Living with and by Condition Monitoring
One idea drives my work and has for over two decades: that digitization and the data-driven insights it enables can and will transform the energy and utility industry (and eventually, society). It’s an idea that, materially, has looked different over the course of my career. A trajectory that began with distribution “Smart Grid” data platforms evolved to grid-edge LTE services, plant-wide “Digital Twin” initiatives, and now, at Doble, to substation (or asset-specific) online condition monitoring. But whatever shape it might take, the knowledge we can derive from timely, accurate data is a form of power. It’s the power to act; it’s the power to iterate and refine systems for optimal efficiency and savings; and it’s the power to increase ROI in a way that benefits everyone involved.
Exactly a year ago, this same belief in the value of online, near-real-time data insights surfaced pretty explicitly in my personal life, when doctors used the same strategy to save my wife’s life. In the weeks leading up to and after Thanksgiving, I gained an entirely new perspective on condition monitoring, and a framework to move forward without fear.
My wife has run nine marathons, doesn’t eat steak, and birthed two babies with ease. So, when my wife couldn’t catch her breath while getting our kids (two and five at the time) into their Halloween costumes, it was clear something was wrong. It had happened to her a few times before in the preceding weeks, once in the shower after a six-mile run, and again later on a random Sunday afternoon. Lightheaded and dizzy, she insisted to me that it was more than simple dehydration or fatigue.
At first, doctors could find no apparent diagnosis. Her symptoms could not be recreated on demand, in a doctor’s office, with cardiac stress tests designed for out-of-shape patients. So that Halloween night, before heading out for trick-or-treating, my wife put on a temporary EKG monitor she’d been given by her cardiologist. She wore it for seven days before sending it back to the manufacturer for reporting. Within a few days of shipping it off, she got a call during dinner. It was the doctor, saying she needed to go to the ER right away.
That temporary cardiac condition monitor helped doctors identify an arrhythmia that can kill even the healthiest of people: ventricular tachycardia (VT). I’ll let you Google for details, but what it meant for us was several weeks in the hospital, while doctors used live-streaming EKGs to evaluate how well a three-hour cardiac surgery and a few different drug regimes were working to suppress the electrical dysfunction in my wife’s heart.
Today, she takes a mix of meds to suppress the VT, but there will always be a chance it could resurface. Which is why, when my wife left the hospital, she did so with something new just under her left collarbone: a Bluetooth-enabled device that will monitor her heart 24/7, for the rest of her life. The device also acts as (and is more commonly referred to as) an Implanted Cardiac Defibrillator (ICD).
I’ve always struggled to find the best explanation for the ROI derived from online condition monitoring. Online condition monitoring ROI is realized as a combination of the following:
- the “avoided cost” of outages and safety incidents
- improved maintenance optimization
- operational cost savings
I typically focus my pitch on the O&M value, with a slight nod toward the potential cost of an outage. Why? Because folks don’t typically live their lives worrying that their assets are going to fail on them. As for the cost of “safety incidents,” I have a strong ethos of safety for safety’s sake and recoil a bit from calculating the actuary-driven avoided cost of safety measures. Needless to say, while I still haven’t settled on the perfect way to promote the “value” of “avoided costs”, I think about it a whole lot more.
To say I was scared last November and December would be an egregious understatement. It took two months to even diagnose my wife’s condition, and another month to reach a “status quo.” Only then could my wife consider how her new diagnosis would alter her life going forward, including her ability to run long distances again.
Each morning, my wife’s ICD transmits data to her doctors and will alert them of anomalies in between. At the tap of a button on her device app, she can manually transmit cardiac data as it’s happening for her doctors to review. If a cardiac arrhythmia develops, the ICD will issue a shock to correct it. In an environment of uncertainty, online condition monitoring via my wife’s ICD allows us to live life beyond the uncertainty and fear of a new VT occurrence.
There is a peace of mind that comes with having early symptom detection and a fallback plan should the worst occur. If you want to talk about being thankful for something, it’s this. Over the last year, a condition-monitoring medical device allowed my family and I to resume normal life. I wish there was a clear way to capture that “value” without having to talk about “avoided costs”. For me, it is priceless.
Next April, my wife, Leslie Ganson, will run her 5th Boston Marathon on behalf of an organization that brings another form of relief through medical crises. New-England based Camp Casco helps children and families thrive during, and after, childhood cancer. I invite you to follow Leslie’s journey and support the work at Camp Casco here (https://www.givengain.com/project/leslie-raising-funds-for-camp-casco-87324).
As I cheer on my wife, I will try to better understand and talk about the value of condition monitoring in general, but in my case with minimal discernable O&M benefits the savings are priceless. As a final PSA, listen to your bodies and remember that we also benefit from periodic inspections. Book your annual physical, give them the data and benchmarks to keep you healthy as we are all aging assets.
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