Stopping the Data Chaos: The Million-Dollar Challenge SkySpecs is Solving

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast

In this episode, Allen and Joel speak with Tom Brady, CTO of SkySpecs, to discuss the challenges and solutions in managing multiple data sources in wind farm operations. Brady explores how SkySpecs is revolutionizing wind turbine maintenance through integrated data analytics, advanced drone technology, and AI-driven decision-making tools, while sharing a glimpse into exciting R&D developments that promise to transform the industry's approach to predictive maintenance. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.comWind Energy O&M Australia Conference - https://www.windaustralia.com Welcome to Uptime Spotlight. Shining light on wind energy's brightest innovators. This is the progress powering tomorrow. Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, along with my co host, Joel Saxum. We're going to discuss a challenge that's becoming increasingly critical in our data driven world, managing and integrating data from multiple sources in wind farm operations. In the age of smart turbines and lot sensors, wind farm operators are awash in data. But here's the catch. According to a recent industry survey, a staggering 54 percent of operators find managing multiple data sources to be difficult or very difficult. It's like trying to conduct an orchestra where every instrument is playing from a different sheet of music. In today's episode, we'll be diving into this data dilemma. We'll explore why integrating data from various sources is so challenging, how it impacts decision making and operational efficiency, And, most importantly, what innovative solutions are emerging to tackle this issue. But that's not all. We are also pulling back the curtain on some exciting R& D projects at SkySpecs that promise to revolutionize how we handle data in the wind energy sectors. From advanced analytics to machine learning, we'll get a glimpse of the future of wind farm data management. Our guest is Tom Brady, the CTO at SkySpecs. And Tom leads the technology vision and development at SkySpecs, overseeing the creation of innovative solutions for the wind energy industry. His expertise in managing complex data systems and R& D initiatives is crucial to addressing the challenges of multi source data management in wind farms. Tom, welcome to the program. Tom Brady: Glad to be here. Thank you for having me. Allen Hall: So we have a lot to discuss actually. So we just got the grand tour of the Sky Specs R& D facility. Both facilities. This is true. We were in the offices also this morning and, we meet with operators all the time. And one of the things they'll tell us is, or especially if he asked them for data, they go, yeah, we have it, but I don't know how to access it. Or I'm not sure what system it's in. Let me go figure it out. Let me call somebody see if they can figure out where the data is. Or I have too many logins. Oh, absolutely. That's a common one. Yeah. So what is happening right now? Is it just because we're just getting so much information? We just lost track of it. We don't have any place to put it. We're using Google Drive still. Some of the operators are using Google Drive, which is insane to me. Is that where we are in the wind industry? Tom Brady: I would say all of the above. Winding back a little bit to when we got started in the industry back in 2016, we launched our autonomous drone inspection or blade inspection product.