Outage management systems can improve customer service

Outage management systems can improve customer service

Steve Kearney
Senior Technical Sales, ConneXt, Inc.
1301 Fifth Ave., Suite 1900
Seattle, WA 98101

Introduction
Deregulation in the Electric Utility industry is forcing the utilities in the USA to be more concerned with the issues of their customers. One of the most important situations with the customer is during outages at the service location. One way electric utilities can improve their operations and provide additional customer services is to implement an Outage Management System (OMS). These systems have been developed with interfaces into SCADA, automatic meter reading systems (AMR), utility call centers, Customer Information Systems (CIS), and AM/FM/GIS systems. These OMS systems are currently reducing the average outage restoration by over 30Y0, in comparison to utility control centers that do not have an integrated outage management system. OMS technology has progressed into determining "where" the actual outage has taken place. This has improved the dispatching of crews, provided the utility's customer service representatives with up-to-date outage knowledge, and increased the effectiveness of outage restoration personnel. Overall reliability of the electric system has improved due to shorter outages, and customer satisfaction is increased due to these shorter restorations.

With this new outage management technology, the utility can also acquire additional revenue by offering new customer services, such as Outage Alert and/or Outage Watch services. These services provide the customer with Integrated Voice Response messages to notify them of an outage at a remote site. Customers with invalid family members (that require electrical service at all times), or businesses that require power for their operations would pay a minimal fee for this additional service. By offering these new products, customer satisfaction will also improve, and the utility will be more likely to retain these customers when deregulation is enacted throughout the world.

Topics of Discussion
This paper will cover some of the issues that are a concern for the electrical utility industry, and they are:

Deregulation is motivating the market place to develop Outage Management systems to collect more remote data (such as AMR), interfacing that data with AM/FM/GIS systems, allowing the utility to dispatch crews more effectively;
These systems must be interfaced with the utility's Customer Information Systems (CIS), and Integrated Voice Response systems (IVR), to provide a total "turn-key" solution for outage management;
More and more states have enacted active utility deregulation legislation;
Electrical utilities are separating their distribution functions from the generation and transmission tasks;
These distribution "companies" are more concerned with customer service, while cutting costs and providing additional data services for their largest customers.

Outage Management systems allow the utility to achieve a paradox in this industry: cutting costs while providing better service. There is a direct co-relationship between the number and length of outages of the electrical system and the customer service rating of that utility. More and more utilities are concerned with customer service in the new de-regulated environment, especially customer choice customer. Utilities are benchmarking their Customer Service Index (CSI), to see how well they treat their customers, and use this index to see how they can improve their customer service. This index is determined annually at most utilities. State regulators have jumped on this bandwagon, and want outage statistics kept to help rate the utilities that they monitor. Some of these statistics are: System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI), System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI), and Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI). This information must be accurate, and reported on a regular basis.

Cost and Time Savinm
An independent System Control Center (SCC) study that was completed in the early 1990's stated that OMS reduces time in locating outage by 30°/0, while reducing personnel and equipment costs by 25°/0. Traditional OMS system's payback is within 1 year, based on cost/benefit analysis information. Customer satisfaction is maintained, or exceeded from the previous CSI benchmarking levels.

Several types of data systems are collected from OMS: the source of problem (or the outage), and the change in status of operation of the electric distribution by the operator (device normally open to closed). Information is also collected from the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems (or SCADA), and the location and status of utility crews in the field. The OMS determines the consequence of problem from the customers that have experienced an outage, from the calls coming into the utility's Call Center. These calls are traditional entered into a system which is fed into an OMS. With the implementation of AMR, outage determination sensors can be implemented with the meters, to provide additional input to customer sites. Independent Electronic Devices (IEDs) can also provide outage information, to locate the source of the problem for (SCC) personnel.

Linking islands of automation together is the main reason to purchase an OMS for utilities. Funneling data from all sources - Call Center, Crews, Dispatch, SCADA, AMR, IEDs - and establishing a common database (or "Information Bus") to push appropriate data back to the users is the main objective of the OMS. This allows the utility company to link CIS, with meter systems, Facilities and Work Management Systems, SCADA, Engineering Analysis, and AM/FM/GIS mapping systems to provide better informational exchange. The data is then compiles and sent to Call Centers, the dispatching personnel, crews, and/or Emergency Operations Centers, and then to the customers and News Media.

Basics of an Outape Management System
Some of the basics elements of an OMS areas follows:

a dynamic "Connectivity Model" must be developed between the devices in the field;
the system should track dispatch and SCADA switching;
the system should track outages by a current system configuration;
the storing of information of normally open devices for exception reporting; and
there should be some type of interface with mobile data devices in the field.

The OMS must have some type of Outage Determination System to be able to locate the device that is causing the outage. Fuzzy Logic algorithms, with connectivity of the electrical system allows the OMS to determine the problem devices. With multiple outages, or an outage within an outage, the OMS must keep correct and up-to-date information on each outage. Statistics on each outage is separated, and the OMS graphics allows the operator to track these outages effectively. This can be seen with the figure below. Unconfirmed outages, or outages that have not be viewed by a field crew, must also be tracked by the system. The operator should also have the ability to define thresholds for the system.

Figure 1. Screen dump of OMS in X-windows esnvironment

With the implementation of AMR, remote confirmation of an outage (and restoration of an outage) can be determined. Further integration with communication systems, allows the utility to provide additional services, such as OutAlert. This service allows the utility, with the help of IVRS (both one and two way systems), to provide outage notification to customers. These types of customers are sensitive to outages, as example a residential customer that has a life support system for a fmily member. With the implementation of an AMR system, confirming or closing a trouble calls can be accomplished.

Since outage management requires constant contact with utility crews in the field, there is a need to transfer information quickly between the crew and the dispatcher. OMS allows for this transfer of data, without total human interaction. Systems like MDS1 with a complete data exchange with an OMS allows for effective crew dispatching to the source of the outage.

Outage Reporting
A basic element of an OMS is to provide the utility a way to track and historical archive the current indexes for outages. States regulators are requiring this information on a timely basis, forcing utilities to automate there reporting systems. This is one other reason to install an OMS, which allows the operator freedom in collecting this required information. This information is collected for each relevant device (substation, transformer), which allows the utility to track problem devices more effectively.

Summarv
In summary, outages at utilities will become more of a concern for the distribution companies. Public Service commissions in each state will force distribution companies to monitor their outage statistics (SAIDI, SAIFI, or CAIDI). These distribution companies will become more “service quality” oriented, and outage management is one way to lower costs and improve customer service. OMS is a way for companies to raise their CSI ratings and control costs due to outages. Some OMS have outage determination models, and AMR and SCADA interfaces. These interfaces will provide information into one location (the OMS), and provide the operator more timely analysis of the current status of the electrical system. Current technology allows for complete “turn-key” OMS systems to be implemented today.