SEATTLE and TEL AVIV, Israel, May 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- mPrest, a leading developer and provider of distributed asset orchestration and optimization software for the energy market, today announced a strategic partnership with BIS Consulting to provide utility companies and grid operators with enhanced historical, real-time and forecasted operational analytics and decision support capabilities. The partnership, first initiated in late 2021, combines mPrest’s world-class analytics and BIS Consulting’s leading modeling to create an industry-leading alliance and prioritize rollout of applications that support utility operations, grid modernization and customer safety.
The partnership’s initial use case will be a first-of-its-kind tool for wildfire risk management. The Wildfire Risk Model Solution will arm utility companies and grid operators with improved real-time and forecasted decision support in critical moments. The partnership leveraged the combined experience and expertise of both companies in the development of the Wildfire Risk Model Solution, an approach that will also be applied to other future applications.
The Wildfire Risk Model Solution is made possible through mPrest’s Asset Performance Management platform (mAPM), a cloud and microservices-based architecture that provides scalability and high availability through a cybersecure cloud-based deployment. mAPM combines with BIS Consulting’s premium methodological quantitative support to form the Wildfire Risk Model Solution. A dynamic geospatial visualization of wildfire risk and consequences of ignition based on asset and current and forecasted weather conditions will aid utilities in potential life- and asset-saving decision-making regarding Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) events amidst intensifying public wildfire concerns.
“As wildfires occur and electrical service and infrastructure is threatened, the ability to make informed decisions based on real-time and forecasted conditions is vital to public safety and service continuity,” said Andrew Bennett, CEO of mPrest Inc. “Our Wildfire Risk Model Solution arms utility operators and emergency managers with the tools they need to predict and decide. We’re proud to collaborate with BIS Consulting to provide this solution to utilities and grid operators as they continue to prioritize the safety of their customers and employees. This will be the first of many critical solutions made possible through our continued partnership with BIS Consulting and the comprehensive, advanced capabilities of the mAHM platform.”
"Wildfire risk management is a tricky issue for electric utilities, who don't always have experience with risks that vary dramatically with real-time conditions or that have the possibility of such extreme consequences,” said Darin Johnson, President of BIS Consulting, LLC. “Combining mPrest's real-time data management and integration capabilities with BIS Consulting's decision-support methods provides utilities with a transparent, defensible way to make trade-offs between wildfire risk and other costs on behalf of their customers."
The Wildfire Risk Model Solution will allow utilities to take a stepwise approach in visualizing and managing risk to the electric grid in the communities they serve by providing a focused, locational view of their assets and areas of highest risk. This allows utilities to minimize the operational extent, number of customers impacted and the costs of PSPS events when they do occur. On the asset management and planning side, the historical risk score is archived and provides a clear view for utilities to plan mitigations that reduce risk as an ongoing business process.
mPrest and BIS Consulting’s partnership to leverage BIS’s leading modeling and mPrest’s world-class analytics into the Wildfire Risk Model Solution rises to meet urgent needs utility companies and grid operators are facing today. These impacts will be particularly significant to geographies with vegetation-dense areas including the Western and Southwestern U.S., Florida, Texas, Australia, South America, and parts of Europe, especially as climate change drives wildfire risk higher year by year. The Wildfire Risk Model Solution is an industry-leading tool for quantifying real-time risk and assessing mitigation options.
About mPrest – Empower Digital Transformation. Now.
Leveraging its unparalleled experience and expertise in real-time mission-critical command and control software, mPrest has developed the world-leading distributed asset orchestration and optimization software. mPrest’s microservices based, real-time orchestration and optimization platform brings the power of AI and IoT to the digital transformation of various industries, from energy and smart cities, through oil & gas, connected cars, water, defense and other industry 4.0 applications. mPrest’s applications suite, including Distributed Energy Resources Management Systems (DERMS) and Asset Performance Management (APM) are deployed on premise or in the cloud in record time in the most forward-looking and efficient organizations worldwide, including some of the world’s largest energy companies. mPrest’s vendor-agnostic product suite interfaces with millions of sensors, devices, machines, assets, subsystems, IT and OT applications, creating a system of systems that provides end-to-end visibility and control over complex and distributed operations. Visit us at www.mprest.com
About BIS Consulting
BIS Consulting, LLC, is an employee-owned company, providing decision-support and risk assessment services to utilities, transit agencies, and other infrastructure-intensive industries. Their consulting services are aimed at clients who need premium methodological and analytical support for policy, capital planning, and other critical and highly visible decisions. They emphasize quantitative methods and risk-based business cases to justify decisions in terms that resonate with executive managers, regulators and customers, and other non-technical stakeholders.
Media inquiries
FischTank PR
mprest@fischtankpr.com
