Enhancing Outage Management with Smart Grid Technologies (or Is It Vice-Versa?)

Christopher Perdue | Aug 27, 2010

 

Investments in smart grid technologies can provide a number of operational benefits such as reduced losses, improved processes and workforce efficiency. One of the more obvious operational benefits is in the area of outage management. An outage management system (OMS) integrated with smart grid technologies can help utility personnel quickly identify the cause of an outage and efficiently assign and coordinate the necessary resources to restore power or other services as quickly as possible.

There are at least three ways outage management can interact with the smart grid. First, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) data can be integrated with OMS data. Secondly, advanced applications can be used for supporting outage management. Further, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) can be integrated with distribution management systems (DMS) and OMSs.

Deploying outage management and utilizing it to reconnect customers with outages paves the way toward increased customer and grid interactions. The costs for handling outages and emergency calls are lowered as a result of streamlining and improving processes with smart grid enhancements. Further, customer service representatives (CSRs) have considerably more information on the nature of outages, coverage areas and possible restoration times.

There are several additional ways AMI data can enhance the outage management process. For example, if the AMI is suitably equipped, the OMS can receive outage notification messages from the meter when it loses voltage, signifying an outage has transpired at the location. This informs the OMS of the power failure when no one is at the premise to report it or if everyone is asleep during the outage. The outage notification can lower customer interruption times and result in a more efficient dispatch of repair crews.

Additionally, with the appropriate interface between the OMS and the AMI system and the right communications infrastructure and meter, a message can be sent from the OMS to query if a meter is currently in service (often referred to as "pinging the meter").

Many customer outage reports are the result of problems on the customer side of the meter. As utilities increasingly provide smart thermostats and other tools to customers to help them manage their energy usage, this should only increase with time. If utilities can ping a meter to ascertain whether it has voltage despite reports of an outage, then the time and cost to dispatch repair crews can be greatly reduced.

While utilities with outage management systems (OMS) integrated with meter data management, mobile workforce management systems, smart metering and other smart grid technologies are better equipped to respond to outages, there are obstacles to using back office systems to restore power more quickly, one of which is integration.

To address this issue, a number of vendors are pre-integrating systems to reduce the cost and effort that utilities must devote to getting systems to pass along the proper information to each other at the right time, which is especially important when responding to emergency situations.

The degree of consolidation in the utility back office is increasing as more and more independent providers of software products are acquired by larger players. This consolidation is occurring due to the tremendous growth expected in sales in the next few years in smart metering and the fact that many of the smaller players need capital to take their companies to the "next level."

Another trend that I expect to see is for utilities to increasingly promote the operational efficiencies of smart gird investments such as outage management. This is in response to the well-publicized opposition that some utilities are receiving from consumers over smart meter installations. While many in our industry have been convinced that utility customers desire to be "empowered" and are eager to have additional pricing options, clearly not all utility customers have been persuaded. Certainly, all utility customers would enjoy having fewer and shorter power outages.

Just last week, Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS) got the nod from the state's Public Service Board to proceed with a $68 million smart grid project. According to the utility, one of the chief reasons for the investment was that the smart grid will also centralize meter reading and allow utilities to pinpoint power outage automatically. "One of the most important pieces is in outage management," explained Steve Costello, director of public affairs at CVPS. "We hope this will give us an upper hand in major storms in getting a very quick, easy, early grasp on the amount of damage and the severity of it. That can be critical in a major storm."

As these trends continue, look for OMS systems to grow from an emergency response decision support system into a major element of an integrated smart grid platform, and for utilities to increasingly point to improved outage management as a major driver for smart grid investments.

Christopher Perdue
Vice President, Sierra Energy Group
cperdue@energycentral.com
310.471.7396