Outage Management Systems Real-Time Dashboard Assessment Study
Electric distribution companies are faced with increased pressure from customers, the media and regulators to provide accurate outage information that is very timely and essentially in real-time. Distribution owners/operators turn to new technology in the form of Dashboards, Business Intelligence and Outage Management Systems (OMS) to help address these demands. Under ever increasing pressure to improve reliability of electric supply, operations needs to perform restoration faster and more efficiently, driving internal demands for the detailed restoration information to be available in real-time as well. The needs of these internal operational users are typically even more detailed and complex. In addition, regulators are providing financial incentives or penalties based upon reliability goals or Key Performance Indicators (KPI)s. Management is demanding that accurate calculation of progress towards meeting these goals be provided daily or weekly rather than monthly or quarterly. This presentation covers the results of a study into the needs of existing outage management systems users and what they need in a real-time dashboard to meet these new business challenges.
Improving outage restoration efforts using rule-based prediction and advanced analysis
Electric distribution companies are faced with increasing pressure to more effectively manage outages regardless of their source or nature. In pursuit of cost effective solutions, distribution owners/operators turn to decision-malting and process automation through information technology in the form of outage management systems (OMS). The foundation behind outage management systems is the accurate customer-to-electrical service model and reliable prediction of outage locations. This paper discusses the analysis techniques supporting outage management systems relevant to outage predictions, feeder reconfiguration, cold load pick-up, and the effect this has on operations management.
Outage management system implementation and operations experience at Gulf Power Company
Outage management systems (OMS) provide extremely demanding requirements over a broad range of information integration, interactive functionality, and raw system performance requirements. These systems are rapidly gaining attention world-wide as utilities move toward more competitive deregulated and privatized business models. This presentation summarizes the critical characteristics necessary for the implementation of outage management systems which are an integrated part of the utility enterprise information/service strategy and are optimized for performance when needed the most; during major storms. Actual operational experience gained at Gulf Power Company will be presented to clarify implementation issues and quantify related benefits.