Digital Solutions: Tools & Data Services

DRˣ: Distribution Reliability Excellence

Deep Insights and Actionable Strategies for Reliability Improvement and Savings in Our Changing World

DRˣ integrates outage event information, circuit / segment / asset data, and cost and work data from your enterprise systems with UMS Group’s proprietary databases and machine learning statistical models. It delivers deep analyses for insights across any combination of time, organizations, geographies, assets, weather, and new load profiles (i.e. due to electric vehicle expansion) to develop targeted improvement programs and plans.

DRˣ is a sophisticated analytic platform that helps executives, managers, and reliability engineers to manage key metrics reported to management and mandated by regulators. These capabilities enable more effective and timely decision making, improved reliability metrics, reduced O&M costs, as well as ensure of optimal allocation of spend and maximum value from investment.

Q

DRˣ in a nutshell: Acquaint yourself with DRˣ with this short (1 minute) introductory video.

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DRˣ – Taking You to the Next Level of Data-Driven Insights

The entire DRˣ platform is a highly flexible/configurable operational analytics tool suite built around pre-structured analytics based on industry best practices and benchmarks.

Reliability optimization functionality combined with AI and ML support predictive analytics in:

  • Weather Vulnerability
  • Storm Hardening Priorities
  • Outage Forecasting
  • Optimum Budget Allocation Across Reliability Improvement Programs
  • Risk-based Allocation of Funding for VM, Inspections, and Other PM Work

Weather Vulnerability and Outage Forecasting

Storm Hardening Priorities/Resiliency Expenditures

Reliability Improvement Programs – Identifying Performance Gaps and Optimum Budget Allocation

Risk based Funding Allocation for VM Work

Benefits of DRˣ

ENHANCE DATA VISUALIZATION AND SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

Correlate individual asset types to outage history, outage cause codes, or the level of work or cost incurred in corrective maintenance

Integrate with external data sources such as weather data, traffic data, or differentiated zones for fire risk, corrosiveness, insulation requirements, wind intensity, heat severity, and even insect infestation areas

LEVERAGE DISCRETE DATA THROUGH INTEGRATION

Migrate data and information contained within separate and disparate systems into a repository for reliability, productivity, and performance analyses

Create and export new data (i.e., risk factors, vulnerability, predictive outcomes, priorities, etc.) for use in other systems

MEASURE SYSTEM RESILIENCY

Quantify how much more resilient the system is today as a result of investments made over the past several years

PREDICT WEATHER VULNERABILITY

Define which circuits/segments are most vulnerable to incoming weather and forecast number of outages that can be expected

Decide whether to hold over crews on overtime and where to station crews before the storm to reduce travel time for restoration

IMPROVE DATA QUALITY, ACCELERATE CORRECTIVE ACTION

Improve the quality of data and information through use of “outlier identification protocols”

Determine anomalies and send alerts/notifications to system operators or dispatchers to investigate and correct

ENHANCE ASSET MANAGEMENT EFFECTIVENESS

Improve targeting of capital investments

Create end-to-end network models for analysis of customer impact

Determine if you realized expected benefits (savings, etc.)

REDUCE RISK FROM WORST PERFORMING CIRCUITS

For Problem Circuits, implement interventions commensurate to the underlying causes of outages/reasons for extended restoration times

For Poor Performing Circuits, apply statistical analytics to narrow focus of direct intervention to a subset of these circuits

IMPROVE STORM HARDENING EFFECTIVENESS

Identify the best place on the system to make certain investments, quantify the projected benefit of each strategic initiative, and later measure the return on each investment

INCREASE AGILITY AND SPEED OF REPORTING

Facilitate “deep-dive” analyses at the segment and device level, thus streamlining and reducing the time from problem identification to well-targeted interventions

Automate much of your current effort in regulatory reporting of reliability results

REDUCE COSTS

Calculate risk factors for each circuit based on reliability trends, timing of its trim cycle, presence of reclosers/tie points, number of customers served, timing since the last I&M patrol, etc. and then prioritize and safely defer low priority expenditures

Examples of Value Achieved By DRˣ Users

Assess the risk of new and repeat worst performers, up-to-date and at-a-glance

Visualize your assets in new ways

Benchmark your individual circuits against other companies

DRˣ is Modular – Learn More About the Areas Most Relevant to You With a Use Case Available for Download

EXECUTIVE DECISION SUPPORT

Our solution enables better and faster decision making, more effective priority setting, improved accuracy of reporting, and optimal targeting and allocation of reliability and system resiliency investments.
Q

DRˣ for Executive Decision Support

Critical Insights at Your Fingertips

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Common Challenges

  • Inaccessible, missing, and siloed data
  • Data errors and gaps
  • Custom queries and reports required from IT to compile data
  • Significant effort and time to answer questions and calculate results
  • Impatient executives and stakeholders who want answers yesterday
  • As a result, decisions are often driven more by historical experience and anecdotes than by data

How DRˣ Can Help

Our solution helps executives, managers, analysts, and engineers manage the metrics essential to leadership and regulators and merge related but disparate data sets such as location, environment, cost, asset characteristics, and customers affected to deliver rapid insights in minutes for questions that took hours or days before. This enables better and faster decision making, more effective priority setting, improved accuracy of reporting, and optimal targeting and allocation of reliability and system resiliency investments.

    RELIABILITY OPTIMIZATION

    Leverage utility and external data along with AI and proprietary modeling techniques to help you plan programs to meet targets, and optimize reliability and related capital spend. Answer questions from regulators and external stakeholders with less time and effort and greater insight into the underlying drivers of reliability and the optimum mix of solutions to adopt.
    Q

    DRˣ for Reliability Optimization

    Target Each Dollar for Maximum Reliability and Customer Benefit

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    Common Challenges

    • Utilities are under pressure to meet constant or tightening targets under changing conditions and don’t have the tools to prove how regulatory framework changes would be mutually beneficial to the company, regulator, customers, etc.
    • It’s difficult to pinpoint the specific circuits and segments for specialty programs and how much to spend
    • Complex questions take a long time to answer, for example around forecasting to annual reliability targets and necessary reallocation of spend/resources and costs

    How DRˣ Can Help

    Our solution helps executives, managers, and reliability engineers manage key metrics and essential data. The Reliability Optimization Module leverages utility and external data along with AI and proprietary modeling techniques to help you plan programs to meet targets, optimizing both reliability and related spend.

    SYSTEM RESILIENCY AND STORM HARDENING EFFECTIVENESS

    Utilize the latest modeling techniques along with detailed historical outage and weather data to determine where to invest for a resilient, storm-hardened system as well as prove that historical investments were prudent, effective, and added company and customer value.
    Q

    DRˣ for System Resiliency and Storm Hardening Effectiveness

    System Resiliency and Storm Hardening Effectiveness

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    Common Challenges

    • Companies often aren’t sure what metrics to use to measure resiliency and storm hardening effectiveness
    • Even with existing data sources, many companies struggle to determine how to use their internal data, ideally combined with external benchmarks, to calculate, model, and compare resiliency in a robust, defensible manner
    • Given changing regulatory expectations, leading companies are looking for support from third party experts and/or other utilities in helping justify current performance and/or hardening investments, via data-driven resiliency reports and plans

    How DRˣ Can Help

    Our solution helps executives, managers, and reliability engineers to manage key metrics and essential data. The System Resiliency & Storm Hardening Effectiveness Modules utilize the latest modeling techniques along with detailed historical outage and weather data to determine where to invest for a resilient, storm-hardened system as well as prove that historical investments were prudent, effective, and added company and customer value.

    WEATHER VULNERABILITY

    Leverage detailed historical and real-time outage and weather data along with AI and proprietary modeling techniques to predict outage locations and severity, allowing companies to mobilize crews and materials to safe locations ahead of the storm, saving time and money and reducing restoration times (CAIDI).
    Q

    DRˣ for Weather Vulnerability

    Network Weather Vulnerability and Emergency Response

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    Common Challenges

    • Utilities have been trying for years to harness weather and reliability data to predict outages and damage levels for storm preparation. Results using average weather data and simple outage statistics, even at the circuit level, are inadequate for the level of accuracy needed for solid predictions and improved response times
    • Most companies plan conservatively, incurring higher costs, and then react post-storm to identified damage sites, rather than mobilizing crews and materials to the right locations pre-storm

      How DRˣ Can Help

      Our solution helps executives, managers, and reliability engineers to manage key metrics and essential data. The Emergency Response Module utilizes the latest modeling techniques along with detailed historical and real-time outage and weather data to predict outage locations and severity, allowing companies to mobilize crews and materials to safe locations ahead of the storm, saving time and money and reducing restoration times (CAIDI).

      ELECTRIC VEHICLE SYSTEM IMPACTS

      Use customer psychographic data along with other utility and external information to model which customers are most likely to buy electric vehicles, and help you plan where and when EV load will emerge across your system. This allows for proactive, integrated system planning and robust assessments for regulators and other key stakeholders, and will provide your planners with a much more realistic view of where system modifications will be needed.
      Q

      DRˣ for Electric Vehicle System Impacts

      System Planning for Your Grid of the Future

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      Common Challenges

      • Utilities are under pressure to develop integrated Distribution plans that enable constraint-free distribution networks with the ability to host an almost unlimited amount of DERs. This includes solar, and storage, wind, electric vehicles, etc.
      • EVs, in particular, worry some utility executives because they know so little about where on their system these sources of significant incremental load are likely to appear, and when

        How DRˣ Can Help

        In particular, DRˣ helps utility executives to:

        • Understand the non-linear rate at which load will increase and where on their system, and then plan accordingly for upgrading substations, adding / upgrading feeders, and making transformer/customer service wire upgrades
        • Credibly engage their regulators now in discussions about the timing and magnitude of the impact of this sea change in our industry
        • Produce detailed, accurate analysis and visualizations to educate commission staff and ensure requested funds will be sufficient to meet the approaching demand over the next 5 to 10 years
        • Demonstrate to customers, regulators, and other stakeholders their commitment to supporting growth in Renewables – both in their generation portfolio and in preparing their network to accommodate DERs
        • Develop insights into circuit and substation hosting capacity to support integrated distribution planning, with more accurate locational analysis of EV additions and other DER penetration over the next 10 years

        How DRˣ Can Help

        Our solution helps executives, managers, and reliability engineers to manage key metrics and essential data. The EV Analysis Module leverages utility and external data along with AI and proprietary modeling techniques to help you plan where and when EV load will be added to your system. This allows for proactive, integrated system planning and robust assessments for regulators and other key stakeholders.

        ENHANCED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

        A sophisticated analytic platform, which after seven years in development, provides unparallel support to executives, managers, and CSR’s – in managing key metrics and customer experience data. It leverages the data typically owned by other groups to drive enhanced customer experience.
        Q

        DRˣ for Enhanced Customer Experience

        The Data You Need to Make an Impact

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        Common Challenges

        • Valuable reliability data resources are inaccessible and siloed
        • Reliability data can be utilized for so much more than reporting and compliance from a Customer Experience perspective
        • Customer perception differs from fact (actual reliability)
        • Customers are unaware of company initiatives and work to improve their reliability
        • Lack of customer touchpoints

        How DRˣ Can Help

        Our solution helps executives, managers, and reliability engineers to manage key metrics and essential data. The Customer Experience Module leverages the data typically owned by other groups to drive enhanced customer experience. Give CSR’s customer-level data at their fingertips and provide individual customer report cards, driving enriched communications, transparency, touchpoints, and dialogue. DRˣ provides your Customer Service organization full access to customer-level reliability data; specifically, the Customer Experience Module and customer report cards:

        • Provide CSR’s timely data showing individual customer reliability experience
        • Enable separation of fact from customer perception
        • Communicate to customers system and green initiatives, as well as planned work that will strengthen their part of the system and improve their reliability
        • Demonstrate to the customer that the company is committed, competent, and caring regarding their safety and quality of service

        Client Feedback

        “DRˣ has provided us a large interactive repository for historical weather data. We can now use that data for analysis of Climate Change and correlating impacts on the Distribution system. This has been useful for focusing our reliability strategies and investments.”

        – Manager Reliability Strategies, Large Midwestern Electric Utility

        Client Feedback

        “DRˣ has allowed us to more easily visualize the proximity of circuits and substations to new loads from EV Charging. It has significantly upgraded the accuracy and credibility of our forecast for when “EV Make Ready” system reinforcements will be needed.”

        – Director Distribution Asset Strategy, Large East Coast Combination Utility

        Client Feedback

        “DRˣ has allowed us to quantify the impact of resiliency investments on the distribution system. We are now able to judge the value of different investment options to maximize customer value derived.”

        – VP T&D, Mid-sized Southwestern Electric Utility

        Client Feedback

        “The sophisticated customer demographic/psychographic modeling of DRˣ revealed that early adopters of EV’s would be clustered on the distribution system.  In our case, 85 to 90% of the first 20% of all EV’s would be on 1/6th of our feeders. This meant that significant system reinforcements will be needed 6 to 8 years earlier than we had thought.”

        – Director Distribution Asset Strategy, Large East Coast Combination Utility

        DRˣ Resources

        DRˣ Use Cases

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        DRˣ TRˣ VMˣ Brochure

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