OMS as a Decision Support Tool
Luis Ordaz
Manager, Energy Distribution Technology
Florida Power Corporation
Suite 400, MAC: HC88, 2600 Lake Lucien Dr.
Orlando, Florida 32751
Jay Stinson, PMP
Executive Manager
Intergraph Utilities (LR24B2)
Huntsville, Alabama 35894-0001
Reduce Interription Time
The workflow to restore facilities crosses many system boundaries, thus requiring tight
integration to reduce restoration time by critical minutes. The following diagram illustrates the
Outage-to-Restored workflow. The steps are described in later sections.
The “Z” Team Approach
New objectives give the study methodology a new perspective. Applying the best subject-matter
expertise and management at all levels of the analysis is essential to ensuring an understanding of
the current system and proposing effective solutions. Additionally, the team must convince FPC
personnel of the program’s value. Failure to obtain cooperation at all levels often causes new
technology implementation to fail. If the study team is not cognizant of the users’ requirements,
the time needed for decision making and acceptance increases dramatically – a luxury FPC
cannot afford.
FPC elected to use the “Z” team approach. Team members are selected for their expertise or
supervisory responsibilities, based on a matrix of cross-functionality and multi-layers within the
organization. These members are assigned to the project full time. This multi-level, cross-functional
methodology is designed to use the interview and follow-up processes at all levels, to
educate, capture creative ideas, and establish a solution that is reasonable, practical, and accepted.
The solution can then be deployed effectively. This is a peer-to-peer business-solution team,
which has the full support of executive management.
Current and Future System Benefits
The functional evaluation produced benefits based on the differences between the current system
and the future system. Examining the key aspects of the operation identified 25 benefits of the
future system. The chart below shows a high-level example of some of the avenues investigated.
Interestingly, only 8 ‘Yo of the benefits were related to staff reduction. Other forms of asset
management, as well as revenue billing and fuel consumption, are more critical factors than staff
reduction, which has often been the justification for previous projects. Particularly beneficial are
such factors as reduced fuel consumption through load shifting and faster billing based on
activation rather than the closing of work order paperwork.
A matrix of functions and benefits offered more than 120 possibilities; from these, 34 feasible
scenarios involving various technologies and varying levels of data conversion were derived. The
benefits were mapped to scenarios, and economic analysis was used to prioritize these on a
payback-to-cost ratio. Financial analysis was then used to better evaluate the most effective
initiatives. These were prioritized and modularized individually to provide the flexibility of mid-stream
corrections or the ability to abort initiatives in which criteria or circumstances changed.
Although greater benefits could be achieved with all initiatives in place, each was evaluated on a
stand-alone basis.
The following were among the top initiatives identified:
- Outage Management System with Primary Data Conversion only
- Mapping/Secondary Data Conversion
- Mobile Outage Management System
- GIS-based Design with Work Management
