I’m back from the IEEE PES T&D tradeshow and conference held in Dallas, Texas a few weeks ago. The theme was GO BIG and they weren’t kidding. The show was huge with over 900 exhibitors. Before I get into that, though, I would like to bring you up to speed on a few of the latest ‘buzz’ technologies that I mentioned in my last editorial about DistribuTECH 2016.

Asset Health and Management today
Utilities struggle under the repair-and-replace needs of aging transmission & distribution (T&D) assets. The situation is made more difficult by:

• Financial pressures that limit operations and maintenance resources
• Loss of valuable knowledge as long-time employees leave or retire
• An environment of increasing regulation

Together, these factors put utilities under intense pressure to reduce inefficiencies and eliminate unknowns. Meanwhile, improved asset monitoring and communications capabilities hold tremendous promise to optimize T&D operations. But they are delivering such an overwhelming flow of data that few companies are able to put it to meaningful use.

The idea of Asset Health Management is to utilize all that data to achieve real-time performance analysis of T&D assets from one end of the enterprise to the other. It would enable utilities to make thoughtful, strategic and fiscally sound decisions about which assets should be replaced, and when the rest ought to be scheduled for maintenance and repair.

So far, this vision is unrealized. Typical engineered solutions lack the embedded industry intelligence needed to turn data into the kind of actionable knowledge that allows complex integrated systems to be optimized. Analysis of data is often done manually, a slow process that strengthens functional silos and leaves departments vulnerable when key engineers retire or leave the company.

Until utilities address the issue of asset health management systemically – with an end-to-end solution offering the right combination of integration, embedded intelligence and automation – they will struggle under the demands of aging resources, stringent regulatory environments, and increasing financial pressure.

The high cost of doing nothing
Most asset health management today is conducted through a patchwork of routines, assembled over time in the absence of a comprehensive solution. As a means to manage a vast network of assets, even those who built these systems often acknowledge their shortcomings:

Incomplete analysis: Fewer than half of all transformer failures originate with the insulation system. Home-grown asset management systems typically look only at results from oil sampling. Maintenance records, loading history and tests of tap changers and bushings may be overlooked because they are hard to bring together. Critical repair-and-replace decisions are based on information that is most convenient – not necessarily most meaningful.

Unrealized ROI: Smart grid investments have created a flow of Big Data that internal systems don‘t have capacity to consider – meaning the full value is being extracted from technology that’s already in use.

Reliance on instinct: The simple spreadsheet is still the most common tool for making maintenance and lifecycle decisions that can cost millions of dollars and directly impact reliability. Such manual processes fail to exploit current technology like a leading edge Asset Health Center – which automates and optimizes asset health decision-making.

Inability to adapt: Home built systems struggle to evolve as technology and other factors affect processes and best practices. The results can be costly: from unplanned outages to shortened asset lifecycles to punitive penalties for lapses in regulatory compliance.

Poor visibility: From the field force to facilities management to engineering to IT to the executive suite, each part of the organization needs the right information presented the right way to do its job, and most systems struggle to meet this need.

Cumulatively, these deficiencies defeat the impact of what today is often referred to as asset health management.¹

Advanced Distribution Management Systems
Advanced distribution management systems (ADMSs) have emerged over the past few years as a major smart grid technology innovation with the potential to unify utility distribution IT systems into a single, more efficiently managed platform. As such, the market for ADMSs has exploded with investment in marketing and R&D on behalf of many smart grid IT and combined IT/operational technology (OT) vendors. Although this technology is still in the midst of a steep learning curve, its direct and indirect benefits to utilities are becoming widely recognizable.

Utilities are becoming increasingly strategic in smart grid IT/OT deployments, and ADMSs are no exception. With ADMSs, however, utilities have recognized that in order to maximize its potential, they have to approach the technology with an all-hands-on-deck attitude. In the past, they had developed IT in a reactive and operationally isolated manner, doing what worked to solve the problem. Today, the utility business is going through fundamental change at the hands of efficiency and renewables targets, growing customer demands, reliability pressure, and grid-edge instability. Utilities have thus been forced to adopt a holistic approach to developing smart grid roadmaps where multiple aspects of the system enhance traditionally separate systems. According to Navigant Research, global ADMS revenue is expected to grow from $681.1 million in 2015 to $3.3 billion in 2024.

Companies analyze the global market opportunities for ADMSs. Studies provide an assessment of current operational benefits for utilities, market drivers and barriers, regional trends, and technologies, in addition to business recommendations for both vendors and utilities. Global forecasts for software purchases and upgrades, integration services, maintenance, analytics, and software as a service (SaaS) for ADMSs, segmented by region and category, extend through 2024. Reports also profile key industry players and examine several utilities that have implemented ADMS technology to align with more ambitious smart grid initiatives and aggressive regulatory policies.

Key Questions Addressed:

• What are the regional market drivers/inhibitors for advanced distribution management systems (ADMSs)?
• What are the different revenue opportunities for ADMSs?
• How do ADMSs benefit previous smart grid deployments?
• How do ADMSs support a more efficient distribution grid?
• How can ADMSs improve the operating efficiency of the utility and lower operating costs?
• What ADMS substitutes are available within the market?
• How does the convergence of information and operations technology (IT/OT) affect the ADMS market?²

Back to the tradeshow. Included in what seemed several kilometres of walking, I learned a bunch of stuff. Although one conversation that I was very familiar with centred on how much of a family-type fraternity the transmission and distribution sector is. The show floor as you can imagine was enormous. Luckily I only had to have my shoes resoled once. I wish I could say the same for my feet. The following is a small collection of tidbits that I found during my IEEE T&D travels.

Transforming reliability
A European-based firm was celebrating its 80th year in business. It started out life taking data readings from the upper atmosphere and translating those data into weather forecasting. Today, they do much the same thing albeit with much more sophisticated equipment and far greater accuracy. Now, in addition, their core business is reading and detecting power transformer faults with online monitoring tools. Their latest device provides real-time trouble-free monitoring with no false alarms or maintenance. It measures Hydrogen, Carbon Monoxide, Methane, Carbon Dioxide, Ethane, Ethylene, Acetylene, and moisture.

The company’s products are in use in 150 countries in industries where failure would present big problems including airports, pharmaceuticals, and the power industry.

Finding fault
Another firm scours the streets of cities across North America detecting stray and contact voltage underground coming from aging and/or deteriorating cables. From the cabs of their field service trucks, crews use highly sensitive equipment to find the problem and then use hand held devices to pinpoint the problem on the street. Most of the time, the local utility crews follow closely behind so any repairs can be done immediately. I became familiar with the problem a few years ago when I heard that a dog in my city had stepped on a ‘live’ manhole cover and was electrocuted. Last year the company located and saw more than 12,000 stray voltage incidents taken care of.

Going forward, they are looking at the next item in their toolkit – the use of drone technology to find problem cabling. Apparently, in the not too distant future, the FAA will be loosening the reins on height restrictions and over city flying. This opens the door for the company to explore the value in using a military-style UAV. One never knows, as the sensing technology evolves and becomes even more accurate drones may find a place in the civilian world.

Pushing paper
A very well-known company is in the testing phase of an inorganic-based insulation to enable smaller, higher-temperature, liquid-filled transformers (LFT). The new LFT product boasts excellent thermal stability up to Thermal Class 155 degrees Celsius, has very low moisture absorption, high thermal conductivity, and is sustainable (RoHS & REACH Compliant)

The new ‘wrapping paper’ has been tested to the industry standard for mineral oil quality and compatibility (per ASTM D3455). The same method has been also used for ester oil, which also meets these requirements.

Extending cable life and mitigating hole events
A west-coast U.S. company is restoring and extending the life of aging cable. Using Sustained Pressure Rejuvenation (SPR), they are brought up to like-new standards and performance. It’s done by injecting a healing and upgrading fluid into the strands of medium voltage power cable. The rejuvenation fluid migrates into the conductor shield and insulation modifying the chemistry of the insulation. The dielectric strength of the cable increases immediately. Full strength is achieved within seven to ten days.

As utility infrastructure ages and recognizing that over 2000 manhole events occur in North America, the same firm has developed a new standard in manhole covers. Problems include smoke, fire, and explosions that often trigger the wrath of politicians and the media. It’s an event suppression solution that actively vents and removes reduces combustible gases; limits exposure to water, salt, and debris; reduces risk of secondary cable failure; utilizes a cloud-based data logging system with sensors that predict events before they occur and transmits real-time alerts.

These accounts, of course, barely scratch the surface of the myriad of technological advancements that seem to come to fruition daily in the world-class world of transmission and distribution. I never failed to be impressed and very glad to be a part of it.

¹ http://library.e.abb.com/public/bd0874a998f1126b85257b12007123f8/abb_asset_services_brochure_1.31.pdf
² www.navigantresearch.com/research/advanced-distribution-management-systems