The document discusses outage management systems. It provides an overview of the key components of an outage management system, including becoming aware of outages, diagnosing and locating the problem, providing feedback to customers, dispatching repair crews, restoring power, and maintaining historical outage records. It also covers some of the issues utilities face with outage management systems, such as data requirements, the impact of deregulation, and the main players and suppliers involved in outage management.

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Outage ManagementOutage Management
Roy Hoffman
29 Jan 2001

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OutlineOutline
 Outage Management Basics
 Some issues
 Standards for Distribution Management

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A system of computer-based tools and utility procedures to
efficiently & effectively -
•become aware of,
•diagnose & locate,
•provide feedback to affected customers
•dispatch trouble/repair crews,
•restore
•maintain historical records of
•compute statistical indices on
electrical outages
DefinitionsDefinitions

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Becoming aware of outagesBecoming aware of outages
 Customer telephone calls
 conventional human communication
 automatic voice response systems (CTI)
 Auto outage detection/reporting systems
 SCADA detection of breaker trip/lockout
 Ideal: Become aware of outages before the
first customer calls in

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Diagnosing & locatingDiagnosing & locating
 Grouping of customer trouble calls
 reverse tracing of electric topology
 determine a common protective device suspected to be
open
 transformer?
 lateral fuse?
 recloser?
 substation breaker?
 Take into account automatic feeder switching
 Compute extent of suspected outage
 Number of customers affected
 Highest priority of affected customers
 Confirm or modify (split/enlarge) based on
feedback from crews

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Feedback to affected customersFeedback to affected customers
 Timely, accurate feedback is almost as
important as fixing the problem
 Telling customer you are aware of his problem
 Current status of outage response
 Expected time of restoration

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Crew Dispatch ManagementCrew Dispatch Management
 Computer-aided modeling of crews
 capabilities, tools, equipment
 real-time location tracking
 work load

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Repair and restorationRepair and restoration
 Simple problems
 direct repair & restore
 Major outages
 isolate fault & restore un-faulted portions of
feeder
 OMS tracks partial restorations
 Automated Fault Detection, Isolation,
Restoration schemes with feeder
automation are considered desirable outside
N. America

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Historical RecordsHistorical Records
 Keep track of all outages
 root cause, number of customers, duration
 Provides the data for
 Performance statistics SAIDI, SAIFI, CAIFI, etc
 Planning / budgeting maintenance activities
 Condition based maintenance

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OutlineOutline
 Outage Management Basics
 Some issues
 Standards for Distribution Management

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Drivers for current interest in OMSDrivers for current interest in OMS
 Customer expectations of reliability
 Momentary outages are also important
 The plague of electronic clocks!
 Performance-based rates
 More likely a penalty for poor performance than a
reward for good performance!

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Data requirementsData requirements
 Distribution Network Model
 getting an accurate electronic network model is generally a
mammoth under-taking
 Keeping it up-to-date with construction
 Real-time representation of switch positions
 Customer data
 Customer - premise occupancy (business data)
 critical customers
 outage history
 Premise connectivity to Network model (operations data)
 Timely, reliable feedback to affected customers
during an outage

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Impact of De-regulationImpact of De-regulation
 Separation of:
 energy provider
 energy delivery (poles & wires)
 Ancillary services (eg meter reading)
 Increased interest in performance-based
rates
 Issues:
 Who does the customer call?
 Proprietary data issues?

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Main Players in OMSMain Players in OMS
 Customer
 Customer service representative
 Dispatcher
 Trouble/repair crews
New trouble calls Outage management updates
Business Dept.
Operations Dept.

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OMS SuppliersOMS Suppliers
 “Home-made” systems
 Stand alone OMS
 GIS vendors
 SCADA vendors