When it comes to power distribution, it’s helpful to imagine utilities as traffic police guiding and controlling the influx of vehicles at an intersection. Traditionally, their posts were relatively passive, defined lanes with a steady but manageable flow of cars arriving in predictable patterns that they could direct and disperse to avoid congestion. Now? Picture thousands of Arc De Triomphe roundabouts with tens of millions of cars, trucks, buses, and scooters converging from all directions, and it’s raining, and it’s dark. That will get you close to the frenzy and stress that utilities are feeling right now as demand for power (quite literally) surges across the country.
The reasons for this dramatic uptick in power consumption can be found all around us – from rapid innovation overwhelming data centers, to post-pandemic home offices ratcheting up traditional downtimes – and what we’re left with is a huge strain on our grid. Based on recent studies, utility projections for the amount of power they will need over the next five years have nearly doubled, and are only expected to grow.
Fully Loaded
Around 2018, utility industry experts started talking more seriously about ways to offset their load demand, including tying into distributed energy resources (DERs), defined as “physical and virtual assets that are deployed across the distribution grid” that can be used to provide localized energy storage and direct load-control devices. In other words, DERs are any assets used for generating, storing, or distributing power outside the central utilities-run power grid – like solar panels and other renewable energy.
As utilities began to integrate DERs, they needed a way to monitor and control these systems across markets, resulting in DERMS (distributed energy resource management systems). Today, most utilities agree they’ll need to upgrade their capabilities to include a DERMS, but that upgrade lands on a long list of other critical digital upgrades (cloud migration, cybersecurity, drones/GIS capabilities, etc.) that all require more (and better) data. To deal with the rising volume and complexity of this data, utilities are increasingly relying upon advanced distribution management systems (ADMS).
How an ADMS Helps Make Order Out of Chaos
According to Gartner, an ADMS is a software platform that “supports the full suite of distribution management and optimization, including functions that accelerate power outage restoration and optimize the performance of the distribution grid.” Power outages are a destructive force, costing US businesses $150 billion annually. Historically, utilities have leveraged a combination of their Outage Management System (OMS) and their Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system as the center of operations for delivering and restoring power to customers, but ADMS brings these functions together all on one intuitive platform.
In the past, outage management depended on reactive, manual intervention, which is resource-intensive, time-consuming, and expensive. ADMS automates much of those processes and provides utilities with end-to-end control of their electric distribution network, integrating predictive analytics and real-time data capabilities that can help minimize disruptions and mitigate outages.
Here are a few other ways an ADMS can revolutionize outage management in the utility sector, improve modeling and forecasting capabilities, and serve as a launchpad for future digital transformation:
1. Predictive Maintenance
Thanks to a network of wireless sensors and monitors attached to utility assets, an ADMS can collect and analyze its grid data in real time, create a comprehensive view of current conditions, and monitor for any anomalies that could indicate asset failures. Then, by utilizing historical data and predictive analytics, the system can even forecast likely equipment issues in the future, helping utilities take preemptive action to prevent outages.
The real advantage of an ADMS in predictive maintenance is the system’s capacity for automation. Once predictive analytics are integrated into an ADMS, the system automatically sets alerts and creates schedules for upcoming maintenance (see next section), reducing the need for manual inputs and potential costly oversights.
2. Optimized Workflow Planning
Utilities cover hundreds of miles of territory and are responsible for expensive equipment that’s often located in remote or hard-to-reach areas. Faced with finite resources, deciding when (and how often) to schedule upkeep of these assets can be a critical part of a utility’s operating budget. An ADMS optimizes scheduling of maintenance activities, ensuring resources are directed where they’re most critical, thereby reducing operational costs and improving grid reliability. The system can also automatically monitor the health and performance of critical grid components, helping prolong asset life and enhance grid stability.
When it comes to outages, ADMS users can quickly assess the extent of the impacted area and get personalized suggestions for restoration, thereby increasing response efficiency and customer satisfaction. This can be especially helpful during multiple outages when there can be mass confusion and multiple field crews. In those instances, an ADMS helps break down data silos between back-office control rooms and field crews, enabling crews to access real-time information and instantly confirm customer details through secure communications.
3. Integration with Legacy Systems
By its very nature, an ADMS is a system of systems, which means utilities can either: (a) focus on individual digital upgrades and then integrate with an ADMS; or (b) create an ADMS first and add digital capabilities later as needed. This flexibility is a big selling point for utilities and their customers, since it allows for prioritized implementations with consideration to costs and benefits. But beware – without a sound integration strategy in place, combining new digital technologies with legacy infrastructure can create challenges.
As the Department of Energy (DOE) points out, “the decision to deploy an ADMS is a strategic initiative that must be championed at the highest level in the organization” and an ADMS deployment requires a “dedicated, cross-functional team” that is aligned with the organization’s long-range vision. Thankfully, the DOE created an ADMS Program in 2016 that supports the evaluation and adoption of advanced management systems in a controlled environment. By 2030, the goal is that electric distribution grid management systems will be transformed from proprietary, vendor-specific products to systems based on an open architecture and standards-based data exchange, easing the industry integration.
Oversight Into the Grid of Tomorrow
From cryptocurrency mining, to the ongoing proliferation of AI/ML, to the increasing network of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations – our modern world has an insatiable thirst for power. Just as supply chain management burst into public discourse during the pandemic, power grid management will soon be on everyone’s mind. Utilities are on the frontlines now, helping manage the associated demands and fluctuations coming our way. And the faster more utilities can implement an ADMS, the more resilient our grid will be as change comes down the line.
