Brown and Caldwell launches new utility optimization approach

WALNUT CREEK, CALIF.—Engineering and construction firm Brown and Caldwell recently launched BC:Opta, a unique approach to utility optimization providing utilities with the opportunity to enhance processes, shift expenditures, better align staff resources and meet customer needs.

The BC:Opta approach encompasses a three-part framework: people+technology+adoption.

According to the company, BC:Opta outcomes include:

• Operational performance: Reduced energy and chemical usage; better process strategies; enhanced resource utilization; expanded plant capacities; and cost-effective, sustainable performance improvements across operations.
• Infrastructure strategy: Comprehensive asset and maintenance management; capital program delivery; and enhanced data management strategies to achieve improved asset life and cost of ownership at risk levels acceptable to customers, communities and regulators.    
• Enterprise resiliency: Improved business processes, employee skills development, integrated planning across utility functions, management strategy, and knowledge retention.

“As an industry, we know we need to get better, but how should we do it?,” asked Brown and Caldwell Utility Performance Practice Lead Jeff Theerman in a statement. “It’s not that we must do more with less; it’s that we must do more with the same capital, operating budgets, and staff. The answer is in optimization.”