OTC 2012: GE’s System Improves Decision Making in Stressful Offshore Situations

GE Energy’s Power Conversion business today previewed its new insight management system, a decision-making aid and capital asset management product for the offshore industry at OTC in Houston, Texas.

Offshore ships and platforms are complex environments where vast quantities of data exist and are distributed across numerous control and monitoring systems and subsystems. In high-stress situations like alarm response and remediation actions, it can be difficult to access the most crucial data in a form that can be easily understood and interpreted fast enough to ensure quick and effective issue resolution. GE’s new insight management system is a top-level device which monitors and collects data and asset status to enhance an operator’s interpretation of a situation, locally or remotely, and facilitate appropriate and timely responses especially in time-critical and potentially life-threatening situations.

In 2010, a study by the independent body Abnormal Situation Management Consortium reported, “U.S. industry alone loses $13 billion by incorrectly responding to alarms.” With constantly increasing regulation, a reduction in the number of experienced or qualified operators and growing volumes of information bombarding systems operators, these costs are expected to rise if improvements in methods of data collection and presentation are not made.

GE’s new management system helps address the issue of data overload by providing greater clarity and accessibility of existing information and data derived from multiple sources such as information systems, control systems, alarm systems and CCTV across an entire vessel or platform and simultaneously presenting it to an operator.

 “Our new management system builds on the well-established concept of a naval ship damage control process and represents an effective solution to the complex issue of multi- source data collection, management and presentation,” said Paul English, marine vertical leader for GE Energy’s Power Conversion business. By using this new system, marine and offshore customers will be assisted to make better decisions and respond more effectively under stress conditions with greater confidence in their ability to make critical decisions. Ultimately it helps protect the critical assets of a vessel or platform—its equipment and personnel.”

The new insight management system incorporates features such as a live view of any situation via the system’s handheld ROVER units, which can be taken into active situations for instantaneous, real-time views, which are relayed directly to the control room. Operator configurable screens can be located in control rooms on the ship or platform, onshore or on authorized attending aerial or seaborne support craft.

The versatility of the insight management system means that it also can function as a capital asset management tool in which individual items can be monitored, out-of-specification warnings generated and logs and history records produced.

“This new product builds upon our extensive experience of customized and integrated marine solutions for power generation, electric propulsion, vessel control and dynamic positioning,” added English. “Our expertise in these and other areas and our systems engineering skills enable us to engineer a system that can integrate a disparate set of systems on board a vessel or platform and collate the data from each one into a format that is useful to an operator.”

Within the Power Conversion range, this new technology fits into the C-Series vessel control product line.

GE is offering live demonstrations of this new product at booth #1205 at the OTC Exhibition and Conference being held April 30 – May 3 in Houston, Texas.

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Source: GE, April 30, 2012