Transcript Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR

AMR is Much More Than
AMR
Outage Management, Reliability, Call
Centers, and Asset Utilization
All Win Big
Ed Malemezian
President, Ed Malemezian
Consulting, Inc.
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Presentation Outline
● AMR Benefit Categories
● Operational Savings
● Supply Side & Resource Savings
● New Revenue Opportunities
● The New Frontier
● Outage Management
● Care Center Support
● Asset Optimization
● Show me
the
money !!
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Quantifiable Benefits - Hard $$$
● Reduced expenses
● Avoided losses
● More effective planning
● Reduction in capital expenditures
● New revenue opportunities
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Intangible Benefits - Soft $$$
● Customer service benefits
● Improved relations with regulators
● Enhancement of your “brand”
● Strategic benefits
● We really won’t go into these today
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Operational Savings
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Meter Reading
Estimated Bills
Meter accuracy - NT
Meter maintenance - NT
EMR equipment - NT
LP communications – NT
Load research - NT
Outage care center - NT
Outage dispatch - NT
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Outage investigation - NTH
Outage follow-up - NTH
Reliability indices - NTH
Care center support - NT
Current diversion
Connect/Disconnect - NTH
Collections – NTH
Revenue assurance - NTH
Usage / inactive acct - NTH
NT denotes Non-Traditional and NTH denotes NT Huge
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Supply Side & Resource Savings
● Distribution Planning - NTH
● Transmission Planning - NTH
● Generation Expansion - NTH
● Load Forecasting - NTH
● Demand-Response – NTH
● Asset Optimization - NTH
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
New Revenue Opportunities
●Power Quality Monitoring - NT
● Power Outage Notification - NT
● kW Demand Monitoring - NT
● kW Threshold Alerts - NT
● Load Profile Data Services
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
The New Frontier
● Outage Management & Reliability
● Care Center Support
● Asset Optimization
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Outage Management (OM)
● Consists of four interrelated subsystems
● Outage Detection
● Outage Extent Mapping
● Outage Restoration Monitoring
● Momentary Interruption Monitoring
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Outage Management - cont
● Integrated with utility CIS, OMS, GIS &
WMS systems
● Must be highly automated
● Little operator intervention
● Runs in real time
● Effective filtering
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Outage Detection
● Runs constantly in the background
● Detect outages in near-real time
● Detection goals
● Feeder & Line Section: less than 5
minutes with strategically placed meters
● Transformer & individual customers: less
than 10 minutes to cover 100% of
meters
● Must be reliable with few false
positives
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Outage Extent Mapping
● Once triggered, determines the extent of
each outage
● Must know distribution network connectivity
model and escalation rules
● Triggered by
● AMR Outage Detection sub-system
● Utility OMS, VRU, call center, or other related
systems
● Smart enough to identify separate outages
in the same geographic vicinity vs. rolling
up into a single, larger outage
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Outage Restoration Monitoring
● Works very closely with Outage Extent
Mapping
● Runs in near-real time to monitor the
progress of outage restoration activity
● Verification that all customers have
actually been restored
● Before restoration crews leave the area
● Before trouble ticket is closed out
● Eliminates the “stragglers”
● Proactive customer service
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Restoration Monitoring - cont
● Eliminates the need to make follow-up
phone calls
● Manual / care center
● Predictive dialers & associated systems
● Tremendous tool for follow-up on multi-day
outages - hurricanes, ice storms, floods,
etc.
● Particularly beneficial when people are not
home
● Vacation, summer home, mountain cabin, etc.
● Left to ride out the storm somewhere else
● Feeds data to reliability indicators
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Momentary Interruption Monitoring
● Works closely with Outage Detection
● Monitor Momentary Interruption counters in
each meter (blink / power down counter)
● Monitoring frequency can be
● Near-real time - best
● Historical - good
● Feed tickets into utility Work Management
or Outage Management Systems
● Identify and reduce very annoying
situations
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Momentary Monitoring - cont
● Momentary interruption counts can be
aggregated to isolate the specific area
where the problem is occurring
● Troubleshooting can include more
frequent monitoring (hourly) to isolate
when the problem is occurring
● Eliminate momentary problems (tree
branches) before they become
permanent outages
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
OM - Operational Savings
● Care center call reduction - NT
● AMR with real-time or near real-time
communication provides the means to
notify the utility of outages and PQ
problems before the customer feels the
need to call the utility
● Calls to the care center will be reduced
● Care center calls typically cost $1.00 to
$10.00 per call to handle
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
OM - Operational Savings - cont
● Trouble dispatch savings - NT
● AMR with real-time or near real-time
communication provides the means to
verify the problem to be real before
generating a trouble ticket and sending it
to the trouble dispatcher
● Calls handled by dispatch will be reduced
● Tickets typically cost $0.50 to $10.00 per
call to handle
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
OM - Operational Savings - cont
● Investigation savings - NTH
● AMR with real-time or near real-time
communication provides the means to
verify the problem to be real before
sending a trouble ticket to the field for
investigation
● Outages can be more precisely defined
● Investigators can be sent directly to the
proper location to effect the most speedy
(less costly) service restoration
● Trouble tickets typically cost $25 to $150
per ticket to investigate
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
OM - Operational Savings - cont
● Restoration follow-up savings - NTH
● AMR with real-time or near real-time
communication provides the means to
verify that all customers are back in
service before closing out the trouble
ticket
● All customers can be checked to have
power and the expected voltage before
the troubleman or field crew leaves the
area
● Done remotely vs. visiting each customer
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
OM - Operational Savings - cont
● Restoration follow-up savings - cont
● Typical savings of $5 to $10 per customer
affected
● Stragglers, or those inadvertently
overlooked, will be eliminated
● A very embarrassing situation will go
away
● Eliminates return visit at $25 to $150 per
ticket
● Eliminates the expense of follow-up
phone calls
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Power Quality
● Closely related to Outage
Management
● Enabled by AMR system deployment
● Tremendous impact on customer
satisfaction
● Facilitates improvement in Reliability
Indicators reported to the utility
commission
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Power Quality - cont
● Power outage detection
● Voltage monitoring
● High / low voltage
● On demand checks - care center,
customer service & account managers
● Sags & swells
● Voltage imbalance
● Momentary interruptions
● Harmonics
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
PQ - Operational Savings
● Investigation savings
● Voltage and Power Quality problems
can be diagnosed remotely
● Calls investigated in the field will be
reduced
● Trouble tickets typically cost $25 to
$150 per ticket to investigate
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
PQ - New Revenue Opportunities
● Upon receipt of PQ and outage calls,
utility can offer “premium” services
● Digital message - Customer notification
via pager, cellphone, fax, and email, with
the details of the problem
● Automated generation of trouble tickets
● CI customers willing to pay $25 to
$100 per month per meter for these
services
● Customers love it !!!!
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Reliability Improvement
● Improvement in Reliability Indices NTH
● AMR with real-time or near real-time
communication provides the means to
reduce outage duration by speeding up
the whole outage detection, investigation
and restoration process
● Reduced outage duration improves
reliability indices such as SAIDI, CAIDI,
ASAI, and others
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Reliability Improvement - cont
● Reliability Indices - continued
● Improved reliability indices save
maintenance and restoration $$$ - one
can achieve reduced outage duration
through brute force (more crews on duty,
shotgun facility upgrades, etc.) or by
faster outage detection, investigation &
restoration
● Improved reliability indices can bring in
big $$$ with Performance Based Rates
and related regulatory programs
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Care Center Support
● AMR systems and AMR data provide
great assistance in solving customer
problems
● Historical usage data
● Real-time information with the customer
on the phone
● Meter reads – billing issues
● Final reads, move-in, and move-out
● Power on or off – inside trouble or utility
problem
● Voltage – high, low, or flickering condition
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Care Center - Historical Usage Data
● Provide daily or hourly usage data
● Easily posted on the web
● Self-service for customer inquiries
● Reduces call volume answering questions
● Data readily available for care center
rep
● Helps explain customer usage
● Compares present usage against past
patterns
● Visual tools help identify anomalies
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Care Center - Real Time Data
● Meter reads with customer on the
phone
● Identify or refute meter reading errors
● Explain billing questions
● Allows the rep to talk with authority –
good data removes most uncertainty
from the explanation
● Final bills can be generated “on the spot”
● Eliminates the need to send someone to
field on customer move-in and move-out
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Care Center - Real Time Data - cont
● Power Problems
● Can tell instantly if utility power is
present at the meter or not
● Identifies inside trouble or utility problem
● Ask customer to check his breakers, etc.
● Can eliminate a utility service call
● Some AMR meters provide accurate
voltage measurement at the meter
● High, low, or flickering voltage
● Inside trouble or utility problem
● Can eliminate a utility service call
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Care Center - Operational Savings
● Care center call reduction
● Calls to the care center will be reduced
● Care center calls typically cost $1.00 to
$10.00 per call to handle
● Trips to the field will be reduced
● Final / special meter reads typically cost
$25 to $75 per read to obtain
● Crew / trouble visits typically cost $25 to
$150 per trip to investigate
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Asset Optimization
● AMR systems can provide hourly load
profile data on some or all customers
● With hourly load profile data on all the
customers under a utility device you
can determine the peak, coincident
loading on that device
● Distribution transformer
● Line section (wire & fuse)
● Recloser, Feeder, Substation, etc.
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Asset Optimization - cont
● Knowledge of peak loading in real
time
● Allows operation closer to maximum
capabilities
● The margin of safety can often be
reduced - less uncertainty
● Assists decision making for field switching
during emergencies
● AMR can provide accurate inputs to VAR
management and related power
optimization systems
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Asset Optimization - cont
● Knowledge of historical peak loading
● Identifies underutilized utility devices
(transformers, wire, fuses, etc.), thereby
extending their useful life
● Identifies overloaded utility devices –
upgrade on regular time vs. burn-up
● Provides valuable input to the utility
planners making system improvements
● Provides inputs into the utility design
models used to engineer utility facilities
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Asset Optimization - cont
● Distribution Planning Savings
● Better data provides for better, more
effective planning, and better utilization
of resources
● Policies, practices, standards, and models
can be fine-tuned to better reflect reality
● Small improvement to the planning
process results in huge savings
● An improvement of 1.0% on an annual
distribution budget of $200M is $2.0M
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Asset Optimization - cont
● Transmission Planning Savings
● AMR systems allow the utility to collect
detailed consumption and demand data
on every customer up through the
transmission system
● Transmission planning processes and
benefits are similar to those discussed for
distribution
● An improvement of 1.0% on an annual
transmission budget of $150M is $1.5M
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Asset Optimization - cont
● Generation Expansion Savings
● AMR systems allow the utility to collect
detailed consumption and demand data
on every customer up through the
generating system
● Generation expansion processes and
benefits are similar to those discussed for
distribution
● An improvement of 1.0% on an annual
generation budget of $250M is $2.5M
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Conclusions
● There are a myriad of benefits that bring
value to AMR business cases – many are
traditional – many are non-traditional
● Outage Management, Care Center
Support, and Asset Optimization are part
of AMR’s New Frontier
● The New Frontier is real: it is far beyond
just talk and theory – FPL and a number
of utilities are deriving these benefits
today
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Conclusions - continued
● A key “lesson learned” is to get all the
other utility groups involved at the
outset – traditional utility silos are bad
● Interface standards like MultiSpeak and
IEC 61968 are helping with system
integration issues – support them
● Don’t overlook the New Frontier just
because it is hard to get people on board
- it adds tremendous value (more than
meter reading) ... Go for it !!!
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
Questions ????
772-286-9831
[email protected]
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!