Data-driven service as foundation of HoSt's energy solutions

Real-time insight and standardized dashboards in IXON Cloud allow both HoSt and their customers to proactively maintain, efficiently troubleshoot and maximize productivity. With this data-driven approach, HoSt is setting a new standard in energy transition and offering customers comprehensive insights.

HoSt Group, a global leader in energy technology, is driving the transition to cleaner energy solutions by converting methane emitting waste into renewable biofuels, renewable gases and heat and power, using advanced technology. HoSt provides global service and maintenance activities under the name ‘Bright Services’.

^{Gas reprocessing Groengas Enschede (The Netherlands), next to Grolsch Brewery. In the foreground the pretreatment (cooling and filtering) and the rest of the reprocessing in the container in the background. On the right the biogas buffer (balloon).}

Challenge

Several years ago, HoSt ran into the problem that trending and process data were only available on the local HMI. Often these were grouped together so people saw multiple trends simultaneously in one graph. “This caused confusion, it was hard to see and it worked somewhat slowly. It made data interpretation difficult, which also caused problems during commissioning and troubleshooting,” says Vincent Kroeze, Process Engineer Service at Bright Services.

This was especially challenging when commissioning a machine. The engineer often had to walk up and down and when the installation stopped working, it was difficult to quickly find the cause. In addition, this solution didn't meet the needs in terms of cybersecurity, user-friendliness and flexibility. It was time for HoSt to look for another solution.

Solution

In IXON, HoSt found a platform that offered the right features to make data insightful. This was the main reason to standardize on IXON. “In addition, IXON offers many possibilities for the future and they have the same proactive approach as HoSt,” says Vincent. “They are open to feedback and actively develop new features.”

Currently, HoSt uses several dashboards in IXON Cloud, including a service view with biomethane flow, gas level and plant status, and a dashboard with gas pressure data. “This allows us to troubleshoot faster and more focused. Also, I can now easily watch a commissioning engineer when he has on-site problems. After all, I look at data in a completely different way than he does.”

^{Dashboard in which remote consumables are tracked with the gas storage being displayed here.}

Added value for customers

HoSt offers customers insights into certain data in the platform through IXON. At first these were mainly standard data insights for continuous monitoring, but as customers used the platform a growing demand arose for more specific data, such as heat integration or the quality of the gas produced. This led to the development of standardized dashboards available as templates for device pages in IXON Cloud, containing the most requested data, such as how much biogas is processed per hour or day and how much green gas is produced.

Customer interest in data is growing. Consequently, many of them often take a quick look in the app to see what the status of their installation is. Some use only essential information for administration or forecasting, while others actively work with the dashboards and get to know their installations better. This results in proactive calls in case of anomalies, which not only benefits the installation but also results in better operators.
                                                                                                                                 ^{Card for quick overview of plant status and production.}

Customized service with IXON

HoSt offers three service contracts: Bright, Brighter and Brightest. For each tier, an IXON router is essential for remote service. With the Brightest contract, customers are completely unburdened, including availability guarantees, data interpretation, plant optimization, and monitoring and dispatching of consumables, as well as dashboards and alarms integrated with PowerBI via the IXON APIs. This allows both customers and HoSt to quickly understand the status of potential disruptions.

“Many colleagues check the app on their phone before bed to see if everything is still running smoothly or if there could be any problems.”                         

- Vincent Kroeze, Process Engineer Service at Bright Services

Result

Currently, HoSt has 176 IXON routers in the field worldwide. “I dare to say that IXON is the most important remote service component with us. We solve 80% of problems remotely, which saves a lot of time in traveling,” Vincent says. 

“Also, the speed of troubleshooting has increased tenfold. Before, it took several people to identify the problem, describe, retrieve and interpret relevant data and implement a solution. Now that's often just 1 person.” In addition, Vincent himself saves time in finding certain insights about an installation. Previously that took an hour, but now if it's set up correctly in IXON it can often be done within 5 minutes.

^{World map showing all HoSt Group installations equipped with an IXON router}

“The data we have available also gives us the confidence that we can guarantee 97% availability of our installations and that we can do root cause analysis remotely. That in turn gives our customers the deciding factor to choose for us.” In addition, customers are often excited when they see IXON's portal, as it provides a simple and good overview of key data. “When we show that we provide this along with the installation, it does become part of the decision to choose us as an installation contractor,” says Vincent.