# Energy, mining and utilities

> A live model of plants, grids, mines and field crews, linking assets, work orders, safety and emissions so operators can maintain, report and respond with less guesswork. Vertical ontology, workflows and compliance notes for energy, mining and utilities in Africa.

Canonical URL: https://www.boltcliq.com/industries/energy-mining-utilities
Part of: https://www.boltcliq.com/llms.txt

A live model of plants, grids, mines and field crews, linking assets, work orders, safety and emissions so operators can maintain, report and respond with less guesswork.
- Sector pack: Starting ontology for assets, work orders, incidents and sites
- SCADA + CMMS: Typical sources: control systems, maintenance, ERP and meters
- Safety + ESG: Regulators in scope: energy, mining, environment and data protection
- Remote sites: Channels: control rooms, field tablets, radio and low bandwidth links
### The challenge
- Power utilities, mines and plants run on equipment that is decades old and new in the same site. Control systems record sensor readings. A maintenance system holds work orders. An ERP holds spare parts and purchases. Meters, billing and customer systems belong to another team. Safety incidents are recorded in forms and reports. Many sites are remote, with limited bandwidth, so some of this data is exported by hand.
- When data stays in separate systems, a failing transformer or conveyor is noticed late. Maintenance follows a calendar instead of condition because nobody can join readings to repair history. Spare parts are ordered in a rush. Safety teams find patterns only in quarterly reviews. ESG and emissions reports are built from spreadsheets for investors, lenders and regulators, and the numbers are hard to defend. Utilities lose revenue to theft and losses they cannot locate on the network.
### The ontology
**Objects**
- 13 core things
- The nouns of the sector. Each object has an identity, properties and a history, and maps to records in the source systems.
- Site
- Asset
- Sensor
- Work order
- Spare part
- Technician
- Incident
- Permit to work
- Meter
- Feeder
- Emission source
- Contract
- Shift
**Links**
- 8 core relationships
- How the objects connect. Links turn separate tables into a graph that people and agents can walk.
- Site contains Assets
- Asset carries Sensors
- Work order targets Asset and consumes Spare parts
- Technician is assigned to Work order on a Shift
- Incident occurs at Site and involves Asset
- Permit to work authorizes a Work order
- Meter measures a Feeder or customer
- Emission source is linked to Asset and fuel use
**Actions**
- 6 governed actions
- What people and approved agents may do. Each action has rules, an approver where needed and a log entry.
- Raise a condition based work order
- Order or reserve a spare part
- Issue or close a permit to work
- Log and escalate a safety incident
- Dispatch a crew to a fault
- Publish an emissions or ESG report
### Use cases
- Predictive maintenance
- A power plant schedules maintenance on fixed dates. A pump fails between services and trips a line. Vibration and temperature trends were available but nobody joined them to repair history.
- Sensors, maintenance records and operating hours attach to each asset. A model flags assets whose readings drift toward past failure patterns and drafts a work order with the evidence.
- The maintenance planner approves, delays or rejects the work order. Engineers own the thresholds and review false alarms.
- Safety and permits
- A mine runs hundreds of permits to work each week across shifts and contractors. Permits are paper, and conflicts such as two crews on the same area are caught on the ground.
- Permits link to assets, areas, crews and certificates. The system detects conflicts and expired competencies before a permit is issued, and keeps an audit trail.
- The authorized person issues the permit. The system warns, and a human decides.
- Grid losses
- A distribution utility loses a share of the energy it buys to technical faults and theft. Meter data, feeder readings and field reports are in different tools, so loss areas are hard to isolate.
- Meters, feeders and transformers form a connected model. The system compares energy in and billed energy by feeder, and ranks areas where loss is highest, with suggested inspections.
- Field managers decide where to inspect and how to deal with customers. Enforcement decisions are never automated.
- Spare parts
- A remote site stocks spare parts based on habit. Critical parts are missing when a failure happens, and some stock sits for years.
- Part usage, asset criticality and lead times feed reorder suggestions. The system shows which parts can be borrowed from nearby sites.
- The supply chain lead approves stocking levels and purchase requests.
### Data you already have
- We read from your existing systems first and write back only through approved actions. Every source has a named owner. Where connectivity is weak or records are on paper, we plan for queued sync and OCR with human review.
- SCADA, historians and IoT sensor feeds
- Computerized maintenance management systems
- ERP systems for parts, purchasing and contracts
- Smart meter and billing systems
- Safety forms, permits and incident reports
- Fuel, emissions and environmental monitoring data
- Drone, satellite and inspection imagery
- Geospatial network and site maps
### Compliance and residency
- South Africa
- POPIA
- Employee, contractor and customer data need lawful processing and safeguards.
- Nigeria
- NDPA 2023
- Customer metering data and workforce records are personal data and call for documented controls.
- Kenya
- Data Protection Act 2019
- Consumer and employee data need a lawful basis and appropriate security.
- Ghana
- Data Protection Act 2012
- Utility customer data falls under the controller principles.
- Sector rules
- Energy, mining and environment regulators
- Licensing, safety and emissions reporting rules differ by country and license.
- Operational technology also raises security obligations and sometimes critical infrastructure rules. These are examples only. Confirm what applies to your licenses with counsel and your regulators. Examples only, not legal advice. Confirm with counsel.
### Boltcliq products
**Zeus**
- Model plane
- Models sites, assets, work orders, permits and incidents as one connected graph, and provides the maintenance, safety and ESG views.
**Odin**
- Trust plane
- Controls access for engineers, contractors and automated agents, including temporary access for a visiting crew, with every grant logged.
**Monolith**
- Control plane
- Constrains maintenance and reporting agents to approved data and actions. It can propose a work order but cannot override a safety interlock.
**Argus**
- Runtime plane
- Provides the data platform and runtime, with portable deployment close to the site and sync from low bandwidth links.
**Cyclopes**
- Observation plane
- Logs which readings and rules triggered a work order or alert, which helps in incident reviews and audits.
### Frequently asked questions
- Does Boltcliq control equipment?
- No. We do not write to control systems. The platform reads data and proposes work. Any change to operations goes through your existing approvals.
- Can it work at remote sites with weak links?
- Offline-tolerant sync and queued updates are design requirements. Edge deployment options are scoped per site.
- How do you handle old SCADA and maintenance tools?
- Through read-only connectors, file exports and historians. Old systems stay in place.
- Can you produce ESG reports for lenders?
- We organize the data and calculations behind a report and show lineage. Your team and assurance providers own the report.
- What about operational technology security?
- Segmentation and read-only access are the default approach. Specific architecture is agreed with your security team.