Digital Data Streamlines Operation & Maintenance at Translta
Pat Drinnan Supervisor, Mapping & Facility Records Transmission & Distribution Services TransAlta Corporation PO Box 1900 Calgary, Alberta T2P-2M1
Introduction
TransAlta Utilities is the largest investor-owned electric utility in Canada with over 86,000 kilometers of transmission and distribution lines in a 220,000 square kilometer service area. The AM/FM System models TransAlta’s entire electrical network, in both graphical and pure data representations, with true connectivity. It links installed distribution and transmission facilities (155,000 transformers, 700,000 conductor segments and over 1 million poles, among others), to actual geographical and customer information, within this integrated model. Our AM/FM model contains over 24Gb of electronic corporate information. In our ongoing pursuit of increased operating efficiency, our investigations confirmed that there was a fundamental set of work-steps in all field maintenance operations, which could be elegantly supported by an appropriately-configured viewer / red-liner application, in the hands of our field staff at their worksites. As with many industries performing field operation, inspection and maintenance routines, we were spending far too much time and money on repeatedly translating basic sets of information across a variety of media (paper to paper, paper to digital to paper). Delivery of our enhanced viewer / red-liner application significantly leveraged TransAlta’s existing investment in it’s AM/FM model, since this relatively small development effort resulted in the delivery the whole AM/FM model and the value of it’s embedded information, to several hundred field staff and centralized Dispatchers. The viewer / red-liner implementation provides an economical solution to our need for enterprise-wide access to the master AM/FM model, in both connected and disconnected viewing modes. Many departments of the company are making increased use of the master AM/FM model for business analysis and decision-support. The Mobile AM/FM viewer has greatly enhanced corporate-wide access to our model, at minimal cost. As we explain, this delivery of corporate information and workflow support in an electronic medium, has had a tremendous positive impact, in terms of reductions in many areas, such as cycle times, printing, plotting, data translation, and facility checking. We chose a commercially-available Viewer / Red-liner application from Intergraph called FRAMME Field View. This product was enhanced and customized to support a set of specific business workflow requirements for TransAlta’s Network Operations field staff. The enhanced viewer now provides some of the functionality of a FRAMME model, directly into the hands of field staff at job sites remote from the master model. Our delivery included powerful search tools, display controls, intelligent redline features, support for Pole inspections, new service layouts, ground testing and line patrol. Mobile AM/FM will be further enhanced in the near future, to support additional workflows that contain the defined fundamental work-steps. The delivered product supports data capture directly in the context of the master model, rather than in some interim raw form that would require further translation and linkage setting. This is a significant departure from most field data capture approaches, which generally use an alpha-numeric input to data-logger devices, with no visible relationship to the pictorial records of the facilities. Our approach results in all users working directly within the same master model, with identical views and comprehension of the represented facilities. Future uses will expand to include Street Light Fixture and Metal Pole maintenance, Distribution Outage Statistics, and Automated Property Retirement transactions. Key Messages 1 – Ease of Data Collection TransAlta was determined to improve its competitiveness and become a leader in Transmission and Distribution operations and maintenance. To achieve this we had to utilize advanced mobile technology and leverage on our existing investment in AM/FM technology and data. Providing simple, easy to use access to our AM/FM digital data was our first step. To achieve this goal, we delivered:
2 – Importance of Accuracy TransAlta has implemented a Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) program. The RCM program requires timely accurate data to effectively trend facility conditions and be able to make timely, cost effective decisions on maintenance. Consistent reporting of facility conditions is imperative and with this tool all Customer Service Linemen use the same pick lists. This now allows us to easily see trends or patterns in our facility conditions and failures. Now we are able to establish preventive maintenance programs that will extend the life of our facilities, saving maintenance costs and improving the bottom line of our business. Using the Field View Tool allows us to use this new accurate digital data in the form of an excel file to show our Contractors exactly what work is required. They then can locate the work using the same tool, eliminating the need for paper maps and construction plans of work required. Contractors can then digitally record work completed and upload this data immediately upon completion. This digital data is then used both for payment to the Contractor for work completed and as an auditing tool to ensure that work was done. By having everyone use the same digital data over and over again for different functions, far more accurate and timely data is provided, eliminating errors due to data translations. 3 – How this Digital Data is Used The Maintenance Planner can now use this digital data to produce reports by priority the following day, which show all the work that was identified in the field. This provides the Maintenance Planner with the ability to produce a plan of the work that should be undertaken and the ability to combine this work with neighboring Service Points. The report can then be used as specific work instructions giving the Construction Crews exact description of what was seen and what work is required. This allows the Maintenance Planner to send the Construction Crew into an area to complete all the work at one time, saving multiple trips into the same geographic area. Another benefit of digital data is the ability to download this new up to date information quickly preventing Customer Service Linemen from duplicating work. He now has visibility to what his fellow Customer Service Linemen have completed. This also, gives him an overview of what has not been done allowing him to coordinate this Line Patrol with other work he may have in those uncompleted areas. Digital data makes managing our contractors’ work such as Pole Testing a much more efficient and effective process. The contractor uses our Field View tool to record pole test data, conditions required and action completed against the actual feature. This digital information is submitted weekly to our maintenance group, they immediately upload this information into our Master AM/FM model. Producing a report of this work not only gives us a summary of what they have found, suggest or have completed, it is also used as a reverse invoice for payment to the contractor. This saves the contractor the hassle of recording and managing paper records and creating separate invoices. Achievements TransAlta believes that it has achieved a number of significant breakthroughs in its implementation of Mobile AM/FM, along with major innovations in work practice efficiency. We believe that some of our innovations might even be “first in the world”. 1 - Intelligent Redline Features TransAlta enhanced a commercially available viewer / red-liner application to deliver intelligent redline features, which are functionally equivalent to FRAMME features. This allows the creation or editing of AM/FM model master records in the field, at the very beginning of our workflows, remote from the master model. This is very much like having the power of FRAMME itself, made available in the field on low-cost computers, at the actual site of work in progress. The redline feature intelligence mimics the FRAMME paradigm of database records linked to graphic elements, placed into a geographic fabric with proper spatial relationships to land-base and existing facility records. Many of our redline feature symbols have been crafted to match with those in the AM/FM model, for the sake of continuity and understanding by our users. Our intelligent redline features reappear within AM/FM graphics worksets as proposed FRAMME features in our PPA or Proposed add state. 2 - Automated Upload / Translation of Redline Data into AM/FM Model TransAlta achieved significant increases in efficiency, by inventing new data flows:
TransAlta’s mobile AM/FM system was built to support work steps that are fundamental to all facility construction, maintenance or operations, regardless of the type of facility or type of activity involved:
TransAlta now provides field staff with more functionality and information than ever before, directly accessible at their work sites, in their vehicles, and throughout their workflows:
TransAlta’s original business case, and subsequent proven experience, show that the benefits flowing from our investment in an enhanced viewer / redliner application delivery are sufficient to justify the original expense, and to provide impetus for further rollouts of Mobile AM/FM technology. 1 - Labor Savings
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