Space-Time Insight situational awareness helps utilities avoid outages

Space-Time Insight has announced new capabilities in its software to simplify the ability of a utility to assess the performance of the electric grid and visualize, analyze and correlate large volumes of data received from multiple sources, a critical requirement in the deployment of Wide Area Situational Awareness (WASA) systems. Designed to accommodate the microsecond measurements recorded by synchrophasors, devices used to measure the state and quality of the power system, the new software arms control room operators with timely information needed to make instant decisions that impact grid stability and availability.

Situational awareness allows utilities to drill down to specific assets and use financial heat maps to prioritize initiatives. Photo courtesy of Space-Time Insight.

Many utilities are reliant on aging databases, spreadsheets and basic operational charts and line diagrams to run their operations.  There's a growing assumption that running a business on yesterday's data with software tuned to accessing data in a delayed format, exposes the company to undue risk. 

"This is especially true with the rollout of smart meter and wide area situational awareness systems that not only generate huge volumes of data, but the success of their operation depends on real-time or near real-time interpretation of that data," Steve Ehlich, Vice President of Marketing, Space-Time Insight, said in an interview with FierceEnergy.  "The situation is exacerbated by the need to correlate multiple internal and external sources of data, all arriving in different formats, at different speeds and at different times."

 Situational intelligence helps utilities take control of this data onslaught and make faster informed decisions as a result.  To do so requires users to be able to visualize operational problems or situations in a simple intuitive format, determine why and how problems occur, and finally, take the prescribed remedial steps to address issues. 

"Geospatial displays used in conjunction with more traditional analytics are at the center of this revolution since they provide the framework for the visualization as well as a jumping-off point for further analysis and action," Ehlich said.

As situational intelligence software gets smarter, the future holds more sophisticated visualizations, more automated guidance for users making decisions, support for even larger volumes of data, and off-the-shelf applications that embody best industry practices and shorten deployment times.

One of the most well-documented cases for situational intelligence is the Northeast blackout of 2003 where a lack of real-time understanding of the status of the grid cost lives and hundreds of millions of dollars.  With situational intelligence in place, utilities can proactively respond to an approaching storm or fire, and react more quickly to unplanned outages, such as one caused by a tree falling on a power line.  Consumers benefit from greater service availability, and since multiple departments within an organization, including customer service, can access the systems, they can provide more accurate information to customers about outage durations.

Utilities also benefit when they roll-out out new technologies such as smart meters or synchrophasors.  Situational intelligence helps them ensure the new devices are working correctly and determine when maintenance is needed.  Color-coding is commonly used in geospatial displays to highlight problem areas --green icons might indicate normal operation while red icons show a failure.  Operators can then drill down into the specific failure shown on the map to determine the cause--which could be an asset failure, a communications problem, a theft or other issues--and take the appropriate action such as initiating a field service request.

Situational intelligence is providing business value to utilities on a number of fronts, according to Ehlich.  First, it is helping utilities reduce risk to employees and customers. 

"By understanding a situation in real-time and reacting to it even minutes faster than before, utilities can save lives and property," Ehlich said.

Second, situational intelligence helps preserve revenue.  For example, when outages occur, a heat map showing the areas with the most customers affected, allows service crews to prioritize their triage.  Situational intelligence also reduces costs by  visualizing the failure rate of assets over time, triggering guidance to replace them or modify their maintenance plan.

Utilities are facing pressure from multiple sides. 

"Consumers are demanding more customer-friendly service, regulators are pushing for higher standards such as use of renewable energy, their infrastructure is aging as is their workforce, and new developments like smart meters are stressing their operations," said Ehlich.

Situational intelligence is used to bring together many of these moving parts, according to Ehlich.  Consumers get more timely information about how to make best use of their services using smart meters and demand response, threshold alarms and alerts help avoid costly fines. Additionally, condition-based maintenance programs reduce asset failures, and access to time-based information allows operators to make transitions across shifts and in the longer term, across positions. Last, the ability to rapidly and cost-effectively operationalize the rollout of a new infrastructure, delivers services more quickly and reliably.

As more smart devices and property are added to the smart grid, the need for situational intelligence becomes even more critical. 

"It is one thing to know that when you roll out two million smart meters, you will receive a certain amount of data per meter, and there is a defined set of value you can derive from that data," said Ehlich. "But when electric vehicles, smart buildings, smart homes and smart cities come along, the issues are many times more complex."

Determining how much power is needed on an hourly basis, where an outage occurred or why an asset failed, are just some of the challenging questions utilities face every day already. 

"Answers to those questions will be significantly difficult, and without situational intelligence, almost impossible to determine," Ehlich said.

For more:
- see this release 
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