April 2011
Infotechnics, a leading software development company based in Aberdeen, has been selected by Scottish Power to implement their advanced operational logging and reporting tool, Opralog, throughout all UK generation sites. In a drive to move towards a more centralised shift logging and reporting system, Scottish Power will implement Opralog across the coal, gas and hydro power generation assets in order to improve operational efficiency and ensure a high level of safety throughout the business.
Jim Ross, Project Manager at Scottish Power, outlines the company's requirement, "As part of the Scottish Power Business Operational Transformation Program, we identified a desire to move away from the current methods for shift logging and implement a system that will provide a centralised view of all generating sites. The aim was for valuable information to be presented and utilised in a manner that would increase operational efficiency and enable us to maintain a high level of safety. Opralog ensures more effective communication between shifts, and facilitates our legal requirements to provide documentation on plant status and events during the shift handover. Our coal, gas and hydro stations all have different requirements and characteristics, and the highly flexible and configurable nature of Opralog ensures it is utilised in the most effective way at each site. Opralog will interface to other plant systems and automatically capture significant events thus improving information quality and reducing manual effort".
Speaking about the contract, Infotechnics' Business Development Director Jon Howard said "We are delighted that Scottish Power has chosen to use Opralog and we look forward to working together on this project. One of the most important criteria that Scottish Power had for the Operational Shift Logging System was to effectively manage knowledge and information across each site. Information has to be visible and available to users for them to conduct detailed and granular analysis with an aim of quickly and effectively communicating a single "best practice" method across the business for key operational activities. Opralog is able to capture complex information whilst still being extremely intuitive and simple to use for the end user, and by interfacing to various other plant systems Scottish Power will have a complete view of the plant status and events for all locations at any one time. Continued success has seen Infotechnics expand rapidly, with Opralog now deployed by energy majors E.ON UK, Scottish & Southern Energy and Scottish Power. Moving forward, our aim is to invest considerable effort and time to build on our existing customer base, and use our versatility of approach to continue delivering effective solutions in the future."