SSE Thermal has been shortlisted as a finalist in the UK Chapter of the Institute of Asset Management (IAM) Awards.
The Asset Management Excellence Awards take place on 14 November in Manchester and acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding work done by asset management professionals, organisations and teams across the world. Thermal has been nominated in the Corporate Organisation Transformation category.
This award honours the corporate journey and the excellence displayed by SSE to progress asset management competence and organisational efforts towards the corporate journey, regardless of the asset management maturity.
The industry has faced significant challenges over the last year, from supply, affordability and sustainability coupled with fluctuating energy prices, all of which have underlined the importance of our assets.
As the Grid constantly balances supply and demand, SSE had to be able to respond to energy markets that change by the minute. For Thermal Energy this meant asset reliability and availability were top priorities, ensuring readiness when called upon whilst also balancing availability with risk and commercial viability.
A series of asset management initiatives were implemented to spearhead the step-change in approach to asset management through people, processes and systems to optimise lifecycle costs, risk and performance.
Kubeshnee Chetty, Head of Asset Management at SSE Thermal, is thrilled that the transformational work undertaken by the Thermal team has been recognised by the Institute of Asset Management. She said: ‘‘To solidify our transformation process and benchmark asset management credentials and commitment to best practices, as part of planned phased delivery in April 2023, we underwent an ISO 55001 audit with BSI. Following the successful audit, we achieved Phase One ISO 55001 Asset Management Standard.
‘‘Our unique and innovative approach, using multi-visual tools and processes, including a dedicated Asset Management digital platform to facilitate and evidence our compliance to the standards during the audits was a first for such an audit as well as within our organisation. We were proud to be awarded with the ISO certification with zero minor or major non-conformances for sites completed. All going well, we will have full fleet-wide certification by early December.
‘‘In the true spirit of asset management not being a silo, achieving our asset management transformation and ISO 55001 certification has been a company-wide collaborative effort across SSE Thermal with contributions from over 38 discipline areas and around 200 people. Everyone involved understood their part in the delivery of business objectives and their role in achieving transformation and ultimately certification. I’m exceptionally proud of what the team have achieved.’’
"We were proud to be awarded with the ISO certification with zero minor or major non-conformances for sites completed."
Kubeshnee Chetty, SSE Thermal's Head of Asset Management
Some of the innovative initiatives that led to the shortlisting include:
- Development, publication & dissemination of key AMS documents including: Asset Management Policy, Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP), site-specific Asset Management Plans, Stakeholder Engagement Plan, and Asset Management Framework.
- Development and deployment of an Asset Management Digital Platform (AMDP), which brings a range of asset management content into one user-friendly location – from introductory material to key AMS documents, as well as the Thermal ISO 55001 manual, which directly maps processes, assurance, and other material to the requirements of the standard. This was used to support the ISO 55001 audits with BSI, who highly commended its novel use.
- Design of a bespoke in-house Asset Management training module, outlining key principles and the benefits of ISO 55001 alignment.
- A comprehensive & interactive role mapping collage, visualising roles within Thermal operational business enforcing the message of the individual’s role mapped to their contribution to the delivery of the business Asset Management objectives and ultimately overall business strategy.
Marc Rudd, Director of Thermal Energy and Asset Management, added: ‘‘SSE Thermal is part of SSE plc value chain providing flexible power generation capability for the SSE group. The UK and Ireland depend on flexible generation to back renewable power supply. With our transformed asset management processes we will build a better world of energy for tomorrow whilst becoming a centre of excellence on our journey to achieving net zero.’’