The USAID Energy Security Project (ESP) and the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) continued work on GTSOU’s Asset Management System (AMS) upgrade. They launched the second phase of the TSO’s AMS rollout after successfully implementing the first phase, supported by USAID ESP.
GTSOU is doing its best to keep the gas transmission system (GTS) operational and sustainable despite Russia’s attacks and the anticipated end of Russia’s gas transit through Ukraine soon.
In her welcome remarks, Kathleen Kirsh, Energy Team Lead of the Office of Economic Growth of USAID/Ukraine, emphasized USAID’s commitment to support the GTSOU reform and acknowledged that the company’s success will determine the overall success of the Ukrainian gas market reform and the country’s energy security.
“Increasing the company’s efficiency is one of the main priorities for USAID. Only by optimizing the operations, ensuring prudent resource management, and increasing the safety of the GTSOU staff can the TSO successfully take on the difficult challenges ahead. This makes the asset management system upgrade a critical activity in the current conditions considering the efficiency”, said Kathleen Kirsh.
GTSOU’s CEO, Dmytro Lyppa, underlined that the AMS project is one of several strategic projects the company implements with USAID ESP’s support, helping GTSOU to be more efficient and optimize assets and human resources. “Now the company is actively working to improve productivity and efficiency of the gas transportation system,” he said.
GTSOU needed an AMS upgrade because a significant amount of resources was spent on maintenance, repair, and operation (MRO) activities with gas distribution stations, involving extra personnel and a significant share of non-automated work. The upgrade is expected to significantly improve the company’s efficiency and make its daily operations more predictable.
In 2022, USAID ESP successfully delivered the first phase of the AMS project that addressed the above shortcomings and effectively upgraded the GTSOU asset management system.
The USAID ESP Gas Expert Mykola Iakovenko presented the next stage of the AMS upgrade project, aimed at developing a new mobile app, providing access to cloud services, and integrating the app with the GTSOU’s resource planning program.
USAID ESP expects that the Mobile App development will bring business benefits to GTSOU, reduce the number of emergency stops of equipment, improve the quality of inspections and equipment repairs, and enable obtaining reliable reporting. The successful implementation of the AMS upgrade project will make it possible to reduce the GTSOU operation expenses, which is a strategic task for the company.