Improvement is transforming the businesses approach to predictive maintenance
FERRYBRIDGE, United Kingdom
enfinium, a leading UK energy from waste company, today announces that it has created “digital twins” of its facilities. In a UK-first for its sector, enfinium has partnered with Vertex Industrie, a pioneer of 3D manufacturing visualisation technology, with the aim of having the most reliable facilities in the energy from waste sector.
A digital twin is a virtual model designed to accurately reflect the actual state of a physical object.
For the first time, enfinium engineers now have easy access to interactive 3D information that is enhancing productivity, reducing unplanned downtime, and reducing costs. For example, for typical maintenance checks, the technology has achieved a 90% time-saving compared to manual processes.
Using virtual reality headsets, the experience is immersive, placing the wearer “inside” enfinium’s vast boilers, helping them to better understand its state and, critically, its repair and maintenance needs.
Enhanced performance at enfinium facilities is critical for ensuring that it can provide reliable homegrown energy to 500,000 homes and power the UK’s decarbonisation using residual waste.
As an operator of one of the UK’s largest portfolio of energy from waste facilities, enfinium has an enormous amount of data about how each plant is performing. Working with Vertex it has taken this 2D data set and turned it into an immersive 3D model which is far easier to interact with and comprehend.
Initially covering the boiler, refractory and combustion grate elements of enfinium’s generating units, the technology will steadily be applied to cover other critical equipment at each of the firm’s four, soon to be six, UK facilities.
Jane Atkinson, Chief Operating Officer at enfinium said:
“There are immense opportunities for the energy from waste sector to deploy the very latest techniques in digitization to improve reliability and enhance productivity. enfinium is already one of the top performing operators in the UK but our collaboration with Vertex highlights our ambition to be the best.
Taking the immense amounts of data that we have regarding our plants and creating a virtual, immersive digital twin has transformed the way we think about and plan maintenance.’’
Abder Rarmaoui, Managing Director, Vertex Industrie, said:
“For the first time in the UK, engineers in the energy-waste sector have an effective way to support their maintenance decisions. The predictive features of the Vertex platform allow efficient preparation of future maintenance.
As we have seen with other customers, we are confident this will drive operational improvements as well as spur further innovation.”
ENDS
About enfinium
enfinium is one of the largest energy from waste businesses in the UK and is an industry leader in the conversion of residual residential and business waste into heat and partially renewable power. enfinium currently has a platform of six (two in construction) strategically located facilities across the UK. Today, enfinium has an annual waste processing capacity of over 2.3 million tonnes, and a total combined electric generating capacity of 265MW (gross) — enough energy to power more than 500,000 UK homes. For more on enfinium, please visit www.enfinium.co.uk.
About Vertex Industrie
Vertex Industrie was established in 2014 in Versailles, France. Currently, a hundred plants are equipped with the Vertex platform across France, Spain, and, more recently, the United Kingdom. Founder, Abder Rarmaoui, developed the tool in response to a problem he identified while working as a technical manager: that maintenance of plants took lots of time and resources because of poor data management. Vertex’s tool makes implementing effective maintenance strategies simple. Learn more at www.vertex-industrie.fr.
