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Over the past year, technology advances and high energy prices have stimulated interest in Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). Discussions are wide-ranging. Some focus globally: Australian and Canadian “smart metering”, new European Union requirements, the results of time-of-use pilots that arose in the wake of California’s deregulation debacle.

Case Studies

We all know that data integration improves productivity and York Region is living proof. Using AutoCAD® Map 3D, York saved time and money by relying on its AutoCAD-trained staff to quickly implement a new system that incorporates both CAD and GIS.

Read how the Public Works Department of the City of Tacoma (Tacoma), Washington, uses its geospatial data to do everything from issuing building permits and managing waste water to maintaining streetlights

ENERGEX Increases Network Performance with OSM Installations

Oct 1, 2007 12:00 PM

Beginning in the 2003/04 financial year, ENERGEX (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) installed approximately 50 NOJA Power OSM automatic circuit reclosers (ACRs) predominantly on its urban network. In the majority of cases, a single recloser was placed at the half-way point along the backbone or main trunk of the feeder. In a small number of cases, the ACR was placed on one or both feeder legs at the substation of double cable box feeders.

This program represented a relatively small number of feeders out of a total population of around 1000 urban feeders. The majority (70%) of the 50 ACRS were installed and commissioned by Jan. 31, 2004, with the rest installed in 2004/05 and 2005/06.

This group of feeders supplies around 65,000 customers and has a total installed circuit exposure of 290 urban km (180 miles) and 460 rural km (286 miles). This equates to approximately 5% of ENERGEX's total customer base and around 4.5% of the circuit length of the urban network and around 3% of the rural network.

For the period since commissioning to December 2006, there have been 101 faults beyond the reclosers due to all causes (nonstorm and storm events). Sixteen of these events occurred during severe weather for which a major event day (MED) exclusion was granted. During this period, 32 out of the 50 feeders with the installed ACR had an outage. And of the 32 feeders, half accounted for around 75% of the faults.

The estimated SAIDI savings for the period is 4.8 minutes, excluding MEDs. The total SAIDI savings with all events included is 11.4 minutes. This savings is estimated by theoretically calculating the impact of the fault with and without the ACR installed.

Following the initial 50 NOJA Power OSMs, a further 70 ACRs were purchased and installed.