A top electric utility needed to track the progress, timeline,
and budget of each project associated with its large-scale
infrastructure overhaul. The company engaged CapTech to
provide a data exploration assessment that would help
optimize program and project progression, forecast results,
and address shareholder and regulatory questions.
Challenge
The energy sector is a highly regulated industry. As such,
shareholders and government officials regularly seek
accurate, micro-level information regarding project progress
and the utilization of recoverable funds. For companies
operating in this space, it is critical to be able to provide this
information quickly and accurately.
This became a significant factor for a large utility in the midst
of a large-scale infrastructure overhaul with overlapping
construction projects and timelines. As the 10+-year program
progressed, the company sought to leverage data to answer
important questions around its project lifecycles and costs,
including construction progress, vendor efficiency, timeline
impacts, and budget optimization.
The utility company engaged CapTech to conduct a data
exploration assessment that would offer key insight into
program progression, the cost of future work, and how
processes could be optimized for maximum efficiency.
Approach
CapTech leveraged its data science and advanced analytics
expertise to showcase the value of working with historical
project data to predict future results with a two-week proof
of concept engagement.
Through continuous collaboration with the utility company,
CapTech approached the assessment with a ‘fail fast’
mentality, quick learning cycles, and fast prototyping to
quickly identify actionable insights and opportunities
for optimization.
Results
At the conclusion of the two-week assessment, CapTech delivered the following tangible benefits:
Developed a predictive model that improved forecasted construction costs by more than 50% compared to current estimates
Identified 10+ use cases for optimizing project timelines to improve speed to construction
Created a data productization roadmap (near, medium, and long-term opportunities) for unlocking further value creation with existing and new data
