Idaho Power
Power Utility Achieves Strategic Goals with Integrated Enterprise Solution
Idaho Power is involved in the generation, purchase, transmission, distribution and sale of electric energy, and serves about 400,000 customers over a 20,000 square mile area. Almost a century old, this investor-owned utility company had outgrown its manual business processes and a homegrown legacy system that was solely designed to store data required to meet regulatory requirements. In order to achieve corporate goals to coordinate, integrate, and optimize its operations, Idaho Power needed a comprehensive, scalable asset management solution that was capable of integrating with other information systems.
The department was using an antiquated software tool and out-dated manual processes, hindering the staff's ability to keep up with the city's massive growth and increasing water needs. Collections were falling behind and applications for new meters took longer to process, which made it increasingly difficult to track customer account history and interface with other departments.
The Requirements
- Idaho Power defined a series of goals for operational excellence for hydro production, maintenance, construction, and supply chain management. They wanted to streamline daily operations and processes, replace inefficient processes with integrated information and automate decision support.
- The solution had to track all aspects of work in progress, materials on hand, and the operating and financial status of all their assets.
The Solution
With the baseline Ventyx Asset Management solution, inventory was reduced by $9.4 million or 31.8%, O&M was reduced from $32 million to $20.5 million, and hydro plant overtime costs decreased by 33%. The solution offered increased visibility into the entire supply chain, improving business practices.
By demonstrating their ability to perform extensive operations at minimum cost, Idaho Power was ranked as the most efficient electricity supplier in the United States. Even as its customer base has grown and facilities have expanded, Idaho Power has maintained asset reliability, and managed costs without substantially increasing their workforce.
“The integration capabilities have generated great efficiencies in our work processes. When planning a work order, there is direct access to materials availability, the asset design, GIS data, skills requirements, safety and compliance regulations, and more.” - Colleen Ramsey, PassPort Support Team Manager, Idaho Power
