For this Company Spotlight, we interviewed we interviewed CruxOCM’s CEO, Vicki Knott, about how the company is modernizing and streamlining pipeline control room operations. CruxOCM delivers innovative operations control management software that eliminates the complexity and inefficiencies associated with standard control rooms. For more information on CruxOCM, please visit cruxocm.com.

Background: After training as a control room operator and working at both TransCanada and ATCO Gas since 2011, Vicki witnessed firsthand the inefficiencies and risks of relying on manual processes for procedures, checklists, and “rules of thumb” to execute routine pipeline operations. Upon meeting Roger Shirt (PhD in Process Control) while both were working at TransCanada, the two agreed that robotic industrial process automation (RIPA) could be used to solve the pain points associated with these manual processes and co-founded CruxOCM in 2017. CruxOCM’s first product, pipeBOT, is a RIPA software solution for pipeline control rooms designed to automate repetitive tasks, such as start-ups, shutdowns, swings, batch handling, and DRA scheduling.

Value Proposition: CruxOCM’s pipeBOT software offering utilizes robotic process automation methods similar to those widely used in legal, finance, and accounting workflows, with increased sophistication for industrial applications to help pipeline operators realize the following benefits:

Continuously Maximized Throughput: Instead of relying on human input of pump pressure setpoints and valve operation and hoping it’s the optimal value, the pipeBOT platform consistently chooses the optimal combination of settings. The platform also executes the operation rather than just advising a control room operator on a recommended value. One of CruxOCM’s customers is forecasting to achieve $145 million of incremental annual revenue by utilizing pipeBOT to maximize the utilization of its pipelines.
Reduced Operator Fatigue: Control room operators issue thousands of setpoint commands, acknowledge hundreds of alarms, and answer dozens of calls on a daily basis. CruxOCM’s RIPA software solution enables control room operators to focus on the more critical and unforeseen issues while pipeBOT “autopilots” through the routine operations, which minimizes the safety and environmental risk caused by human error. The ”pilot” aka control room operator is very much in control. RIPA is there to help them be safer and more efficient to drive bottom line benefits for their organizations.
Enhanced Pipeline Integrity: When operated by CruxOCM’s pipeBOT, pumps, valves, and other pipeline components are no longer unnecessarily activated and pushed to their limits, which prolongs the usable life of the parts and reduces maintenance costs. Further, CruxOCM’s solution is restricted by the critical safety constraints in place, so there is no chance of equipment failure due to incorrect manual inputs of pressure or flow rate setpoints.
Decreased Emissions: By optimizing pressure and flow during batch transitions, pipeBOT has enabled pipeline operators to significantly decrease their energy usage and carbon footprint. CruxOCM is in commercialization activates for powerOPT and draOPT, which will account for DRA effectiveness curves and power costs in real time to drive the operation of pipeBOT to further decrease emissions.

Closing Thoughts: Having raised $9 million in funding to date, CruxOCM is making strong inroads with several pipeline operators in North America. We look forward to following the company, as it continues to broaden its offering to include solutions for control room operations in other energy infrastructure applications, such as gathering lines, gas plants, oilfields, etc. With skilled labor continuing to be a bottleneck, the industry needs to continue adopting technologies like CruxOCM’s to maximize its personnel’s capabilities.

Company Spotlights

November 2021