Systems Engineering for Innovation Portfolio Management in the Energy Industry

Abstract

The establishment of development pipelines for innovative technologies is a familiar aspect of digital transformation within the energy industry. One variant relies on innovation teams to rapidly prototype ideas as Proofs-of-Concept (POC) that, when successful, are matured and commercialized as new technical solutions within product lines. However, as the number of ideas grows, diversity of in-scope energy systems broadens, and resources remain constrained, identifying the highest-value ideas aligned with innovation goals and enterprise strategy has become paramount. We outline a prioritization and selection (PAS) approach founded on systems engineering (SE) to manage the work progressed within an innovation team. Specifically, we adapt the tradespace methodology for design selection when stakeholder needs and project constraints create a multi-objective optimization problem. The assessment combines a rigorous stakeholder analysis and surveys to characterize a multi-attribute utility function measuring POC benefit. POC resources are estimated from anticipated duration, development needs, validation requirements, and process change required by the technical solutions. These metrics characterize cost-benefit trade-offs, complemented by innovation measures associated with each POC. The final end-to-end workflow enables innovation idea comparisons with a dashboard to guide POC selection, portfolio shaping, and work prioritization across multiple energy disciplines and industry asset classes.