Energy and Power
On the edge of innovation
From Alaska to Arizona: Bringing digital precision to the world’s most remote assets
Tom Killingbeck Principle Scientist, Mining
When your workday involves seven flights, a long drive, and a helicopter drop onto the edge of a glacier, you start to see asset lifecycle management a little differently.
From the Arctic North to the desert heat, Arcadis helps clients monitor, manage, and extend the life of critical infrastructure—wherever it sits, and whatever the conditions.
For Arcadis’ Tom Killingbeck, remote monitoring is about giving teams the insight to make smarter, faster, and safer decisions at every stage of an asset’s life.
From solar farms in Alberta to sites across the US, including warmer regions like Texas and Arizona, Tom and his team are proving that with the right digital tools, assets can perform anywhere—and keep performing for years to come.
This is a look inside one of those days: from months of planning to the moment the first data stream comes online at the foot of an Alaskan glacier.
18 months before
It starts with a request. A mining client in Alaska needs a new weather station with a camera system to monitor conditions on the edge of a glacier. This station needs to be stand-alone, therefore solar-powered. From that moment, the countdown begins.
Planning starts a year and a half in advance. Requirements are defined, equipment suppliers are enlisted, and costs are shared. A pre-build of the web-based dashboard begins, and equipment is assembled and tested before it’s boxed and shipped to Alaska.
Using IoT and telemetry to predict, not just react
Tom’s work brings digital twins and remote sensors together to keep assets performing at their best long before issues arise. With real-time data and pictures streaming from equipment in some of the most extreme environments on earth, his team helps clients forecast maintenance needs, extend equipment life, and stay compliant with environmental regulations—all while cutting down on costly site visits.
Tom's Take
"Asset management isn’t about fixing what’s broken—it’s about stopping it from breaking in the first place."
6 months before
The equipment is built and tested, every part checked and verified. Logistics take shape, ensuring each piece of kit can make the long journey—through multiple flights, drives, and a helicopter drop—to reach one of the most remote locations on earth.
Extending the life of every asset
By replacing routine manual inspections with remote monitoring, Tom’s projects dramatically reduce travel, fuel use, and on-site risks. Each sensor station delivers continuous insight into conditions that would otherwise require multiple trips—saving money and lowering emissions. Even better, when sensors reach end-of-life, they’re designed to be redeployed or recycled, making the lifecycle circular, not linear.
Tom's Take
“Data turns the unknown into the predictable. That’s where lifecycle value really starts.”
1 week before
Seven planes. A drive across the wilderness and a small plane to the site. Then, an early-morning helicopter flight in freezing temperatures. With the break of dawn, Tom and his team lift off with the equipment, heading for the monitoring station location, on the toe of the glacier.
Engineering that thrives where people can’t
From glacier edges in Alaska to isolated solar farms in Alberta, Tom’s systems are built to withstand extreme conditions while providing uninterrupted data. The result is resilient infrastructure—monitored, maintained, and adapted from thousands of kilometers away. Each project becomes a model for how digital monitoring keeps critical assets online, no matter how remote.
Tom's Take
“Every sensor we deploy buys our clients time—time to think, plan, and act before issues escalate.”
The mission
Day 1
It’s a long 12 to 14 hour day spent getting the weather station up and running. Equipment is unloaded and set up, cameras are positioned, sensors are calibrated, and connections are checked.
By the end of the day, the system is operational and data is being collected.
Day 2
The next day is spent verifying every sensor. Calibration checks, final readings, and camera optimization. Once the system is confirmed stable, the team begins packing up.
By the afternoon, the station is fully operational and sending continuous data to Arcadis’ web-based operations platform—creating a living, breathing asset that can be monitored, analyzed, and maintained from anywhere.
Real-time insight equals real financial value
For many clients, the numbers speak for themselves: the cost of installing a monitoring station is typically offset by just 1.8 avoided site trips. Real-time alerts flag potential issues before they escalate, and data feeds directly into operational models that improve efficiency and profitability. Remote asset management doesn’t just save time—it builds resilience into every stage of the asset’s lifecycle.
Tom's Take
“You don’t need to stand on-site to understand what your asset’s doing. The data and pictures tell the story.”
“Digital monitoring gives assets a second language. They can finally tell us how they’re performing.”
1 month later
The weather station now runs autonomously. Tom’s team uses that data to track environmental conditions, optimize maintenance schedules, and build predictive models that help the client plan for what’s ahead.
That’s the real value of remote monitoring: using live insight to predict rather than react, extending asset life, and reducing unnecessary costs.
Tom's Take
“The goal is to predict what’s coming next and act before there’s a problem.”
Repurposing the past to power the future
Tom’s work in remote monitoring is part of a much bigger story at Arcadis—one that’s redefining how assets live, evolve, and adapt over time.
That same thinking drives eCATS in the Netherlands, one of Arcadis’ most forward-looking energy transition projects. The concept takes redundant natural gas infrastructure—pipelines that once carried fossil fuels across the country—and repurposes them as storage for clean, renewable energy.
When there’s more renewable energy than the grid can handle, the surplus is compressed into air and stored underground in the redundant gas network. When demand rises again, that compressed air is released to generate electricity, easing grid pressure and making sure no renewable energy goes to waste.
It’s a circular, sustainable approach to infrastructure: keeping legacy assets useful, reducing decommissioning costs, and maintaining the value of what’s already built. Around 1,700 kilometers of pipeline could be repurposed this way, creating a storage capacity of up to 60MWh. That's more than twice the size of the country’s current largest facility.
