During an outage at Drax Power Station, between 3,000 and 8,000 non-destructive tests could be completed across critical fittings, pipework and machinery.
Drax introduced eviFile to connect inspection evidence across its teams and three subcontractor networks. The platform established a traceable audit record, supported progressive assurance and contributed to reported savings of more than £2 million.
“Following an extensive procurement process, eviFile stood out for its ability to handle complex processes and its impressive configurability, with the potential to make an immediate impact and deliver clear commercial value.”
MICHELLE DESMOND, OUTAGE PROGRAMME LEAD, DRAX POWER GROUP
Supporting One of the UK’s Largest Renewable Power Stations.
Located near Selby, Drax Power Station has played a central role in the UK’s electricity system since the 1970s. Its four 645MW biomass-fired units generate around 14TWh of renewable electricity, enough to power the equivalent of five million homes.
With six boilers and more than 1,800 miles of steel tubing, maintaining the station required extensive inspection during outages.
Managing Thousands of Tests During Every Outage.
Every non-destructive test generated inspection records, photographs, videos and supporting documents that needed to be captured, reviewed and retained.
However, this information was spread across Drax and three subcontractor networks. Reliance on paper-based processes made it difficult to maintain a consistent inspection history, retrieve records quickly and compare results from successive outages.
Contractors, management teams and insurers were also involved at different stages. Drax therefore needed to make the right information available while ensuring each user only saw what was relevant to their responsibilities.
Establishing Progressive Assurance Across Every Inspection.
Drax selected eviFile to bring its end-to-end non-destructive testing process into a shared digital environment. As work progressed, supporting information was captured directly against each inspection, creating a continuous audit trail that could be reviewed or exported at any stage.
This gave Drax continuous oversight of inspection and repair evidence throughout the process.
With eviFile, teams could:
- Link inspection evidence to the relevant asset
- Control access through configurable roles and permissions
- Search and tag records, photographs, videos and documents
- View or export complete audit trails
- Compare structured records across outages
- Protect information used for insurer reporting
Authorised users could locate inspection records and supporting media without searching through separate folders or paper files. This gave teams a consistent view of completed work and made recurring issues easier to identify.
Connecting Inspection Data with Wider Systems.
Drax also needed its NDT records to work alongside existing operational systems and reporting tools.
eviFile supported data exchange with Oracle Maximo and WeldEye, with connectivity to systems such as Primavera P6. Information could also be exported or accessed through an API for wider reporting and analysis.
Making the data available to Power BI gave stakeholders a consolidated view of inspection status, planned-versus-actual progress and outstanding work. Crucially, the information remained traceable to the original record.
Reducing Risk and Delivering Commercial Value.
Inspection records were encrypted and protected through role-based permissions. This reduced the risk of information being lost, altered or accessed by unauthorised users.
Digitising the process also meant teams could locate records in seconds, share evidence without chasing paper files and view inspection status across the subcontractor network. Issues and potential delays could be assigned, monitored through to completion and retained against the relevant asset.
Together, these improvements contributed to reported savings of more than £2 million, while giving Drax, its contractors and insurers greater confidence in the evidence supporting each inspection.
