AU electricity player beefs up outage management systems

Using the new system, ETSA Utilities expects to improve outage management processes and optimise network reliability, crew dispatch capability, mobile tracking for 200 field units and outage reporting.

ETSA Utilities, owned by the Cheung Kong Group of companies, is responsible for all aspects of providing electricity to South Australia and serves 771,000 customers with a distribution network of 79,762 km.

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Geoff Coultas, manager network facilities, ETSA Utilities, said the outage management system (OMS) is an addition to the already in-progress upgrade of ETSA Utilities' AM/FM/GIS system from Intergraph's flagship FRAMME to its next-generation G/Technology, which will provide detailed intelligence about the network and will allow key performance indicators to be set and monitored.

The new system will manage operational and customer data across the enterprise and is expected to help ETSA Utilities to quickly respond to planned outage work and unplanned outages and track work crews performing routine maintenance through planned outages.

Coultas said the new system is expected to "make a significant impact on the management, efficient diagnosis and resolution of major outages".

The new system is said to allow identification of individual feeders that each customer is connected to, which in turn enables ETSA Utilities to report on high-voltage and low-voltage outages down to the individual customer level.

The OMS, also integrated with ETSA Utilities' SCADA, uses calls from the customer base as well as linkages to real-time data to diagnose and identify the cause of any major outage. The functionality includes real-time analysis of the electrical state of the distribution network, optimisation of network use and improved management of fault situations.