errors
- Minimize non-compliance risk
- Increase revenue and overall margin on assets
- Improve real-time decision making
- Lower operational and IT costs
The OMS application provides powerful capabilities including:
- Outage requests, scheduling, approvals and notifications
- Two way ISO integration
- Outage dashboards and reporting
- Field force enablement
- GADS reporting
OMS Rapid Deployment furnishes users with:
- Support for up to 10 plants, 15 users and 3 roles
- Integration with one ISO market
- Standard approval workflows for Planned, Maintenance and Forced Outages
Leveraging Versify's years of extensive experience improving outage management processes for some of the largest portfolios in North America, OMS Rapid Deployment allows Versify to offer power providers - from the smallest independent power producer to the largest regulated public utility - a full spectrum of Outage Management System configuration options.
Versify Solutions, Inc. (www.versify.com) is a pioneer and leading provider of advanced enterprise situational awareness solutions for the electric power industry. Versify’s application suite is a first-to-market software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) platform that uniquely addresses major challenges faced by companies involved in the generation, transmission, and sale of electric power. Renewable energy operators, utilities and merchant power producers alike, leverage the Company’s solutions to enable key digital transformation initiatives aimed at increasing revenue, reducing costs, mitigating compliance risks, and operating critical infrastructure assets more efficiently. Versify’s OMS™ Outage Management System provides Generation Outage Management software, Transmission Outage Management software, NERC GADS/TADS reporting and is workflow enabled. Versify’s PORTAL™ provides Asset Management software, Operator Logs, NERC Compliance software and is workflow enabled. For more information, please visit https://www.versify.com/.
Outage Management Simplified
We are pleased to announce a pre-configured rapid deployment solution for our Generation Outage Management System (OMS).
Managing Generator Outages in the CAISO
Tracking and monitoring outages is a key function of managing generation assets in the California ISO (CAISO) market. CAISO Business Process Manuals and Operating Procedures detail the specific processes and procedures for coordinating generation outages.
Critical Outage Management System Features v6.1 for 2018
With the release of OMS™ and PORTAL™ version 6.1, Versify’s application suite responds to customer demands for enhanced outage scheduling, outage coordination, business process improvement and NERC Wind GADS reporting requirements mandated in 2018.
GLEN MILLS, Pennsylvania: On October 1st, 2017, Versify Solutions Inc. will be releasing version 6.1 of the Versify OMS™ and PORTAL™ applications. Versify’s OMS™ software suite facilitates the complex process of planning, scheduling, approving, submitting and reporting outages across the enterprise and includes both Generation and Transmission Outage Management. Versify’s PORTAL™ software is an information sharing platform providing fleet-wide situational awareness for all stakeholders to improve operational efficiency, ensure compliance and improve communications between business groups.
Versify OMS™ Enhancements include:
- CAISO EIM Integration: Supports uploading and synchronization to both CAISO and Peak RC
- Outage Calendar Enhancements: Enhancements to include reporting of Versify PORTAL™ Operator Log and Event Log events
- Recurring Outages: Added the ability to create and manage Recurring Outages
- Real-Time Dashboard: Implemented a Real-Time Outage Dashboard providing operators the ability to view and filter on outages starting, ending and active today and tomorrow
- Report Scheduling: Allows administrators to automate and schedule the delivery of a report or screen to a group of contacts
- Filter Preferences: A Filter Preferences toolbar drop down has been added so users can quickly select a saved preference
- Transmission Outage Management: The Versify OMS™ has been extended for managing and reporting generation outages and deratings of transmission assets
- Outage Linking: Added the capability to allow authorized users to link outage tickets, link outages to operator log events and switching orders and vice versa
- HTML5/Mobile Transition Strategy: Versify is upgrading the software platform to HTML5! This allows Versify to refresh the user experience, support for modern browsers, operate on mobile and tablet platforms and introduce new usability enhancements.
Versify’s Outage Management System provides visibility across business lines and automates the complex process of planning, approving, scheduling, submitting, switching and reporting for generation and transmission outages. The Versify OMS is an integrated workflow application managing the complex outage management and outage coordination processes from end-to-end. Generation and Transmission Outage Management features include outage dashboards and reporting as well as NERC reporting (GADS/TADS). Advanced workflow capabilities enable clients to coordinate with business stakeholders, Transmission Operators (ISO/RTOs) and Reliability Coordinators (RCs).
Versify OMS™ - The all-new NERC Wind GADS Reporting Module:
Beginning in 2018, NERC is requiring any wind farms greater than 200 MW to report reliability data including turbine-level performance metrics. Versify implemented a new Wind GADS module to the Versify OMS™ suite to support these new NERC reporting requirements.
To meet the new NERC Wind GADS reporting requirements, Wind Generation owners and operators will require an automated tool to manage the data volumes and complexity of reporting. The Versify NERC Wind GADS module has automated NERC event creation, event classification based on site level outages (whether planned, forced, or maintenance outages), and report creation for Sub Group, Performance and System-Component. It also includes out of the box operational data integration and KPI calculations.
- Wind GADS Automated Event Capture: Expanded GADS reporting capability to meet NERC’s Wind GADS reporting requirements through an automated process that captures turbine fault events and translates them into corresponding NERC events and performance KPI’s
- Wind GADS Fault Code Administration: Provided a method to manage a turbine manufacturer’s fault codes and the mapping to GADS event types and cause codes
- Wind GADS NERC Event Management: Added ability to capture and categorize turbine level NERC events that are compiled into the NERC performance reports
- Wind GADS NERC Reporting: Versify GADS reporting was enhanced to include required and optional reporting to be submitted to NERC
Versify’s Wind GADS application can be configured to automatically identify turbine fault codes from turbine manufacturers such as Siemens, GE, Vestas, Mitsubishi, Suzlon, etc., and then assign them to the NERC GADS system and component codes. Versify is one of the first outage management vendors to provide a comprehensive solution to generate the required NERC GADS reports based on the automated events captured by the Outage Management software along with key performance indicators. These KPIs provide visibility across the entire wind fleet, each wind farm, down to turbine performance and reliability.
Versify Solutions, Inc. (www.versify.com) is an authority and leading provider of advanced enterprise situational awareness solutions for the electric power industry. Versify’s application suite is a first-to-market software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) platform that uniquely addresses major challenges faced by companies involved in the generation, transmission, and sale of electric power. Renewable energy operators, utilities and merchant power producers alike leverage the Company’s solutions to enable key digital transformation initiatives aimed at increasing revenue, reducing costs, mitigating compliance risks, and operating critical infrastructure assets more efficiently. Versify’s OMS™ Outage Management System provides Generation Outage Management software, Transmission Outage Management software, NERC GADS/TADS reporting and is workflow enabled. Versify’s PORTAL™ provides Asset Management software, Operator Logs, NERC Compliance software and is also workflow enabled. For more information, please visit www.versify.com.
Leading Wind Power Provider Kills Keystrokes and Portals
One of the largest international renewable organizations in the United States energy industry has successfully implemented Versify’s V-Performance Generation Outage Management solution.
GLEN MILLS, Pennsylvania: Versify Solutions Inc. has successfully implemented Generation Outage Management for one of the leading providers of renewable wind power. After evaluating several software providers, the client awarded Versify the contract with a Q1 2017 roll out to consolidate outage management activities on a single platform, for its ease of use and the advanced workflow features. Versify’s solution now manages the client’s fleet outages across their generation portfolio nationwide.
“It’s rewarding to witness the operational efficiencies gained by using Versify, particularly for an organization with generation assets across the country,” says Adam Berns, Director of Versify’s West Region and account manager. “The team responsible for managing the ISO/RTO outage communication went from being active in over five systems to a single system. The advanced workflow features integrated teams across the nation, enabling a far superior and strategic outage planning and communication process.”
The company’s fleet of wind, solar and gas generation is located throughout five ISO/RTO energy markets nationwide (PJM, MISO, ERCOT, CAISO, NEISO). The client is using Versify’s OMS™ software as a unifying system to facilitate outage planning, tracking, reporting, review, approval, and outage submission. By leveraging Versify’s workflow engine, they have standardized best practices across all user group communities within the organization and the many outage schedulers in nationwide markets.
Using a single outage management platform has improved information quality, enhanced communication and increased visibility across business lines for their commercial, asset management and plant operations teams. The client expects to achieve significant O&M savings by reducing the frequency and duration of outages, improve reliability and safety metrics and implement continuous process improvements throughout their operations with Versify’s OMS™ solution.
Versify Solutions, Inc. (www.versify.com) is a pioneer and leading provider of advanced enterprise situational awareness solutions for the electric power industry. Versify’s application suite is a first-to-market software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) platform that uniquely addresses major challenges faced by companies involved in the generation, transmission, and sale of electric power. Renewable energy operators, utilities and merchant power producers alike, leverage the Company’s solutions to enable key digital transformation initiatives aimed at increasing revenue, reducing costs, mitigating compliance risks and operating critical infrastructure assets more efficiently. Versify’s OMS™ Outage Management System provides Generation Outage Management software, Transmission Outage Management software, NERC GADS/TADS reporting and is workflow enabled. Versify’s PORTAL™ provides Asset Management software, Operator Logs, NERC Compliance software and is workflow enabled. For more information, please visit https://www.versify.com/.
9 Must Have Generation Outage Management System Features
Outage management systems are becoming a core component of an energy company’s application landscape. Just like Bid-to-Bill, EMS/SCADA, or ETRM systems, outage management systems support key business processes that are critical to an asset-centric company’s financial and operational success.
NERC GADS Reporting FAQ
Generating Availability Data System (GADS) was initiated by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) in 1982 to collect and track data from all conventional generator owners.
Versify NERC Wind GADS Software Automates Complex Reporting Requirements for 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 9/7/2017, 9:30am
Versify Solutions, Inc.
(484) 845- 7000
GLEN MILLS, PA- Versify proactively prepares for new mandatory NERC requirements on wind generation fleets in 2018 with the early launch of its NERC Wind GADS management application. This application, available in Q4 2017, is an integrated extension of Versify’s Outage Management System and provides users ample time to prepare for the new reporting requirements.
When asked about Versify’s new application launch, Vice President of Client Services John Finley said, “Our client’s biggest concern with NERC’s Wind GADS reporting is their ability to manage these mandates without adding headcount or additional onerous processes to their already overburdened work load. Versify’s Wind GADS module was specifically developed to address these challenges, letting the operators and field technicians focus on the tasks that need their attention and allowing the application to generate the necessary reporting.”
To meet the new GADS-W reporting requirements, Wind Generation owners and operators will require an automated tool to manage the data volumes and complexity of reporting. The Versify NERC Wind GADS module has automated NERC event creation, event classification based on site level outages (whether planned, forced, or maintenance outages) and report creation for Sub Group, Performance and System-Component. It also includes out of the box operational data integration and KPI calculations.
Versify’s Wind GADS application can be configured to automatically identify turbine fault codes from turbine manufacturers such as Siemens, GE, Vestas, Mitsubishi and Suzlon, then assign them to the NERC GADS system and component codes. Versify is one of the first outage management vendors to provide a comprehensive module to generate the required NERC GADS reports based on the automated events captured by the Outage Management software along with key performance indicators. These KPI’s provide visibility into the wind fleet, wind farm, as well as turbine performance and reliability.
In late 2016 the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) updated data reporting instructions for GADS Wind Turbine Generation (GADS-W). For many years, NERC has required fossil power plant reporting, but it now also requires detailed operational data for each wind turbine in a generator’s portfolio. GADS Wind reporting is much more data intensive, for example a 200 MW wind site generates data for up to 200 turbines that must be monitored and reported on a sub-hourly basis.
NERC has required a four year phased-in schedule starting in 2017 with voluntary reporting. In year two (2018), wind farms with Total Installed Capacity of 200 MW or larger must start reporting. Year three (2019) requires reporting from wind generators with Total Installed Capacity of 100 MW to 199.99 MW. By year four (2020), reporting will be required from wind plants with Total Installed Capacity of 75 MW to 99.99 MW.
Versify Solutions, Inc. (www.versify.com) is a pioneer and leading provider of advanced enterprise situational awareness solutions for the electric power industry. Versify’s application suite is a first-to-market software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) platform that uniquely addresses major challenges faced by companies involved in the generation, transmission and sale of electric power. Renewable energy operators, utilities and merchant power producers alike, leverage the Company’s solutions to enable key digital transformation initiatives aimed at increasing revenue, reducing costs, mitigating compliance risks and operating critical infrastructure assets more efficiently. Versify’s Outage Management System provides Generation Outage Management software, Transmission Outage Management software, NERC GADS/TADS reporting and is workflow enabled. Versify’s Portal provides Asset Management software, Operator Logs, NERC Compliance software and is workflow enabled.
Outage Planners: Improving Reliability
Outage planners understand that periodic outages and derates are a necessary part of bulk power system operations. Outages are required when completing new infrastructure, upgrading existing capabilities, testing plant performance and conducting required maintenance.
Idaho Power Corporation Implements Versify Generation and Transmission Outage Management
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 8/15/2017, 9:30am
Versify Solutions, Inc.
(484) 845- 7000
Versify Solutions Inc. announced today that Idaho Power Corporation (IPC) is implementing Versify’s Generation and Transmission Outage Management solutions. Versify was awarded the contract earlier this year after completing the IPC evaluation process. Versify’s SaaS hosted solutions automates much of the outage management process, improves stakeholder coordination, reduces errors and provides the foundation for regulatory and performance reporting.
Versify’s OMS suite is intended to enable Idaho Power to automate much of the complex process of planning, approving, scheduling, submitting and reporting both transmission and generation outages. Versify’s configurable workflow capabilities are intended to improve automation and facilitate stakeholder coordination. Versify’s Outage Management System is the primary channel for communication of planned and real time outages to IPC regulating authorities including Independent System Operator (CAISO) and Reliability Coordinators (Peak RC). The Versify Outage Management suite will manage both outage planning, approval and scheduling as well as generation and transmission switching order operations between the control center and field personnel. Versify’s integration with IPC systems provide data and alarms to operators managing the process. Versify’s Outage Management System will streamline NERC Availability reporting (GADS/TADS).
Versify’s solutions are intended to provide a platform to coordinate and communicate outages, reducing the frequency and duration, improve reliability and safety. Versify’s solution provides metrics for the implementation of continual process improvements throughout operations. Versify’s solutions will also retire internal legacy systems and replace them with Versify hosted solutions.
About Versify
Versify Solutions, Inc. (www.versify.com) helps power producers optimize key functions and processes for asset performance, event logging, outage management, trading, and compliance to improve the operational and financial performance of generation and transmission assets. Versify automates the outage management process across the portfolio and integrates with all ISO/RTOs and Reliability Coordinators.
V-Performance provides transparency to commercial teams, asset management teams, and plant operations teams to reduce lost market opportunities and identify the optimal times for performing asset maintenance. Versify offers a unique portfolio of analytical applications and services that provide key insights into generation performance, regulatory compliance, power-plant outage management and trading market opportunities. For more information, please visit https://www.versify.com/.