Preparing for the Next Mega Outage

Salvatore Salamone | Apr 09, 2013

The impact of Hurricane Sandy on electrical power systems was widespread and in many areas extensive. The key to many restoration efforts was information.

Beyond using basic information about the extent of outages derived from traditional sources, some utilities and grid operations were able to get more granular and more detailed information about specific problems by using some relatively new technologies. This included using mobile devices in the field to more accurately assess damage and leveraging data from smart grid systems in order to better understand the geographical extent of outages.

Coming on the heels of tropical storm Irene in August 2011 and the devastating October 2011 snowstorm, some power companies in the Northeast had already started using new systems to help deal with the aftermath of major storms. But more needs to be done because most industry experts believe the United States will experience more of these major storms and other power grid-impacting natural disasters, such as large forest fires from lingering drought conditions in parts of the country.

So what were the lessons learned from Sandy that will help going forward?

“Utilities and providers who invested in smart grid technology had smart meters to help provide more detailed information about outages and some also had more sophisticated monitoring and control capabilities of transmission and generation equipment in their grids,” said Chris Dunn, a partner in Booz & Company’s energy, chemicals and utilities practice.

Some of the most useful information for assessing the scope of outages came from smart meters.  Traditionally, customers would call their utility to report an outage. Often there is a delay between an outage and the time when a customer calls. This gives utilities incomplete and perhaps inaccurate information. Smart meters have the capability to transmit a so-called “last gasp” message after power is off, informing the utility of its state. The information from many smart meters could be assimilated to get a real-time, accurate representation of the scope of an outage.

Some companies used new tools to better assess damages and manage restoration resources. For example, National Grid routinely makes use of a geographic information system to integrate data from multiple systems to aid restoration efforts. For Sandy, the company was able to enhance the usefulness of this system using a newly developed and piloted mobile device capability. Specifically, information from the system could be pushed down to handheld devices in the field, providing timely information to the workers.

Additionally, the workers could collect information and send it back to the company for assessment. At a site with downed power lines, a worker would fill out a damage assessment form noting such things as whether there was a wire on the ground, a pole down, a tree on a wire, and other factors that contributed to the problem. The workers could also take photos and send them back to the company for additional assessment.

“This helped us understand what equipment was needed to make the repairs,” said Cheri Warren,  National Grid’s vice president of asset management. For example, one site might need a tree cleared while another might need a new pole installed, some sites might need both. The integrated system also helped with planning, prioritization efforts and logistics.

Obviously, utilities and operators can benefit from technology to help with restoration efforts. But there also needs to be more emphasis on preventing disruptions.

A natural place to start is to look at the issues with overhead power lines. The majority of Sandy outages on Long Island and in parts of New Jersey were from downed power lines due to falling trees and branches.

Most utilities have, and many are required to have, vegetation management plans. In the past, these were mostly manually maintained plans. More recently, there has been a move to employ more easy-to-use geographic information systems that offer integration with other systems. The systems have long been used by utilities and oil and gas companies for operational planning and asset management. Increasingly, transmission system operators and utilities are turning to this software for vegetation management. Used in this manner, companies marry systems maps, aerial photographs of their rights of way, and data about the location of vegetation. The combined information is then used to plan tree pruning and removal efforts.

Other measures being discussed are the use of stronger poles to avoid the impact of flooding and winds. There is also discussion about installing more water barriers at substations in areas that in the past were not subjected to flooding, but perhaps could be with major storms in the future.

Even more exotic technologies and concepts are on the horizon. However, they squarely fit into the realm of solutions needed to deal with future storms and natural disasters. The benefits derived from the technologies used in Sandy’s aftermath should serve as an incentive to make more wide-scale use of them to reduce the impact of future storms, minimize the damage done and speed restoration efforts.

This excerpted story first appeared in EnergyBiz magazine.

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