Skewb Control Room represents a new frontier in utility operations, an intelligent, real-time nerve centre designed to meet and exceed the stringent demands of AMP8 and RIIO-3. In the context of a utility company, the term “Control Room” typically refers to a central hub responsible for monitoring the performance and resilience of assets that deliver essential services (such as energy, telephony, or water) to customers around the clock.
This whitepaper outlines how the Asset-Based Control Room operational paradigm has been successfully implemented for other operations. The resultant solution, Skewb Control Room, is setting the standard for operational resilience, regulatory alignment, and proactive risk management across the Water, Gas, Telephony and Power sectors.
By converging digital enablers, real-time data intelligence, and predictive analytics, Control Room transforms day-to-day operations and future-proofs utilities for a sustainable, zero-latency future.
Utilities worldwide are facing mounting regulatory pressures to enhance resilience, improve sustainability, and maintain consistent service despite aging infrastructure. In the UK, the AMP8 framework for water utilities and the RIIO-3 framework for gas and electricity require unprecedented levels of efficiency, environmental responsibility, and service reliability. At the same time, customer expectations are rising; consumers demand reliable service, continuous connectivity, and real-time communication about their utilities and billing. When issues arise, the newer generation of customers expects a proactive resolution, with real-time updates delivered directly to their smart devices. Additionally, the challenges of climate change and resource scarcity call for smarter, data-driven management of operations across increasingly complex, distributed networks.
Skewb Control Room – An Enabler for a New Operating Model for Operations
The design philosophy behind Skewb Control Room is rooted in the core technology and operational architecture of an Asset-Centric Control Room. It is driven by four key business objectives: reducing downtime, ensuring quick response times in the event of asset failure, fostering better and more proactive decision-making, and promoting a collaborative working culture.
In this section, we outline the key components – architectural, operational, and human – that together enable a more efficient operating model, centred around the physical operational nerve centre: the Skewb Control Room.
Technology Architecture & Digital Enablers
Skewb Control Room is built on a resilient, scalable architecture designed to synchronise field and back-office operations in real-time:
- Centralised Hub with Active Monitoring: Command and Control is enabled by a physical space with carefully designed high quality visual screens showing the real time status of all Utilities Components.
- Strategic Data Nerve Centre: Skewb Control Room has a Standardised data model serviced by API-driven integration with distributed (disparate) systems and teams, enabling synchronous monitoring and control.
- Active Listening and Managed Actions: Proactively identifies anomalies and executes managed responses across water, gas, and power infrastructures.
- High-Fidelity Visualisation: Real-time dashboards and insights, live geospatial heat maps, and risk indicators for dynamic decision-making.
- Field-to-Backoffice Communications: Field devices stream live data to the Control Room for instantaneous analysis.
- Active Learning Loops & Foundation Data for AI and ML Models: Continuous adaptation based on field responses and risk evaluations. Predictive insights into performance and risk hot spots.
The Skewb Control Room’s digital components form the backbone of a transformative operational framework. They automatically detect risks or deviations from plan, recommend corrective actions, track the effectiveness of interventions by Control Room Administrators, and capture response metadata to enable self-learning and, over time, autonomous decision-making.
In essence, these digital enablers drive operational efficiency by abstracting complexity from legacy systems of record, transforming fragmented data into a unified, actionable system of control, empowering multiple stakeholders (from executives to field teams) with real-time insights and simplified oversight.
A New, Collaborative Operating Model
The Skewb Control Room introduces both an operational and cultural shift, essential for unlocking the full potential of performance improvement. As a physical and digital nerve centre, it provides a central space where real-time visualisations of operational performance across all works are shared openly, fostering joint accountability and data-led collaboration among all stakeholders.
This visibility is reinforced by a managed actions framework that ensures consistency in planning, risk mitigation, and decision execution. At the heart of this model, Control Room Administrators play a pivotal role in orchestrating and managing daily operations for maximum efficiency and impact.
These new ways of working create significant opportunities for utilities to build a more resilient, future-ready workforce:
- Operational Efficiency through Multi-Skilled Administrators
Skewb Control Room delivers standardised, aggregated workflows across Assets, Customers, and Work entities. This enables Control Room Administrators to manage outcomes holistically, consolidating roles that were traditionally handled by separate teams, and improving resource efficiency.
- Remote Monitoring with Real-Time Collaboration
A shared data orchestration platform replaces legacy communication methods like phone calls, emails, and texts. Field teams receive contextual plan and risk data just-in-time, while administrators monitor activity in real time.
- Knowledge Retention and Future Workforce Enablement
Skewb Control Room reduces dependence on siloed subject-matter experts by codifying regulatory, safety, and operational standards into structured, repeatable workflows. This not only supports compliance but also generates clean data sets for machine learning and AI. This will result in Utilities attracting and retaining a digitally capable future workforce.
The Skewb Control Room model can operate alongside existing asset-based control rooms, enabling a transition to an open, proactive, and customer-focused utility organisation.
Proven Operational Impact
Skewb Control Room has been successfully implemented to support the Mains Replacement Programme of a major UK utility. This deployment, along with supporting transformation initiatives, has delivered the following business outcomes:
- Significant Programme Delivery Improvement – Enhanced programme execution and on-time completion driven by real-time operational oversight.
- Substantial Liability Reduction – Major cost avoidance achieved through proactive risk detection and mitigation.
- Noticeable Customer Satisfaction Improvement – Elevated customer satisfaction through improved visibility of customer plans, clearer communications, and faster resolution times.
- Enhanced Management of Regulatory Liabilities – Proactive handling of regulatory obligations, resulting in reduced exposure.
- Dramatic Asset Digitisation Improvement – Improved visibility and streamlined implementation of digital asset workflows with embedded jeopardy management.
Conclusion
Skewb Control Room is the definitive transformation needed to meet the demands of AMP8, RIIO-3, and the broader sustainability agenda. Its zero-latency architecture, real-time synchronisation, and proactive risk mitigation ensure resilience and compliance for the utilities of tomorrow. We look forward to transforming the industry with you.
By Vince Nwana
Vince Nwana is Transformation Director at Skewb. To speak with him about this topic in more detail, you can connect with him on LinkedIn.
