Along with a strong focus on energy efficiency and emerging technologies, Progress Energy has developed a comprehensive storm-response plan that drives restoration efforts with clear procedures, proven techniques and advanced resource-planning tools to maximize the effectiveness of restoration efforts. Resources once coordinated from regional offices across the southeastern United States are now managed from a centralized storm center that can quickly mobilize crews and equipment in advance of a storm.

Approaching Storm Response

Progress Energy maintains structured, ongoing communications with utilities across the region to secure additional resources when needed. Collaboration among electric utilities has helped to increase access to crews and equipment and shorten outage durations. Progress Energy customers saw the benefits of these resource agreements after major hurricanes in the Carolinas and Florida — Bertha, Fran, Floyd, Charley and Frances — as well as ice storms. Likewise, Progress Energy crews have assisted other utilities after major storms, including Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike.

Other major enhancements to Progress Energy's storm-restoration efforts include the centralized direction of crews in the field, satellite communication and real-time outage information. This enables the utility to provide customers better information on damage assessment and restoration progress.

An automated outage-reporting system, capable of handling 120,000 calls per hour, processes customer outage calls. The tool can notify customers of estimated times of restoration for their homes and businesses. An online outage map is also available to provide outage counts and locations for the entire service area.

New in 2009, customers and others are able to follow Progress Energy's storm-restoration efforts through updates on Twitter. The social networking tool can be accessed by most mobile phones, enabling continued communication after a storm, even if power is out.

Progress Energy is nationally recognized for its commitment to excellence in storm response. The utility has earned the Edison Electric Institute's (EEI) Emergency Response Award an unprecedented seven times since the program's inception. The award is given annually to investor-owned electric utilities that demonstrate superior efforts to restore power disrupted by severe weather or other natural events.

Progress Energy also won the EEI Emergency Assistance Award for its role in aiding utilities and citizens in Texas and Ohio following Hurricane Ike in 2008 and in the Gulf Coast region after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

GIS Integration

A key to Progress Energy's success in storm response has been the complete integration of its geographic information system (GIS) across the Carolinas and Florida. Progress Energy has long realized that accurate, easily accessible location-based data are critical to the utility's long-term success. In 1997, Progress Energy began its transition to a fully digital environment, leveraging Intergraph solutions to monitor and map the utility's infrastructure and to dispatch field crews. For Progress Energy, the 100% digital conversion significantly contributes to faster response times during power outages.

With a proven return on investment for its GIS, Progress Energy wanted a next-generation system built on open standards that could upgrade and consolidate disparate systems. The consolidation of the systems used by Progress Energy Florida and Progress Energy Carolinas was the equivalent of bringing the geospatial assets of two entirely separate utilities together under the same open-standards data model.

Progress Energy chose to undertake the project to improve data access and management for its employees, including project planners, designers, GIS operators, inspectors and maintenance teams in the field. The intended results were to be able to respond to outages quickly, better manage incoming and existing data, and more efficiently capture, design and analyze network asset information for more accurate, detailed maps and enhanced customer service. The system transformation also reduced operating and administrative costs.

Next-Generation System

In July 2005, Progress Energy began a large-scale project to upgrade its two existing systems based on Intergraph's FRAMME (GIS) technology to G/Technology, Intergraph's next-generation infrastructure management system. The project was completed in 2008. Today, the Intergraph GIS at Progress Energy serves as the foundation for all of its distribution asset records, with 800-plus Progress Energy employees using the system to view GIS data and create or update facility information. Engineering field personnel also use the system as a platform for work order sketches.

With the new system, the utility now has greater capabilities for performing spatial analysis with its GIS data, as well as any other data that can be represented spatially, using Intergraph's GeoMedia tool. This visualization greatly enhances and expedites decision-making processes. The new system also gives Progress Energy the capability to send more accurate maps and data to its State One Call centers. This helps the One Call centers locate potential underground conflict areas more quickly, and Progress Energy significantly reduces its operational costs each year.

Additionally, the system feeds the utility's Intergraph InService and ABB's outage management system (OMS), its mobile workforce management system and its circuit analysis programs. It also allows crews in the field to view the same visual representation of assets as those back at the office. The integration of GIS information with the utility's OMS has helped Progress Energy continue to improve its response times for outages caused by minor events as well as larger-scale disasters such as hurricanes and ice storms. Enhanced models promote better capabilities for determining the cause of disruptions on the power grid. This results in better communication with customers for outage restoration, which improves customer relations.

The consolidated system also enables operational personnel to easily view and submit GIS data to the utility's central database from the office or field environments. For example, engineering personnel can now create work order sketches from the field using their laptops. The consolidation of GIS across Progress Energy in the Carolinas and Florida also sets the stage for future consolidation of other systems, such as outage management and mobile workforce management, for even more efficiency and enhanced customer service.

The Future

As Progress Energy moves forward with its smart grid strategy and initiatives, the upgraded, consolidated GIS will become more critical to its operations as the utility increases its focus on configuration management to be able to operate its grid in real time.

The next phase of the GIS integration will be to allow more field personnel to access GIS data. This will ultimately expedite service for customers, whether it is for new construction or facility repairs on assets such as streetlights.

Progress Energy also has begun expanding the GIS outside of the distribution department to make it the utility's enterprise system. Those in the telecom, transmission, real estate, vegetation management, environmental and economic divisions all see potential uses for the GIS system.

Overall, the integration of GIS technology between its two locations — the Carolinas and Florida — was a major step in Progress Energy's multidimensional strategy for future sustainability. The integrated GIS serves as the foundation for a wide variety of Progress Energy initiatives, including an enhanced storm-response plan and energy-efficiency programs. This balanced approach will help ensure Progress Energy continues providing its customers the safe, affordable and reliable power they want and need, both now and in the future.

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Wallace Guthrie (wallace.guthrie@pgnmail.com), lead project manager, joined Progress Energy in 1983. He is responsible for implementing business technology initiatives. He holds a BSME degree from Auburn University as well as master's of engineering and MBA degrees. Guthrie is a certified professional engineer in the state of Florida.

Intergraph
www.intergraph.com

Companies mentioned in this article:

Progress Energy
www.progress-energy.com

Progress Energy has more than 21,000 MW of generation capacity and US$9 billion in annual revenues. It includes two major electric utilities that serve approximately 3.1 million customers in the Carolinas and Florida. The company is taking a multi-pronged approach to helping its customers save energy and money. Its strategy includes encouraging customer adoption of solar power and other promising alternative and renewable-energy technologies, continuing to invest in its infrastructure, developing innovative energy-efficiency initiatives, beginning the transition to the smart grid and enhancing educational opportunities for customers.

Progress on Energy Efficiency and the Smart Grid

Progress Energy Florida offers customers 14 programs and more than 100 energy-efficiency upgrades to reduce their energy bills and carbon footprint. Customers have saved more than $1 billion since 1981 by participating in energy-efficiency programs, which represents enough electricity to power more than 900,000 homes for a year.

Similarly, Progress Energy Carolinas has made a commitment to double the energy efficiency its customers achieve to 2000 MW through demand-side management and energy-efficiency programs. Increasing consumers' energy efficiency helps to delay the need for new power plants — saving the customers and the utility money while protecting the environment.

Progress Energy also pursues a solar energy strategy in both the Carolinas and Florida, which includes a wide range of residential and commercial solar incentives and programs. The utility's goal is to expand the scope and use of solar energy in the Carolinas and Florida by more than 100 MW over the next decade.

Through smart grid investments, the utility is taking steps now to ensure the necessary infrastructure is in place to accommodate additional distributed generation sites, customer demand-side management programs and energy storage.

Progress Energy believes the grid must be prepared for this evolving complexity and respond dynamically to these advanced, innovative capabilities.