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The Internet's Role in Electric Power T&D Transmission & Distribution World October 2000 Utilities Realize the Value of Internet Technologies By Chuck Newton, Automation Editor In 1999, Information Service (IS) departments focused attention mostly on eliminating the millennium bug. Today, they are developing communications-centered applications. The depth and breadth of Internet- and intranet-based applications development is keeping pace with industry change, affecting the way energy is bought, sold and delivered, and even how and when customers use it. While energy companies are busy developing Web-based approaches to running their businesses, who are the major energy users? The first in a series of Web-based monitoring and control applications will be seen this year. Still, as one observer at the CIGRE sessions in Paris noted, concern exists for system integrity and security that will minimize the possibility of a computer hacker in New York turning the power off in Paris, or vice versa. Thus, a “slow go” is in order for some applications involving remote control of operational activities. Remote monitoring, more suited to the Internet and intranets, is moving ahead. Internet and intranet developments by individual energy delivery companies are weaving a presence in every area of the industry. From business processes such as billing and customer service, to field applications such as remote substation monitoring, utilities are finding that Internet-based technologies provide low-cost communications alternatives to the costlier and more cumbersome approaches of the past. Georgia Transmission Co. Georgia Transmission Co. (GTC) is a key customer of SUBNET Solutions Inc.’s Substation Explorer product. GTC and other utilities are using the Substation Explorer as a substation human machine interface (HMI). The system provides the substation’s intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) data to users throughout the utility’s corporate enterprise, using various Internet and intranet technologies. David Van Winkle, manager of electronic maintenance says, “We particularly like how the data is always right in front of us, enabling us to monitor the condition of the entire substation at all times. The Windows look and feel also makes it very easy to program and use, as the commands are in Windows-standard format.” Van Winkle also likes the functionality of the e-mail folder. “Should a critical alarm be issued, we will always know immediately. The Substation Explorer product is going to work very well with our new frame relay network. Our future plans include utilizing the Web server features to make the data available to everyone in the organization.” Snohomish PUD At Snohomish PUD, Internet and intranet technologies are already playing a major role in reshaping the district’s business processes and practices. For example, the district’s utility-equipment-oriented online auctions that sell old equipment are paying dividends. Tradeout.com is the service used by the district to accommodate sales of its unused or older equipment. As a public utility, Snohomish is concerned with asset protection and management. Selling to the highest bidder is the way to go for used equipment sales. Conversely, Snohomish is keeping up with e-procurement and is involved with an exchange consortium known as PENTELUS. The Advantage customer Internet site (ACIS) is the PUD’s Internet-based reporting tool for centralized tracking, analysis and management of energy cost and consumption for its commercial and industrial (C&I) customers. The ACIS offering was developed through the formation of an affiliation with Avista Advantage, a market leader of energy services. The service provides multisite commercial and industrial customers with a faster, easier approach to utility management that integrates and validates utility information in real-time. “ACIS by Snohomish PUD is designed to maximize energy efficiency and lower energy costs for the utility’s C&I customer base,” says Ed Klein, information systems analyst with the PUD. E-procurement is growing in importance in several other ways within the PUD. Snohomish PUD already offers several online services to enable C&I customers to find program details and learn about energy efficiency, power quality, advanced billing and information services. Another development under consideration at the PUD is the storm information management system, which would allow employees and customers to submit information about storm conditions and outages via the Internet and e-mail. This would augment the utility’s ability to track the storm’s progress and to pinpoint crew-dispatching efforts. PECO In addition, the Internet is being used to assist large utilities such as PECO in its role as an electric supplier, in spite of the feverish pace of pre-merger reviews concerning IS capabilities with ComEd. A discussion with PECO’s Bob Maurer indicates that the current round of applications upgrades is “bringing the company to the Net” with a new generation of accounts payable, work and asset management, and online billing. Some upgrades even involve the newest release of PASSPORT by INDUS. The reason for the company’s high level of upgrade activity at this time is that the applications, which are Web-enabled, will provide seamless access to the company’s personnel, regardless of location. For outage management, PECO is moving to Intergraph’s new graphical user interface system. The system will enable operators to see the exact geographic areas affected by outages. It also will provide graphical data on the location of dispatched-service-truck route progress and activity and estimate service restoration times. Decisions are impending on how much of the outage management system (OMS) information can and should be shared with key customers, such as the more than 1000 manufacturing firms operating within PECO’s service area. Maurer notes that merger partner ComEd is already doing some Web posting of outage data. PECO’s Web site provides a wealth of information to contractors and builders, including a description of its services, contact numbers, service territory maps, applications for service, meters, tariff information, and demolition requests. The site also features a “What’s New” section of information, publications and seminars appropriate to the contractor and builder community. Portland Gas and Electric Portland Gas and Electric (PGE), Portland, Oregon, U.S., is moving ahead with some further applications. “In the Portland service area, the company learned that 70% of residential customers had computers and 50% of all customers had access to the Internet,” says Dick Myhre, a company spokesperson. “This rate placed the company third in the nation in terms of penetration of computers. This encourages us to provide additional Internet-based services.” Myhre and Rick Weijo, another company spokesperson, see two primary values coming out of the company’s growing array of Web-based service offerings. “First is the convenience this service provides PGE customers, by virtue of 24-7 availability, offering enrollment and change services on a variety of transactions and doing so more efficiently than if handled by a customer service representative,” Weijo says. “Second, the staff believes that customers have certain expectations about the Web being able to extend and expand the existing business relationships with their energy supplier. The company’s Web site recently was ranked by an outside firm as one of the top three in the country.” In the wholesale power trading area, PGE’s trading floor began posting trades on the Web by mid-1999. The company made a lot of progress with innovation, change and adoption of new technologies during its period of ownership by Enron. Wholesale power trading services available on the company’s Internet site range from schedule aggregation to prescheduling of market services to parking and lending operations. Currently, the site also posts active buy/sell offers and recently completed power trading transactions. PGE has added wind power as an offering to sell wind power contracts. Related to C&I account management activities, the company has introduced a variety of contractor services similar to the array of services offered by PECO. The company has an earth-smart site to promote high energy-efficiency certified building plans. Green power is another offering made over the Internet. In addition, residential customers can access a wide array of Internet-based services, including: starting, stopping or moving electric service; selection of payment plans; viewing interim account balances; online payment; and, residential information updates. Customers can purchase goods and services from the “electricSTORE” and the “ecoSTORE,” where environmentally friendly goods are for sale. PGE also provides a listing of certified home improvement contractors. Santee Cooper In the growing southeastern area of the United States, Santee Cooper is a state-owned public utility that provides electric service to more than 1.3 million South Carolina residents, commercial users and industrial sites. The company has attained several firsts regarding the development of its Internet activities. The company was the first power utility in the VACAR (Virginia and Carolina subregion of the Southeastern Electric Reliability Council) to file for the new Open Access Same-time Information System (OASIS) node. It is also among the first to offer extensive economic development information to prospective businesses looking for sites in the state. Thirdly, the company is the only firm we tracked that provides an e-newsletter on its site, called “Electric Marketplace,” which covers events related to deregulation as it affects the state and Santee Cooper.
Linda Wilcox and Jerry Stafford are just two of Santee Cooper’s active Internet-involved staff. Stafford says, “Santee Cooper is a member of the VACAR group of utilities, which is comprised of larger neighboring utilities. We became the first non-jurisdictional utility to file for participation in the evolving OASIS node, since the company had always felt competition by virtue of its being physically boxed in by firms such as Duke, SCANA, Southern Co. and CP&L.” Santee Cooper believes that the advent of OASIS and the ability of the company to market its transmission facilities, along with open Internet posting requirements for energy offerings, helped level the playing field for the company. “The Internet is the only viable medium that allows the transmission marketing function to work as efficiently as it does, offering a truly same-time information system to all participants,” says Wilcox. The following is a list of Internet-related developments likely to play a
role in the electric power T&D arena during the next 12 months. |
