Outage Management (OMS) and AMR – the perfect synergy

CGI Public Utility Solutions

Leveraging AMR for Improved Outage & Network Management

Distribution Utilities… Key Challenges

Customer Expectations

Resources

Infrastructure

ShareholdersRegulators

Demanding Customers

and MediaReal-time Status

Service Quality & Reliability

Proactivity

Asset ManagementAging Assets

Lifecycle

Restrictions

Maintenance CostsEfficiency and

ProductivityAging/Retiring Workforce

Change Management vs

Union Pressures

Overall ProfitabilityReduction of Capital Invmts

Energy Supply Costs

Operational Budget PressuresCommissionsGoverning Authorities

Reliability Reports

Penalities

Being Effective to Becoming Proactive Evolving from OMS to DMS

� CGI’s strategy is network monitoring pro-activity.� Real time information applied to a context (historical,

current or future)

� Enabled by technology ─ to acquire and leverage information, efficiently (FA, SCADA, DMS, ODS, and AMR)

� Enable the utility to introduce risk management� Use the network to its fullest capacity (Optimize Network

Configuration, Pro-active & Predictive Maintenance)� Extend the useful life of the network (Enterprise Asset

Management)

� Optimize restoration scenarios (Regulators, Customer Service targets)

� Meet customer expectations (Service Quality, Reliability, event-driven notifications, real-time status updates)

Leveraging Additional Meter Information

� CGI’s OMS and WFMS offerings capitalize on AMR’s informational wealth potential

DATA ACQUISITIONCALCULATIONS SCHEDULING REPORTING

INTERFACES

Billing

Settlement

CIS

CRM

W M S

MWFM

Asset Inv.

Outage & NetworkManagement

Netw. Planning

Predict. Maint.

Mechanical Phone Wireless Power Frequency

MANUALREADING

PHONEMGMT

WALK-BYDRIVE-BY

FIXED-RF NET

Power Line CarrierBroadband over PL

Meter ‘pinging’Cornerstone of AMR-OMS ROI

Meter

History of meter contacts

Individual meter ping

Meter Group ping

AMR systemAMR system OMSOMS

Asynchronous, event-driven message; ID-correlated response

Asynchronous, message-based request

Consumption

Pinging

� Meters can be polledfor consumption data (a full reading)

� Meter on-demand reads for a specific parameter (such as current voltage level) can also be used to ‘Ping’ meters for outage management:

� On-demand reads can be initiated by dispatchers or mobile-enabled field personnel, for near-real time query of meter data.

Strategic Meter location

� Strategically located meters with premises associated with first and last transformer of each branch fuse; or with key C&I customers; etc.� Based on mapping the metered points onto the electrical network topology

� Improves services reliability by :

� Detecting outages early

� Optimizing restoration of smaller fault locations within larger outage area

� Dynamically detecting service calls from outage groups� Localizing areas for damage assessment in storm situation

Strategic Meter Location for Load & Network Management

� Load Management� For enhanced load profiles

� To improve power analysis of planned switching� To improve decision-making in the energy market

(optimize capital investment) � For Short term load forecasting

� To optimize network configuration and prevent events

� Network Management� Device monitoring capabilities in the meter can make them

a low-cost alternative to massive deployment of SCADA equipment in distribution

Leveraging AMR to improve Data Quality

� Efficient outage management relies on high levels of data quality� e.g. customer to transformer linkage, etc.

� Validation of data accuracy thru comparison of AMR customer-meter configuration and OMS customer premise-meter-transformer

� A ‘self-healing’ outage analysis enginewhich tracks all grouping hits and misses.

� Historical outage reports validation with AMR meter read reports (time, duration, meter).

Leveraging AMR for Predictive Maintenance

� Smart meters can pro-actively extend infrastructure lifetime, and reduce maintenance costs. � Blink count data, to produce

and generate (MAIFI) statistics.

� WFMS is used to dispatch crews based on availability and proximity for precisely directed inspections

Applications

Mobile

Inspections

Potential for AMR - DMS Synergy is Everywhere !

� Trouble call verification to reduce unnecessary dispatch� Meter verification algorithms for outage restoration� Meter configuration data supplementing the OMS network

model build� Smart meters pinging for inexpensive network monitoring� Network health-checking through pro-active background

algorithms � More precise customer load profiles for better simulations� PQ information leveraged for predictive maintenance, which

would include fault localization benefits for the OMS� Feed momentary interruption statistics to maintenance (Asset

Management)� Short Term Availability Forecasting - STAF� … and more….

CGI – Utility Solutions Sector

� Peter A. Barnes – Product Manager, Network Solutions� Phone (514) 228-8800 ext 3776� Email peter.barnes@cgi.com

� Tom Somers – Regional Business Development� Phone (205) 271-7600� Email tom.somers@cgi.com

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