CEO Neno Duplan’s Entrepreneur Profile
Locus’ cloud-based environmental data management and EHS compliance software solutions are built on the cloud— read more about how we use the cloud to help our customers.
SPCC software moves to the Cloud
SAN FRANCISCO, California, June 27, 2011 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in Web-based water, energy, and environmental software, announced today that it has expanded ePortal, its flagship product, to manage compliance, data and information for the EPA Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule. This introduces the industry’s first enterprise level SPCC software deployed in the Cloud.
The SPCC rule is part of the EPA’s Oil Pollution Prevention regulations, which also includes the Facility Response Plan (FRP) rule. On July 17, 2002, the EPA amended the SPCC regulations (67 FR 47042), which became effective on August 16, 2002. The rule requires specific facilities to prepare, amend, and implement SPCC plans along with a series of inspection and training requirements.
The Locus SPCC software application addresses the requirements for oil spill prevention, preparedness, and response procedures to prevent oil discharge to navigable waters and adjoining shorelines. The SPCC module will help owners or operators of regulated facilities to develop and manage the SPCC process, and to track and report spills if and when they occur, along with their root causes. The software is designed to help facilities comply with the SPCC regulations and other regulatory requirements, and is flexible enough to meet the needs of many regulated industries with a focus on oil and gas. The software leverages Locus ePortal’s tracking and reminder tools to ensure operators meet requirements and complete follow-on tasks in accordance with the requirements of 40 CFR 112.6(a)(3).
“With the new EPA reporting deadline for SPCC of November 10, 2011, approaching rapidly, Locus wanted to offer its current and future customers software to help them meet the deadline and manage the complex reporting requirements the regulation entails. The industry needed a web-based solution for SPCC compliance, and we have delivered one that will ensure that companies can comply with ample time to meet the deadline,” said Dr. Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.
Locus designed the SPCC module specifically to meet the oil and gas industry’s needs for managing SPCC compliance. Since Locus’ other software products, such as EIM, have been used for more than 10 years at many oil and gas exploration sites and nuclear facilities nationwide, the system upgrade allows rapid deployment; an unmatched level of integration and functionality; and data security, data validation, and scalability.
Key features of the new module include SPCC task tracking; spill root cause analysis; automated follow-on task creation and tracking; and spill reporting using standard or facility-specific formats. Locus’ SPCC module also includes a complete facility inspection checklist to record findings, and ensures that companies can address inspection findings in a timely manner. And because Locus’ SPCC module is based in the Cloud, operators can enter inspection results live during the inspection, streamlining the process for customers with many inspection locations. Once inspection results are entered, customers can review data rollups easily to identify equipment maintenance trends. Plus, all SPCC activities are safely stored in ePortal and archived for long-term compliance documentation. Users can also print or e-mail reports to meet various corporate document retention requirements and georeference spills on Locus’ web-based GIS interface.
Independent Exploration and Production Company to manage and report environmental, compliance, and sustainability information in Locus Cloud
SAN FRANCISCO, California, May 23, 2011 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in Web-based water, energy and environmental software, announced today that it has been awarded a contract to manage corporate environmental compliance and sustainability at a publically traded, independent E&P company focused exclusively on oil and natural gas development in California.
Locus ePortal will be configured to ensure that the E&P company can track and manage environmental compliance at all company locations, including offshore platforms, in a single unified system. Locus ePortal compliance applications replace a variety of site-specific tracking tools that are non-uniform, difficult to keep up to date, and do not provide business continuity in the event of staff attrition. It will also support the increased number of inspections that occur in various jurisdictions where the company explores for natural gas and oil, and will provide key compliance metrics at the site and regional levels.
“The California E&P company is concerned about the environment as the company operates in areas with extensive environmental regulations, including offshore platforms in and around the Santa Barbara Channel as well as exploration and production rigs in prime agricultural areas, such as the Sacramento Basin. Locus ePortal is a perfect fit for the company to ensure that the company stays on top of all reporting requirements and organizes all of its compliance information in a single database with a single online sign-on,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.
“For the natural gas industry to stay in compliance with ever-stricter laws to protect drinking water supplies and air emissions, drilling companies need better ways to organize hydrofracking waste data in order to demonstrate to the public and regulators that hydrofracking activities are not endangering natural resources. They also need to prove that any dangerous waste from the wells is handled in compliance with state and federal laws. We are very pleased that the software tools that Locus has developed for this new industry are well received in the marketplace,” added Duplan.
Locus SaaS software to manage environmental compliance for sustainable self-contained energy solutions by Energenic
SAN FRANCISCO, California, May 2, 2011 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in Web-based environmental and energy software, announced today that it has been awarded a contract from Energenic, LLC to manage its environmental, compliance, and sustainability information in Locus’ Cloud.
Energenic selected Locus’ SaaS-hosted software to implement a new environmental compliance management system to meet its business and regulatory requirements, specifically for managing and reporting environmental, compliance, and sustainability information.
Energenic specializes in the comprehensive design, development, construction and operation of large-scale energy projects. Whether the project involves electricity generation from cogeneration, solar, landfill gas, or biogas to fuels, environmental compliance and stewardship are imbedded in each Energenic design. Energenic evaluated multiple companies’ software offerings before selecting Locus to meet its business and regulatory reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
“We are very pleased that Energenic selected our Cloud platform. We are very proud that our software will complement Energenic’s disciplined expertise to engineer fiscally, technologically, environmentally, and sustainably responsible power solutions for generations to come. ePortal will allow Energenic to take a better aggregate view of its environmental challenges, take full ownership of its environmental data, and make better planning decisions for environmental stewardship,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.
“Energenic is committed to the next generation of energy technologies and services. Using Locus’ software will improve our project delivery, our financial well-being and our environmental stewardship. Locus’ ePortal software will help us meet our compliance and legal responsibilities, as well as position us to grow with the evolving regulatory landscape. Managing our data and information in the Cloud, and streamlining our reporting processes, will help us support our mission to provide sustainable energy sources to our clients while becoming better stewards of the environment,” added Frank DiCola, Energenic’s president and CEO.
ABOUT ENERGENIC
Energenic is a joint business venture between long-term business partners Marina Energy LLC, a subsidiary of South Jersey Industries (NYSE: SJI), and DCO Energy LLC. Energenic specializes in the comprehensive design, development, construction, and operation of large-scale energy projects and has offices in Nevada and New Jersey.
For more information, visit www.energenic-us.com, www.sjindustries.com, and www.dcoenergy.com.
One of the chief complaints of Japanese citizens—and indeed the world community—as the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant has unfolded has been the lack of information that TEPCO, the electric utility that owns and operates the plant, (and the Japanese government) have shared. From thousands of miles away, the nuclear community is piecing together forensic analysis [see NYTimes article from April 3, “Japan’s Nuclear Crisis Is Seen Clearly From Afar”] in an attempt to understand the severity of the crisis. As the world braces for the worst-case scenario, the models that these scientists are running are based only on data approximations. It does not need to be that way.
Fukushima is not just Japan’s problem—we’re all going to be dealing with the fallout from this situation for years. The data collection process and the sheer quantity make managing the data a challenge. Having on-site data storage is risky. If the plant blows up and you lose any critical data; using Cloud technology will allow not only aggregation for the sake of TEPCO, but also for the world community. We all need to be able to see and learn from the data to help Japan solve the problem. It’s bigger than they are—especially when it comes to ocean/fish contamination. TEPCO should learn from the BP oil spill and make data immediately transparent. On the anniversary of BP Gulf Oil Spill public still does not have access to the extent and magnitude of contamination caused by that disaster.
Centralized and reusable data now and in the future will help us all make decisions and take action on the cleanup—and improve safety and fail safes at the rest of the planet’s nuclear power plants. The partial meltdown of three reactors and at least two spent fuel pools, along with multiple hydrogen explosions at the site now rate a 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale—a level previously pinned only to the meltdown and explosion at the single reactor at Chernobyl. After the immediate crisis at the Fukushima is bought under control, attention will shift to characterizing the impact of the disaster on human health and the environment and on long-term monitoring and stewardship. At this point, an opportunity exists for TEPCO, to get out in front of the crisis and become as transparent as possible about the evolving conditions at the plant and surrounding areas. To do so, it should move all information gathered on the nature and extent of the releases at the facility to the “Cloud”. Soviet and Russian authorities never did this on Chernobyl, and the general public still does not know the exact extent of that disaster to the human health and environment. The amount of data that is likely to be collected by TEPCO and others in the coming years will be a tsunami in its own right and may be as challenging to deal with as the real one unless the proper information management system is put in place. Samples of air, soil, groundwater, and seawater, as well as various biota, including crops and fish, will be collected from all potentially impacted areas. These will be measured for various radionuclides, all of which have various half-lives. The resulting information will need to be evaluated for both short and long-term impacts on humans and the environment. This can best be accomplished if all relevant data is stored in a centralized information management system that is accessible to all stakeholders. The web makes all this not only possible but quite doable. Many US nuclear utilities and US DOE nuclear weapons sites are already managing their operational data in the Cloud and are well aware of the importance of information management technologies that Cloud offers.
Deploying a centralized environmental management system to the Cloud, and placing all data in it, would allow all interested parties to know where samples of various media have been taken, what parties collected them, how the samples were analyzed, what the levels of radionuclides were in these samples, and what the legal limits and long-term effects of each isotope are. The general public is unlikely to have the sophistication to deal with most of this data. Rather, valid conclusions as to the impacts of the contamination are only likely to be drawn by those experienced in statistics, modeling, risk assessment, and/or health physics.
For More information please see: Japan quake data should be stored in the cloud
Using cloud-computing technology to store data on faraway networks that are accessible to all stakeholders will help us make decisions on cleanups.
Locus offers another industry-first application for environmental data collection
SAN FRANCISCO, California, March 28, 2011 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in web-based energy, environmental, and emissions information management software, announced today a new iPhone application for field data collection. eWell for the iPhone consists of two linked components: the iPhone application itself, and Locus’ Environmental Information ManagementTM (EIM) web-based application. Data are collected using the iPhone and the data provisioning setup is performed in EIM. Once data are collected, they are wirelessly transmitted to EIM for review and reporting.
Using EIM, eWell users can map the routes for checking a series of wells that need to be sampled, and/or those that they need water levels and other field parameters measured. They can download these routes to the iPhone, along with selected historical environmental data on their wells, for use in the field for real-time validation and QA/QC of collected data. Once downloaded to eWell, the routes and well locations can be seen and accessed directly from the iPhone’s Google Maps interface.
Once in the field, customers can use their iPhones, iPod Touches, or iPads to record water levels, pH, turbidity, and other environmental readings, as well as to compare current and past readings. Where Wi-Fi or 3G coverage is available, data collected in the field uploads instantly to EIM. Where access is unavailable, users save the collected data automatically, which can then be uploaded when coverage becomes available. eWell for the iPhone completely streamlines the data upload and download processes, eliminating any steps that require equipment synchronization.
“The release of this new iPhone/iPod/iPad version of eWell adds yet another powerful tool to Locus’ arsenal of web-based technologies for lowering the cost of environmental data collection and management. For information that cannot be collected through interfaces to other applications, such as from analytical laboratories LIMS systems, data historians or wireless sensors, eWell offers a powerful alternative that eliminates duplicate input, reduces transcription time, performs data checks and validation at point of collection, and maintains a complete audit trail, including the georefererence on who did what, when, and where,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO Locus Technologies.
Once in EIM’s data review tables, users can review uploaded data for accuracy and completeness. After completing all data validation checks, field readings are moved to liveEIM for reporting and other project uses. EIM is part of Locus’ ePortal SaaS platform.
“The smart phone-based eWell represents another milestone for applying mobile Web 2.0 technologies to the business world. Locus will continue expanding this popular platform to include field data collection for energy, carbon, resource consumption, and other sustainability information. As is the case for all other applications that Locus has pioneered over last decade, eWell is designed to lower a company’s environmental expenditures while improving data quality,” added Duplan.
Locus first released eWell in 2000 on the PalmTM, and was the environmental industry’s first wireless Internet application for recording and transmitting environmental data in the field.
The eWell iPhone app is available for download from the Apple, Inc. App Store immediately for $19.95. Over the course of 2011, Locus will introduce eWell on other smart phone platforms, including Android.
Organizing Enterprise Sustainability and Water Information in the Cloud
Water-quality software maker expands its offering to meet natural gas industry demand
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 7 March 2011 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in Web-based environmental software, announced today that it has expanded its flagship product to manage data and information for natural gas exploration and production sites that use hydro fracturing to extract gas from shale.
Locus designed this expanded module in its Environmental Information Management (EIM) software specifically to meet the hydro fracturing industry’s needs for managing subsurface and water quality data. Since EIM has been used for more than 10 years at many oil and gas exploration sites and nuclear facilities nationwide, the system upgrade provides for rapid deployment, an unmatched level of functionality and data security, data validation, and scalability.
The relatively new drilling method for natural gas extraction—known as high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking—carries significant environmental risks. It involves injecting large amounts of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, at high pressure to break up rock formations and release gas deposits. Anywhere from 10 to 40 percent of the water sent down the well during hydrofracking returns to the surface, carrying drilling chemicals, very high levels of salts and, at times, naturally occurring radioactive material. There were more than 493,000 active natural-gas wells in the United States in 2009, almost double the number in 1990, according to the New York Times. Around 90 percent have used hydrofracking to get more gas flowing, according to the drilling industry.
“The hydrofracking industry has been in the spotlight in recent months and Locus wanted to provide this sector with a tool to prove its case to the public and regulators that natural gas production using hydrofracking can be done safely and transparently without jeopardizing drinking water supplies,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.
“We expanded our software offerings to manage and visualize water, waste, wastewater, drilling fluids, radionuclides and air emissions more effectively online. Since this industry is subject to a different set of state and federal regulatory guidance, we felt that the market needed an off-the-shelf tool to manage hydrofracking data. Locus’ software provides any natural gas production site that has a need for data management and reporting—and almost all have—the necessary functionality to meet these requirements,” he continued.
For the natural gas industry to stay in compliance with ever-stricter laws to protect drinking water supplies and air emissions, drilling companies need better ways to organize hydrofracking waste data in order to demonstrate to the public and regulators that hydrofracking activities are not endangering natural resources. They also need to prove that any dangerous waste from the wells is handled in compliance with state and federal laws. The EIM software upgrade helps address these needs for natural gas companies.
Locus Technologies has expanded its flagship product EIM to manage data and information for natural gas exploration and production sites that use hydro fracturing technologies to extract gas from shale.
The relatively new drilling method for natural gas extraction — known as high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking — carries significant environmental risks. It involves injecting large amounts of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, at high pressures to break up rock formations and release the gas. Anywhere from 10 to 40 percent of the water sent down the well during hydrofracking returns to the surface, carrying drilling chemicals, very high levels of salts and, at times, naturally occurring radioactive material. According to recent NY Times article, there were more than 493,000 active natural-gas wells in the United States in 2009, almost double the number in 1990. Around 90 percent have used hydrofracking to get more gas flowing, according to the drilling industry.
For the natural gas industry to stay in compliance with ever stricter laws to protect drinking water supplies and air emissions, drilling companies need software tools to organize hydrofracking waste data in order to demonstrate to the public and regulators that hydrofracking activities are not endangering natural resources. They also need to prove that any dangerous waste from the wells is handled in compliance with state and federal laws. Although hydrofracking has been used for decades, the technology has become more powerful and more widely used in recent years, producing far more wastewater and attracting much more public and regulatory scrutiny.
Nearly all of the activities associated with hydrocracking, including the assessment of site characteristics, the ongoing monitoring of site conditions and air emissions, and the remediation of adverse environmental impacts, involve the collection and/or analysis of large quantities of data. The specialized software to organize, manage, validate, visualize, store, and report this information formerly did not exist until Locus expanded its award winning, web-based EIM software to provide industry with the necessary tools to do so.
This expanded module in EIM was specifically designed to meet the hydrofracturing industry’s needs for managing subsurface and water quality data that include both analytical chemistry, waste, and radionuclides. Since EIM has been deployed in the Cloud for over ten years at many similar oil and gas exploration sites and nuclear facilities nationwide, the system provides for rapid deployment, an unmatched level of functionality and data security, an extensive set of QC/QC standards, and scalability.
The hydrofracking industry has been in the spotlight in recent months and Locus wanted to provide this business sector with a tool to prove its case to the public and regulators that natural gas production using hydrofacking can be done safely and transparently. As such, we expanded our software offerings to manage and visualize water, waste, wastewater, drilling fluids, radionuclides and air emissions more effectively over the web. We felt that the market needed an off-the-shelf tool targeted to manage hydrofracking data, being that is subject to a different set of state and federal regulatory guidance. Locus’s software provides any natural gas production site that has a need for data management and reporting—and almost all have—the necessary functionality to meet these requirements.
Water quality and waste management are not the only issues at hydrofracking sites. Air pollution caused by natural-gas drilling is a growing threat, too. Locus ePortal software when combined with EIM provides a comprehensive compliance solution for the natural gas industry to manage contaminants in all media ( water, soil, and air) in a single, integrated system through a Single Sign On (SSO).
EIM, Locus’ Environmental Information Management software, is the world’s largest commercial on-demand environmental data management system. EIM completely replaces existing stand-alone data systems and reporting tools to provide a comprehensive integrated solution to one of the environmental industries’ most vexing problems – the centralization and management of complex data pertaining to contaminated water, groundwater, soil, and/or air. EIM provides for the complete electronic processing of analytical data, beginning with the upload of electronic data deliverables from labs, and terminating in state-mandated or federal regulatory exports and reporting. EIM is deployed through Software as a Service (SaaS) model that eliminates most of the difficulties associated with the adoption of a new technology, while offering the opportunity for more rapid customization to meet the ever-changing needs of its user population. The system currently stores over 120 million records for over 15,000 sites worldwide.
Locus Technologies
299 Fairchild Drive
Mountain View, CA 94043
P: +1 (650) 960-1640
F: +1 (415) 360-5889
Locus Technologies provides cloud-based environmental software and mobile solutions for EHS, sustainability management, GHG reporting, water quality management, risk management, and analytical, geologic, and ecologic environmental data management.