AECOM relies on Qlik’s advanced SaaS analytics to cut through coal ash market complexities and realize extraordinary efficiency.

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AECOM, a premier infrastructure firm, was facing challenges in managing the complex and dynamic market of coal combustion residuals (CCRs), also known as coal ash. The regulatory status of each coal ash unit was not centrally recorded, with each owner/operator maintaining its own website with all required regulatory reports. Manually gathering, analyzing, and summarizing this discrete data was complicated and arduous. Prior to 2019, AECOM was managing U.S. coal ash market data for customers in a series of spreadsheets, which had limited dimensionality and were challenging to quickly get results. The total amount of CCR material exceeds 2 billion cubic yards, making the management of this data a significant task.

AECOM is the world’s premier infrastructure firm, delivering professional services on critical projects throughout their lifecycle. In the U.S. Energy Market, AECOM provides services addressing the effective management of power generation, transmission, and distribution. The result is efficient, reliable, and compliant power facilities. One well-known sub-topic in the U.S. Energy Market that AECOM deals with is the management of coal combustion residuals (CCRs), commonly known as coal ash. Created when power plants burn coal to produce electricity, coal ash is one of the largest types of industrial waste generated in the United States. The U.S. EPA regulates the environmentally safe disposal of coal ash. Billions of dollars are at stake for the owners and operators of coal power plants. There are over 100 organizations operating in excess of 300 regulated sites with 700+ CCR units. The total amount of CCR material exceeds 2 billion cubic yards.

AECOM implemented the “Ash Mart” solution from Qlik partner FirmoGraphs. The Ash Mart is deployed on Qlik’s cloud platform and gives AECOM and other market participants rapid, easy access to critical data that cuts through market complexities in extraordinary ways. Data from multiple disconnected data sources is brought together for easy analysis. Users can navigate quickly in a variety of combinations, informing stakeholders of new scenarios as they unfold. Multiple visualization formats are used for analysis, from simple tables and pie charts to more sophisticated statistical analysis. This facilitates the assessment of current market conditions, prediction of behaviors and application of best practices, and benchmarking of responses, which has been a vital service new to this market.

• AECOM has used the Ash Mart to effectively communicate risk management options to their customers, inform discussions around engineering design, construction schedule, and closure options.
• Since the data is geo-located, generating maps is easy. This is particularly useful when organizations are seeking different mechanisms for the beneficial use of coal ash materials as they are removed under closure-by-removal plans.
• AECOM has assisted customers in identifying the most efficient transportation methods to bring coal ash to cement kilns, where the material becomes an integral and useful part of manufactured cement products.

• Decisions are now made in minutes vs. days, often during live meetings where attendees can interrogate the data.
• Delivery on Qlik Cloud Services reduces IT overhead and annual costs.