EnergyTech Podcast

Ep. 025 - From Blackhole Data to Connected Operations - With Arlen Nipper - CirruslinkArlen Nipper brings over 38 years of experience in the SCADA industry to today’s talk. Currently Arlen sits as President and CTO of Cirrus Link a company he co-founded in 2012. He was one of the early architects of pervasive computing and the Internet of Things and co-invented MQTT, a publish-subscribe network protocol that has become the dominant messaging standard in IoT. He has worked for Amoco and Koch Oil, and served as President and CTO of Arcom Control Systems and Eurotech Inc. His experience covers a broad range of technology from the design and manufacturing of embedded systems to SCADA system infrastructure implementations. Arlen holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (BSEE) from Oklahoma State University.https://cirrus-link.com/https://www.ignitionoilandgascollective.org/https://inductiveautomation.com/00:30 Introductions01:30 The Technology Black Hole – Black Hole data (hobo data, unhoused data) 02:40 Maintenance of legacy systems that are not maintainable03:10 Legacy equipment – what to do?15:30 Hyper scaler Cloud – The proposition16:45 Connecting OT Data to the Cloud – The Reality18:00 Decoupling data – to provide a source of truth22:00 OT in the driver seat22:45 Getting close to the data at the edge29:00 Inheriting a black hole data system – Ignition as the Solution33:30 The Right Data Cloud Platform38:00 The Hype around cloud data 40:30 How to sell it to IT

Ep. 024 – The Control Room Reimagined – with Ryan Glover - WaterbridgeRyan Glover is currently the director of Remote Operations at WaterBridge based in Houston Texas. he brings experience from previous roles held at Apache Corp, Marathon Oil and Oxy.00:30 Introductions01:00 Ryan’s Career Journey05:50 The Genesis of the Waterbridge control room08:20 Field culture and resistance to remote operations10:00 Setting the tone with the vision of connected remote operations11:30 Production control rooms – where do they fit in the organization?13:30 Building trust with field teams and operations14:45 Who is Waterbridge?17:50 Incredible operations and control room growth at Waterbridge19:30 The challenges of growth in remote operations20:15 Scaling with technology21:45 Control room challenges – high grading operators with technology24:00 Growing and scaling simultaneously25:00 Investing in your operators27:45 Equipping controllers with the right technology tools28:45 Preparing to leverage AI in the control room30:30 Ignition as the platform of choice34:30 New technologies to look for and utilize35:30 Moving toward predictive 36:30 Top 3 pieces of advice for control room managers

Colton Lippencott is a member of the OpSite Energy Logistics Team. He has been managing water in oil field applications since 2017.  00:25 Introductions00:40 Announcements and upcoming events – EnergyTech Podcast03:15 Colton’s career journey05:00 Biggest lessons learned in water management06:30 The competitive controller mindset08:30 Multigenerational control rooms11:30 The biggest hurdles of water management in Appalachia13:00 Preparing for winter weather16:15 Novel approaches to water management17:30 H2Ops – 600 Trucks in 24 hours safely dispatched20:00 The issue with water cost reconciliation in the oilfield21:00 $500K/Month Savings23:15 Per barrel vs per hour hauling25:40 Safety challenges in Appalachia27:30 Monitoring and improving driver performance30:00 AI prompting controller actions32:00 Insight Driven Remote Optimization.

Ep. 021 - From Data Swamp to Data Lake: Digital Transformation with MQTT, Ignition and Snowflake.Arlen Nipper brings over 38 years of experience in the SCADA industry to today’s talk. Currently Arlen sits as President and CTO of Cirrus Link a company he co-founded in 2012. He was one of the early architects of pervasive computing and the Internet of Things and co-invented MQTT, a publish-subscribe network protocol that has become the dominant messaging standard in IoT. He has worked for Amoco and Koch Oil, and served as President and CTO of Arcom Control Systems and Eurotech Inc. His experience covers a broad range of technology from the design and manufacturing of embedded systems to SCADA system infrastructure implementations. Arlen holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (BSEE) from Oklahoma State University.https://cirrus-link.com/https://www.ignitionoilandgascollective.org/https://inductiveautomation.com/00:30 Introductions02:30 Who is Cirrus Link08:10 Ignition oil and gas collective11:40 Pain points in oil and gas OT Data15:15 Single source of truth architecture17:15 The benefits of leveraging MQTT21:30 Ignition as the tool for enterprise connectivity25:25 Sparkplug standard for modeling OT Data29:30 Raw automation data to Ignition platform32:00 Live Demo Topology with Snowflake34:20 The Digital Twin Problem35:30 Snowflake Digital Twin36:10 Live Demo with Ignition and Snowflake45:45 Flowboss meter connection53:00 Review of products used56:15 Sub-second data for drilling, completions, etc

Ep. 22 – PHMSA CRM - A Midstream Alarm Rationalization Journey – Adam Bodell00:30 Introductions01:45 From Plant Operator to SCADA Developer3:30 Midstream Alarm Rationalization Effort4:45 PHMSA CRM Light06:00 What is needed to start an alarm rationalization?7:15 Monitor and Assess8:30 Quick Wins – First Pass8:45 Post MOC Rationalization12:15 Alarm Review Cadence13:00 Java and SQL script reporting13:45 Alarm Review methodology

DJ Melancon is the Senior National Sales Leader at Tosibox. DJ has been helping companies build secure connections across their OT infrastructure for the last seven years. His focus is on oil, gas and wastewater applications. https://www.tosibox.com00:30 Introductions01:00 Studio Upgrades02:12 ENTELEC 2025 Conference05:00 Industry Trade show trends06:30 Cybersecurity Stats 2024 – Ransomware attacks08:00 OT Cybersecurity with Tosibox16:15 What problem is Tosibox solving? 27:40 Tosibox, PLC Architecture and Communications38:15 Connecting with the Tosibox Key - DEMO45:45 Connecting with Tosibox53:20 Autosol – Edge ACM, OPC UA, MQTT Converter54:20 Tosibox Key dashboard – connecting is easy as 1-2-3!57:45 RDP to Remote VPN connection with real time SCADA data59:30 The Cost of Tosibox and the Business Case

Arlen Nipper brings over 38 years of experience in the SCADA industry to today’s talk. Currently Arlen sits as President and CTO of Cirrus Link a company he co-founded in 2012. He was one of the early architects of pervasive computing and the Internet of Things and co-invented MQTT, a publish-subscribe network protocol that has become the dominant messaging standard in IoT. He has worked for Amoco and Koch Oil, and served as President and CTO of Arcom Control Systems and Eurotech Inc. His experience covers a broad range of technology from the design and manufacturing of embedded systems to SCADA system infrastructure implementations. Arlen holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (BSEE) from Oklahoma State University.https://cirrus-link.com/00:15 Introduction and Welcome1:30 Topic Introduction2:45 Arlen’s Career Journey - 46 years!8:00 Arlen’s why12:00 SCADA Protocol converters for legacy equipment to new SCADA14:40 History of SCADA communications, ATT deal, deregulation, 16:15 VSAT on the scene17:45 ATT VSAT utilizing TCP/IP (1998)19:50 Decoupling IT Data and publishing to a broker with subscribers20:20 SCADA Pub/Sub over VSAT for report by exception – the development story26:30 Time to develop in preparation for TCP/IP28:50 MQTT The backbone of pipelines, ATMs, social media messaging and more. 30:00 Why is MQTT so prolific in 2025?31:30 MQTT Leveraging the best security technologies and TLS Certificates

From Legacy to Predictive: A Conversation with CNX COO Navneet Behl (Part II)00:10 Digital Transformation – Looking in the Mirror2:30 Keys to Success, What does winning look like?5:15 Impacting operations7:30 Ground up approaches 10:00 Creating lasting change12:05 Lasting change in Remote Operations – Manage by Exception17:00 Leveraging Cloud Data

From Legacy to Predictive: A Conversation with CNX COO Navneet Behl (Part I)00:30 Intro1:10 Welcome Navneet1:30 Technology in Energy – A look back and a look forward3:15 Data as a commodity4:30 Data and the human race9:50 Legacy Operations to Predictive Operations – The Challenge14:30 Cultural Challenges18:00 Scaling Remote Operations and the ChallengesTune in For Part II

Beyond the PHMSA Checklist – Why Alarm Redirection is a Symptom, not a SolutionJoin us today as we speak about taking your control room operations past compliance and into optimization. New Technologies are changing the way we approach control room technologies and PHMSA like always is late to the show. 01:00 Intro 01:40 Undaunted Courage4:44 Traditional Alarm Management7:45 PHMSA CRM: What It Actually Requires8:20 Alarm Redirection12:00 What the Competitors Offer15:00 How OpSite Goes Beyond25:21 Compliance Vs Optimization30:15 Learn More at OpSIte Energy