If you own, manage, operate, or maintain infrastructure related to electric utilities, you can’t afford to miss the innovative and ready-to-implement ideas presented at this event. Register now to check out these targeted sessions, and much, much more!

Tuesday, March 11, 8:30

Managing Performance of Distribution and Outage Management Systems
Track: Operations Management & Damage Prevention
Sushil Kumar, GE Energy

Learning Objectives:

• Addressing Performance Issues in Outage and Distribution Management systems.
• Plan, Design and Process considerations related to managing Performance.
• Value in effectively managing Performance issues in Operations Management.

Operational DMS/OMS systems, involving real time spatial and network operations, inherently demand strict performance requirements. This paper discusses how these requirements can be identified early in the project. It discusses ways to verify and validate the requirements as real and necessary, and how to determine its priority and criticality. It also discusses ways to manage these requirements effectively throughout the project life cycle, so as to effectively ensure performance of the production operational systems.
Copresenter: Jakob Kramer, GE Energy

Tuesday, March 11, 9:30

Utility of the Future—Enhancing Utilities Benefits by Integrating OMS and AMR Technology
Track: Operations Management & Damage Prevention
Randy Cough, GE Energy

Learning Objectives:

• Understand OMS and AMR integration.
• Know how to implement OMS and AMR technology.
• Discover the benefits of OMS and AMR technology.

Automated meter reading (AMR) technology has offered a tremendous savings to electric utility companies in the collection of meter information. However, AMR also has the ability to detect customer their outages. Many electric utilities have integrated AMR technology into outage management process. AMR is being used to verify customer calls, enhance outage prediction, identify nested outages, and verify restoration. The presentation will outline how the AMR system works, how meter information is interfaced with outage management systems (OMS), and what new benefits electric utilities can achieve as a result of AMR and OMS integration.

Tuesday, March 11, 10:30

Improving Utility Operational Efficiencies and Enhancing Customer Value One Ping at a Time
Track: New Technology and Market Directions
Eric J Charette, Intergraph Corporation

Learning Objectives:

• Gain a better understanding of the technical architecture behind the integration.
• Learn about in-depth content on the workflows for the dispatcher.
• See how to leverage the functionality and receive the benefits.

Advances in automated meter reading (AMR) have prompted utilities to integrate their network of smart meters with their outage management system (OMS). Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) is using this integration in the restoration verification process and has given its dispatchers the ability to ping meters directly within the OMS from an interactive map. WPS also plans to leverage this integration for future endeavors. The integration has lead to increased operational efficiencies and enhanced customer value.

Tuesday, March 11, 11:30

Enterprise GIS—Powering the Utility of the Future
Track: New Technology and Market Directions
William J. Meehan, ESRI

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the latest in and future of GIS architecture as applied to future utility directions.
• Discover how GIS enables the smart grid.
• Understand how spatial Web services and mobile GIS impact utilities.

Increasing challenges from customers, employees, regulators, and investors require utilities to transform themselves. GIS is a key technology of the transformation. Utility of the future involves automated interaction with customers, self-healing smart grids, enhanced use of automated metering, optimized use of resources, predictive methods for maintenance and capital improvements, more security, and more integrated technology and processes. This session will examine the role that enterprise GIS plays in powering the utility of the future.

Wednesday, March 12, 9:00

Squeezing the Most from Your Transmission Network: Integrating the Facility Ratings Process into Your GIS
Track: Planning, Design, and Engineering
Peter Penttinen, GE Energy

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the facility ratings process.
• Learn about issues surrounding the manual facility ratings process.
• Gain insight into integrating facility ratings with the GIS.

A network’s value to an organization is derived from not only the network itself but, more importantly, how efficiently that network operates. While utilities engage in many business processes that address network optimization, key for transmission networks is the use of the facility ratings process. By reducing their reliance on manual processes and integrating with the GIS, organizations can minimize their exposure to issues that can have negative implications both financially and on network reliability.

Wednesday, March 12, 1:00

Using GIS to Manage the Electric Transmission System—A Critical Infrastructure
Track: Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Response
Roy Forsstrom, POWER Engineers, Inc.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the components of an electric transmission GIS system.
• Understand the differences between distribution and transmission GIS.
• Understand typical system integration requirements.

Utilities recently began paying attention to the management of information related to the operation and maintenance of their electric transmission lines, a critical infrastructure. The 2003 Northeast blackout prompted the government to implement new transmission system regulations. A well-planned enterprise GIS can be the core of an efficient and effective information management solution. This presentation will examine how a transmission GIS is different than a distribution GIS, what makes a transmission GIS, and typical system interfaces.

Wednesday, March 12, 3:00

On the Design of SDI Components
Track: Enterprise Architecture & System Integration
Javier Morales, ITC

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the design principles used in the design of Sustainable SDI components.
• Familiarize with the use of transformational design methods for SDI componet development.
• Recognize the impact of service-orientation in SDI architectures.