Knowledge base Author bios The IAM Asset Management Excellence Award winner for Corporate Transformation was Grupo Energia Bogota. Here, Eduardo Ortiz and Jos Durn tell us more about the journey to embrace asset management across the company Eduardo Ortiz Valencia is an electrical and electronic engineer. He has 15 years of experience and most of it has been related to electric power transmission systems. His experience in project management and planning, as well as in different aspects related to the asset life-cycle phases, allowed him to work as the manager of the asset management implementation project at GEB. T he scale, growth programme and strategic positioning of Grupo Energia Bogota (GEB) makes it a major player in the whole countrys energy sector, with multiple stakeholders to satisfy, and many challenges in relation to its regulatory, technological, socio-economic and environmental context. Before the implementation of asset management methodologies, it was a very oldfashioned utility company, with high technical standards but functional silos. This represented a significant challenge for the introduction of asset management concepts and changes to the values, management system, culture and organisational agility. The company had carried out several benchmarking exercises with different international institutes, such as the Regional Energy Integration Commission (CIER). This, along with direct performance comparisons with other companies from different sectors and participation in different international events such as the North America IAM Conference showed GEB that other organisations were achieving better performance through a more integrated life-cycle asset management. GEB acknowledged the need to improve its asset management capabilities and to deliver better value (and be seen to deliver it) to investors, customers and other stakeholders. Subsequently, a more systematic review was initiated, through a maturity assessment covering all dimensions of asset management (that scored 1.7 on the IAM Maturity Scale) using a consortium of internationally recognised experts from The Woodhouse Partnership and Levin Group. The results of this assessment provided clarity in terms of existing strengths and the areas for potential improvement: a very strong departmental silo culture was evident a fragmented view of the asset life-cycles a very multi-layered management system lack of consistent criteria for decision-making high operational costs. Jos Durn is a principal consultant and director of The Woodhouse Partnership in Latin America. He has more than 25 years of experience in education, training and consulting services for the oil and gas, energy, mining, utilities, process and manufacturing sectors in more than 25 countries. He has been an active pioneer of asset management in Latin America, promoting PAS 55/ISO 55000 since its early development and is currently part of the ISO TC 251 committee for developing, reviewing and translating documents and standards related to asset management. As such, he is one of The Woodhouse Partnerships approved leaders for delivering asset management/ISO 55000-related training and consulting services for several companies in the oil, mining and power sectors throughout Latin America. About GEB Grupo Energia Bogota (GEB) is a public utility corporation with more than 125 years of history. It is the second-largest power transmission company in Colombia, with market share close to 20 per cent. Alongside its 11 subsidiaries, the holding operates in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in Colombia, Peru, Brazil and Guatemala, and in the transport and distribution of natural gas. The company runs 1,690km of transmission lines, at 500kV and 230kV, and 32 electrical substations of different voltage levels. Through an intensive growth programme, GEB will have 4,077km of transmission lines, at 500kV, 230kV and 110kV, and 51 electrical substations by 2025. This growth also reflects the success of GEBs expansion plan, which will double the companys asset portfolio. The management of these assets is carried out from the headquarters in Bogot, with satellite offices located in four regions (central, northern, western, and southern). GEBs executive teams decided to introduce modern asset management concepts, practices and methodologies, based on the IAM guidelines, and an asset management system based on the ISO 55001 standard Activity description GEBs executive teams decided to address the issues by introducing modern asset management concepts, practices and methodologies, based on the IAM guidelines, and an asset management system based on the ISO 55001 standard. This vision required full alignment and embedding within the companys integrated management system, to avoid creating yet another management system. The initial scope was defined to address the Colombian power transmission business, with the implementation programme to be executed in four years, so that the emergent asset management system would be ready for independent certification in 2023. Classical project management (PMI) methods were introduced initially, but these generated many challenges. This was an organisational transformation project, not just the planning, design and construction of assets. So, a more agile approach to change management was adopted. Furthermore, just six months into the programme, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, forcing the project team to rapidly develop and apply innovative ways to continue with core activities, harness resources effectively and retain momentum. The team provided and adapted a structured approach to build the necessary transformational roadmap, addressing quick win opportunities while establishing the necessary foundation stones of training, process changes and culture/behavioural adaptations. Senior management chose a very successful combination of: Setting clear goals and expectations for the desired changes and maintaining close interest and support for their delivery. Specific objectives were set to: strengthen decision-making processes for asset interventions (capital investments, maintenance, refurbishment, modifications, renewals and disposals), taking into account the optimisation of cost, risk and performance criteria strengthen the collaborative working across functional and discipline boundaries. It was understood that properly managing assets required a significant change in behaviours, motivations, communications, and soft skills and that these were just as important as the technical or procedural changes to be introduced operationalise the strategy and improve the line of sight so that all employees could better understand how their activities on a day-today basis contribute to the achievement of strategic goals and performance outcomes. Establishing a dedicated multi-disciplined core team, comprising a project manager and four respected discipline experts. These provided focused communications across the four regions and covered different areas of technical expertise. Approving a framework for what asset management should entail (the ISO 55001 requirements for the management system, but also the wider discipline good practices, as represented by industry examples, expert advisers and the IAM subject guidance) A four-year roadmap developed and maintained at a level where multiple parallel workstreams could be seen to converge on required outcomes, addressing all gaps identified in the initial maturity assessment and stated needs of stakeholders. A robust and flexible decision-making process, based on the SALVO Process and Decision Support Tools (DST) from The Woodhouse Partnership. An agile change management methodology that could apply across complex changes and retain the human-factors sensitivities. This was the ADKAR model from PROSCI. Corporate stakeholder alignment This project was also required to align with several corporate stakeholder priorities: 1.Implement and leverage best practices, complementary technologies and innovation in the transmission business. 2.Allow the management of assets in a holistic and systemic way across all stages of the life-cycle (planning, design and construction, operation and maintenance, and renew or disposal), to maximise the value yielded from the assets. 3.To anticipate any possible regulatory requirements for ISO 55001 certification that the Energy and Gas Regulation Commission (CREG) might introduce for the power transmission sector, as it had already done for distribution energy businesses. Everyone on board Within the programme rollout itself, very widespread involvement was essential from the start. The core team coordinated contributions from more than 300 people in development of various elements, actions and changes. Specific training was needed for 120 collaborators to introduce new technical solutions and improve insights into asset management concepts. These participants expended more than 80,000 working hours on the project, and involved other colleagues and stakeholders to a similar degree of effort and engagement. Despite the massive challenges, the annual reviews of the projects progress encouraged the executive management to bring forward the formal audit of the new asset management capabilities. This audit was itself a challenge, given that many staff are still working remotely. Nevertheless, the 2021 progress assessment showed a score of 3.1 on the IAM maturity scale and, in the middle of 2022, Bureau Veritas was able to certify the organisations conformance with all requirements of ISO 55001, one year ahead of plan. In the middle of this year, Bureau Veritas was able to certify the organisations conformance with all requirements of ISO 55001, one year ahead of plan Project outcomes and benefits The benefits obtained have been spectacular, and much greater than anticipated (as used in the business case to justify the project in the first place). Inevitably, there is a time-lag before all benefits are measurable and validated. However, the scale of impact is clearly very large from the outcomes that are already evident (and verified): 1.Rapid growth in asset management maturity: from an average score of 1.7 in 2019 to 3.25 in 2022. 2.Development of highly effective virtual and remote project-delivery methods, accounting for more than 75 per cent of activities throughout the duration of the project. 3.Greater efficiency in total operating costs (administration, operation and maintenance) of the whole transmission business; an 11.4 per cent reduction compared with baseline. 4.Significant savings (close to 40 per cent) in capital expenditure budget needed for asset renewals. For example, more than US$3m of cost/risk/ performance benefits were achieved from changes to asset investment timing decisions, including an innovative basis for the executive decision to modernise an entire substation and other important substation equipment. 5.Optimisation of storage and inventory for equipment and materials needed in construction projects. 6.Certification of the Asset Management System based on the ISO 55001:2014 one year earlier than expected. 7.The aim is now to expand the AM methodologies to operations in Brazil and Guatemala. Finally, it is important to remark that the project benefits are validated both technically (by the independent audit) and commercially (by the finance department), in line with requirements of the project sponsors committee to provide assurance of fulfilling (in this case, substantially exceeding) the business case justification for the project. Extra benefits At a qualitative level, the following benefits were also recognised by senior management and the Levin/Woodhouse assessors: 1.Throughout the company, there is an evident greater willingness to consult and participate in decision-making processes that consider value-for-money as their basis. This culture transformation is being established in the companys DNA and in the way it takes asset management decisions. 2.The silos have greatly reduced it is now the normal behaviour to collaborate and see perspectives from different angles This yields a better solution, as well as greater consensus and commitment to effective delivery. From left: Oscar Lpez (GEB), Lady Lozada (GEB), Jose Ren Pea (GEB), Yudy Ramirez (GEB), Eduardo Ortiz (GEB), Jos Duran (TWPL), Oscar Herrera (GEB), Hector Sulentic (TWPL) Watch Eduardo Ortiz from GEB