Selby-based power station to save £5m with Leeds tech platform maintenance

Drax Power Station could save up to £1m per year on turbine maintenance costs after commissioning workflow software provider eviFile to undertake a five-year project.

Power company Drax Group, which owns the station, has signed the deal with Leeds’ eviFile to make sure its six turbines are back in operation faster when required inspections of them are undertaken.

Selby-based Drax conducts inspections of each of its turbines once every four years. During the inspections, its engineers and contractors examine the condition of components and identify potential defects.

Drax Group’s outage co-ordinator and project sponsor, Michelle Desmond, said: “It is vitally important for us to further enhance the efficiency of our inspection processes.

“After an extensive procurement process, eviFile was deemed to be the best-fit solution due to its handling of complex processes and impressive level of configurability.

“We are confident this technology will make an immediate impact and bring a clear commercial benefit.”

eviFile’s software will enable Drax to record an end-to-end digital audit trail of more than 4,000 individual tests in a 12-week period.

Over the five-year period savings of up to £5m could be generated due to eviFile’s ability to continually generate efficiencies.

eviFile works via standard tablets and smartphones, enabling Drax’s engineers and contractors to use their device’s camera and GPS capabilities to record works completed.

eviFile managing director, Luke Allen, added: “The team at Drax Group has realised the potential of our technology to drastically improve efficiency, mitigate risk and ultimately reduce costs.

“eviFile offers utility and energy companies a powerful combination of secure digital evidence and efficient task management.

“For this project the platform is being tailored to Drax’s specific requirements and we are already working closely with the company to embed our technology into Drax Power Station’s processes.”