Predictive Maintenance on the Energy Distribution Grid - Design and Evaluation of a Digital Industrial Platform in the Context of a Smart Service System

The energy turnaround and the shift towards sustainable mobility threaten the stability of European energy distribution grids due to substantially increasing load fluctuations and power demand. These challenges can critically impact assets in the distribution grid - e.g., switchgears - intensifying the need to plan, conduct, and manage their maintenance. Predictive maintenance strategies that analyze assets' current and historical condition data have been discussed as promising approaches toward that end. However, the extant research focuses on designing and improving analytical IT artifacts while not considering how a maintenance service is co-created by companies with IT. This study posits that IT and service must be aligned closely, presenting an ensemble artifact comprising a digital industrial platform and a smart service system for predictive maintenance on the distribution grid. The artifact is evaluated by conducting a willingness-to-pay analysis with asset operators, documenting their demand for condition monitoring and predictive maintenance as an integrated solution. Building on these results, we contribute design principles for information systems and implications for managing corporate networks for maintaining critical assets in the distribution grid.