Allegheny power's AM/FM upgrade: Exceeding user expectations
Gina M. Newhouse, Shawn P. McDonough
GE Smallworld
Allegheny Power
800 Cabin Hill Drive, Greensburg, PA 15601
Abstract
Allegheny Power (AP) is an electric and gas utility that serves approximately 1.7 million
customers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and Ohio.
Allegheny’s AM/FM system has over 300 users in approximately 50 Service Centers. New
electric designs are entered into AM/FM as “proposed” by a Lines Engineering Designer. As-built
facilities are updated after construction through an interface with the Work Management
System. This system has been in use at Allegheny Power since early 1998. Allegheny’s
AM/FM system also provides data to the Outage Management System.
In mid-1999, Allegheny Power began to investigate an AM/FM system upgrade. The upgrade
was necessary to support newly acquired gas company facilities and also to get enhanced
Designer tools. This upgrade would require significant cooperation with the Work Management
and Outage Management systems.
Allegheny had been through a prior AM/FM rollout in 1998 and many of the lessons learned
during this effort were applied when planning the system upgrade. Examples include contract
negotiations, data model selection, user commitment, change management, training and rollout.
The rollout of the new system will be completed in December 2001.
Introduction
Allegheny Power provides nationally recognized customer service to its 1.7 million customers, in
part, through its use of integrated technologies.
Allegheny Power is the energy delivery business of Allegheny Energy, delivering low-cost,
reliable electricity and natural gas to customers in parts of Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Virginia, and West Virginia.
Reengineering the Corporation
Prior to 1996, Allegheny Power operated as three separate companies – The Potomac Edison
Company, Monongahela Power Company and West Penn Power Company.
In 1996, a reengineering of company functions was completed in preparation for competition in
the energy industry. The new company needed to be lean enough to remain competitive,
customer-focused and technologically advanced.
In 1996, the three operating subsidiaries - The Potomac Edison Company, Monongahela Power
Company, and West Penn Power Company - began doing business under the name Allegheny
Power.
The reengineering brought about a change in the way Allegheny Power does business.
Allegheny was forced to answer the questions – Why are we in business? What is our purpose?
What do we need to do to survive in the changing utility industry? The answers to these
questions led to a significant change for Allegheny – managing by process.
Managing by process meant that it was time for Allegheny Power to look at the main reason they
were in business – to serve the customer and keep the lights on. Three major operational
processes were defined as Ensure Reliable Service, Respond to Service Request and Restore
Service. Once these processes were defined, the next step was to define the technologies that
would make these processes work as efficiently as possible.
Corporate functions were consolidated and a new customer service center in Fairmont, W.Va.,
was established to handle all customer service issues and requests. A new job title was created –
Lines Engineering Designer. This employee would be responsible for meeting the customer,
designing the job and working as a team with a Lines Manager and the line crews to provide
service to the customer.
During the reengineering process, it was determined that implementing integrated technologies
would help Allegheny Power to operate more efficiently and provide an increased level of
customer service. The three main technologies identified were an Automated Mapping/Facilities
Management System (AM/FM), an Outage Management System (OMS) and a Work
Management System (WMS). Teams were created in June of 1996 to implement these
technologies. Since staff reductions had already taken place, it was crucial that these
technologies be implemented as quickly as possible – the time frame established was 18 months.
Allegheny Power Before Reengineering
Before the reengineering in 1996, the three operating companies performed their work by
function – a task oriented approach. Customer Service Representatives met with customers and
initiated contracts. Engineering Technicians designed the jobs but had little contact with the
customer. Line crews built the jobs as specified. There was little teamwork between the
departments. There was an approval process that needed to be followed before work could be
passed from one department to the next. Little responsibility was given to the employee. This
type of environment increased the amount of time necessary to get electric service to the
customer.
There was very little technology use in the three operating companies. West Penn Power and
Monongahela Power used paper maps that were manually updated by mapping clerks after the
job was built in the field. Potomac Edison had a similar process but used an AutoCAD mapping
system. In all three companies, the mapping clerks were sometimes used to help the Engineering
Technicians design jobs, so the mapping backlog would increase and the maps would become
out-of-date.
Customers called the local Service Center to report outages and representatives at the centers
would manually group the trouble calls according to geography. This manual process was used
to determine the approximate location of the source of trouble and line crews were notified by
radio of the location. The Service Center would call the customer back after service was restored
to verify that the lights were back on.
Customers also called the local Service Center for new service requests. Engineering
Technicians used a mainframe-based cost-estimating tool for their designs and there was no
Work Management System. Work was initiated and tracked using a paper system.
Utilizing Technology to Support the Processes
It was determined that implementing technology would streamline the processes and lead to
increased customer satisfaction. The three main technologies were identified as AM/FM, Outage
Management and Work Management.
This paper will focus on the implementation of Allegheny Power’s AM/FM System.
