– Edited By Chris Reed –
Ventyx, an ABB company, has announced that PPL Corporation has selected the Ventyx Asset Suite enterprise asset management (EAM) solution as its companywide standard for tracking equipment and infrastructure across all of its operating subsidiaries — including PPL Generation's fossil, hydro and nuclear generation, as well as PPL Electric Utilities' transmission and distribution (T&D) assets.
This new license and services contract, valued at approximately $10.2 million, further expands a long-standing relationship between PPL and Ventyx. The energy company has used a previous version of Ventyx EAM software to manage its enterprisewide supply chain as well as all work and assets in its fossil generation plants since the mid-1990s. In order to standardize companywide processes and leverage economies of scale, PPL elected to upgrade the Ventyx solution and replace its current solutions used for nuclear and T&D work and asset management with a single integrated solution across all of its operations. After a thorough and highly competitive bidding process, PPL chose Ventyx Asset Suite, said James E. Schinski, vice president-chief information officer for PPL Corporation.
"At PPL we have a high level of trust in Ventyx, due to our past experience with their products and people," Schinski said. "For years, we have successfully used both the EAM software and the Service Suite mobile workforce management software to optimize all of our customer service and outage activities in the field (see August 2007 press release). Furthermore, we have tremendous confidence in their professional services team, having worked together to implement integrated systems that will meet our evolving requirements in the coming years."
Ventyx's expertise and leadership in the nuclear market was a major factor in the decision, Schinski said. Approximately 70 percent of North American nuclear generation relies on Ventyx asset management solutions, as do 19 of the top 20 North American nuclear operators measured by highest capacity factor. The ability to support an expanding T&D infrastructure was of critical importance as well. PPL Electric Utilities maintains more than 45,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines across its 29-county service territory in Central and Eastern Pennsylvania. And, the company plans to spend more than $3.4 billion over the next five years to upgrade its transmission and distribution network.
"We are extremely proud that our software has been chosen by a diverse and successful energy company such as PPL," said Ventyx CEO Steve Carpenter. "As a frequent award winner for customer satisfaction, PPL understands what it means to build and maintain customer trust. So, we are especially grateful that they have so much confidence in the capabilities of our software and the expertise of our services team."
PPL will work with Ventyx Professional Services to implement Asset Suite 7.0.