Great River Energy recently welcomed utility professionals from across the industry to the Maximo Utility Working Group (MUWG) Fall Conference, sharing how the cooperative is finding new and innovative ways to use technology across its operations.
Great River Energy served as the host utility for the Oct. 12-15 conference in Bloomington, with more than a dozen employees contributing to the event. MUWG brings together utilities that use Maximo — an enterprise asset management platform — to exchange ideas, discuss best practices and learn from one another.
Vice President and Chief Transmission Officer Priti Patel opened the event with a keynote address focused on the changing utility landscape and the role innovation and technology can play in helping Great River Energy respond to new challenges and opportunities. Senior Business Analyst Jade Warren also represented the cooperative throughout the conference as its emcee.
Great River Energy employees led several general and breakout sessions showcasing how the cooperative uses Maximo across a growing range of business functions. Topics included the cooperative’s transition to the latest Maximo Application Suite; analytics and dashboards; asset management; security; and applications developed to support operational and business processes.
The presentations generated strong engagement and conversations among attendees about opportunities to use the platform in new ways.
“There were a lot of great conversations with industry peers about how we are using Maximo today, as well as how we can continue pushing the platform to create additional value,” said Chris Lahr, manager of asset data controls and analytics at Great River Energy. “The presentations did what we hoped they would do: spark dialogue, encourage people to share their own experiences and create opportunities for us to learn from others in the Maximo community as well.”
That exchange of ideas is central to Great River Energy’s involvement with MUWG. Over the years, that involvement has helped the cooperative find new ways to get more value from its investment in Maximo.
One example shared at the conference was myExperience, a Great River Energy program designed to help employees learn from experiences and put those lessons into action. Built within Maximo, the program provides a central location to capture experiences, assign and track improvement actions, and share outcomes across the organization. Great River Energy Manager of Generation Services Jackie Benz and Manager of Safety and Human Performance Chelsea Wildman presented the program and the thinking behind its development.
Great River Energy’s use of Maximo has continued to evolve since the platform was first introduced more than 25 years ago. Today, it helps connect people, processes, data and technology across the organization. Hosting MUWG gave Great River Energy employees an opportunity to share what they have learned, hear how other utilities are approaching similar challenges and bring new ideas back to the cooperative.
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