Utility veterans describe major storm events as organized chaos. Utilities are subjected to virtually every weather condition. In a single year, a utility might find itself battling blizzards, ice storms, lightning storms, tornadoes or hurricanes. Regardless of the storm type, throughout the electric industry, a common focus exists: How does a utility restore its system to normal function without wasting valuable time and costly resources?

The Information Gap

Utilities have been wrestling with that question throughout their existence. In the United States, turbulent weather patterns brought devastating floods in 2007 and major ice storms have impacted various regions over the last three years. Utilities also have had to contend with damage from high wind levels and tornadoes. These weather events are a year-round challenge for utilities.

As a storm approaches, detailed storm-response plans are initiated. The standard generally has been an all-hands-on-deck plan in order to prepare for the worst. Often, the storm plan does not cover every scenario, which allows chaos to creep into the organization.

As the outage reports start rolling in, there is typically an information gap that cannot be satisfied by current systems. For example, the number of customers who are out of power may be reported by the utility's outage management system (OMS) while the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems are showing large areas without power. However, nothing in the control center is giving an overview of the causes or extent of the actual damage.

Obviously, the logistical requirements for storm restoration vary widely depending on the total wires down and poles broken versus the number of fuses blown. Inevitably, executive leadership and control center personnel are forced to call for crews needed based on an incomplete picture. This untenable situation prompted utilities to look for a better solution.

How Can We Do This Better?

A Quanta Services Company, PAR Electrical Contractors works with a large number of utilities throughout the United States and has seen many differing approaches to storm management.

The following are common concerns of utilities:

• How can utilities predict the right number of crews required to restore the system?

• How do utilities accurately determine how many days the effort will require?

• What is the impact if weather improves or deteriorates during restoration?

• Staffing and Software

  What scenarios would reduce the time to restore power?

• What will be the costs associated with different courses of action?

• How can utilities streamline the logistical process of assigning crews and material?

PAR has often been asked by clients, “How can we do this better?” After extensive research and deliberation, the solution was twofold: pair experienced field personnel with software that communicates damage reports back to the utility control center.

The first item to solve was how to adequately staff the endeavor. Many utilities have attempted to use non-essential staff during a major storm event to identify the problems. Typically, administrative, technical and non-field personnel are used. Utilities develop extensive training programs containing safety, equipment identification and reporting processes. Personnel must receive training regularly to ensure success and address typical employee churn. Others still rely heavily on reports received directly from customer calls. However, this has proven to be ineffective, as the public is simply not equipped to identify and communicate damage in a standardized manner. Case in point: How many times have emergency personnel been sent on a call about a wire down only to find out it was a telephone or CATV line?

Information Not Data

The answer to this staffing issue is to have experienced storm assessors available and strategically placed to arrive at the storm locations in a relatively short time. This is accomplished by tapping local retired utility field personnel (such as linemen and engineers) who are available at a moment's notice and have the ability to mobilize rapidly to a storm's location.

The benefit of this solution is a workforce with a lifetime of safety training and experience in the various components of the electrical system. However, there is still a need to communicate and compile the field data into actionable information for decision makers. The logical path was to use specialized software combined with wireless technology.

Detailed Assessment

PAR's Design, Engineering & Technical Services Division in conjunction with Powel Inc., a major software developer, dedicated considerable resources to resolving this problem. The product developed is a software tool named QuantaStorms. By teaming this software with experienced utility personnel in the field, damage information can be streamed in real time to the utility control center. This live data is compiled to not only document but also forecast total system damage. The process entails a two-phased approach aptly named “initial” and “detailed” assessment.

The initial assessment uses statistical principles to deploy storm evaluators to the field immediately after the storm's end to gather sample damage data. The storm team is equipped with tablet computers loaded with storm routes predetermined by the utility to represent a statistically significant sample for each operating district. Routes are designed to be completed within four hours to ensure a rapid influx of critical data. Since the units are wirelessly enabled, the software streams information from the field units to extrapolate an estimate of total system damage. The results are displayed on an executive dashboard to provide leadership with a real-time analysis of storm impacts.

Order to the Chaos

The software is preloaded with a number of metrics supplied by the utility's internal personnel. These include productivity in various weather conditions, time estimates for replacement of various assemblies and costs associated with each action. As more data sets are included, the tool becomes more intelligent to the specific experiences of the utility.

The executive dashboard displays a number of metrics to show the status of assessments being completed. These include routes that are unassigned or assigned with the percentage of completion dynamically updated. Additionally, the estimated number of crews needed is displayed along with weather parameters and the total number of days to restoration. Each of the various interrelated metrics can be manipulated to determine the impact of weather conditions, fewer or greater numbers of available crews and even compressed time-to-restore scenarios. The total cost to restore is also calculated and displayed to give leadership an ability to understand the fiscal impacts of various decision sets.

This information provides the utility's executive team with the tools necessary to make decisions based on fact rather than guesses and assumptions. The data is based on their own internal figures, ensuring accuracy of resource utilization and costs. An additional benefit is the ability to communicate efforts to the public in an accurate and timely manner. Public relations can announce to the media on day one an accurate magnitude of damage and estimated time to restore the system.

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The assignment of foreign crews to damaged areas has always been a sticking point for utilities. The detailed assessment provides a solution to this issue, saving time and money. During the detailed assessment, experienced personnel are assigned to circuit lockouts and other large areas without power. These personnel use the same type of tablet computers, preloaded with the utility's operating maps, as the initial assessment. Starting at the substation, each team of two assessors walks the circuit and identifies each specific location of damage by GPS or street address. Using assembly number information provided by the utility, the team will develop a detailed list of materials needed to return the equipment to normal status. This data is transferred wirelessly to the executive dashboard, where the software creates work order packets ready for printing.

As foreign crews arrive at the marshalling area, they will immediately be assigned a work order packet and directed to the material yard with their list of requirements. This process eliminates the hurry-up-and-wait effect that always occurred in previous efforts when there was no infrastructure to provide necessary information. Elimination of the wait time and travel by crews to the job site without knowledge of damage or required materials represents a significant savings opportunity.

This software platform, combined with experienced field personnel, has brought a solution to the chaos surrounding major storm events. The utility's executive team has near-real-time reporting for system damage with an accurate decision-making tool at their disposal. This can reduce major storm restorations by one to two days or more.

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Jerry R. Borland (jborland@parelectric.com) is the senior project manager for PAR Electrical Contractors Inc. Planning, Engineering & Technical Services group located in Kansas City, Missouri, where he manages projects in the fields of electrical transmission and distribution. He started his career more than 21 years ago as a field distribution engineer and progressed to engineering manager of a transmission and substation engineering group. He has had extensive experience in outage restoration as a field assessor all the way to supervising the outage. Borland is a senior member of IEEE and a registered professional engineer in the states of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kentucky. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City with a BSEE degree and a graduate of the University of Kansas with a MS degree in engineering management.

PAR Electrical Contractors Inc. www.parelectric.com

Powel Inc. www.powelinc.com

Quanta Services Company www.quantaservices.com