Grid resiliency has never been as critical or as challenging as it is today. For example, extreme weather in the form of floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and other storms that can result in extended power outages are on the rise. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there have been 387 extreme weather events resulting in over $1 billion in damages since 1980 – a four decade-plus stretch in which the overall upward trajectory in the frequency and severity of events is impossible to miss.
The resilient operation of electrical grids is also challenged by the age of America’s power system. In its most recent infrastructure report card, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave the nation’s energy system a C-, in large part because so much of the transmission and distribution system continues to operate well beyond its expected lifetime. Other challenges to the electricity system come from the ongoing influx of intermittent renewable generation and distributed energy resources (DERs) and the wave of utility industry retirements, as veteran workers leave their jobs and take their knowledge and experience with them.
These challenges come at a time when America’s demand for, and reliance on, electricity is increasing. According to a report from Grid Strategies, growth in electricity demand is expected to near five percent over the next five years, an increase of over 80 percent compared to projections made just two years ago. The rise in the growth of electricity demand is being driven by a proliferation in data centers needed for artificial intelligence (AI) and expanded electrification of transportation, building heating and cooling, and manufacturing.
The challenge of knowing where the grid is most vulnerable
While the importance of resiliency is clear, utilities are challenged by limited budgets and a lack of certainty about where their grids are most vulnerable. This is where advanced analytics, AI, locational intelligence, and data collection can help. Southwire works with utility customers to complete digital grid assessments that diagnose where the most significant issues are on their network and provide data-backed solutions to address each area of concern with proactive reliability improvements.
“Our solution analyzes a utility’s history over the last five to 10 years and then points to areas where they can proactively improve their reliability through grid hardening, grid modernization, and network optimization actions,” said Ray Kasten, vice president of Digital Solutions at Southwire, North America’s leading wire and cable company
Digital assessments improve resiliency by focusing on the primary causes of outages/momentaries, such as aging or stressed equipment in need of modernization, vegetation management, and asset optimization. To accurately diagnose and predict where potential outages may occur requires the collection and analysis of data from multiple sources. “We leverage a utility’s data (OMS, ADMS, GIS, Inspections, and Vegetation systems) and then build a proactive program to improve reliability, increase network efficiency, lower costs, and improve customer satisfaction” said Kasten. “Our methodology informs where a utility’s highest reliability issues are, the impact or criticality, the best remedy, and the cost justification for the investment.
“As an example, our assessment will identify that you’ve had a failure in the same location eight times in the last five years, however implementing the same fix has yielded unacceptable results. Our system will recommend what you should do to eliminate the root cause of the failure to improve reliability and provides an objective way to measure the Benefits Achieved after the remedy is deployed.”
The right solution
There are multiple steps involved in this process, including cleansing the data coming from a utility’s multiple systems. However, one of the benefits of a digital grid assessment is that it can be completed quickly and provides insights and actions to remedy vulnerabilities for which an ADMS or GIS does not accommodate.
Southwire’s digital grid assessment extensively leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to verify a utility’s understanding of why past outages occurred and provide proper classification of the root cause of failures, which improves the effectiveness of recommendations. For instance, a utility’s restoration notes may state that a fuse failure during high winds was the cause of an outage. “A technician may take the position it was weather-caused but, in reality, it may have been from lack of vegetation management on the circuit, and that’s why the branches slapped into the conductor that blew the fuse,” said Kasten. “An accurate root cause analysis enables the utility to implement the proper remedy, ultimately saving money and improving reliability. One large investor-owned utility in the Southeast U.S. has reclassified the root cause of approximately one-fourth of its failures through our AI and locational intelligence functionality.”
Accurately diagnosing equipment failures that lead to outages is obviously critical. But it’s also essential to then apply solutions that meaningfully improve resiliency and quantify the benefits of investments, which is possible with Southwire’s Benefits Achieved module. Measuring the results enables the utility to continually tweak their programs. It also satisfies regulators that grid modernization investments are yielding the expected results.
The recommendations generated after a digital grid assessment are built on the best practices of many utilities and adjacent industries. They also embrace the preventative/predictive maintenance philosophy more common in the nuclear industry. This would include applying practical RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) techniques. “The distribution industry has traditionally run equipment to failure since devices were relatively inexpensive. You simply could not affordably implement a preventative maintenance program on $250 devices,” said Kasten. “Now, with more people working from home, and the negative impact of momentary outages on Internet service, that approach is no longer viable. Utilities need to address both sustained outages and disruptive momentaries.”
An investor-owned utility (IOU) serving the Northeast US, worked with Southwire to improve its grid resiliency. Over several years, the IOU and Southwire evaluated circuits then applied an enhanced grid resiliency program to a subset of circuits. The remaining circuits continued their standard maintenance practices. The enhanced program reduced customer interruptions by nearly 50 percent and performed significantly better across all reliability indices, including SAIDI, SAIFI, CAIDI, and outage durations.
“All performance indices improved,” said Kasten. “Conversely, the assets’ performance outside of the reliability program were all trending in the wrong direction. The IOU submitted the results to state regulators and received funding to expand the program across the rest of its circuits.”
In summary, technology invested in AI, locational intelligence, and data analysis, combined with best practices, can deliver impactful results. Leveraging a packaged approach results in rapid deployment with a low cost of ownership.
