With their new GIS based outage and crisis management, the Pfalzwerke are primed for all contingencies. With GIS Portal, AED-SICAD's Internet platform based on ArcIMS ® , t he regional supplier has created an i nstrument especially for those situations , where a high degree of transparency and fast action is required.
The concept meets the demands of reality, as shows the positive feed-back from the board of directors, the crisis squad and the central network control station. All this, though the possibilities of this GIS solution in the Internet – from the combination of new topics via visual advantages until powerful analysis functions – have only been partly exhausted.
Strategic Instrument for all Purposes
The Pfalzwerke are based in the major city of Ludwigshafen . The network area of the regional supplier covers with ca. 6000 km 2 also the largest connected woodland all over Germany , along the French border. Two years ago, a construction accident happened in the western part of the supply area, causing a chain reaction in the network. This major outage gave reason to build the existing GIS-based outage and crisis management system, cutting-edge all over Germany . The aims of the system apart from the transparency of the supply situation and the identification of affected customers are especially the reduction of outage and crisis periods as well as the minimization of additional costs and losses. This way, not only exceptional situations but also “normal” outages should become more controllable.
The First Emergency – Earlier then Expected
Already in January 2007, the system has been successfully put into operation. Its basis is the GIS Portal with its extensive user and right administration, the so-called URM. At the same time, this is the first step of the Pfalzwerke towards a complete solution based on ArcFM ™ UT, the AED-SICAD standard application for Utilities on Arc GIS ® technology. The Web solution is not only stable – but it also had its first major practical test no more than five hours after its release, during the low pressure system which caused hurricane “Kyrill” in January 2007!
The data have been continuously transferred from GIS, and subsequently analyzed and edited. Thanks to the overview achieved this way, the responsible persons at the Pfalzwerke were able to locate outages in real-time, assign them, locate the source – and this way also repair them faster. Similar to a radar system, the system brought an idea to the crisis manager as well as the operative team, concerning the current situation in all parts of the supply area.
Here, the system could make full use of its typical strengths: The platform connects the technical infrastructure with the spatial inspection. The network structure is not identical with the administrative classification. With the independent layer “local borderlines”, the system bridges the world of lines and the real colonization. Especially with regard to end users, this is of major importance. The same applies intuitive color code: Red for spaces affected by outages, green shows all failure-free areas.
Peter Hauffe, Manager Geographical Information Service, Pfalzwerke:
“Our first practical experiences have shown that nothing is as fast as visual intelligence. This advantage has also been highly estimated by our colleagues in the network control station, during the close cooperation in this crisis.
Generally, the new system is able to answer all questions concerning localization. Therefore, the impact of the new system clearly transcends the simple use by our specialists. The simple operation, powerful analyzing tools as well as significant visualization support the future use by a much vaster circle.”
Monitor, Resolve, Reconstruct and Simulate Outages
In a concrete outage case, the staff in the control room no longer has to master in parallel the communication with affected persons and superiors, but may entirely concentrate on their core task – the fast damage removal of disturbance. At the same time, the system automatically takes over in the background the telephone notifications, for example of Public Administrations of Mayors. The Pfalzwerke and their customers take advantage of this relief by shorter reaction times.
The outage system stands for maximum transparency, because it allows dynamic monitoring of conditions within the network situation. With each alteration, a PDF is automatically created to be archived, thus reconstructing outages and their repair. Surpassing the actual events, in the face of threatening situations, scenarios like flood threats of single network areas can be “played through”. For similar simulations, for example, areas with flood risk are defined, buffers are set and the group of persons that is affected by outages is isolated and can in serious cased be informed. Equally, an exact definition of the location as well as the display including the neighboring infrastructure is especially meaningful. Thus, the system acts as a preventive tool to guarantee uninterrupted service.
The basic advantage of the solution lies in the Web ability provided by the GIS Portal. This means, that apart from the operational headquarters, also on-site employees may have a close look to the current status of the local networks and, vice-versa, they can bring in latest reports of the situation. Thanks to the intuitive use, the outage system in the call center, which has to inform end customers in serious cases, is an equally precious information tool for the press representative.
At present, the Pfalzwerke have conversations with the public, like County Administrations or Technical Support Organizations, with which further technical data may be exchanged in the future. Promising is also the possible cooperation with the German Meteorological Service, which could provide latest information from the storm control center, like e.g. the wind direction in the network area, to include these factors online in the GIS.
A Lot Achieved, Big Plans Ahead
As per Peter Hauffe “At the Pfalzwerke, there exists a high acceptance and even some kind of enthusiasm, especially with those persons for whom the outage system was the first contact with GIS.”
In the near future, also the maintenance vehicles of the outage teams, which are already provided with GPS, are going to be dynamically superimposed. At the same time, there are plans to extend the system, which currently covers lines of 20 kV and more, to low tension and with that to service point level. Also the demanded damage and availability statistics is scheduled to be supported in important parts by the outage system.
Contact:
Pfalzwerke Aktiengesellschaft
Peter Hauffe
E-mail: peter_hauffe@pfalzwerke.de
AED-SICAD
Gerald Kreuwel, Tel.: +49 (0)89 / 45026 – 241
E-mail: gerald.kreuwel@aed-sicad.de
Author: Robert Klarner, AED-SICAD
