Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Beth PicardiBeth PicardiUnitil Service CorpUnitil Service Corp
Unitil Service Corporation
• Headquarters in Hampton, NH• 3 Non-contiguous distribution
operations• Massachusetts, New Hampshire• MA: both Gas & Electric • 2 NH Operations: Electric only• Unitil serves:
• 105,000 electric customer total • 15,000 gas customers
• 330 employees
Unitil’s GIS System• Migrated from AutoCAD to ESRI ArcGIS with Miner & Miner
ArcFM & Designer in 2004• Published data corporate-wide through ArcReader• Field applications for DigSafe & Inspections on tablets with
ArcFM Viewer• GIS users :Operations, Ops Service, Eng, Dispatch, DigSafe
~ 25 data consumers; 15 data editors• Standardized on Multispeak Electric model & basic ESRI
Gas/Pipeline model• Electric mapped to transformers & Gas main network only
•• NoNo service or customer link to equipment/network in GIS• GIS historically seen as mapping technology
…although AMI is changing that concept
What is AMR?
AMR ~ Automated Meter Reading• Allows meters to be read without actually viewing or
touching the meter with any other equipment• Most prevalent is mobile radio frequency (drive by)• Dial up over customer phone lines• Focus on upstream communication or meter reads
What is AMI?
AMI ~ Advanced Metering Infrastructure• “Smart meters” (endpoint)• Records customer consumption hourly/daily, report central database• Typically Two-way communication
• Upstream: meter reads & system diagnostics• Downstream: commands for remote disconnect/reconnect• Downstream: reprogramming capabilities
• Powerline carrier, Radio frequency, Broadband-over powerlines• Data stored at meter, at substation equipment & on central server • Remotely connect/disconnect meters, get metrics on-demand• Ability to set up time-of-use billing structures• Supports multiple rate periods
AMI at Unitil• Started AMI project in 2005 with Hunt Technologies• Utilizing Power Line Carrier (PLC)• Installed or retrofitted G&E & Itron meters w/ Hunt
“endpoint”• Captured GPS location of every meter installed• Two way communication
Upstream: meter substation central dbase (meter reads) Downstream: central dbase substation meter (commands)
• Electric meters retrieve Gas readings through radio frequency & report both readings (4 towns)
• 2 of our 6 Gas towns are served by another electric company decided to install AMR meters (walk-by)
AMI at Unitil• Meters collect & send data packets to respective
substations daily• Each meters is assigned unique frequency to report over• Substation Processing Unit (SPU) reports via phone lines
to meter database at corporate office • Meter database (command center) is SQL w/ web front-
end for data query, retrieval in tabular/report format• SPUs “ping” meters every 10 min for connection status• GPS coordinate table with unique Location ID linked to
CIS table for customer information• Layer created & added to GIS
Data Transfer
Substation Processing Unit (SPU)
Real Time Downstream
Command Center at UnitilENDPOINT
SQL
Individualized Data Packets
USAGE MOMENTARY OUTAGE PEAK SIGNAL QUALITY
• Unitil created 15-20 customized data packets • A meter can collect/send different data packets for different days• System “snap-shots” – customized query to every meter at specific time • Groups of meters can have same or similar packets
• Electric meters – daily usage, peak, outage, diagnostics• Multi-utility meters – daily usage gas & electric, separate diagnostics• End Of Line meters - minimum voltage & time
AMI Data in Command Center w/ Web Front End
• Can query by meter ID, SPU or territory• Cannot query by street, town, section or primary
Stage of Project
• Billing validated meters ~ 90% customers• Missing some GPS coordinates for hard to install
meters (inside meters)…current field collection project ongoing
• Conflation project needed to correct poorly mapped street network
• Preliminary look at the AMI data in GIS• Utilize data in GIS during outages, to track signal
quality issues and learn about system
Integrating AMI Data with GIS• Daily batch process update existing endpoints in GIS
with their latest data reads (from day before)• Add any new GPS endpoints collected the previous
day• All endpoints have unrestrictive customer data• Data is available companywide (ArcGIS & ArcReader)• Symbolize data by low signal quality, phase, meter
status, tamper flags, circuit id, revenue class….• GIS updates endpoint status every 20 min (“ping”) for
Lost or Found meters
Utilizing GIS During Deployment
Troubleshoot Not Logging or Lost endpoints • Symbolize by substation to show incorrect
configuration ~ is the wrong SPU looking for them?• Show Signal Quality & SNR to target loose connection
problems with field check • Display areas of lost meters to locate equipment or
customer interference in those areas• Meter ‘health check’ flags – map site visits• Tamper flags • Verifying GPS coordinates
Low Signal Quality can mean loose connections
Failed meters experiencing communication problems
Health checks could indicate the need for a meter swap-out
Post AMI Deployment
Outage Detection … our first experiment
• Every 10 min each endpoint update their STATUS for Lost or Found – feed directly to GIS
• Used in conjunction with our IVR system helps us sort current outages & previously restored problems
• Learned that a “lost” endpoint is not always an outage• Poor signal quality (due to cap banks or noise on the
line)• Circuit transfers, looped networks, switching
scenarios (will be corrected in next software release)• Loss of communication from substation to main office• Disconnected service
Lost Meters during Storms
Slides show data for the period between Jan ~ April 07• Unitil had 3 major storms/exclusionary events• MA, NH or both were declared States of Emergency
• January 16th – 18th ~ 3 day ice storm• February 14th ~ Valentine’s Day blizzard• April 16th flood ~ Boston Marathon (38°w/ sheets of rain)
(notice April was still winter in New England this past year)
January 16th – 18th ~ 3 day ice storm
Jan 16, 2007
At the height of the storm almost 50% of our customers were out of power in Massachusetts
April 16th flood at Exeter Substation
Next 3 slides are Massachusetts Territory for Jan ~ April 07Symbolize each endpoint in GIS for specific time period
• Number of outage events• Duration customer was out in minutes• Momentary events
Outage Events per Endpoint
Jan ~ April 2007
Minutes Out per Endpoint
Jan ~ April 2007
Momentary Events per EndpointJan ~ April 2007
Distribution Capacitor Banks• Population
swells in beach communities
~ Town of Hampton gains 100,000 tourists to 20,000 winter population
• Data packets see capacitor banks as short circuits, source
• Reads were not getting to substation
• Meters were lost due to cap bank frequency interruptions
• Next 3 slides are Massachusetts Territory for Outage, Outage Duration, Momentary for the summer months• Showcased data to the MA Dept. of Public Utilities use it for summer preparedness for next year
Outage Events per EndpointJun ~ Aug 2007
Outage Duration per EndpointJun ~ Aug 2007
Momentaries per EndpointJun ~ Aug 2007
Gas Endpoints
• Display where our customers are along our main network in GIS
• Percentage of market share when used with municipal parcels
• Calculate number of customers associated with a critical valves to limit outage exposure & minimize loss of gas service
Benefits of AMI for Unitil$10M project external cost; 10 year payback• Reduction of 16 Meter Readers & 3 Meter Worker positions
• No layoffs; through retirements & job placements in other dept. • Improved actual meter reads vs. estimated reads
• Inside meters were frequently estimated, hard to track, customers generally questioned their bills
• Actual Electric reads from 96% to 98%; Gas 92% to 97% (1 year)• Eliminated all work orders for account transfers
• Automated 18,758 account transfers in the last 12 months (MA only)• No longer need to send somebody out for final billing read
• Tamper flags immediately send alarm to Customer Service• CS has daily reads to better assist customers billing question• Enhanced System monitoring (EOL, momentary data)
Benefits of AMI Data in GIS• First time Unitil has customers in GIS
• Groundwork for customer to circuit/gas main time• Data sharing ~ CIS to GIS & back…
• Customer’s circuit ID (keeper was CIS)• Customer’s phase (keeper was GIS)
• Customer load data, peak, outages, momentary …all in GIS & ENG circuit load models
• Re-target a meter’s SPU for switching scenarios • Find meters with incorrect GPS locations
• Label by physical address…why are they there??• Current cleanup & ongoing meter GPS project
• GIS becoming a company asset
What we have learned?• Need to add business rules to data for GIS
• How can GIS determine false outages as result of communication loss?
• How can GIS calculate momentary, outages by also compare with meter/account history?
• How can GIS understand exclusionary/major storm events?
• Best lessons learned have been during winter storms and summer peak days
• Daily reads in GIS yields large amounts of data • ENG looking for patterns or changes over time • Daily data reads means need for archiving
• Need for accurate land base is essential
What’s next?• Continue to GPS meters as installed, keep the
dataset up-to-date• Linking endpoint to service transformer in GIS…
• Groundwork for Outage Management System• Produce an exact customer count during an outage
by individual isolating device• Populate information into IVR system for restoration
call backs to all customers affected • Automate customer lists from GIS for planned
outages to prevent customer reimbursement• Model true customer load, not evenly distributed
What’s next?
• Installing AMI meters on small wind turbines on distribution network to measure daily generation
• Create power quality/reliability metric surfaces• Analyze system performance characteristics• Overly momentaries & tree trimming patterns – are we
targeting the right areas• Monitor End of Line meters for low voltage • Display daily consumption patterns – peak, TOU
Momentary Events w/ Tree Trimming Schedule
94%
95%
97.5%
100%
End of Line Meters Report Minimum Voltage & Time Daily
Display customer peak time to analyze consumption patterns
Display TOUfor daily pricing blocks
