PREPA goes Mobile – Field Crew Enlightenment
José A. López Rivera
Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority
Email: jalopez@prepa.com
Francisco Maria Sarmento
Intergraph Public Safety
Email: fmsarmen@ingr.com
Abstract
PREPA, Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, is an electric
utility company that faces all normal operational problems and in
addition has to deal with major disruptions due to violent
hurricanes that wreak havoc on the entire island of Puerto Rico.
Once a hurricane or other natural disaster hits the island, PREPA
must prepare estimates of the damaged facilities in the first 24
hours after the disaster. After reports are complete, it is
necessary to evaluate the cost to repair the damages,
availability of repair crews, and to allocate appropriate money
to pay for the damage. These requirements led PREPA to implement
the AIRe project (Integrated Resource Management System).
Focusing on the mobile application that distributes the data and
tools available in the office to the field crews, this paper
addresses the business requirements that led PREPA to define the
AIRe architecture, the solution implemented, and the benefits
expected and achieved.
PREPA Background Information
PREPA * is an electric utility owned by the government of Puerto
Rico. It is responsible for generation, transmission and
distribution and is the only electric utility in Puerto Rico.
The following table describes some statistics regarding PREPA’s
service territory:
Table 1: PREPA’s Statistics
The central portion of Puerto Rico is very mountainous, with
peaks up to 4,390 feet, and many small winding roads. A yearly
hurricane season – June through November – is a constant
challenge in Puerto Rico. In 1996, Hurricane Hortense cost PREPA
$22 million in electric facility repairs. In 1998, Hurricane
Georges, the worst hurricane in recent history, caused $226
million in damages to PREPA’s electric network with a loss of
electrical services lasting from days to months throughout the
island.
PREPA’s transmission and distribution responsibilities are
divided into seven regions containing twenty-seven districts.
PREPA has 450 two or three man crews to construct, operate and
maintain all transmission, and distribution assets.
Since 1999, PREPA has been implementing the AIRe
project, which
integrates several corporate systems, including Work Management,
Customer Information, AM/FM/GIS, Financial, Human Resources,
Electrical Analysis, SCADA, and Outage Management. Integration
of these systems to seamlessly provide information to management,
engineering, administration, and field crews to support accurate
assessment, smart decisions and rapid deployment is the objective
of the AIRe system.
