Salt River Project (SRP) recently reported the success of its predictive technology to help manage and streamline its power plant operations.

SRP officials estimate its Performance Monitoring Center (PMC) in Scottsdale has saved the company millions of dollars by helping power plants run more efficiently since opening in 2011.

"Imagine being able to monitor your car as you go down the road, and being able to have someone tell you what could break down or what’s causing it to run less efficiently,” Andy Johnson, PMC engineering supervisor, said. “The PMC remotely and proactively identifies problems within our power plants that saves SRP and our customers a lot of money.”

Using GE’s SmartSignal software, SRP is able to monitor the activity of its turbines and generators. The approximately 800 reports generated by the software each month are analyzed and backed up by a crew of six SRP engineers and analysts, who filter and ferry the most pressing alerts to plant officials.

SRP officials said they company is interested in applying the monitoring technology to other aspects of its operations in the future.