Home

Mil gracias! Muitissimo obrigado! Danke vielmals! Merci beaucoup! Puno hvala! Mii de mulțumiri! Cảm ơn nhiều! Велике дякую! Many thanks!

to the utilities and system automation manufacturers worldwide that used our software and consulting services to design and implement

UTILITY INFORMATION SYSTEMS THAT ARE RIGHT FOR TODAY AND READY FOR TOMORROW

What causes, and how to prevent, obsolescence in Utility Information Systems

The utility information systems of today consist of integrated information facilities that support a broad range of real-time, online and offline processes and data transfer and management functions. Their transcendental importance renders them critical. Ideally, it should be possible to maintain and/or expand such systems by simply upgrading processors, adding new storage and peripherals, increasing the bandwidth of communications, and so on.

Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. More than a few utility organizations are faced with the problem of what to do with systems progress has rendered obsolete, which, in some cases, cannot be expanded to meet even current needs, no less future requirements. The good news is that obsolescence can and should be prevented.

During our many years in the utility information industry we developed and refined a unique approach to uncovering the causes of obsolescence and identifying key solution attributes and design and implementation criteria that need to be met when preparing system upgrade / specifications, replacement strategies and project implementation plans.

The starting point toward reaching this goal is the technology workshop Obsolescence in Utility Information Systems: What It Is and How to Prevent It, which we've been offering to our clients as part of our consulting assignments. Some of the topics we typically cover in these seminars are summarized in the video clip below.

October 20, 2020, New York, NY -- Announcing Retirement Everything has a beginning -- and an end. After a vibrant career that started half a century ago in a power station control room and eventually took me to professional heights of unsuspected beauty and complexity, I finally called it quits. My wonderful journey in energy and computing rewarded me with the privilege of working with utilities, universities and system automation manufacturers worldwide -- and, most importantly, allowed me to meet wonderful people and make many friends.

The lessons I steadfastly learned during my years of apprenticeship in utility operations and the theoretical skills I honed in research and academia helped me identify simple solutions to difficult problems. This background proved invaluable when I landed in the field of energy management and control and, eventually, formed the basis of my crusade to prevent recurring obsolescence in utility information systems:

(read more).

In the specific area of power system operating reliability I contributed software that predicts, quantifies and visualizes the risk of blackout. Known as QuickStab, this remarkable application has been successfully deployed in energy control centers in US, Europe, Latin America and Asia and, eventually, was acquired by Siemens Energy Automation AG with exclusive worldwide distribution rights (read more...).

The results of my work were disseminated in books published under imprints such as Elsevier Scientific Publishing, Springer, John Wiley and IEEE Press, and in articles and technical papers hosted by peer reviewed journals and major trade magazines (read more...).

Particularly dear to me was teaching power systems and computer sciences at major universities in Belgium, Brazil and the United States -- and running training seminars in Argentina, Brazil, Bosnia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, South Africa, Taiwan, Tunisia, Uruguay, Venezuela and Vietnam.

Last, but not least, I enjoyed communicating with most of my European, Asian, Latin American and US friends quickly, easily and ... without translator because The Lord gifted me with fluency in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Rumanian.

So, once again ...

... THANK YOU very much and, as a farewell, I invite you to take one last cursory review of my archive of utility information system projects