Improving Gas Leak Response in a HeightenedRegulatory Environment with ARCOS Callout

Bruce A. DuffCEO

www.ARCOS-INC.com

Agenda

• Current callout and leak response practices• The challenges with manual approaches• Automated callout and employee availability scheduling• Callout automation: Gas utility case studies• Summary & questions

Gas Emergency Events

State and Regulator Meetings:“Where’s your documentation?”

Customers:“If it can happen there, how can you ensure it won’t happen here?”

Media feeding frenzy

Increasing demand for Accountability, Transparency and Results.

Minutes Matter• With gas emergencies, utilities must quickly find the closest qualified

responders• Consistent poor response attracts regulator attention• Slow response can lead to disaster• Poor performance affects company value

Documentation and Data Matter• Resources called• Resources secured• Proof of response• Response timeline• Internal performance benchmarking

– Common repairs– Service centers– Crews

• Overtime equalization• Mitigation and elimination of grievances• Internal and external reporting accuracy

The Goals of Emergency Callout• Get the right people to gas leaks quickly

– PUC, company response goals, investor metrics• Follow the callout rules

– Union/business policies• Don’t make mistakes

– Grievances or overtime payouts to settle up • Document the event

– PUC, union and company reporting• Comply with Fatigue Management Policies

– Employee safety and potential grievances

Paper Callout Lists

Risk Reliability

Risk Revenue

Risk ResourceManagement

Manual Employee Tracking Process

Current Callout Situation for Gas Utilities

• Disparate silos of information– Callout lists– Phone numbers– Who’s working, who’s available, who’s on exception

• Manual callout process• Manual employee availability tracking• Manual documentation• Everything is on paper or white boards• All information is decentralized• Callout practices are inconsistent• Callout rules are not written down

Consequences of Manual Callout & Scheduling

• Inconsistent callout practices and results• Callouts filled slowly, especially secondary crew requests• Double, triple, quadruple keying of data to keep systems up to date• Mistakes: grievances/overtime settle up costs• No documentation making it difficult to address poor performers• No accountability from the individual to managerial levels• Very difficult to turn over callout to a centralized group (e.g. dispatch)• Difficult to identify areas for process and performance improvement

ARCOS:Automated Callout and Scheduling

Fill callout requests faster, improve overall emergency service response via centralized callout lists, employee working status, exceptions and callout rules in a single internet-accessible database application.

Automated Callout: Overview

SystemReadiness

CalloutProcess

Callout RecapAnd Reporting

• System Readiness– Callout lists by location, job classification, or crew– Business rule compliance: Union and business practices– Real-time availability status of all employees– Integration with other systems to ensure current information

• Accountability– Rules baked into system – Equal access to data– Proof of compliance with business & labor rules

ARCOS Callout: System Readiness

SystemReadiness

CalloutProcess

Callout Recapand Reporting

Automated Callout: Callout Process

SystemReadiness

CalloutProcess

Callout Recapand Reporting

• Callout Process– Initiates callout– Confirms callout rules and availability– Begins automated callout– Gets accept or decline of callouts by employees– Ends callout and release employees

• Transparency– Execute against rules without personal bias– Complete documentation of every callout– Granular data proving callout execution

Automated Callout: Callout Recap and Reporting

SystemReadiness

CalloutProcess

Callout Recapand Reporting

• Callout Recap and Reporting– Reporting for management

• Callout detail; Callout duration; Callout recap– Reporting for callout availability

• By company, business unit, division, location, individual, job class, roster, etc.

– Reporting for union or business compliance

• Results– Prove second-by-second timeline of events– Prove history of callout performance– Prove compliance to fatigue and safety rules

Case Studies

AvistaBefore ARCOS:

• Manual callout method to call first responders

• Needed to call employee cell phones and pagers

• Manually sorted callout rosters to equalize overtime work opportunities

• When a first responder could not solve the problem, dispatch started calling for the required crew

• Dispatch and supervisors spent time making and documenting calls to get required personnel

• While calling for crews, dispatch and supervisors could not do anything else

AvistaAfter ARCOS:• Completely automated callout and employee tracking

• Supervisors and managers are notified of callouts as soon as they start

• Safety and alert messages of leaks and repair status are sent to managers, executive management and communication managers

• Reduced gas-leak response time by 13% or 7 minutes per event since 2009

• Automated callout performance reporting has improved employee and manager accountability

• Article link: http://www.arcos-inc.com/for-avista-gas-leak-response-is-automatic

NiSource - Columbia GasBefore ARCOS:• Manual callouts performed by centralized dispatch organization

• Callout lists for each state updated and printed daily (19 labor agreements)

• Over 50 different callout rules & methods

• Handwritten callout documentation

• No ability to measure company, service center or individual performance

• Impossible to determine cross-company best practices

NiSource - Columbia GasCallout automation goals:

• Continuous improvement

– Average leak response time (1st responder)

– Average response time for secondary crews

– Free up dispatchers to focus on customer issues

• Data Integrity and Transparency

– Automation of all callout documentation & recording

– Data performance comparisons to identify best practices

• Accountability

– Capability to identify and call the closest responder

– Overall leak response and individual callout performance

NiSource - Columbia GasAfter ARCOS:• Continuous improvement

– Average callout time for 1st responder reduced by 50% – Average callout time for secondary crews reduced from hours to minutes– Dispatchers able to focus on customers and scheduling versus manually calling for

1st responders and crews

• Data Integrity and Transparency– All callout documentation centralized including call recordings– Data comparisons:

• Operating Company vs. Operating Company• Service Center vs. Service Center• Crew vs. Crew• Average time for common repairs• Average time to fill a callout (1st Responder & Crew)

• Accountability– Ability to call the closest available responder– Individual performance for callouts

NiSource - Columbia GasAfter ARCOS:

• Closest-to-the-Trouble Callout (CTT)• Geographical-based callout of the closest available responder to the

trouble address

Central Hudson Gas & ElectricBefore ARCOS• Manual callout and tracking of first responders• Callouts taking too much time and too much manpower to fill• Mistakes in callout order resulted in union grievances• Manual tracking of employee work exceptions• Callout was handled through supervisors in 5 different service territories

Central Hudson Gas & ElectricAfter ARCOS• Automated callout and employee availability tracking with ARCOS• Centralized callout into dispatch group• Met the Commission’s requirement 99% of the time by responding to gas

odor complaints within 45 minutes 90% of the time• Reduced average response time by 6% while experiencing reduced staff

and increased meter sets• No grievances• Article link: http://www.arcos-inc.com/in-case-of-emergency-click-here?h=

• Annual Soft Costs– Accountability:

• Employee performance: Identify & manage poor performers $75,000– Transparency:

• Maintain homegrown system for data entry and reporting $50,000– Interrogation & Scrutiny:

• Court fees; Media training $100,000+• Gas Leak Response Fines from Regulators ($1M fine x 5% probability) $50,000

Total Soft Cost Savings $275,000

• Annual Hard Costs: Automating the crew callout process– Reduce callout dispatch time: save 40% of dispatcher’s time $33,000– Reduce crew assembly wait time: 1 ½ hr x $60/hr x 4 people x 200 callouts x 50% $36,000– Reduce callout documentation time (1 FTE’s time) $45,000– Reduce list maintenance time (1 FTE’s time) $45,000– Reduce supervisors’ time during callout (20% of 5 FTE’s time) $60,000– Eliminate cost of grievances (avoiding) or settle-up costs $10,000

Total Hard Cost Savings $229,000

Total Annual Savings $504,000

Gas Utilities: Business Case

Conclusion• Automating callout and employee availability scheduling:

– Improves gas leak response times– Eliminates callout related grievances– Increases employee and supervisor accountability– Allows comparison and creation of callout best practices– Pays for the automation through O&M cost savings

Improving Gas Leak Response in a HeightenedRegulatory Environment with ARCOS Callout

Bruce A. DuffCEO

www.ARCOS-INC.com