Energy

Energie plmIn a difficult economic situation with ever-growing environmental challenges, energy sector companies must optimise their product assets. This is true throughout the value chain: prospecting (in Europe, there is a lack of land for new sites), infrastructure engineering and construction, site operation and maintenance, as well as waste processing and equipment decommissioning.

The challenges lie in the emergence of new infrastructures (power plants, factories, farms, etc.), based sometimes on new technologies, as well as in the renovation of ageing power plants and factories, to make them more efficient, safer and more profitable.

The link between engineering and construction on the one hand and operation and maintenance on the other is becoming critical and calls for collaboration between major manufacturers in a context where policy, economic, geological and technical challenges are giving rise to increasingly drastic regulations.

  • Challenges
  • Solutions
  • Benefits
  • Our Products

  • Controlling huge investments in production

    • Improve NPV (Net Present Value) budget and financial projections.
    • Optimise design, building and maintainability costs.
    • Meet deadlines for the implementation of new sites and reduce the downtime of certain resources during renovation.
    • Control industrial risks and compliance with standards.
    • Improve the overall quality of facilities and product assets to make them easier to use throughout the operation phase (> 30 years).

    Controlling collaborators and subcontractors

    • Companies are managing increasingly large and complex projects involving partners, project subcontractors, systems suppliers, equipment manufacturers, inspectors, etc. Collaboration and use of a common language by all the parties concerned is becoming more and more critical throughout the product cycle.
    • Whilst controlling the complexity of such programmes, companies must provide the project partners with a working environment that guarantees their productivity and enables them to achieve their operational and quality objectives.
    • lt is becoming necessary to involve all the stakeholders as early as possible during the functional definition stage.
    • It is essential to control critical operational and geometric interfaces between work packages and to optimise data exchange.

    Efficiency of subcontractors in a major project context

    All the subcontractors develop and maintain an ever-increasing percentage of the value of the final installation, which gives rise to several challenges:

    • Ability to implement a shared multi-business engineering document repository (studies, methods, production, maintainability). This is becoming necessary to ensure the consistency of the overall installation and the capacity of each participant to design his work packages within the scope of the global project.
    • Ability to share the right level of industrial practice with the prime contractor: data exchange in the collaborative process.
    • Efficient use of digital definition tools selected by the programme, whilst effectively linking them to their IT repository.

    Range of businesses to be integrated

    The new energy programmes involve many different types of businesses: physics R&D, classical mechanics-related, systems and equipment manufacturing, infrastructure, civil engineering, etc. The challenge is to establish a repository and an engineering language allowing these different businesses to collaborate throughout the programme.

  • A global PLM approach is a major mechanism for meeting the challenges by optimising the entire life cycle, from understanding needs to the after-sales service of infrastructures and plants in the Energy sector.

    Several crucial PLM contributions should be considered:

    PLM as a single global collaboration platform

    This platform makes it possible to address the challenges of the energy sector and to support the entire cycle from the initial stage through to engineering, manufacturing, sub-contracting and service.

    • A platform that includes a modern centralised upgradeable infrastructure with the appropriate level of control, traceability and monitoring.
    • A platform built around the production tool assets to be implemented and their operation throughout the life cycle. Different views are therefore available in the PLM solution, depending on whether you wish to access a Design view, a Manufacturing view or an Operation view of the installation. The platform encourages an industry approach to standardising the processes to be equipped with tools and the technical infrastructures to be deployed for that purpose.

    PLM as a global project governance solution

    With assets of several billion dollars, a delayed programme, a breakdown or an inefficient maintenance procedure that brings an installation to a halt can have a huge impact on a company's turnover and profits. The PLM solution can be used to:

    • manage the progress of the programme and its work packages
    • monitor risks and costs by anticipating the construction or renovation process
    • manage large schedules
    • manage the complete digital mock-up and its synthesis
    • manage different types of projects
    • manage changes within a global project management platform and its milestones.

    PLC as engineering process support

    Engineering processes are supported by the PLM platform via the following various elements:

    • Establishment of integrated 3D business systems for the piping, HVAC and power processes, as well as for the equipment and structural systems
    • Capacity of the PLM platform to define complete digital mock-ups and instrument synthesis processes, so that they become a cornerstone of the changes and adjustments to be made to the installation
    • Operation of innovative Reverse Engineering processes (based on scanners and reconstruction tools) to review and renovate old installations
    • Operation of the latest simulation techniques to anticipate the behaviour of the installation (fatigue, heat, deformation of large structures, vibrations or damage due to corrosion, etc.)
    • Systematic simulation of crucial safety procedures during installation
    • Early creation of technical documentation on operating the digital mock-up to be used for training operators and documenting the installations in a way that can be understood by everyone concerned. Engineering and collaborative validation
    • Management of sub-contractors to link the design and sourcing processes, which is becoming more and more critical with the increase in the proportion of subcontracting involved in the final product: RFx process, qualification of subcontractors and components and "Virtual Plateau" and "Engineering Package exchange" to integrate the partners into the co-design process.

  • The V6 PLM platform makes it possible to create, implement and manage a global method of introducing new, innovative products into the marketplace.

    It improves:

    • Systematic traceability of formative decisions relating to governance and their impact on product assets
    • Conformity to functional, technical and regulatory requirements
    • Adaptability of product solutions and reuse of established standards on new projects
    • Collaboration based on a complete 3D language to simulate the operation of the installation and check the appropriateness of each subcontractor's work packages to reduce production costs, improve "first-time" quality and optimise design periods to deliver the installation on time.
    • Reduction in installation operating costs.

  • ITER and RJH programmes

    Within the scope of the ITER and RJH programmes, we provide support packages to the partners and subcontractors of these programmes to:

    • Examine their PLM needs
    • Help them satisfy the PLM rules of these programmes which must be complied with when responding to RFPs
    • Help them set up their digital systems on main engineering processes, such as PIPING, HVAC, POWER, EQUIPMENT, STRUCTURE, SYNTHESIS, and COLLABORATIVE and DATA EXCHANGE.

    Other opportunities in the Energy sector

    Our package consists of PLM solutions and a range of services, from consultancy to operational support. It aims to improve your processes by leveraging your existing system and the good practices provided by our PLM tools:

    • Definition of a PLM strategy and roadmap
    • Specification and implementation of solutions based on various business processes and adapted to your practices and objectives
    • Support in the use of PLM tools
    • Creation of PLM pilot projects or demonstrations
    • Business services centres with our service partners.