Plant maintenance, test + measurement
and housing. It cannot understand why a lube change worked for one gearbox and not the next. It cannot interpret subtle mechanical behaviour that only a human technician would notice, and it cannot predict how dierent people on dierent shi¦s handle the same piece of equipment. In other words, AI can help one find where to look, but not what to do when you get there. I have always told our customers that machines are messy, and that this is not a problem, it is simply the reality. Here’s the truth: machines have personalities. Not literally, of course, but in how they wear, respond, and behave under pressure. And a lot of that has nothing to do with engineering design or process control. It has to do with maintenance history, human touch, and physical realities that no AI-powered model – however sophisticated – can learn. The idea that AI will converge all technologies into one correct decision ignores this complexity. It reduces the cra¦ of diagnostics to a logic problem, when it is part science, part art, and always tied to context. Willer concludes: Let AI support us. Let it help us scale, see patterns, and work smarter. But let’s stop pretending it can replace understanding – or diagnose machines like a seasoned engineer can. Because machines don’t live in the cloud. They live in the real world. And in the real world, convergence isn’t the goal. Clarity is.
grease, or skipped torque checks, or ran a fan uncoupled for three minutes at startup. No historian records that. And without that real-world information, AI is flying blind on the stu that actually causes most failures. I believe every condition monitoring technology has its place – and its limits. For example, vibration monitoring tells us about mechanical behaviour; oil analysis identifies lubricant condition and contamination; thermography picks up heat and load imbalance; AE and ultrasound testing give early warnings of friction, turbulence, or sparking; and process data provides the operating context, but not the root cause of failure. These monitoring techniques and their test results don’t converge neatly. They were not designed to do so. We don’t combine them to get a ‘better’ truth – rather, they should be compared to demonstrate dierent perspectives. That’s what makes condition monitoring powerful: it’s a team eort, not a solo act. Can we rely on AI? Willer recognises that AI is useful, but not in the way the vendors keep claiming. It can spot changes over time. It can rank the risks, it can filter out noise and highlight anomalies – all of this is valuable. Importantly, however, AI cannot know the history of every sha¦
For more information visit: www.wearcheck.co.za
Plant maintenance, test + measurement: Products + services
Unifying O&M data to manage enterprise assets
Utilities need a reliable way to manage all kinds of specific O&M data without having to work through scattered files or disconnected systems. Doble PowerBase™ brings order out of chaos by centralising all equipment data and supporting documentation then automating exchanges between asset management, engineering, field operations, and compliance environments. PowerBase tracks nameplate, settings, procedures, and workflows for standardised records that can be trusted. Through
(SEL, GE, ABB, Siemens, and more) - Streamlined O&M workflows and faster compliance reporting. If you’re looking for a solution to complex data management that drives better oice and field processes, PowerBase provides the complete framework to support teams across your enterprise with ‘source-of-truth’ information that helps them work more eectively.
For more information visit: www.doble.com
APIs, settings modules, an extensive set of parsers, and fully customisable forms and templates, PowerBase integrates seamlessly with commercial and in-house platforms as well as Doble RTS™, Protection Suite™, and PB Field™ applications. With flexibility throughout, PowerBase ensures your settings of record, test and inspection data, and bottom-line results you depend on remain aligned and traceable – improving operational eiciency and strengthening compliance. Key benefits - Centralised repository with version control for all settings and documentation - Automated data flow between engineering and field systems - Universal interfacing and APIs for external system integration - Extensive relay/device template library
Doble PowerBase is an Enterprise Asset & Test Management System.
FEBRUARY 2026 Electricity + Control
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