Interfaces: Smallworld-based engineering studies with customer information loads
Fred Boland and Larry Schanteli
UtiliCorp United
20 West 9th
Kansas City, Missouri 64105
Email: fboland@utiiicorp.com
and lschantel@utilicorp. com
816-467-3822, 816-467-3818
Why it is important
Since the inception of the UtiliCorp FAME system, the ability to model and analyze
customer load and revenue data integrated with facility data has been a significant
source of benefits.
UtiliCorp engineers analyze the distribution network in order to understand the
performance of the network, test alternate configurations, and make recommendation to
improve the systems utilization. Analyses currently performed are load flow analysis,
voltage drop analysis, and fault current analysis.
Interfacing the facilities data with an analysis application will generate benefits in two
general areas:
Labor: Reducing the labor required to analyze the distribution
networks allows cost savings to be achieved.
Capital Investment: Increasing the accuracy of facility and load models also
increases the validity of the analysis. This ultimately leads
to cost avoidance by deferring or eliminating system
improvement projects.
Requirements gathering
The first step of the intetface design was to examine the current practice of performing
an analysis including processes, applications, and data.
Processes
The original process was labor intensive; it involved manual data entry of the
distribution facilities and estimated loads. The following steps are required to perform
an analysis.
- Gather paper maps of the area in the analysis
- Manually extract conductor and equipment information from the map using a
scale
- Record the conductor and equipment data onto data sheets
- Enter the data sheets into the analysis application
- Perform checks on the loaded data and correct errors in the analysis application
- Enter estimated loads at significant points in the network
- Run the analysis
- Adjust loads using trial and error until a feasible solution was reached
- Manually update the analysis model as new construction adds facilities to the
system
Not only is this a manually intensive process, but in some cases, the actual network
changed faster than an engineer can build the model.
This process was also error prone. The amount of data entry required allows
introduction of keying mistakes. Some mistakes were simple to find and correct, but it
was not unusual to spend several hours debugging an analysis because of a keying
mistake.
The process also required redundant data entry. Both distribution maps and analysis
models were updated manually and independently.
Another major disadvantage to this process was the engineer would correct data errors
in the analysis application, but these corrections did not make their way back to the
maps.
Requirements
The analysis of the manual process revealed that significant savings could be obtained
by implementing two high level requirements.
-
Automate the input of conductors and equipment from the GIS into the analysis
Application
- Use actual vs. estimated loads
To accomplish this, the application would need an interface between the GIS and the
analysis application in order to transfer network information to the analysis application.
Additionally, the system would need to tie the actual Kilowatt Hour (KWh) load data
from the Customer Information System (CIS) with the distribution facilities in order to
increase the accuracy of the load model.
