Setting the Precedence Early
The culmination of consultation, implementation, and execution of any given project is sound record keeping and the ease of accessing the data. A hallmark grimace we hear from countless facility managers is the lack of continuity of data management dealing with maintenance, repairs, and single-line drawings. Quite often, we encounter facilities in which one employee holds all of the “tribal knowledge” about all of the electrical nuances of the given environment. The resulting byproduct is significant exposure and vulnerability; we often equate this to the “band-aid theory.” Just as the band-aid covers a wound and keeps the impending flow from emerging, neglecting the electrical asset management of a given site has many of the same parallels. If not properly treated and proactively addressed, infection and amplification of the original problem can occur.
In response, APS has partnered with software developers to create and brand our own electrical asset management program. Yes, there are plenty of costly and cumbersome solutions already in existence with large, big-overhead companies out there, but we wanted to bring something fresh and easy-to-use to our clients. All of this has led to the advent of the APS Flash Track program for arc flash program management and the SMART program for Substation Maintenance Asset Repair Tracking.
Flash Track will allow for APS to work in concert with our arc flash customers in keeping up-to-date on their AFSCC studies, labels, and overall safety program of their facility. With customers in industries such as food & beverage, pulp, manufacturing, and assembly, the “production floor” is always changing and new equipment with vastly different power requirements is being hooked up. With that being said, arc flash values change, leading to entirely different circuit breaker settings and PPE requirements for energized work. Flash Track allows our customers to bundle submittals, bill of materials, calculations, and even single line drawings into a zip file and submit to APS….virtually through the software itself. APS will address the engineering and send you the revised study, along with settings and labels, in the mail. It’s quite simple to stay compliant and competent with this type of program!
A substation is a highly-specialized aspect of any infrastructure, with costly and abundant components, that undoubtedly warrant constant attention. The SMART program will have the same goal, but a different path to travel, as this is substation-specific tool. Since all owners of electrical transmission, distribution, and generation are subject to the protection standards of PRC-005-02 established through the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), APS sought a solution to centralize all maintenance frequencies, methods of procedure, history of services rendered, cited recommendations, executed repairs, trending data, and ease of access to compliant reporting.
Please feel free to reach our corporate office for a more expansive discussion on how these electrical asset management tools align with your facility needs.