−32%
Unplanned outages
184→122
SAIDI minutes
−19%
Maintenance cost
USD 11M
Avoided losses
Client
Leading Distribution Utility
Sector
Energy & Utilities
Duration
12 months
Team
28 specialists
01 · The challenge

Problem

Frequent unplanned outages on aging distribution assets. SAIDI was rising. The control room had no real-time visibility into asset health.

02 · How we delivered

Solution

Sensor fusion data fabric, anomaly detection, predictive maintenance dispatch. 280,000 assets instrumented; field workforce mobile-first.

03 · Outcome

Impact

Unplanned outages down 32%. SAIDI fell from 184 to 122 minutes. Maintenance cost down 19%. USD 11M of avoided commercial losses in year one.

How we delivered

Programme phases.

Five phases. One accountable team. Every phase had a named decision point and a measurable outcome.

Discovery & alignment

2–3 weeks

Workshops with the Leading Distribution Utility executive team, baseline metrics, target outcome tree, programme governance set up.

Design & architecture

4–6 weeks

Reference architecture, security blueprint, joint squad model agreed. Data model and integration contracts published.

Build & live-parallel

Q2 onwards

Vertical slice built and run live-parallel against the existing system. Continuous integration, daily deploys, weekly business demos.

Cutover & scale

Mid-programme

Phased cutover, audit-aligned reconciliation, scaling out of squads, capability transfer to Leading Distribution Utility teams.

Run & continuous improve

Steady state

Managed run with named SLOs, quarterly value reviews, and a 15% optimisation budget reserved for improvement work.

Engineering view

Architecture overview.

Foundations

Cloud landing zone, identity, network, security baseline. Data fabric with lineage-by-default. Audit-grade observability stack from day one.

Application & integration

Domain-aligned microservices behind a published API surface. Event-driven core with CDC into the data fabric. Live-parallel capability built in, not bolted on.

Trust & governance

RBAC, audit logs, lineage, policy-as-code. Model risk records for every production model. Compliance posture on the executive dashboard, not in a quarterly slide.

Built on

Technology stack.

Production-grade choices, defended by track record. The stack is one engineering decision among many — but a load-bearing one.

Azure IoT Databricks MLflow Kafka PostgreSQL Grafana
Trust by design

Governance & assurance.

01

Programme assurance

Independent assurance reviews at each phase gate. Findings tracked in a single risk register with named owners and remediation deadlines.

02

Security & data

ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II controls applied throughout. Data lineage captured by default; sensitive data tokenised at the edge.

03

Audit-grade evidence

Every change tracked; every release reproducible. Audit packs assembled automatically for internal and external review.

04

Continuous compliance

Policy-as-code scans on every commit. Compliance posture surfaced on the executive dashboard, not in a quarterly report.

The fastest reduction in field incidents we have ever measured. Twelve months, end to end.

C Chief Operating Officer · Leading distribution utility, India

What we learnt

Three things we would do again.

  1. 01

    12 months from kickoff to first regulated outcome — squad density and decision velocity matter more than headcount.

  2. 02

    Joint squads with Leading Distribution Utility engineers stayed in place after go-live. Ownership did not transfer in a hand-off — it grew in place.

  3. 03

    Live-parallel for a meaningful window before cutover bought us trust. The cutover itself was a flag flip, not a war room.

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