Rising to the Challenge

The callout system at Dominion has become like the hub of a resource management wheel, with spokes leading to the utility's asset and resource management system and Resources-on-Demand storm resource management system.

Looking back on its experience, Dominion does not believe the switch to an automated callout system today would be nearly the quantum leap it was in 2002. For one thing, employees are more comfortable with technology and self-serve Internet applications; therefore, monitoring their callout status online would be more readily accepted.

The callout system touches each line worker and many of Dominion Virginia Power's salaried employees. After many years of successfully running and expanding the capabilities of its callout system, the utility is in the early stages of adding more groups from other business units. The utility believes its customer service centers can benefit from the callout system's resource management capabilities because activating its home agents during storms is not unlike initiating callouts for crews to restore service. Even Dominion executives are now listed among the notification contacts. Recognizing the need for an expedient way to assemble the utility's key-response executives and directors in the event of an emergency situation, Dominion Virginia Power again turned to its callout system, which is now used to alert this team during emergencies.

When Dominion set out to revamp its callout strategy more than a decade ago, the utility aimed to simplify and expedite its responses to after-hours emergencies. But as Dominion has grown, the callout system has been called on to do far more. And in each case, the system has responded, just like Dominion's field workforce.

Integrating the Technology to Restore Power

The more you know, the better. It's an old adage at Dominion Virginia Power, and it's true with computer systems as well.

Robust software applications are essential to restoration efficiency at Dominion, but the real muscle in these systems is in the way they share key information. It's in their integration. Dominion's outage management, resource utilization and, most important, customer information systems are each integral to the company's success. But these systems working together allow Dominion to achieve the highest possible level of excellence.

The most basic components of outage management are the work and the people. Dominion's state-of-the-art Trouble Reporting System (TRSi) supports outage management every day and gets stronger during storms as additional servers are allocated to support the escalated activity.

ARCOS, Dominion's people management application, contains the names, schedules and contact information for all salaried and hourly employees who have storm roles. It is used to activate employees during a storm and shares that information with Macrosoft's Resources-on-Demand (RoD) application.

RoD tracks employee and line personnel location assignments as well as hotel reservations. RoD also shows a list of all personnel assigned to every office, including line crews, contractors, tree crews and patrol teams, and it is integrated with TRSi to show each team's work assignments for the day.

Dominion also uses an electronic scout tool for storm patrol. Teams are assigned distribution lines to patrol, and damage is collected on a GIS map using a handheld computer and uploaded into TRSi for inclusion in work packages assigned to line crews. In its customer information database, Dominion flags its critical infrastructure and high-profile accounts. When any of these customers lose service, that information is shared with TRSi so the outage project is highlighted and assigned a higher-priority score.

In TRSi, Dominion uses the damage information and the project priority score to establish the estimated time of restoration (ETR) and assessed cause for each outage. This information is passed to the Twenty-First Century Communications IVR, which readily provides it to any customer who calls. The ETR and outage cause information is also shared with the GIS application and displayed on Dominion's interactive outage map on the company website.

There are countless benefits to applications integration. You can enter information one time, eliminating duplicate entry in other systems that may need the same information. Some applications can use the supplementary data to improve information they provide. Utilities can gain overall efficiencies when information is consistent across the board — all systems and users drawing on the same information to make decisions.

---

Steve Chafin, manager of the Emergency Preparedness Center at Dominion Virginia Power in Richmond, has 28 years of experience in electric distribution. His team is charged with delivering effective restoration strategies and efficient resource utilization plans. He is a graduate of Virginia Tech and holds a master's degree in business administration from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Companies mentioned in the article:

ARCOS Inc. www.arcos-inc.com

Dominion Virginia Power www.dom.com

Florida Power & Light www.fpl.com

Macrosoft www.resources-ondemand.com

Twenty-First Century Communications www.tfcci.com