Oncor has integrated SmartData for Outage Management, an application extension for the Ecologic MDM, with its Outage Management System and indicates that the application is performing well. During the few first months of operation, SmartData for Outage Management identified more than 80 percent of Oncor’s outage and power quality events before customers called to report a problem.
SmartData for Outage Management is an application extension developed exclusively for the Ecologic MDM solution. It leverages the smart meter data received in real-time by the MDM and quickly detects a potential power quality or outage event. Once SmartData for Outage Management determines that an event displays the characteristics of a sustained outage, the solution scopes the size and location of the outage and delivers transformer-level outage information to the Outage Management System. The process of inferring the status of meters and intelligently scoping the extent of the outage is done in minutes, and the information it delivers is meant to further enhance the Outage Management System’s ability to quickly pinpoint affected service points.
During restoration, SmartData for Outage Management verifies the effectiveness and completeness of the restoration activity. As it receives “power-up notifications” from restored metering endpoints, SmartData for Outage Management pings the other meters associated with that transformer to validate that all endpoints have been restored or identify potential nested outages before crews leave the area.
Further enhancing strong customer service for the utility, SmartData for Outage Management also coordinates with the validation, estimation, editing modules within the MDM system to generate precise zero consumption reporting during outage periods. This enables accurate proration, and estimates the usage, when appropriate, for each service point during the event, significantly improving billing data and the integrity of customer usage presentment.
