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WHAT CAN THE GAS INDUSTRY

LEARN FROM SPOTIFY?

Simon Tucker, Managing Partner for Energy & Commodities approach, workers can easily find
at Infosys Consulting, says its time for the gas industry to the data they need to work with,
face the music on data obtain and request information from
colleagues, and discover new data
sets from across their segment. Once
ata might be the new natural of them. But, as is so often the case, they’ve got what they need, they can
resource, but we still need technology provides answers to then pull it into one easily-managed
hydrocarbons. As the demand problems of its own making. One workspace where they can analyse and
for cleaner hydrocarbons such answer lies in an app that will manipulate the data, and report on it
D increases to ensure base load be familiar to many of the younger using advanced tools.
power, filling in the gaps in the new employees in the gas industry: Spotify. There’s no reason why the interface
‘waves’ of renewables, the gas industry design can’t mimic the same simplicity
needs to continue innovating and A Spotify-esque dashboard that Spotify and other apps have used
finding new ways to boost efficiency will enable gas companies to to drive their popularity among users.
and cut costs. visualise the data they work The ability to access and visualise
There is one significant obstacle that data is crucial for monitoring
stands in the way of every innovation with, get suggestions, identify performance in real-time, as well as to
within the sector and, ironically, it’s trends, discover new data match up engineering, maintenance
a mirror image of the traditional fear sets, and pull all of this into and production data to provide a
of gas businesses. It’s not a shortage holistic view of operations. This will
that threatens progress within the one place to manipulate and have a hugely beneficial effect on
industry, it’s a glut; not of gas, but of report on it the industry’s first priority, safety,
data. Until the industry can solve its by enabling workers to access up-
data management challenges, it will be As its users know, Spotify is much to-the-second information about
unable to deliver the new technologies more than an online music repository. everything from corrosion to structural
that will help to keep down prices It’s a place to find the latest tracks, strength to leaks – vital for preventive
at the gas meter and also deliver on to find suggestions for new songs or maintenance projects. Increasing
safety and energy efficiency. In their artists, and to listen to (and create) the safety of operations is crucial to
search for a solution, gas businesses curated playlists. the future of the sector. The more
are looking to an unlikely source of Within a few years, we can envisage businesses can move to unmanned,
inspiration. gas companies using the same automated operations, the safer gas
Anyone from the gas industry dashboard approach that has made the becomes – simply put, there will be
should have an instinctive feel for the Swedish music service so popular. A fewer people in harmful environments,
challenges of data. Like information, Spotify-esque dashboard will enable but greater speeds of response.
gas sits in vast ‘lakes’ far from sight; gas companies to visualise the data they Having the right data visualisation
it needs to be extracted and treated work with, get suggestions, identify and management platform promises
before it’s of any use to anyone. trends, discover new data sets, and pull a far more efficient and timely way
But while the great gas pipelines all of this into one place to manipulate of maintaining equipment and
are constantly depleting reserves, and report on it. This enables staff infrastructure, enabling workers
data pipelines are always adding to examine real-time data, see if to spot issues in real-time, rather
to the lakes, and therein lies the infrastructure such as gathering stations, than spending six to nine months
problem. As these data lakes grow into treatment plants, compressors, meters, setting up a project to stitch together
oceans, businesses in every sector and pipelines are performing as they the data. In doing so, it could well
are struggling to cope. The sheer size should, and try to maximise value prevent a major disaster – financial,
and complexity of gas projects mean based on real-time trends. environmental or both.
that these businesses often have to
deal in petabytes, with upwards of From gas platforms to data platforms Drilling down into the technology
tens of thousands of new rows of data Using a music streaming service The benefits of data management and
generated every day. as the model for the mind-boggling visualisation platforms are myriad,
New technologies such as IoT have complexity of the gas industry might from enabling more unmanned
contributed to data volumes exploding sound like a bit of a pipedream, but operations that keep humans out of
at a far faster rate than businesses’ the principles of good design are dangerous situations, to driving low
ability to manage and make sense universal. With a dashboard-based carbon operating models for the future

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