IM4Power sets targets, calls for volunteers

These workstreams will dive deeper into topics such as developing models to assist early-stage design, standardising model attributes to align with asset and project information requirements, and adopting ISO 19650 principles. This includes establishing a standardised approach to information requirements and setting up a CDE.

Further areas of focus will include the development of an information delivery risk register, structured and accessible data formats, and data dictionaries to support consistent and interoperable information exchange.

Each workstream will embed the potential value of AI, digital twins and geospatial integration into a unified and intelligent delivery process – “not as separate or afterthought initiatives, but as core enablers of transformation”, IM4Power noted.

Scott Pritchard, lead digital information manager at SSEN Transmission and IM4Power chair, said: “We are now looking for people to lead each workstream. We hope to involve representatives from the three transmission owners (TOs), but also contractors and consultants. Each workstream should be representative of the industry.”

IM4Power includes SSEN Transmission, National Grid and SP Energy Networks. It is modelled on BIM4Water, and includes Jamie Mills, chair of the BIM4Water Water Data Taskforce and global BIM manager at Xylem. “Sharing best practice within a group, or facilitated by a group like IM4Power, has huge benefits,” Mills said.

“Ultimately, it is about making yourself easier to work with as an organisation. Essentially, from a decision-making perspective, if I give the right information to the right person at the right time, it makes for better-informed decisions.”

Pritchard added: “As part of Clean Power 2030, we must deliver unprecedented amounts of infrastructure quickly. That requires information to be exchanged in a consistent manner across a multitude of parties.

“That means designing and constructing digital assets in a consistent manner across sites and networks – and doing so in a way that gears up for effective management of those assets in the future. The IM4Power group is a crucial means of helping to achieve this.”

Pritchard hopes to unveil the chairs of each working group at the next Infrastructure Delivery Forum conference in Manchester in October.

IM4Power is supported by Autodesk and Utility Week.

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