On the Belt & Road: Q&A with Brazilian hydropower company PCH

Brazil's electricity market is by far the largest in Latin America. It is also the greenest, with more than 80% derived from renewable sources. Brazil is the second-largest producer of hydroelectric power in the world behind China, hydroelectricity representing 75% of its electric power supply. Brazil’s electricity market is unbundled into generation, distribution, and transmission. Private companies own over 60% of the installed capacity.

Chinese companies have been playing a major role in the past decade, making Brazil a major destination on the Belt & Road. China State Grid entered Brazil in 2010 through multiple acquisitions and investments in the construction of ultra-high-voltage direct current (UHVDC) transmission lines connecting remote hydropower plants to the grid. The world’s top three longest transmission lines are all located in Brazil.

In 2019, State Grid Brazil Holding selected Siveco to implement its maintenance management solution across a dozen subsidiaries and majority-owned concessions. Created in 2007, three years after Siveco China, in Rio de Janeiro, Siveco Brazil provides sales, consulting, installation, training and technical support for customers locally. Siveco solutions are fully localized for the Brazilian market. Siveco Brazil and China have enjoyed, for many years, a close cooperation targeting global manufacturing groups and public infrastructures.

Today, in our tradition of customer experience sharing, we welcome local hydropower company Brasil PCH for a short interview about their implementation and usage of Siveco's maintenance management solutions.

Brasil PCH is a generator of hydroelectricity based in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The company operates 13 small hydroelectric plants in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Goias and Espirito Santo in Brazil, with a total estimated installed capacity of 291 MW.


Siveco:
What difficulties did Brasil PCH experience before meeting Siveco?

Brazil PCH:
The company’s first maintenance plan was implemented in a rather closed IT system, demanding, to a large extent, that we adapt to the system and not the other way around.


Siveco:
How did you meet Siveco?

Brazil PCH:
We conducted market research with the objective of evaluating available systems that could meet both the needs of our Operation and Maintenance processes, as well as the criteria established by our IT department.


Siveco:
Why did you decide to trust Siveco and try Coswin?

Brazil PCH:
Mainly for the possibility to develop and customize by our own team.


Siveco:
What challenges did you face during implementation and how did you overcome them?

Brazil PCH:
The main challenge was the need for standardization across 13 different power plants. During the initial phase of the project, the maintenance philosophy was defined, equipment structures were established (both locations and systems), and existing maintenance plans were imported based on the existing practices and procedures of the company.


Siveco:
What results have you achieved using Coswin?

Brazil PCH:
Maintenance scheduling has become easier, as the system allows us to cross-check all necessary information, such as available resources (labor and materials), the history of anomalies and equipment failures, as well as records of the work performed on each machine, information which is now relatively easy to consult.


Siveco:
How did your business improve after using Coswin?

Brazil PCH:
The simplicity of using the system reduced the number of hours spent preparing and documenting field activities.


We thank Brasil PCH and Siveco Brasil for this testimonial! We are looking forward to continue supporting the development of the Brazilian power market!

Siveco China Head Office

Unit J, 20th floor, Zao Fong Universe Building
No.1800 Zhong Shan Road (W)
Shanghai 200235 - PR China

About Siveco China

Siveco China (www.sivecochina.com), founded in 2004, is a pioneer in the development of Smart Technologies for the Operation & Maintenance of infrastructures and industrial plants, with a focus on mobile solutions "for the worker of tomorrow".

Long before the terms "smart" and "4.0" were coined, Siveco has been helping clients optimize the lifecycle of their assets and ensure regulatory compliance using IT. Based on a long experience of "maintenance with Chinese characteristics", the company has designed a unique approach combining expert maintenance consulting and technological innovation. Smart O&M solutions developed in Siveco's R&D center in Shanghai cover Asset Management, Maintenance 4.0, Risk Prevention and HSE, utilizing Mobility, IoT, BIM, AR and AI technologies.

Siveco China has over 900 customer sites all over Greater China and on the Belt & Road, including ABB, Baosteel Metal, Beijing Environment, Capital Water, Carrefour China, CEPSA, CNEEC, CNOOC, COSCO, Fushun Mining, Engie, Everbright, GE, New World Development, Saint-Gobain, Shell, Suez NWS, Yingde Gases, Zhongshan Water etc. The company boasts a growing export business, working alongside Asian EPC companies and with international clients in Southeast Asia, the Middle-East and Africa.

Siveco China has won numerous awards, most recently the prestigious Brilliant 40 Years prize by the China Electric Power Equipment Management Association, Top Ten Enterprise for Asset Informatization Service by the and the China Association of Machinery Equipment Maintenance and Renovation (CAMER) and Best Industrial Software 2017 by Control Engineering China. Previous awards include CHaINA Supply Chain Excellence Award 2013 and Engineers' Choice Awards by Plant360 in three categories in 2015.

Siveco is ISO 9001-certified by Bureau Veritas for its entire scope of business. The company is headquartered in Shanghai, where it also operates its R&D center, and has offices in Hong Kong. Siveco China is a subsidiary of Siveco Group, a European pioneer in computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS).

Siveco China publishes the "Smart Operation & Maintenance - for the worker of tomorrow" newsletter dedicated to maintenance management, bilingual English and Chinese, available to subscribers and online.

Contact

Tel (China mainland): 4006 300 213
Tel (overseas): +86 21 64403226
E-mail : info@sivecochina.com

This release was published on openPR.