Capital asset planning system

• US 8,725,625 B2
• Filed: 10/08/2012
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New York (Columbia University), Consolidated Edison Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New York (Columbia University), Consolidated Edison Incorporated
• Inventors: Anderson, Roger N., Chow, Maggie, Boulanger, Albert
• Primary Examiner(s): Singh, Gurkanwaljit
• Application Number:
  US13/646,939
• Publication Number:
  US 20130080205A1
• Time in Patent Office: 582 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply

Abstract

A capital asset planning system for selecting assets for improvement within an infrastructure that includes one or more data sources descriptive of the infrastructure, one or more databases, coupled to the one or more data sources, to compile the one or more data sources, one or more processors, each coupled to and having respective communication interfaces to receive data from the one or more databases. The processor includes a predictor to generate a first metric of estimated infrastructure effectiveness based, at least in part, on a current status of the infrastructure, a second metric of estimated infrastructure effectiveness based, at least in part, on a user-selected, proposed changed configuration of the infrastructure, and a net metric of infrastructure effectiveness based, at least in part, on said first metric and said second metric. The system also includes a display, coupled to have the one or more processors, for visually presenting the net metric of infrastructure effectiveness, in which the assets for improvement are selected based, at least in part, on the net metric of infrastructure effectiveness.

Claims

1. A capital asset planning system for selecting assets for improvement within an infrastructure comprising:

(a) one or more data sources descriptive of the infrastructure;

(b) one or more databases, coupled to the one or more data sources, to compile the one or more data sources;

(c) one or more processors, each coupled to and having respective communication interfaces to receive data from the one or more databases, the one or more processors comprising a predictor to generate;

(i) a first metric of estimated infrastructure effectiveness based, at least in part, on a current status of the infrastructure;

(ii) a second metric of estimated infrastructure effectiveness based, at least in part, on a user-selected, proposed changed configuration of the infrastructure;

(iii) a net metric of infrastructure effectiveness based, at least in part, on said first metric and said second metric; and

(iv) at least one cost metric of the proposed changed configuration of the infrastructure, wherein the at least one cost metric of the proposed changed configuration relates to the assets for improvement; and

(d) a user interface module, coupled to have the one or more processors configured to;

visually present information comprising;

the net metric of infrastructure effectiveness and

the at least one cost metric of the proposed changed configuration; and

enable a user to select the assets for improvement, wherein the assets for improvement are selected based, at least in part, on the net metric of infrastructure effectiveness and the at least one cost metric of the proposed changed configuration.

2. The capital asset planning system of claim 1, wherein the first metric of infrastructure effectiveness and the second metric of infrastructure effectiveness are both based, at least in part, on an estimated length of time that the infrastructure produces a commodity.

3. The capital asset planning system of claim 1, wherein the infrastructure is selected from the group consisting of a chemical processing operation, a petroleum refining operation, a product manufacturing operation, a telecommunication grid, a transportation infrastructure, a gas network, a commodity pipeline network, and a water treatment network.

4. The capital asset planning system of claim 1, wherein the infrastructure is an electrical grid.

5. The capital asset planning system of claim 4, wherein the first metric of infrastructure effectiveness and the second metric of infrastructure effectiveness are based, at least in part, on the estimated mean time between failure of one or more components of the electrical grid.

6. The capital asset planning system of claim 4, wherein the one or more data sources descriptive of the infrastructure include data representative of at least one of electrical feeder data, electrical cable data, electrical joint data, electrical transformer data, electrical outage data, electrical test pass or fail data, electrical load data, and past capital improvement cost data.

7. The capital asset planning system of claim 4, wherein the first metric of infrastructure effectiveness and the second metric of infrastructure effectiveness are estimated using a feeder index, said index based, at least in part, on a predicted likelihood of feeder failure.

8. The capital asset planning system of claim 7, wherein the predicted likelihood of feeder failure is obtained using machine learning.

9. The capital asset planning system of claim 7, wherein the feeder index is recalculated based, at least in part, on observed and previously predicted feeder data.

10. The capital asset planning system of claim 5, wherein the estimated mean time between failure is the estimated mean time between failure of an electrical feeder.

11. The capital asset planning system of claim 1, wherein the at least one cost metric is generated based, at least in part, on a user-specified cost of one or more specific actions encompassed by the user-selected, proposed change of the infrastructure.

12. The capital asset planning system of claim 1, wherein the one or more data sources include past capital improvement cost data, and the at least one cost metric is based, at least in part, on past capital improvement cost data.

13. The capital asset planning system of claim 1, wherein the predictor further comprises a prioritizer to determine the user-selected, proposed changed configuration of the infrastructure that provides the maximum value based, at least in part, on the net metric of infrastructure effectiveness and the cost metric.

20. The capital asset planning system of claim 1, wherein the user interface module is a graphical user interface.

21. The capital asset planning system of claim 1, wherein the user interface module is further configured to enable the user to adjust one or more parameters.

22. The capital asset planning system of claim 1, wherein the user Interface module is further configured to present one or more suggestions to the user.

23. The capital asset planning system of claim 22, wherein the user interface module is further configured to enable the user to select the one or more suggestions.

24. The capital asset planning system of claim 22, wherein the one or more suggestions is one or more strategies.

25. The capital asset planning system of claim 1, wherein the net metric is normalized.

26. The capital asset planning system of claim 1, wherein the visually present information further comprises one or more of said first metric and said second metric.

14. A method for selecting assets for improvement within an infrastructure comprising:

(a) accessing one or more data sources descriptive of the infrastructure;

(b) compiling the one or more data sources into one or more databases;

(c) generating, via one or more processors, a first metric of estimated infrastructure effectiveness based, at least in part, on a current status of the infrastructure;

(d) generating, via the one or more processors, a second metric of estimated infrastructure effectiveness based, at least in part, on a user-selected, proposed changed configuration of the infrastructure; and

(e) generating, via the one or more processors, a net metric of infrastructure effectiveness based, at least in part, on said first metric and said second metric;

(f) generating, via the one or more processors, at least one cost metric of the proposed changed configuration of the infrastructure, wherein the at least one cost metric of the proposed changed configuration relates to the assets for improvement;

(g) displaying, via a user interface module coupled to the one or more processors, the net metric of infrastructure effectiveness the at least one cost metric of the proposed changed configuration; and

(h) receiving, via the user interface module coupled to the one or more processors, user-selection indicating the assets for improvement, wherein the assets for improvement are selected based, at least in part, on the net metric of infrastructure effectiveness and the at least one cost metric of the proposed changed configuration.

15. The method for selecting assets for improvement of claim 14 wherein the infrastructure is an electrical grid, and said first metric, said second metric and said net metric is based, at least in part, on the estimated mean time between failure of an electrical feeder within the electrical grid.

16. The method for selecting assets for improvement of claim 14, wherein the first metric of infrastructure effectiveness and the second metric of infrastructure effectiveness is estimated using a feeder index, said index based, at least in part, on a predicted likelihood of feeder failure.

17. The method for selecting assets for improvement of claim 14, further comprising generating a cost metric based on the cost of the user-selected, proposed change of the infrastructure.

18. The method for selecting assets for improvement of claim 14, further comprising determining the user-selected, proposed changed configuration of the infrastructure that provides the maximum value based on the net metric of infrastructure effectiveness and the cost metric.

19. A capital asset planning system for selecting assets for improvement within an electrical grid comprising:

(a) one or more data sources descriptive of the infrastructure selected from electrical feeder data, electrical cable data, electrical joint data, electrical transformer data, electrical outage data, electrical test pass or fail data, electrical load data, and past capital improvement cost data;

(b) one or more databases, coupled to the one or more data sources, to compile the one or more data sources;

(c) one or more processors, each coupled to the one or more databases and having respective communication interfaces to receive data from the one or more databases, the one or more processors comprising a predictor to generate;

(i) an estimated baseline mean time between failure of an electrical feeder;

(ii) an estimated projected mean time between failure of an electrical feeder based, at least in part, on a user-selected, proposed changed configuration of the electrical grid; and

(iii) a net mean time between failure based, at least in part on the estimated baseline mean time between failure and the estimated projected mean time between failure;

(iii) at least one cost metric of the proposed changed configuration of the infrastructure, wherein the at least one cost metric of the proposed changed configuration relates to the assets for improvement; and

(d) a display, coupled to have the one or more processors, for visually presenting the net metric of infrastructure effectiveness and the at least one cost metric of the proposed changed configuration of the electrical grid,

wherein the capital asset planning system provides the ability to select assets for improvement based, at least in part, on the net mean time between failure and the cost metric.