Managing Information Risks in asset management - Experiences from an in-depth case study in the utility industry

Information is one of the most important resources in our globalized economy. The value of information often exceeds the value of physical assets. Information quality has, in many ways, an impact on asset management organisations and asset managers struggle to understand and to quantify it, which is a prerequisite for effective information quality improvement. Over the past few years, we have developed an innovative management concept that addresses these new asset management challenges: a process for Total Information Risk Management (TIRM), which has been already tested in a number of asset management industries. The TIRM process enables to manage information quality more effectively in asset management organisations as it focuses specifically on the risks that are imposed by information quality. In this paper, we show how we have applied the TIRM process in an in-depth study at a medium-sized European utility provider, the Manx Electricity Authority (MEA), at the Isle of Man.

Physical and numerical modeling of horizontal gas-hydrate wells

Methane hydrate, which is usually found under deep seabed or permafrost zones, is a potential energy resource for future years. Depressurization of horizontal wells bored in methane hydrate layer is considered as one possible method for hydrate dissociation and methane extraction from the hosting soil. Since hydrate is likely to behave as a bonding material to sandy soils, supported well construction is necessary to avoid well-collapse due to the loss of the apparent cohesion during depressurization. This paper describes both physical and numerical modeling of such horizontal support wells. The experimental part involves depressurization of small well models in a large pressure cell, while the numerical part simulates the corresponding problem. While the experiment models simulate only gas saturated initial conditions, the numerical analysis simulates both gas-saturated and more realistic water-saturated conditions based on effective stress coupled flow-deformation formulation of these three phases. © 2006 Taylor & Francis Group.