Controlling a utility’s electrical distribution network and managing the people who work on it is fundamental to operating a modern, reliable and resilient electric grid. Helping utility operators manage the increased challenges facing their distribution systems, GE’s Digital Energy business has announced the availability of its PowerOn Advantage advanced distribution management system. The new ADMS integrates grid management solutions such as outage management systems and distribution management systems into a single, yet modular, solution.
Designed from the perspective of a utility operator, GE’s PowerOn Advantage ADMS provides the improved situational awareness needed to operate a utility’s distribution grid. The increased awareness and integrated, advanced functionality will help utility operators efficiently manage grids that are becoming more complex and dynamic. For example, the growth of embedded generation such as solar and wind, the volume of electric vehicles and the management of an active distribution network all present new and complex challenges to existing utility control systems. GE’s integrated solution enables utility operators to optimize their electric distribution assets, workflows and existing infrastructure for advanced grid performance and improved reliability.
“Think of a utility’s control room as the integrated information and control center for its electric distribution grid,” said Mike Carlson, general manager—software solutions, GE’s Digital Energy business. “Working from the utility operator’s dashboard, our PowerOn Advantage ADMS displays important data in an intuitive, cockpit-like user interface. It encompasses advanced monitoring and control of the distribution network, fault and outage management and network performance optimization together on a single system.”
PowerOn Advantage enables utilities to keep the lights on, to respond to outages and to maximize return on network investment in the dynamic and ever changing distribution environment. Its advanced user interface provides utility operators with predefined, user-designed views of their entire electric distribution network, allowing multiple utility workers to access real-time network information at the same time. In addition, the PowerOn Advantage ADMS helps to automate outage restoration, boosting the performance of power distribution systems. It also enables improved maintenance processes for workers, ultimately delivering a more productive, reliable and efficient grid.
When adverse weather threatens to disrupt power to a utility and its customers, GE’s PowerOn Advantage ADMS can greatly improve the utility’s awareness of how its grid may be affected and drastically reduce response times if an outage occurs. According to the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity, Delivery and Energy Reliability, weather-related outages are estimated to have cost the U.S. economy an inflation-adjusted average of $18 billion to $33 billion annually.
“The ADMS delivers advanced situational awareness in an environment with ever-increasing volumes of data to be managed, controlled and visualized in order to meet grid-modernization objectives. With our PowerOn Advantage, utility operators can manage every step of their operation, from understanding the state of the network and planning work to mobilizing resources and optimally restoring parts of the network after an outage,” Carlson continued.
Previously, users would have to switch between multiple systems, computers and phones or radios to get the data needed, dispatch crews and input status reports. With GE’s PowerOn Advantage ADMS, all of these tasks can be completed from one intuitive user interface, helping utilities to better monitor and control their systems and ensuring a constant, reliable source of power. This ability, along with the software’s capability to increase utilization and optimize power delivery, results in reduced system losses, increased network efficiencies and improved customer service.
PowerOn Advantage’s modular design enables it to be offered as a standalone OMS or DMS as well as an integrated ADMS, delivering significant productivity, reliability and efficiency improvements to a utility’s electrical grid. It joins GE’s PowerOn platform of grid management solutions, which includes products such as its PowerOn Reliance energy management system and PowerOn Precision demand response management system and builds on the company’s best-in-class OMS and DMS capabilities. In addition, the ADMS is a part of the GE’s portfolio of Industrial Internet solutions, which establish a constant flow of communication between a business operation and its machines. The Industrial Internet enables big data to be converted into real-time analytical insight, improving grid reliability and efficiency.
