Co-op innovation: Meeting increased demand, minimizing disruptions, and mitigating risk
This is a recap of a session from AiDASH Evolve 2024
Summary
- Utilities need real-time data to help them deal with extreme weather events.
- Linemen have proven to be rapid technology adopters.
- Data-driven insights are essential for improving communication and transparency with co-op members.
- Technology is critical for helping co-ops manage OpEx in multiple areas, like hardware lifecycles and trim costs
“Technology is a freight train, and you’ve got two options,” said Jacob Barlow, VP of Engineering and Operations, Randolph EMC, at a panel discussion at AiDASH Evolve 2024. “You either get on board or you get run over.” He noted that the panelists, all of whom represented co-op utilities, had all proverbially gotten on board and were leveraging data, analytics, and new technology to improve storm preparation, grid reliability, customer satisfaction, and OpEx.
The panel, moderated by Gary Huntley, Retired VP of Distribution Services, comprised:
- Jacob Barlow, VP of Engineering and Operations, Randolph EMC
- Don Bowman, VP of Engineering and Operations, and Assistant General Manager, Wake EMC
- OJ Johnson, Construction and Right of Way Supervisor, Mitchell EMC
- Dragan Savic, Manager, Engineering, (Technical Services), ENWIN Utilities
Huntley set the tone for the discussion immediately, commenting that IOUs get talked about a lot, but sometimes co-ops are a bit forgotten, even though there are a lot of similarities. “You can glean some insight from [people in the co-op space] on how they view innovation,” he said. “And so today, we’re going to talk a little bit about the increased demand [and] how you minimize disruptions — the same things the other utilities have to deal with.”
Leveraging data and technology to improve storm response and grid reliability
When it comes to extreme weather, the panelists emphasized the importance of using data and analytics to optimize storm response, and they talked about how they use it.
“You never know how [storms] are going to hit until they hit,” said Barlow. “We’re in a role where we have to try to be responsible with our members’ money, because it’s a limited resource like everything else, and be responsible with the resources we have at hand.”
Johnson added: “It’s a balance, like you said. You plan for the worst, hope for the best, pray about it, put your seatbelt on, and deal with it.”
Actionable data is key. Johnson recalled Hurricane Michael in 2018, and how they had a severe outage, and they had people out in pickup trucks manually inspecting their lines, trying to figure out what was going on. Having satellite imagery would be a huge advantage. “If you have an overflight of a satellite, you might be able to get that information [in] 12–15 hours, especially if they have everything on your system documented,” he said. “That’s exciting.”
Johnson said Mitchell EMC has begun putting what they call “triple singles” in between substations to make finding faults easier and faster. Plus, linemen get a notification on their phones that there had been an operation on a given breaker. A phone notification system is also ideal for OMS. “If you plug in what caused the outage, [the system] starts flagging it,” said Johnson. “As a supervisor, if I’m sitting there looking at my … text messages, and I keep seeing an operation on a circuit, I know that something’s going on.” And he can then get people out to patrol that line.
ENWIN Utilities has to deal with both summer and winter storms, which stresses their poles. Savic said that they started doing pole-loading analysis to make sure they can withstand 100-year storms. But storm intensity has changed. “So, we went and proactively actually changed our pole classes to at least a class higher,” he said. They’re also upgrading their feeder capacity and implementing a system with automatic switching to load balance.
Both Barlow and Bowman highlighted how their co-ops are tapping into real-time data from feeder relays to pinpoint fault locations. They give their field data straight to the linemen, so they know what to look for even faster than the dispatchers. They can just pull up the map on their device.
“You have a 12-mile feeder, and you’re giving them a 300-foot window of where that fault most likely is,” said Barlow. “If you don’t think that has an impact on your reliability, if you don’t think that has an impact on your safety, you’re crazy.”
Bowman said that these capabilities have changed how they’re hiring for system operator dispatch. They’re shifting to more computer-savvy people because that role has changed to basically babysitting alarms. The linemen see those notifications, and importantly, “They know what they’re going to look for,” said Bowman.
“Those types of things are really making a big difference,” he added.
Linemen and tech adoption
The panelists also remarked at how readily the linemen in the field have adopted new technology.
“Linemen get a bad rap for not wanting to adopt new technology, but I don’t see it,” said Barlow. When they hand them a new technology tool, he said, “Especially the younger guys, they love it.”
“I would wholeheartedly agree with that,” said Bowman. “It’s amazing how linemen have adopted this technology.”
Savic noted how the technology actually reinforces to the linemen how important they are. “We’re really leveraging the knowledge the linemen have,” he said. They used to replace assets when a linemen would come in and flag some issue using a paper form. But now, they’re using the technology in the field. “They’re out there inspecting the asset anyway. Give them the right tools [and] technology,” he said. “They put in all the information, we calculate the health index, and now it’s on a replacement plan. Now the lineman feels empowered.”
“They’re seeing the results firsthand,” said Savic. They’re using tech to increase reliability and show linemen that their input really matters.
Better communication with members
The panelists emphasized that data-driven insights are not just for internal use; they’re using this information to improve communication and transparency with their members.
Bowman said that these days, members want to know about outages as fast at the co-op does, so they know what they’re up against and can adjust and make plans quickly.
“Our board of directors has started to notice that for the first time ever, cable companies, internet companies, [and] telephone companies are getting better than we are at reporting this sort of thing,” Bowman said. “When our board saw that, they were like, ‘No, we’re going to be better than that.’”
They have lots of useful data on hand, like a long historical database of every asset on their system, knowledge about what happened the last 10 times a given operation occurred, what the costs were, and so on. AI, he said, should be able to take all the information and give them more accurate predictions about how long it will take them to restore power after an outage.
“[The customers] are ready for it,” he said. They’re downloading their app, getting their texts, submitting comments, and so on.
Johnson agreed that social media plays a big role in outage restoration in terms of communicating to customers, as well as for scheduled work. He said they used to send out postcards to customers to alert them to planned work, but now they can just send out texts and post to social media.
Barlow said that at Randolph EMC, they try to communicate proactively whenever there’s an outage that lasts a significant amount of time, so customers have some knowledge about what’s happening. They’ll tell the linemen to send in pictures for social media and customer emails, so customers can see why the power’s out and can see people actively working to restore it. “That takes away a lot of that anxiety,” he said.
Barlow added that it’s important to communicate with customers when solutions are working well. For example, they’ve built in a lot of self-healing into their grid. “All of a sudden, members are just seeing a blink, and they don’t even know that the self-healing activated to restore their power automatically,” Barlow said. They’re making it a point to tell customers, because that self-healing capacity may have averted, say, a 2-hour outage.
Managing OpEx with technology
The co-op leaders also discussed the challenges of managing rising operational costs, from supply chain issues to labor shortages. Harnessing data is also key for driving long-term reliability improvements. Co-ops are using analytics to identify and address issues before they cause outages, such as overloaded transformers or failing equipment.
“We calculate every single day: Is that transformer overloaded?” Barlow said. “How many hours was it overloaded?” They have a ranking system that allows them to strategically replace assets before they fail, avoiding costly emergency repairs.
ENWIN Utilities has tackled that problem using distribution transformer monitoring devices to measure the actual load. By closely monitoring transformer loading, they can more precisely right-size these assets, avoiding the need for costly emergency replacements. They’re also using AI-powered platforms to better coordinate and oversee their tree-trimming and other field crews.
“Our tree-trimming contractor costs have just ballooned out of control since COVID,” said Savic. That’s why ENWIN Utilities started a pilot program with AiDASH. “We need to control what we can.”
Looking ahead, the co-op leaders see electric vehicles (EVs) and customer-sited renewable energy as two of the biggest game-changers. As Bowman noted, “Where do you find an appliance that’s 400 kWh? It’s an electric vehicle, but we’d be nuts to promote electric vehicles without the right education of when to charge, how to handle that capacity, and how to protect our grid.” He believes that’s a big trend to watch.
Savic added that managing things like solar and EVs will require sophisticated new grid technologies. “It’s really changing how we have to look at that customer and that home with the technology we have to use, and what they’re using,” Savic said.
The co-op leaders agreed that embracing innovation is essential, even if it means disrupting the status quo. As Johnson summed up, “I’m one of the type of people that wasn’t crazy about technology, but COVID changed that.” He pointed to many ways they’ve become more efficient since moving away from so many analog processes. “AI … I heard about it 2-3 years ago, and here it is. It’s just changed exponentially, and I’m excited to see what it’s going to bring in the future, as far as helping our consumers and letting us do a better job at helping people.”
“That’s what it’s all about,” he added.
Check out more sessions and information from Evolve 2024, and reach out to see the AiDASH Platform in action!