Warren Causey
Sierra Energy Group
Guest Editor
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Mobile field workers' toolkits aren't your grandfather's wire pliers


As U.S. utilities continue a quarter-century process of building out more intelligent organizations and smart grids, they are using and adapting technological tools to push those "smarts" further into the field. At the most advanced utilities -- and not all utilities have progressed at the same rate -- the average lineman on a pole may look and be equipped more like an astronaut than the average hard-hatted working man he appeared 20 years ago.


The traditional "toolkit" linemen once carried has been greatly expanded from the days when it included screwdrivers, pliers, wire strippers, and other more conventional hand tools. Today, the typical utility mobile worker's toolkit -- at the more advanced utilities -- includes an array of digital devices and communications systems that were unknown 20 years ago.


A few linemen who climb poles today wear specially designed helmets with devices that project a computer screen in front of their face -- sort of like the "heads-up" display in modern fighter aircraft -- so he or she can see the reality in front of him on the real pole, and the model or diagram of what it should look like on the display. In some cases, he or she can talk in real-time to a supervisor back at headquarters who can help guide him in making the delicate, and sometimes dangerous, changes that need to be made. These advanced systems are not in widespread use, but some utilities, notably Austin Energy and Southern Company, already have some prototypes in place.


As utilities have pushed intelligence into the field, ruggedized laptop computers have become commonplace in service trucks. Through that laptop, field crews receive work orders, with map overlays showing the quickest route to the next job. Back at headquarters, dispatchers can watch the vehicles moving in real time from one point to another. Those laptops also receive a real-time feed of the parts and supplies that will be necessary for the next job and keep an updated inventory of which parts are available on the vehicle. If the proper part isn't available on the truck, the dispatcher and the crew are made aware of it and alternative dispatching is initiated.


Not all utilities have these advanced systems, but according to information from Sierra Energy Group, the research and analysis division of Energy Central, the 3,500 or so electric utilities have so-equipped nearly 40 percent their service trucks with laptop computers. An even larger percentage has at least smaller digital communications devices, such as personal digital assistants that provide similar information to workers in the field.


These communications devices keep the worker in almost constant contact with his headquarters and dispatch centers. As expendables on his vehicle are used, the in-vehicle or pole-top computer automatically updates the utility's asset management system so that orders can be automatically generated to replenish the expendables when the vehicle is returned to its shop in the evening. Nearly 50 percent of trucks operated by large investor-owned utilities (IOUs) have this capability, according to Sierra research. The percentage is lower at smaller municipal and cooperative utilities, but is growing rapidly from year to year.


Uneven Progress


Twenty years ago, utilities had primarily analog radio dispatch systems and all work orders and other information was related to field crews by voice. Today, only 17 percent of all dispatching is done by voice. The other 83 percent is via some type of digital device.


What a lot of people don't seem to realize is that the U.S. utility has advanced rapidly over the last quarter-century toward operating a "smart grid" with smart people and systems. However, the progress is not even. It is spotty across the country. About 85 percent of all electricity delivered in the U.S. is delivered through some 200 investor-owned utilities. The other 15 percent is delivered by municipal and cooperative utilities.


In the past, and to some extent even today, collaboration and cooperation between utilities was discouraged, even prohibited by law. As a result, each utility has progressed at a different rate. Some have many of the modern mobile systems available, others have fewer. Some have installed the latest distribution automation systems, some have not. It's a fairly mixed bag geographically across the country, and that has a lot to do with the political/regulatory environment in which the utility operates. Utilities can install only what they can receive regulatory approval to pay for.


Despite these handicaps, most utilities have been moving rapidly to equip their field crews with the latest equipment on the market. And there is a wide variety, by many different manufacturers. Thus, the laptop and in-vehicle communications devices at one utility likely will be quite different from those at another utility. And the technology itself evolves rapidly, thus one utility may be on one version of a hardware or software system, while a neighboring utility is on different versions.


Thus field workers at each utility will be trained differently and at different levels, making cooperation across utilities -- such as in emergencies like hurricanes, when utilities cooperate to restore devastated areas -- more difficult.


Another major problem utilities face in their mobile "toolkits" is that many have large workforces nearing retirement age. Many linemen in their 50s have spent most of their careers with the traditional wire cutters, strippers and pliers. Getting them up to speed on modern digital devices involves a great deal of retro-training.


As utilities move into the new era of government regulation toward integrating intermittent renewable generation, demand response systems that encourage or require residential customers to use less electricity and a host of other major changes, utility workers are going to need a whole new raft of tools in their mobile toolkits.



 

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