Post on 28-Dec-2015
transcript
Ed MalemezianPresident, Ed Malemezian
Consulting, Inc.
AMR is Much More Than AMR
Outage Management, Reliability, Call Centers, and Asset Utilization
All Win Big
Metering America 2005 – Beyond AMR !!!
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
●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
●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 sub-systems●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 ????
772-286-9831Ed@emalemezian.com