Dragan Komljenovic

• Doctor of Engineering
• Senior Research Scientist at Hydro-Québec

Modern companies operate in a complex business and operational environment, which generates new types of risks that were relatively unknown just a few decades ago (e.g. cyber security), and creates favorable conditions for the emerging of extreme and rare events that may seriously perturb the current and long-term performance of enterprises. Curren...

Industry 4.0 in the contemporary operating context carries important sources of complexity. This context generates both traditional risks and emerging risks that must be managed. The management of these risks includes both industrial risks and occupational risks, since they are heavily interlinked. The human factor can be considered the main link b...

Decision-making is an essential activity in asset management (AM). It is influenced by various factors (strategic, technical/technological, economic, organisational, regulatory, safety, markets, etc.). Sound decision-making in AM ought to take into account relevant factors in order to balance risks, opportunities, performance, costs and benefits. A...

Complex system governance (CSG) is an emerging field encompassing a framework for system performance improvement through the purposeful design, execution, and evolution of essential metasystem functions. The goal of this study was to understand how the domain of asset management (AsM) can leverage the capabilities of CSG. AsM emerged from engineeri...

Modern electrical power utilities must deal with the replacement of large portions of their assets as they reach the end of their useful life. Their assets may also become obsolete due to technological changes or due to reaching their capacity limits. Major upgrades are also often necessary due to the need to grow capacity or because of the transit...

Given climate change, aging assets and increasing demands for performance and profitability, it has become critical for organizations with complex asset portfolios to prioritize asset management investments. This research provides a methodological framework to support decision-making. The framework takes into account the presence of complex systems...

Relative to other renewable energy technologies, concentrated solar power (CSP) is only in the beginning phases of large-scale deployment. Its incorporation into national grids is steadily growing, with anticipation of its substantial contribution to the energy mix. A number of emerging economies are situated in areas that receive abundant amounts...

This paper presents an adaptation and application of the Risk-Informed Asset-Centric (RIACT) process to analyze the resilience of a portion of Hydro-Québec's electric power grid against extreme ice storm risks, when supplying the densely populated Greater Montreal area, one of the power system’s major load centers. The key aspect consists in avoidi...

This paper describes the application of fault tree analysis (FTA) and risk importance measures to medium-and low-voltage electric distribution systems. Today, with the aging of assets, climate change and a scarcity of resources, targeted interventions are required to improve service quality. With the methodology suggested in this paper, interventio...

Systems of systems (SoSs), which are complex structures characterized by many interconnected entities performing different functions, pose new challenges to reliability engineers. Emergent behavior, coupling between different time scales, operation near instability limits, occurrence of extreme events, and dynamic failure propagation are characteri...

About this book 17th WCEAM Proceedings provides a record of some of the intellectual discussions (including keynote addresses, research paper presentations, panel debates and practical workshops) that took place among the attendees and participants of the 17th World Congress on Engineering Asset Management (WCEAM), held from 18 - 20 October 2024 at...

In modern cyber-physical systems (CPS), sophisticated equipment is equipped with sensors that record high resolution multivariate time series (MVTS) data. Alarm systems based on static rules and parameters are known to erroneously trigger alerts called "false positives" or, even more problematically, fail to detect actual faults, referred to as "fa...

The Hydro-water management of Saint-Lawrence River by preserving the continuity of power transmission of Beauharnois (BHN) power plant output while juggling with many other missions such as supplying local loads, exporting electricity to the state of New York, and ensuring safe operations of the whole complex. It is a system of heterogeneous system...

As part of its Asset Integrty Management (AIM) conference series, ASME organized in 2024 a specialty conference on Asset Integrity Management of Critical Infrastructure (AIM-CI). The aim was to facilitate the exchange of concepts, processes, and technologies among industries including nuclear, power generation, offshore facilities, and hydrocarbon...

Modern power grids are evolving into highly integrated networks of electricity generation, transmission, and distribution facilities together with distributed energy resources (DERs) on customer premises—solar-generation, energy-storage, wind-power and grid-interactive devices (home automation), for example. The energy transition too is driving rap...

This section outlines the primary challenges that have been identified, along with their corresponding gaps. The first part provides a summary of the challenges and gaps related to electric utilities, as provided by experts from Hydro-Quebec (Quebec, Canada), in alphabetic order: Stéphane Alarie, Vito Deluca, Rémi Dumoulin, Anne-Marie Giroux, Draga...

As part of its Asset Integrty Management (AIM) conference series, ASME organized in 2024 a specialty conference on Asset Integrity Management of Critical Infrastructure (AIM-CI). The aim was to facilitate the exchange of concepts, processes, and technologies among industries including nuclear, power generation, offshore facilities, and hydrocarbon...

As part of its Asset Integrty Management (AIM) conference series, ASME organized in 2024 a specialty conference on Asset Integrity Management of Critical Infrastructure (AIM-CI). The aim was to facilitate the exchange of concepts, processes, and technologies among industries including nuclear, power generation, offshore facilities, and hydrocarbon...

As part of its Asset Integrty Management (AIM) conference series, ASME organized in 2024 a specialty conference on Asset Integrity Management of Critical Infrastructure (AIM-CI). The aim was to facilitate the exchange of concepts, processes, and technologies among industries including nuclear, power generation, offshore facilities, and hydrocarbon...

As part of its Asset Integrty Management (AIM) conference series, ASME organized in 2024 a specialty conference on Asset Integrity Management of Critical Infrastructure (AIM-CI). The aim was to facilitate the exchange of concepts, processes, and technologies among industries including nuclear, power generation, offshore facilities, and hydrocarbon...

The management of risks in the context of Industry 4.0 is currently lacking accurate and efficient systematic approaches and tools, leading to a potential underestimation or unrealistic perception of risks in various domains where effective risk management is crucial. Traditional methods, while valuable, have limitations and may not adequately capt...

Complexity remains the main source of nonlinearity and uncertainty in modern sociotechnical systems. This is inherent in the interactions of new technologies emerging from Industry 4.0, as well as uncertainty associated with future natural disasters or exceptional events, along with contemporary organizational threats and biases in human logic. Acc...

Contemporary electric utilities are part of critical national infrastructure and function in a complex business and operational environment. They are also complex by their internal structure, management and deployed modern technologies. As the complexity and interdependencies increase, electrical power grids face an increasing number of situations...

This paper examines the applicability of Complex System Governance to advance Asset Management. Asset management (AM) is increasing in importance as more societal serving systems are becoming dependent on the value of assets and their management. However, AM as a discipline lacks coherent grounding in systems theory-a means for understanding the st...

This paper seeks to conduct a comprehensive review of the entire collection of documents published on the development and utilization of STAMP/STPA over the past decade. To achieve this, we have followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology, which serves as a recognized standard for systematic...

In the face of a tumultuous economic landscape and the swift progress of technology, businesses find themselves compelled to reshape their economic strategies in response to the challenges posed by intense global competition. Numerous scholars have delved into the realm of manufacturing systems and its array of tools. This study conducts a thorough...

This paper presents a new design methodology for an environmentally friendly microgrid based on hybrid multiple energy sources (PV-Diesel-BESS) used for rural electrification. A new microgrid design tree is proposed considering microgrid distance to local network. Moreover, the design tree includes a new lifetime greenhouse gas stabilization compon...

The objective of increasing productivity while optimizing operational and organizational processes has focused Industry 4.0 (I4.0) on technological development without considering the impact of technology on people and the impact of mass production on the environment. These impacts have led to growing concerns about climate change and complex globa...

Modern power grids are transforming into highly integrated networks of power generation, transmission, and distribution systems and distributed energy resources (DER) located at customer premises. The energy transition is also experiencing rapid transformations involving technological advancements, changing consumer preferences, and new policies. S...

Accurate systematic approaches and tools for managing risks in the context of industry 4.0 and its corollary industry 5.0 are lacking or less efficient, propagating unrealistic awareness of risk in various domains where risk management is needed. Traditional methods have their own limits and might not identify all aspects that influence system safe...

Featured Application This paper presents a review of literature on urban resilience, highlighting research gaps and suggesting solutions such as using asset and disaster risk management methods combined with GIS-based decision-making tools to improve resilience in urban areas. This can be applied in the field of urban planning and design, disaster...

In the power industry, the challenge of asset management is to balance performance, risk and cost. Resource allocation needs to be optimized according to the medium- and long-term and overall objectives of the organization. Electrical systems are complex and have multiple complementary objectives. Thus, advanced methods to support decision-making a...

The most important challenges and risks in power sector nowadays are aging equipment and complying with requirements related to climate adaptation measures and regulation related to decarbonisation of the electricity and heat sector, including coal-phase out. Power production is one of the largest sources of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. W...

Suffice to say that long-established businesses have their own challenges. Furthermore, accurate systematic methods and tools for managing risks in the context of industry 4.0 are lacking or less efficient, spreading unrealistic awareness of risk (or situational awareness) in various domains where risk management is needed. Conventional methods hav...

Understanding the meaning of value to asset-intensive organizations and their stakeholders has been a long-standing goal of researchers and managers of the asset management community. These issues have become particularly prominent with the publication of the ISO 5500x series of standards on asset management. These standards are intended to guide a...

Abstract This article aims at systematically reviewing the entire collection of papers published on the development and application of the functional resonance analysis method (FRAM) in the last decade. The Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology has been utilized as a formal systematic literature rev...

This article focuses on identifying and analyzing elements of strategic asset management (SAM). It reviews physical asset management (AM) models defined as the coordinated activity of an organization to realize value from assets, along with SAM which focuses on aligning AM strategies with various levels of organizational strategy (corporate, busine...

Les entreprises modernes sont des organisations à forte intensité de capital dont la structure interne, les activités et les technologies en place sont relativement complexes. Elles fonctionnent dans un environnement commercial et opérationnel complexe caractérisé par des incertitudes profondes (évolution des marchés et des clients, cadre réglement...

Modern organizations operate in a complex environment composed of closely interdependent systems and sub-systems. Moreover, the business environment of the modern enterprise is increasingly exposed to deep uncertainties due to the evolution of the market and of customers, budget restrictions, changing regulatory framework and/or deregulation, adven...

Presentation highlights – Modern electrical utilities are capital-intensive organizations that are fairly complex in terms of their internal structure, operations and deployed technologies – They are composed of numerous closely interdependent systems – Their business and operational environment is more and more complex characterized by deep (alea...

Complex asset systems are essential to the functioning of our society. They include but are not limited to: oil platforms, transportation networks, water and gas distribution systems, nuclear power plants, the stock exchange system, communication networks and electrical power utilities. Electrical power generation , transport and distribution utili...

Major electrical utilities are capital-intensive organizations. They face the renewal of large parts of their assets that reach the end of their useful life. These companies also operate in an increasingly complex business and operational environment characterized by deep uncertainties. The impact of extreme and rare events is increasingly importan...

This book gathers selected peer-reviewed papers from the 14th World Congress on Engineering Asset Management (WCEAM), which was held in Singapore on 28–31 July 2019, as well as papers presented during the 1st WCEAMOnline event which focused on the ramifications of Covid-19 on infrastructure systems. This book covers a wide range of topics in engin...

Contemporary organizations function in a complex business and operational environment composed of closely interdependent systems. They are also complex by their internal structure, management and deployed modern technologies. This complexity is not always well understood, and cannot be efficiently controlled. As the complexity and interdependencies...

Special Issue Information Dear Colleagues, Modern organizations operate in a complex environment composed of closely interdependent systems and subsystems. Moreover, the business environment of the modern enterprise is increasingly exposed to deep uncertainties due to the evolution of the market and of customers, budget restrictions, changing r...

Electrical power utilities are a part of critical national infrastructure. Also, they are capital-intensive organizations whose assets are worth hundreds of billions of dollars worldwide. Moreover, operating and business environment of the electrical power utilities is increasingly complex and exposed to deep uncertainties. Additionally, electrical...

The purpose of this paper is to explore the readiness of selected Slovenian companies to respond to increasing demand of Industry 4.0, particularly by focusing on predictive maintenance. The survey was conducted to capture the extent to which companies address new technologies as well as to identify their current and future orientation towards adop...

Asset management is an enabling discipline that is defined by the International Standard ISO 55000 as the coordinated activities of an organization to realize value from assets. Prognostic and health management (PHM), component and system reliability, risk assessment, asset management planning and organizational structure are all part of the asset...

To meet new needs and respond to changes in the energy market, Hydro-Québec TransÉnergie required new predictive modelling methods and systems to support its asset management activities. It created PRIAD, a robust integration and decision support system. One goal of PRIAD is to assess asset behavior for the purposes of simulating system reliability...

Mining tailing ponds are large infrastructure objects whose life cycle spans over several decades. They are indispensable for certain types of mines where technological process produces and rejects mud. They also have potential to generate risks for human life, property and environment. For that reason, it is essential to adequately manage them thr...

The paper presents an approach for estimating the reliability of the complex repairable equipment used by electrical utilities. Over the past decades, data collection systems have been used to acquire large quantities of maintenance data on this equipment. However, before these data are used, attention must be paid to the uncertainties and biases a...

Powerline aging and associated refurbishments are undoubtedly an upcoming challenge for a lot of utilities. At Hydro-Québec, this motivated the launch of an integrated strategy aiming at providing the tools, technologies, and know-how to effi-ciently determine a health index for conductors without relying heavily on field sam-pling methods. The pap...

Modern organizations, primarily business, have to strongly focus on a sound financial management and, then, shall demonstrate their profitability and financial sustainability. They are often capital intensive and procure their assets (such as various equipment, components, engineered systems, etc.) in order to deliver products and/or services. Cont...

The aim of this paper is to propose a comprehensive approach for the predictive maintenance of complex equipment. The approach relies on a physics of failure (PoF) model based on expert knowledge and data. The model can be represented as a multi-state Petri Net where different failure mechanisms have been discretized using physical degradation stat...

Modern electrical power utilities are capital-intensive organizations that are fairly complex in terms of their internal structure, operations and deployed technologies. They also act in an increasingly complex business and operational environment characterized by significant uncertainties (evolution of markets/customers, changing regulatory framew...

TUTORIAL: The tutorial presents the basic concept and overview of asset management and asset management system such as defined in ISO 5500x. Asset management is described and discussed in a proper context of operational and business complexity including associated challenges to this context. The presentation highlights the difference between notion...

To meet new needs and to respond to changes in the energy market, Hydro-Québec TransÉnergie (HQT) requires the development of new predictive modeling methods and systems for asset management. A requirements analysis carried out by HQT for an improved asset management and modeling system led to the creation of a robust integration and decision-makin...

This case study is part of an extreme weather impact project, in partnership with Swiss RE Corporate Solutions and Marsh & McLennan Companies, which aims to identify and share best practice within the energy sector to enable more agile and adaptive response to extreme weather and natural hazard impacts on energy systems and supplies. --------------...

Complex assets systems are essential to the functioning of our society. They include but are not limited to: oil platforms, transportation networks, water and gas distribution systems, nuclear power plants, the stock exchange system, communication networks and electrical power utilities. Electrical power generation, transport and distribution utili...

Major electrical utilities are capital-intensive organizations. They face the renewal of large parts of their assets that reach the end of their useful life. These companies also operate in an increasingly complex business and operational environment characterized by deep uncertainties. The impact of extreme and rare events (e.g. climate change) is...

Asset management (AsM) policies are influenced by various factors (strategic, technical/technological, economic, organizational, regulatory/legal, safety, markets, competition, etc.). Therefore, the AsM decision-making process should take into account relevant factors for balancing risks, performance, costs, and benefits. Modern organizations use v...

The aim of this paper is to propose a holistic multi-failure mode prognosis approach that takes into account the complexity of failure mechanisms as a system. Model assumptions are first proposed by experts and then formalized using graph theory and stochastic models. The prognosis approach relies on a diagnostic algorithm that combines diagnostic...

Powerline aging and associated replacements are undoubtedly an upcoming challenge. At Hydro-Québec, this motivated the launch of an integrated strategy aiming at providing the tools, technologies, and know-how to efficiently determine a health index of its conductors, without requiring heavily to field sampling methods. The proposed paper explains...

Asset management is an enabling discipline that is defined by the International Standard ISO 55000 as the coordinated activities of an organization to realize value from assets. Prognostic and health management (PHM), component and system reliability, risk assessment, asset management planning and organizational structure are all part of the asset...

Modern companies are complex organizations as per their organizational, management and operational structure. They also operate in a complex business and operational environment facing significant uncertainties related to natural, technical, technological, market, organizational, economic, financial, political, etc. influential factors affecting th...

The aim of this paper is to propose a comprehensive approach for predictive maintenance of complex equipment. The approach relies on a physics of failure model based on expert knowledge. The model can be represented as a multi-state Petri Net where different failure mechanisms have been discretized using physical degradation states. Each state can...

In this paper, effects of cognitive and motivational psychology on mine safety is investigated with regard to its impact on mine safety. Human cognition focuses on processes of judgment, memory, reasoning, problem-solving and decision-making of human-being. Deviations from rational in these processes are known as biases and can be one of the source...

This paper presents the methodology defining key parameters of the stacking operation of rail-mounted bucket wheel stacker/reclaimers for raw bulk material handling systems. Due to gaps in the theory on this topic, the study aims at developing a mathematical model which characterizes the stacking operation of these machines. It integrates the relev...

Asset management (AsM) policies are influenced by various factors (strategic, tech-nical/technological, economic, organizational, regulatory/legal, safety, markets, competition , etc.). Therefore, the AsM decision-making process should take into account relevant factors for balancing risks, performance, costs, and benefits. Modern organizations use...

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has launched ambitious plans to integrate alternative energy sources into the national grid, including 25 GW of concentrated solar thermal power (CSP). There are several options available for the design of a CSP plant, including collection technologies, solar thermal receivers, heat transfer fluids, and energy storage ca...

The daily operations in the mining industry are still a significant source of risk with regard to occupational safety and health (OS & H). Various research studies and statistical data worldwide show that the number of serious injuries and fatalities still remains high despite substantial efforts the industry has put in recent years in decreasing t...

The book presents a model of selection and operational performance of rail-mounted bucket wheel reclaimers, and stacker/reclaimers (R&SR), for large-scale raw bulk material handling systems. The main subjects of the book cover: a) A multi-criteria model of selecting R&SR, including the development of their coefficient of technical level; b) A detai...

* Climate Change: New Dimensions in Disaster Risk; Risks to the energy sector from climate-change impacts - Types of hazards and risks in electrical power utilities related to climate changes * Managing risks of extreme events due to climate change - Determinants of Risk: Exposure and Vulnerability - Dimensions of Vulnerability and Exposure - Socie...

Solar thermal power technologies are advancing and expected to play a key role in energy portfolios in the future. A vital component of solar thermal power plants is the solar collectors. Four major solar collecting technologies provide different alternatives for utilities planners; these are parabolic troughs, power towers, parabolic dishes, and L...

This research introduces a simulation of a virtual concentrated solar thermal power plant in Saudi Arabia. System advisor model (SAM) is a modeling software developed by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for performance and financial analysis to facilitate decision making in renewable energy. The simulation of renewable energy power plant...

Power distribution networks have been subject to a considerable evolution following the introduction of new technologies in the grid. All these technologies entailed an update of the traditional network configurations in order to achieve a more reliable, robust power distribution network. To assess the impact of new technologies on network reliabil...

The daily operations in the mining industry are still a significant source of risk with regard to occupational safety and health (OS&H). Various research studies and statistical data world-wide show that the number of serious injuries and fatalities still remains high despite substantial efforts the industry has put in recent years in decreasing th...

Presentation at the Conference ISMS 2016 of the paper ”From operational hazards to organizational weaknesses: changing the focus for improvement”

Renewable energy sources are seen as potential alternatives for future energy generation and fossil fuel consumption. In this paper, we propose a multicriteria decision making approach based on analytical hierarchy process for evaluating five renewable power generation sources namely: solar photovoltaic, concentrated solar power, wind energy, bioma...

Electrical utilities in North America significantly increased their installed capacities between 1960 and 1990. This ageing fleet is now forcing the producers to begin to use a holistic asset management in a more systematic way by introducing diagnostic and prognostic tools to support them in their decisionmaking process. For the last few decades,...

Modern mining companies are complex organizations as per their organizational, management and operational structure. They also operate in a complex business and operational environment facing significant uncertainties related to natural, technical, technological, market, organisational, economic, financial, political etc. influence factors affectin...

Modern companies operate in a complex business and operational environment. They also face significant uncertainties related to natural, technical, technological, market, organizational, economic, financial, political, and other often intangible influenctial factors affecting their overall management and operations. This context also includes the i...

The paper proposes an approach for the asset management in the mining industry. Why it is relevant for the mining industry? Mining companies operate in a complex business and operational environment. They also face significant uncertainties related to natural, technical, technological, market, organisational, economic, financial, political etc. inf...

Trucks are the primary means of haulage in surface coal, metal, and nonmetal mining operations. The number of fatal accidents involving trucks is higher when compared to all other mining equipment. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) reports that 137 fatalities were haul truck-related in the United States between 1995 and 2011. A total of...

The objective of this research was to establish the relationship between production, consumption and energy cost in the surface mining of bituminous coal. Specific energy sources such as diesel, gasoline, electricity, explosives and bituminous coal were considered in this study. Gain in net energy, proportion of the cost of energy consumption and t...

Impact of the Variability of Technological Parameters on the Effective Reclaiming Capacity of Bucket Wheel Reclaimers This paper presents a more reffined approach to calculate the effective reclaiming capacity of bucket wheel reclaimers by incorporating the impact of stochastic variability concerning geotechnical parameters. The methodology takes i...

The current paper presents the approach used by the Gentilly-2 Nuclear Power Plant, Hydro-Quebec, in elaborating a specific Aging Management Program (AMP) for its concrete containment structure. It is developed as a part of preparation activities for the plant refurbishment project. The specificity of the AMP consists in addressing Alkali-Aggregate...

Many transmitters (pressure, level and flow) are used in a nuclear power plant. It is necessary to calibrate them periodically to ensure that their measurements are accurate. These calibration tasks are time consuming and often contribute to worker radiation exposure. Human errors can also sometimes degrade their performance since the calibration i...