Datastream Helps Power Facility Become More Efficient

Situated in Guatemala, the Puerto Quetzal Power Project (PQP LLC) is the first privately owned, project-financed power facility in Central America. The plant went into commercial operation in 1993, and has since gone on to supply approximately 20 percent of the electrical energy that Guatemala requires.

To help generate such volume, the plant is equipped with a substantial number of assets, including 27 diesel engines. There are also peripheral equipment and materials such as transformers, separators for fuel oil and lube oil, heat-recovering boilers, pumps, air compressors, coolers, lathes, and a variety of maintenance vehicles. In all, the plant houses more than 500 industrial assets.

The Challenges
Critical to the plant's success is its ability to achieve the highest level of efficiency and to minimize operating costs. Members of the PQP team knew that one of the keys to making this goal a reality was their ability to manage and maintain the plant's extensive asset base. Specifically, they needed to preserve the expensive equipment located across the plant site. And, they needed to better manage and schedule their staff and resources so that issues, such as repairs and maintenance, could be handled promptly—or even prevented.

They also sought to better integrate various functions across the organization—from accounting and purchasing to operations and warehouse management—as yet another way to drive plant productivity, make more informed planning decisions, and most importantly, cut costs.

This quest for efficiency was not a new objective for the plant. Project leaders had tried on several earlier occasions to implement a number of technology solutions—three, to be exact—in an attempt to improve operations and protect plant assets. These systems included a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).

Unfortunately, these systems were not able to meet all of the plant's needs. One system lacked the full functionality and technical sophistication that PQP needed. It was built to handle simple maintenance tasks, but could not address purchasing and other functions that PQP wanted to incorporate. Another system was removed because of issues with its much-needed inventory and accounting modules. And yet another system lacked the performance and key capabilities that were paramount to PQP's ability to operate, such as multi-lingual support. It failed to help the PQP team realize the efficiency and productivity gains they were seeking.

The Solution
After three different deployments, PQP was still dissatisfied with the state of its operation. That all changed when the team discovered Datastream and its suite of enterprise asset management (EAM) solutions. "Datastream was the best option to provide the total package—world-class technology to meet all of our needs and the very best in customer service," said Hugo Barillas, plant manager at PQP. In June of 2001, the system was deployed, with the initial implementation taking just three months to complete.

"The Datastream solution was ideal for us for a number of reasons beyond the functionality, such as multi-lingual support, that it affords us," stated Barillas. "It offered a good cost-benefit ratio compared to other solutions on the market. And then there's the experience—we benefited from Datastream's long history of deployments at other customer sites."

There were other systems to consider in the deployment process, making integration a critical component of the initiative. For example, the plant uses several accounting software packages, with a plan to later migrate to Oracle's financial system. This meant that Datastream had to tie into the existing infrastructure and be open enough to accommodate future technology plans. "Flexibility has never been an issue with Datastream," commented Barillas. "It has easily integrated with the rest of our infrastructure."

PQP has enjoyed unprecedented new efficiencies with the Datastream solution, as its staff members can accomplish more in less time and ultimately save money. For example, if an abnormality is detected with a piece of equipment, the operations manager can enter a work request into the Datastream system and quickly route it to the appropriate maintenance personnel. This used to take hours, even days, when it was done manually. With Datastream, such work requests are activated and addressed in just minutes.

The Results
Team members are very satisfied with the early results they've seen with Datastream. Just the cost and time-savings alone have made the staff more productive and improved the overall health of the plant. Moreover, the ability to maintain detailed histories for each asset has allowed the management team to better schedule activities and make more educated decisions about future plant purchases. For example, they have improved their ability to proactively schedule appropriate maintenance functions, like engine overhauls. This has eliminated the wasted purchasing of unnecessary parts.

And when parts do need to be procured, Datastream gives PQP the ability to automatically launch a requisition for those parts. That process previously took eight days, and now it only takes a few minutes.

Perhaps the most significant benefit that PQP has enjoyed to date is its ability to better plan and allocate its resources. "Before Datastream, we never had a tool that could actually help us plan in advance," says Julio Ixcolin, PQP's database administrator. "Now, we can schedule preventive jobs for the appropriate intervals of time, allowing us to plan out which resources we need and for how long. For the first time, we can prioritize and make sure our efforts are directed appropriately." For example, if they have 27 engines, with each engine requiring preventive service for a specified number of hours, they can schedule staff accordingly and secure the necessary parts in advance.

The Future
Moving forward, PQP plans to expand its use of the Datastream system and integrate it with other components of the business. "We've really found ourselves a business partner in Datastream," said Barillas. "They have proven themselves as more than just a technology vendor, and we know that we can count on them to support us as we move forward."