With a large portfolio of key energy projects in its care, CS Energy knew that relying on manual data and file systems was a seedbed for human error – so it adopted a new approach.
CS Energy provides tailored energy solutions to some of the state’s biggest industries and employers.
As the Queensland-based company continues to evolve its portfolio across thermal power stations, solar, wind energy, renewable hydrogen, grid-scale batteries and pumped hydro, it’s making major investments in new energy technologies. The company is currently executing four greenfield capital projects with a total value of $1.4 billion.
But across all these projects, manual data entry increased the risk of human error in formulas, and multiple file copies made discrepancies too likely to occur.
CS Energy Head of Future Energy Projects, Wes Horwood, said that there’s a misperception that you can manage just about everything in Outlook and Excel.
“For these big new energy projects, we wanted to bring it all together in a much more controlled, coordinated, consistent, single-source-of-truth approach to project delivery,” he said.
Managing complexity: If it’s not InEight, it doesn’t exist
CS Energy adopted InEight software as a consolidated source of accurate, real-time project information. Now, CS Energy and its partners work more efficiently and confidently. Document controllers manage workflows and processes in full coordination with inputs and outputs from external vendors. The same work breakdown structures can be applied across all modules for greater consistency.
CS Energy Senior Project Controls for Renewable Energy Projects, Jenny Heit, explained that InEight allows for greater clarity of forecasting, schedule risk management, change management, and overall management of contracts across many projects.
“With InEight, we can see up-to-date information in real time,” she said.
All external vendors have secure access to the elements of InEight Document required for their work, where they review and manage change requests and defect reports. Stakeholders use the system to ensure that the appropriate people have reviewed the relevant documents, and track defects and outstanding RFIs.
Embracing a digital-first culture
Change management was an important consideration during the adoption of InEight at CS Energy. People accustomed to the flexibility of creating their own spreadsheets had to adapt to working in a uniform way in InEight.
“When you’re using Excel and Outlook, it’s quick, it’s easy, it’s done. But the problem is that your Excel sheet doesn’t look the same as my sheet, which is different again from the other fellow’s sheet,” Mr Horwood said.
“We now have the mantra: ‘If it’s not in InEight, it doesn’t exist.’ I can look at dashboards on my iPad and it’s the same information that everybody else is looking at – that’s really helpful.”
CS Energy is actively upskilling its own workforce to transition to a digital engineering approach, moving from building information modelling (BIM) level zero to level two for the current greenfield projects – and InEight is set to play a significant role in maximising the benefits of streamlined workflows.
“We want to work smarter, not harder,” Mr Horwood said.
“After we move to BIM level two, we may go down the path of building digital twins of our energy assets. Going digital can unlock between five and 15 per cent cost savings, and InEight forms an essential part of our business transformation strategy.”
Discover how InEight helps organisations like CS Energy streamline delivery across Australia’s energy future at InEight.com/process-solutions/power-and-renewables/.
