Integration of MDMS and OMS

Outage Management-An Evolving Process

The electric industry has come a long way since the 1980s with respect to service restoration during unplanned system outages:

• The manual process of collecting and sorting trouble reports to the call center and manually discerning patterns from which to generate work orders has largely been replaced by sophisticated algorithms of computerized outage management systems (OMS).
• Customer calls are now received from an interactive voice response (IVR) system, sorted by the OMS, and then displayed on an electronic grid map from which likely break points are identified.
• The work orders, oftentimes generated from the OMS, are typically dispatched automatically to laptop computers located in specific crew vehicles.
  

  Electric Grid Modernization

Though this transition to an IT-based solution represents a significant process improvement, prompt service restoration still hinges on the timely notification by customers calling into the electric utility.

Outage Management-the Next Generation

The untapped resource in addressing this remaining hurdle to a total automated process is the linkage of Meter Data Management systems (MDMS) to the OMS. Though not originally installed to support real-time outage management, there is no doubt that with the advent of smart metering (AMI) there is an opportunity to eliminate the current use of imprecise algorithms dependent on “manual” notification by customers, and transition with the automated notification of non-functioning transformers and non-energized circuits. In fact, this automated notification process, using SCADA, can lead to the automatic rerouting of power leading to instantaneous service restoration, particularly in the mission critical areas of a network.

Implementation

In its most simple form, SmartGrid is all about completing this transformation. To do this requires a number of discrete steps:

• Install smart meters (AMI) capable of last-second notifications at all customer premises.
• Upgrade and/or deploy new OMS that have the capability of receiving and analyzing real-time data coming from and installed MDM system.
• Ensure the installed MDM or supporting system has the capability to extend beyond its orginally intended purpose of supporting customer billing to enabling real-time outage management.

In addition to determining optimal technical solutions (an evolving process of discovery), the electric utilities are in the process of

• Bridging gaps between the operations (that typically focus on monitoring and controlling the grid) and customer service (whose primary focus is accurate customer billings).
• Addressing the security concerns inherent to the linkage.
• Constructing business cases and long-term strategies to account for the expense.