SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

JULY 2017 tdworld.com

Integrated
Asset Management
—
Bridging the gap to enable
a smarter grid

The world of power is going through a major shift with increased supply-
side complexities such as renewables, and distributed power as well as new
demand loads like data centers and electric vehicles. This requires the grid
to be more flexible and intelligent, driving the convergence of information
technologies (IT) and operational technologies (OT) and highlighting the
need for predictive maintenance with Asset Health solutions. ABB techno-
logies are at the forefront of this transformation, shaping the Internet of
Things to enable a stronger, smarter and greener grid. new.abb.com/grid

The Digital Dilemma
By Gene Wolf, Technical Writer
T
echnical conferences and trade shows are
interesting places to hang out. I love them
because the action happens there. I meet
a lot of interesting people and have found, if I
keep my eyes open, I might get a preview of some
game-changing technology that is just emerg-
ing from the lab. In the 1980s, someone had the
bright idea to build an electric meter that read
itself, which morphed into a meter that could
monitor and control customer loads. That de-
veloped into today’s smart meters, which mutated into many
different sensor-laden pieces of equipment for the T&D grid.
Once the technological genie gets out of its bottle, the re-
sult can be very interesting. Devices with sensors and monitor-
ing systems brought about the notion of today’s smart grid,
and these technological building blocks were introduced at
technical conferences and trade shows. That’s why I got ex-
cited when Rick Bush asked me to meet him at the IEEE PES
T&D Expo in Dallas, Texas. We had just fnished “The Digital
Grid and Beyond” supplement (August 2016) and were trying
to decide where this digital adventure would take us next.
The “Digital Grid” supplement looked at how powerful
computers and sophisticated software programs were in-
troducing digital tools and gaining the attention of utilities
and manufacturers. Technologies like the Internet of Things
(IoT), cloud-based computing and storage, edge of grid and
big data are making inroads, but where is this digital technol-
ogy going?
It’s the Name
We found the answer tucked into the vendors’ foor ex-
hibits, behind the fashy smart grid hardware and off to the
left of the coffee bar. We discovered what we were looking for
in the software simulations on display. The digital technolo-
gies comprising our smarter devices have given the hardware
a self-awareness. These devices can monitor themselves and
send data to computer systems, which can determine the
device’s health and its ability to function properly. They go by
the name of the next-generation asset management system.
Do not get caught up in the asset management name. Old-
school asset management systems were basically spreadsheets
used to keep track of the organization’s components, which
had very little to do with managing anything. They were little
more than census forms, listing the name of the equipment
and where it lived.
Modern asset management systems have become one of
the most complex elements of the power-delivery industry.
They sort the data generated by the utility’s smart grid equip-
ment and combine it with data from maintenance records.
They spot trends and produce valuable information the utility
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can use. The information can be used to spot a
765-kV power transformer that is about to fail
and take out half the grid with it. Or, the soft-
ware can make the calendar obsolete when it
comes to scheduling maintenance.
This came about from a software application
called correlation processing, which compared
data from a healthy aircraft engine to real-time
data sent from an operating aircraft engine.
The technology spotted unhealthy trends de-
veloping in the operational engine and fagged it for mainte-
nance. It was so successful that nuclear power plant operators
and manufacturers thought it would be a promising idea to
adapt this technology into their plants and equipment. Like
the aircraft industry, it worked for the nuclear power plants.
Both applications rely on equipment with integrated sen-
sors and monitoring systems that can communicate with ad-
vanced computer programs. With smart grid technology so
deeply ingrained in the grid, it seemed that the next logical
progression was to take advantage of the super-sophisticated
asset managing platforms.
These systems take the data and produce a real-time assess-
ment of the performance of the various pieces of equipment.
They also can determine whether the asset is performing cor-
rectly and whether maintenance is required. The technology
has progressed to the point of making recommendations as to
whether the device should be repaired, replaced or recondi-
tioned based on its importance to the T&D grid.
These are not traditional asset management systems.
These systems have awareness. They know the asset’s health,
they know the asset’s criticality to the grid, and they know the
risk to the system each type of corrective action will produce.
What’s Next?
The deployment of this next generation of asset perfor-
mance tools is moving forward on a global scale. Some utili-
ties have installed enterprisewide asset management systems,
while others are experimenting with staged projects, testing
the technology. Others are taking a conservative approach,
watching and studying the subject.
In the meantime, technologies such as IoT, cloud-comput-
ing and big data technologies are being included in advanced
asset managing platforms, and they bring added capabilities
with them. The era of technologically augmented asset deci-
sion making is here. Are we ready? Probably not.
Like everything else digital technology has touched, the
businesses that are using these sophisticated asset managing
tools will have a tremendous advantage over those that are
not. It is going to be uncomfortable, even disruptive, but excit-
ing. It is the future. Hold on tight!
July 2017 | T&D World 1
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It Smoldered for Days

By Wade Smith, American Electric Power

W
eeks might pass before a transformer locally and had to be gathered manually. One
can be disassembled safely to deter- of my colleagues referred to the unwieldy data
mine the reason why it exploded and fles as the “data dumpster.”
incinerated. I am told this situation is not un- AEP sought a better way to analyze equip-
common when extra-high-voltage (EHV) trans- ment performance and help engineers identify
formers fail. Nobody wants to be near one of areas requiring attention. We needed a system
these (or a breaker) when it fails, and replacing that enabled us to organize, query and analyze
one is costly and time consuming. the data collected. We started our AHC in 2012
To protect our employees, contractors, the with goals to prevent equipment failures, opti-
public and assets, American Electric Power mize maintenance effectiveness and support
(AEP) needed a tool to monitor the health of vital equipment, asset renewal decisions. AEP’s approach focused on sending
analyze data and signal alarms whenever abnormal conditions critical actionable alarms from the AHC to the transmission
were observed. AEP needed a better way to predict equipment operations center as well as targeted notifcations to engineers
failures so we could intervene beforehand. alerting them of anomalies.
AEP operates a 40,000-mile (64,374-km) transmission sys- During development, a big question we had to answer was,
tem, the largest in the U.S. Much of the equipment was in- what exactly should we monitor? We concluded that we should
stalled more than 50 years ago and some equipment even 80 monitor the things that mattered most, such as the param-
to 100 years ago. Some of this equipment needed to be up- eters correlating to the root causes of trouble and the param-
graded. A tool for monitoring equipment health enabled us eters that can be corrected through maintenance. Leveraging
to prioritize asset replacement based on condition and perfor- existing data collected through our supervisory control and
mance, not simply age. The solution is the Asset Health Center data acquisition (SCADA) network — for example, transform-
(AHC), which provides ac- er temperatures and loads —
tionable information based would be essential.
on real-time monitoring and Vendors developed new
trending. on-line sensing equipment to
meet our requirements. En-
Monitoring Evolution gineers tailored monitoring
AEP had instrumented schemes according to equip-
T&D station equipment be- ment type and voltage class.
fore, but those attempts were For transformers, AEP chose
unsuccessful. Many earlier to monitor dissolved gasses
monitoring devices required (in near real time), bushing
frequent and costly main- health, moisture levels, oil
tenance. AEP also saw high and core temperatures, pump
failure rates because the de- and fan operation, and load
vices could not stand up to Extra-high-voltage transformer failures are expensive and dangerous. tap-changer positions, among
the harsh conditions at many sta- other things. Breaker monitors
tions across the utility’s sprawling record the timing of the mecha-
service territory. nism, pump starts, pressures
AEP required robust, low- and operating coil current draw
maintenance monitoring devices signatures.
that were simple to operate as Simultaneously, AEP devel-
well as easy to set up and inter- oped a governance policy for
rogate. Monitors had to integrate data, which included identifca-
with other devices and our data tion of the master data source,
collection systems. They could data aggregation and communi-
not be, as in the past, stand-alone cations protocols, data storage
systems or proprietary equipment and organization, plus quality
that did not work well with other requirements, checks and stan-
systems and equipment. In many Asset Health Center devices are compact and suited for the dards. At an ideal time in our
previous cases, data was held substation environment. journey, a new and more sophis-

2 T&D World | July 2017

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ticated generation of monitoring feld organization. These pilot

technology had evolved that was projects look promising, and
more robust and interoperable AEP is already diagnosing prob-
than its antecedents. Another lems and calling for maintenance
contributor to our success was our actions before equipment failure
fber-optic network, which was or inoperability.
expanding and made it easier to AEP’s long-range plan is
deliver large amounts of data to a to use the real-time system to
central repository. help with testing obligations for
Next, we had to turn data into North American Electric Reli-
actionable information for system ability Corporation compliance,
operators, feld employees and as- starting with station batteries.
set managers. This led AEP to a Transmission planning and asset
partnership with ABB. In 2013, One of the 225 transformers fitted with AHC monitoring management engineers also have
AEP began developing an analyti- equipment. started using AHC information
cal engine, initially focused on trans- in the planning process. As designed,
former performance, that later be- AHC information informs our asset
came our AHC software. replacement prioritization process.
The algorithms in the engine are As we use the AHC, we continue
based on engineering principles, to refne our predictive capabilities
industry experience and statistical based on data and experience. Be-
models. The tool uses real-time in- cause dielectric strength is critical
formation from the SCADA network, in EHV transformers, for example,
on-line monitoring data, equipment AEP decided to monitor partial dis-
manuals, inspection reports and prior charge. Our engineers saw a partial-
maintenance activities to predict and discharge signature in a review of the
prioritize equipment-specifc risks of Asset Health Center equipment is commissioned AHC monitoring data. This discovery
failure. The algorithms also detect prior to energizing the transformer. led to a new ultra-high-frequency
changes in operating characteristics partial-discharge alarming scheme.
by equipment type and sometimes by manu- The AHC is designed to improve safety.
facturer. For example, a normal operating For example, before approaching an EHV
signature for one transformer could be a transformer for maintenance, feld person-
precursor for catastrophe in another man- nel can contact an AHC team member for
ufacturer’s transformer. real-time, transformer-specifc data. If con-
ditions at the transformer change and be-
AHC in Action come unsafe, feld employees are alerted.
Enterprisewide deployment of the Many transformers have sirens and strobe
technology started in 2016, with moni- lights that activate when there is a partial-
tors initially ftted on EHV transformers discharge alarm. Employees evacuate the
(new and retroftted). By April 2017, AEP area when an alarm sounds.
had installed monitors on more than 225 Engineers and feld personnel use the
EHV transformers, and today our AHC AHC web-based dashboards to pinpoint
monitors perform around the clock. Ben- trouble. The AHC automatically issues
efts were immediate as our AHC detected Digital technology has reduced the size alarms to control room operators when
trouble, and we prevented the failure of of monitoring equipment, making it high-risk conditions needing immediate
three EHV transformers, for an estimated easier to fit in tight spaces. action are detected. It also e-mails engi-
savings of US$15 million to $20 million. Two were repaired in neers about areas of concern that do not require immediate
short order and returned to service. Had the AHC not been action.
monitoring them, they would have failed, likely irreparably. The AEP transmission AHC has been a tremendous suc-
AEP’s success with EHV transformers has resulted in the cess. It is preventing equipment failures, optimizing main-
expansion of AEP’s program to 138-kV transformers and tenance and supporting asset renewal decisions. We have
led to pilot programs for circuit breakers, batteries and un- realized savings that offset the costs of the project. More im-
derground cables. We are following the same process for the portantly, we have provided a more reliable energy grid for
expanded categories of equipment: collecting the right data, customers and a safer work environment for employees.
developing algorithms to predict and prioritize risk, and pro-
viding actionable information to system operators and the Wade Smith is senior vice president of grid development for AEP.

July 2017 | T&D World 3

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Investing
Appropriate investment in the T&D network
is key to meeting customers’ needs while
generating reasonable returns for shareholders.
By Gene Wolf, Technical Writer
T
he power-delivery system represents one of the most
asset-intensive industries on the planet, and reliable
daily operation requires an in-depth understanding
of how these assets perform. An asset is defned as
a physical resource, but for those managing a utility’s assets
 transmission lines, distribution circuits, transformers and
circuit breakers  these physical resources might feel more
like liabilities. This may be particularly true when considering
most utilities have a hodgepodge of parts and pieces making
up their systems, often with little more than spreadsheets and
fow diagrams to keep track of them.
Add to that today’s shifting priorities, regulatory changes,
customer demands and fnancial pressures, and it is no wonder
so many managers feel lost in this sea of uncertainty. Because
4 T&D World | July 2017
asset decisions affect many business practices, it is important
utilities understand the need to invest in an integrated ap-
proach to modernize the system to maintain the performance
and health of their assets. This is especially true in power de-
livery, which is such a patchwork of old and new components
that make up the T&D infrastructure.
Cash fows can depend on what type of maintenance phi-
losophy is appropriate for the mix of components found on
each individual system. Utilities should not gamble on what
part is about to fail and how that failure will impact the local
system, the regional network and the national grid. Effective
asset management is an investment that pays large dividends
with reduced risks, but there is the perception the electric util-
ity industry is tightfsted when it comes to spending money,

in Assets
which is not true. Investing in infrastructure is key to main-
taining the ability to transfer electrons, which is the only func-
tion that generates revenues for T&D utilities.
Asset Investment
Utilities and operators have a long history of investing in
the T&D infrastructure, but many critics think it is not hap-
pening fast enough. Some uninformed naysayers feel the in-
dustry is not investing in the infrastructure at all. There are
even some groups who talk about how Edison would be right
at home in today’s substations and generating plants, infer-
ring old-fashioned and outmoded facilities.
While this is defnitely not the case, we do move slowly,
which may give those unfamiliar with the dependability re-
quirements of regulators and customers that impression. It re-
ally is the nature of the electric power industry, not to mention
the delays brought about by permitting, environmental studies
and regulatory approval. So much depends on electricity be-
ing there when the switch is closed, which means utilities work
in a manner that must be well thought through and carefully
executed. Also, utilities invest in systems that are expected to
perform for a minimum of 30 years, so they have an incentive
to ensure they purchase quality products and systems.
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After all, this is the industry where 99.99% reliability (avail-
able all but 52.56 minutes a year) is not good enough. The
industry strives to improve to the coveted fve nines (99.999%)
goal. This equates to a cumulative downtime of 5 minutes and
15 seconds a year or less, but the more complicated the system,
the harder it is to reach such a goal. Outages have certainly
gotten everyone’s attention, and there is other data to tell
utilities their reliability from the many evaluation systems and
surveys available.
The Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER) re-
cently published its “6th Benchmarking Report on the Quality
of Electricity and Gas Supply” in 2016. In this report, CEER
separated outages into planned and unplanned events. This
report indicated that unplanned interruptions varied by the
reporting country and fuctuated from 10 minutes to 1100
minutes. In the U.S., the annual “Eaton Blackout Tracker”
reported electric customers in the U.S. experienced power
outages that vary based on location, too. The report stated
3571 outages took place in 2015, and the average duration was
49 minutes.
Both reports indicated geographical location and the size
of the network (load and circuit miles) being rated have the
biggest infuence over the availability of power supply. Other
July 2017 | T&D World 5
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Infrastructure Awareness
Annual Revenue for Power Grid AMCM Devices and Solutions Asset investment played an impor-
World Markets 2014-2023
8 tant part in ASCE’s 2017 Infrastruc-
Sofware and analytics ture Report Card, giving the U.S.
7
Sensing hardware energy system a D+ for its lackluster
6 condition and performance in 2016.
Billions of dollars

ASCE reports a great deal of the

5
T&D lines were constructed in the
4 1950s and 1960s, and — with an aver-
age 50-year life expectancy — many
3
components are beyond design life.
2 ASCE also stated these aged facilities
were not engineered to meet today’s
1
demanding requirements.
0 EEI’s “2016 Transmission Projects
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Year at a Glance” report agrees that the
electric infrastructure needs mod-
Navigant forecasts the global market for AMCM technology on a cumulative basis will exceed ernizing and upgrading to meet the
$49 billion through 2023. Courtesy of Navigant Research.
21st century electric demands, but
does not agree utilities have not been
Historical and Projected Transmission Investment
investing in their systems. The report
25
points out EEI members are making
signifcant investments in smart grid
20
assets to make their systems more
Billions of dollars

robust, resilient and dynamic.

15 Also, an EPRI report discussing
integrated operations and main-
10 tenance maintains modernization
investment is taking place. EPRI
5 said, “The amount of information-
producing technology relating to
0 equipment and equipment condition
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 continues to expand.”
Actual Projected Supporting the position the in-
Year dustry is indeed investing in the
grid, the International Energy Agen-
EEI members spent $93.4 billion on transmission infrastructure and are projected to spend cy (IEA) reported approximately
$83.5 billion through 2019. Courtesy of EEI.
US$5 trillion will be invested in T&D
studies reveal the grid’s continuity of supply also is affected by infrastructure globally from 2015 to 2030. In addition to the
new regulations, new technologies, and new operating strate- IEA study, the Northeast Group LLC published a detailed
gies such as incorporating intermittent renewables and meet- report last year titled, “Global Electricity Transmission and
ing more stringent reliability standards. Distribution Infrastructure Dataset (2016-2026).”
However, the bottom line is that a great deal of pressure Northeast Global made several notable observations in
is being exerted by outside forces — including regulators, the report concerning how the grid asset investment is be-
stakeholders and customers — for the industry to invest more ing spent. The report stated, “The global T&D infrastructure
money on infrastructure to improve the robustness of the market currently represents $282 billion in annual invest-
grid. Interrelated to this idea is the fact that managing the ment, split between traditional infrastructure (transmission
utility’s assets has been defned as the most critical problem and distribution substations and power lines) and smart infra-
for utilities in the digitized grid. This is especially true when structure (distribution automation) as well as new and aging
considering the aging components that comprise so much of equipment. Traditional infrastructure investment currently
today’s T&D infrastructure throughout the world. makes up 92% of total new annual spending, but smart asset
Outdated and aging infrastructure is frequently cited as investment will rise to over 17% of total new T&D facilities
one of the biggest threats to the global energy supply by many investment by 2026.”
research and professional organizations, such as the Ameri- This is a very insightful statement by Northeast Global.
can Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Edison Electric Insti- Utilities and operators are poised to shift their spending
tute (EEI) and Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI). in traditional asset investment to smart grid technology by

6 T&D World | July 2017

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17% in the next nine-plus years,

which will improve their managing Extreme Weather Is Causing More Major Power Outages
(major = at least 50,000 customers afected)
abilities. 150

Adding Smarter Assets Storms and severe weather

120 Cold weather and ice storms
This shift shows an increasing Hurricanes and tropical storms

Number of outages
need for additional information Tornadoes
about the condition of system com- 90 Extreme heat and wildfires
ponents. Fortunately, many pieces of
new equipment now being installed 60
have built-in intelligence. T&D grid
modernization now includes tech- 30
nologies that have the ability to make
systems more self-aware and make 0
sense of the data being gathered. In 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012
some parts of the world, utilities are Year
investing specifcally in assets with
sensors to increase their ability to Weather-related outages have been increasing and impacting the industry goal of 99.999% reliabil-
ity. Asset performance systems are improving utility responses. Courtesy of Climate Central.
see how those assets are performing,
while others are getting the technology because it is built into These issues also are increasing the awareness of asset
the equipment. monitoring systems for regulators and utilities alike, which
Therefore, the key question is, are the utilities taking could be a solution for both groups. At many utilities, asset
advantage of all aspects of that technology or are they only knowledge is spread among service providers, stored in en-
focused on adding circuit miles to the balance sheet? Some gineers’ computers, and locked in accountants’ spreadsheets
insight from the executive suite is available in the recently and managers’ fowcharts. Capturing this knowledge and
published “2016 Strategic Directions: Electric Industry Re- making it usable is a crucial challenge.
port,” produced by Black & Veatch (B&V). Therefore, B&V asked its survey respondents if their util-
The B&V report is a yearly snapshot of the power-delivery ity had an organization or department that was completely
system based on 700 respondents, which shows trends taking responsible for asset performance, health and/or reliability.
place in the industry. According to this year’s B&V report, Of the respondents, 48.6% said their utility had a responsible
“Utilities have an appetite for smart, con-
nected products and services to solve their Electric Service Provider: Is your company planning on making major investments in asset
most pressing issues around reliability and management tools or processes over the next three years? (Select one choice.)
resilience.” Planned Investments in Asset Management By Population Served
The report also stated, “Electric utili- Tools or Processes
Less than 500,000 to 2,000,000
ties are charged with preparing their 500,000 1,999,999 or more
infrastructure to accommodate new de-
Yes 32.1% 38.1% 35.0%
mands on the grid. At the same time, asset
No 50.9% 28.6% 35.0%
management has increasingly been lever-
Don’t know 17.0% 33.3% 43.3%
aged to help utilities with the long-term
decision-making associated with the regu-
lations and the changing energy market.” Using
Electric Service Provider: Does your company currently have an organization or
these technologies to operate their systems ef- department that is responsible for asset health and/or reliability? (Select one choice.)
fciently and avoid unnecessary risks is funda-
mental to asset management in the 21st century. 31.1%
The report also discussed regulatory require- No, but asset health is a shared
ments that are raising asset management ques- responsibility across multiple
organizations
tions. Regulators are becoming sensitive to grid
reliability and the interdependence of aging
assets and grid resilience in the equation. As a 48.6% 14.1%
Yes, it is a defined No
result, some jurisdictions are requiring utilities organization within
to update (that is, invest in) their infrastructure our corporate
structure
6.2%
to improve reliability, and regulators are asking Don’t know
utilities to trace faults to specifc assets, which
can be extremely diffcult in a silo-oriented Asset management is becoming more centralized within utilities worldwide. Courtesy of
asset spreadsheet environment. Black & Veatch.

July 2017 | T&D World 7

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entity. What was really signifcant, Another interesting survey re-

31.1% said they did not have a spe- sponse was the fact 45% of the ex-
cifc group, but they shared the re- ecutives reported the need for IT/
sponsibility across the enterprise. OT integration varied from very
Only 14.1% said they did not have important to extremely important
anyone charged with asset manage- to their organizations. The survey
ment. The takeaway is that an asset also found 41% thought their inte-
management function is important gration within the enterprise was
to 79.7% of the electric service pro- going fairly well.
viders surveyed. When the survey quizzed the ex-
To move forward, utilities must ecutives about the infuence of the
invest in managing systems that Internet of Things (IoT) technol-
bring together dissimilar technolo- ogy on their asset management op-
gies for a better understanding of erations, more than 50% thought it
the increasingly complex T&D as- was important. Surprisingly, only
set base. 22% of the executives reported
their organizations had an IoT as-
IT/OT Connectivity set management strategy in place,
The need for the enterprise to while 38% said their organiza-
share asset information across the tions plan to implement a strategy.
organization is happening slowly. With all the sensors, smart meters
Utilities are realizing they must in- and monitoring systems, many felt
Sensors provide real-time transformer intelligence online.
vest in systems that feature connec- Courtesy of ABB. the lines between IT and OT had
tions between IT and OT at both blurred to the extent IoT made
the technological and organizational levels. These systems can sense. Still, 42% of the executives reported their utilities had
generate tremendous amounts of real-time data, giving the util- no plans for IoT asset management.
ity situational awareness and visibility across the organization. The results of the survey showed utilities worldwide have
Smarter grid technologies combined with IT/OT systems identifed investments in management schemes will be in-
enable engineers to boost the T&D system effciency, increase creasing and IT/OT integration will be a key strategy for long-
its reliability and enhance its resilience, but the users need to term capital planning efforts.
have systems in place to manage this large amount of asset
information being generated. EPRI pointed out, “This creates Assets Monitoring Assets
a situation in which management and personnel can quickly IT/OT systems are moving asset management in the di-
become overwhelmed with information if the proper process- rection of an end-to-end connected enterprise, which should
es are not in place to help manage this information.” increase effciency and cost-effectiveness within the organiza-
To better understand the connectivity taking place be- tion. These systems bring asset condition information from
tween IT and OT, ABB, Microsoft and Zpryme surveyed 221 different areas within the utility to one main management sys-
utility executives from around the world in 2016. The goal was tem for an enterprisewide asset management network.
to learn more about their IT/OT approaches to asset moni- Navigant Research performed an investigation of the in-
toring systems, and the results were intriguing. Nearly every vestment in asset management and condition monitoring
one of the respondents said asset management was a priority (AMCM) technology taking place within the global utility
for their organizations, yet only 38% felt their technology and industry, and found, “AMCM is evolving rapidly for all indus-
business groups worked fairly well together. tries, but particularly for electric utilities deploying smart grid
technology.” Navigant also found, “In the past, asset manage-
ment within a utility may have meant something as simple as
a spreadsheet populated with asset counts, purchase dates,
expected life and suggested maintenance schedules. Within
the power grid, asset management for most utilities is handled
with what is commonly called a run-to-failure strategy.”
However, with the regulatory mandate of improving reli-
ability and reducing outages, that strategy is no longer viable.
Utilities and grid operators have invested in smart grid tech-
nologies with their interconnectivity, which is dramatically
improving their asset management abilities.
The Asset Health Center provides personnel the ability to monitor Navigant also pointed out utilities are interested in apply-
critical assets in real time. Courtesy of ABB. ing AMCM solutions across the enterprise to take advantage

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Asset management and condition monitoring (AMCM) technology enhances maintenance efectiveness with actionable data. Courtesy of ABB.

of their investment in smart grid technology

based equipment. Navigant reported, “This
is needed to improve operational and capital
costs by developing a predictive risk-based
asset management strategy rather than the
reactive one used today.”
According to Navigant, the global revenue
for power grid AMCM devices and solutions is
expected to grow from $2.1 billion in 2016 to
$5.3 billion in 2025. Navigant also said AMCM
is virtually a greenfeld opportunity for ven-
dors, as utilities work hard to understand
when and where AMCM investments make
the most sense. It noted the benefts of more
refned grid operations are being increasingly
recognized by regulatory bodies and fnancial Of the 221 respondents surveyed, nearly every one said asset management is a priority.
Courtesy of ABB, Microsof and Zpryme.
stakeholders, but the business case for AMCM
has been utility or situation specifc. deal of change and innovation underway in the technology
that is managing those assets.
Connectivity and Beyond It is a given that asset managing technology investment de-
Globally, the grid is becoming smarter, more intercon- cisions are shaping the future of the electric system. Utilities
nected and getting larger. It has been estimated worldwide the have invested in smart grid technology for many years, and
electric high-voltage transmission network was approximately asset management is taking advantage of it. Digital technol-
3.42 million circuit miles (5.5 million circuit km) in 2014 — ogy has paved the way for a new emphasis in technologically
the last year for available fgures. It also has been predicted enhanced asset management schemes. These schemes are
the global grid will expand to about 4.25 million circuit miles designed to provide utilities with end-to-end asset tracking.
(6.8 million km) by 2020. That is a lot of wire in the air! Investments in asset management are streamlining opera-
All the recent indicators, surveys and reports show invest- tions, lowering maintenance costs and reducing risks to reli-
ment trends in the T&D infrastructure are up and will contin- ability while adding resiliency, and are the next logical step in
ue to expand for the next decade. As a result, there is a great the digitization of the grid.

July 2017 | T&D World 9

 tdworld.com
Asset Health Awareness
Changing the Grid
Big data and predictive analytics
are redefining asset management.
By Gene Wolf, Technical Writer
M
anaging assets is one of the most pressing issues fac-
ing the electric power delivery industry. Not too long
ago, asset managers used simple spreadsheets to keep
track of widgets the utility owned. Things have gotten a lot
more complicated. Asset managing technology went digital
and the process evolved with features, choices and attributes.
Asset management changed for the better, but the learning
curve has been steep as utilities move from spreadsheets to
sophisticated analytical platforms.
An asset management system is defned as any system that
monitors and maintains things of value, but it is not that sim-
ple today. When the frst computer-based asset software sys-
tems came along, they used database programs to list assets
and manipulate those lists into simple categorizing reports.
The asset management software family tree branched out
into several areas related to database programs but with more
abilities. The following pages will look at some of the asset
managing technology tools as well as the subsequent spin-offs.
10 T&D World | July 2017
As technology developed, so did the names and acronyms
the industry used to categorize functions. Of course, acro-
nyms can aid in understanding or they can add confusion. For
example, the acronym AMS commonly refers to three differ-
ent terms: asset management systems, asset management solu-
tions and asset management software. Then there are terms
like digital asset management (DAM), asset performance
management (APM), asset health management (AHM) and
enterprise asset management (EAM). The list grows and
changes depending on who is speaking and their area of ex-
pertise. Obviously, there are overlaps in defning these appli-
cations, but eventually common defnitions predominate. In
the interest of clarity, acronyms will be kept to a minimum in
this discussion.
Maintaining Good Records
Records and record keeping are at the heart of all asset
managing systems, and data can come from multiple sources
 tdworld.com

Components and Architecture of an Asset Management System

Reports Excel Access Analysis SAP Maximo

cpmPlus Knowledge Manager and Enterprise Connectivity System

Asset Optimizer Maintenance Workplace

Ofshore Operation Center

Monitor Monitor Monitor Monitor Monitor Monitor Wireless

monitoring

Trafo High voltage Medium voltage Low voltage Drive UPS

Dataflow of a enterprisewide asset management system. Courtesy of ABB.

throughout the organization. One of the biggest data resourc- more aggressive in taking advantage of cloud technologies for
es are paper fles such as nameplate ratings, maintenance managing their assets. This may help to settle utilities’ con-
records, inspection reports and testing histories, which can be cerns, because IPPs and utilities have so much in common. Re-
scanned into digital fles. Supervisory control and data acqui- cently, utilities have started to embrace knowledge-based asset
sition (SCADA) historians also are another source of digital management, based on analytics (analyzing historical data).
data needed that can be accessed directly with asset managing These knowledge-based systems use pattern recognition to
software. enable utilities to enhance asset performance and improve
Another data source comes from smart grid equipment health evaluation. At present, most utilities focus on the asset
that has been deployed for up to a decade. It is characterized health aspect of managing their assets.
by intelligent equipment with sensors embedded in them that Asset health analytics can be broken down into three ba-
generate data daily. The trend driving current asset manage- sic functions: asset diagnostics, asset prognostics and mainte-
ment development is using asset management data to help nance. These three functions are essential to understanding
utilities reduce risk and make faster decisions. the life-cycle branch of the asset management family tree.
Utilities have recognized they need companywide goals Life-cycle asset management looks at each component of the
to optimize capital expenditures, run an effcient operation utility’s T&D infrastructure. The diagnostics approach estab-
and eliminate unknowns, thereby managing risks. They need lishes the present health of the assets, or baseline. The prog-
to move the utility away from the popu-
lar run-to-failure reactive approach to a
fx-it-before-it-breaks strategy. Asset man-
agement gurus refer to this strategy as a
prescriptive method. In simpler terms, it
is preventive maintenance with built-in in-
telligence to predict, prioritize and act on
potential failures before they happen.
The downside to this emphasis on data
gathering in an asset-intensive environ-
ment is the amount of data generated by
these systems that the utility must handle.
This “big data” is measured in quantities
such as petabytes, zettabytes and yottabytes,
because terabytes are too small to be mean-
ingful. The sheer size of this data dump has
required the development of technologies
to handle and store the big data.

Digital Opportunity
Cloud-based storage and computing are
showing promise in handling big data, but
electric utilities have not widely embraced
cloud technology yet. However, indepen- Built-in monitoring systems provide the health status of a 28-MVA transformer to the utility.
dent power producers (IPPs) have been Courtesy of ABB.

July 2017 | T&D World 11

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between vendors and service providers resulted in data from

one manufacturer not being compatible with other manufac-
turers and data being stored in incompatible databases. Even
the names of data points were not compatible.
The data needed a standardized approach to resolve these
issues. Interoperability and interchangeability has been a
boon to everyone using smart equipment, but initially it took
a great deal of standards work on the part of vendors, suppli-
ers and utilities to make it happen — and asset management
technology proved to be no different.

International Standards
Although it seems like managing assets would be a straight-
forward process, this has not been the case. Initially, utilities
Sensors provide continuous real-time monitoring of transformer gases. took a do-it-yourself approach when they needed something
Courtesy of ABB.
to keep track of their equipment. They started out creating
nostics method predicts how the health of the T&D asset will their own asset strategies by relying on the experience of their
change over time. The maintenance scheme keeps the asset engineers and maintenance technicians, and then were com-
healthy or restores the asset’s health to the baseline condition. pounded by the needs of accounting and other business units.
When taken together, these three functions are used Utilities depended on generalizations from frsthand ex-
to understand the asset’s condition and provide decision- periences with suggestions from operating manuals and fxed
supporting information related to maintenance. It is really a maintenance schedules from manufacturers. Hindsight shows
health managing system, which some groups are referring to this utility-by-utility approach was not effcient. Using isolated
as an asset management and condition monitoring (AMCM) customized solutions proved a hindrance to enterprise as-
system. A recent Navigant Research study on AMCM systems set managing or for migrating these homegrown systems to
stated, “Asset management has evolved on many levels along- digital-based asset management technologies. When vendors
side the technological and conceptual developments that have began developing condition-based and risk-based AMCM, it
characterized the smart grid movement.” was evident that the electric industry needed international
Typically, an AMCM system provides automated alerts standards.
when it detects an asset not performing to its expected levels The British Standards Institute was one of the frst orga-
or a device failure. The AMCM system recommends for action- nizations to accept the challenge. It published the publicly
able work to take place on the asset, but there was a problem available specifcation (PAS) 55 in 2004, which focused on
early on with adopting such a system. A lack of consistency management systems for physical assets. This was followed
with a revision to PAS 55 in 2008. In 2009, the
International Organization for Standardization
Followers Challengers Contenders Leaders (ISO) published ISO 31000, Risk Management
Principles and Guidelines. Then, in 2014, it pub-
IBM
lished the ISO 55000 series of asset management
ABB standards.
GE Schneider The PAS 55, ISO 31000 and ISO 55000 gave
Siemens Oracle the industry internationally recognized process-
C3 IoT
es, terminologies and a framework for systems
SpaceTime
Insight such as asset health management and asset per-
Execution

Landis+Gyr Meridium
formance management.

Asset Monitoring
International standards paved the way for
health-related AMCM systems becoming the
most basic building block of advanced asset
health managing systems. Because these schemes
generate massive amounts of situational big data,
vendors developed powerful computerized main-
tenance management systems (CMMS) as part
Strategy
of the asset management platform. CMMS col-
The leaderboard for asset performance management systems. Courtesy of Navigant lected, stored and analyzed maintenance data to
Research. provide usable information from all the data, but

12 T&D World | July 2017


The Asset Health Center dashboard provides a wealth of risk assessment information to the utility. Courtesy of ABB.
some basic maintenance philosophies utilities have been us-
ing need to be examined before moving into the asset health
analysis.
Although utilities have tried to follow several basic main-
tenance philosophies to manage assets, there have been is-
sues. The schemes go by many names, but fall into four gen-
eral categories:
• Corrective maintenance (CM) means run to failure, then
fx it.
• Preventive maintenance (PM) involves predetermined
tasks and replacing assets according to a schedule.
• Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) entails careful
study of equipment and failures.
• Condition-based predictive maintenance (CBPM) is pro-
active and situational based.
None of these schemes are suitable to bring a wide range of
different asset information needed by a unifed cohesive main-
tenance managing tool, but everything must start somewhere.
The CM philosophy has been popular, but it is an extreme
scheme that impacts reliability and increases outages. The PM
philosophy was the opposite extreme of the CM approach, but
as budgets got tight and resources became slimmer, it became
economically harder to justify.
The RCM process tried to fll the gap between CM and PM
by using the utility’s historic records to determine trends, but
the system lacked real-world feedback. The CBPM method
took advantage of smart grid data to enable maintenance de-
partments to have more situational awareness of the equip-
ment, but there was no trending.
tdworld.com
More About Health
Each of these philosophies contained a part of the puzzle
but did not provide a solution. Some components — noncriti-
cal assets — are safe to run until failure without causing exten-
sive failures in the network. On the other hand, critical assets
must be treated differently because a run-to-failure approach
can cause catastrophic results. Utilities wanted to replace the
device before failure but not while life was left in the device.
This has been referred to as health indexing, which uses asset
condition and risk to determine the action to be performed.
As the asset managing systems mature, it is evident enter-
prisewide holistic asset management platforms will beneft
from this approach. They will determine the asset’s health
and performance as it relates to all the organization’s business
units. Navigant Research calls this application the glue among
engineering, operations and capital planning. These systems
go by various names, such as ABB’s Asset Health Center, GE’s
Asset Performance Management, IBM’s Maximo Asset Man-
agement Platform, Oracle’s Work and Asset Management, and
Siemens’ Reliability Centered Asset Management.
Primarily, these systems use correlation processing for
predictive artifcial intelligence (AI) to detect asset degrada-
tion. The idea is to analyze real-time operational data from
an active T&D grid device and compare the data to a library
database of healthy similar devices, identifying any develop-
ing changes from normality that could become failures. The
correlation process got a big boost when Argonne National
Laboratory developed an algorithm called multivariate state
estimation technique (MSET), which was developed initially
July 2017 | T&D World 13
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for nuclear power applications.

MSET is a statistical modeling technique that learns
from an asset model using normal operating parame-
ters to identify irregularities in the real-time sensor data
transmitted by equipment on the grid. This process per-
mits comprehensive diagnostic systems to detect early
failure patterns and prevent breakdowns before they
happen. It has proven valuable in identifying operating
conditions causing long-term performance issues.

Strategic Choices
When these diagnostic tools were incorporated into
asset managing platforms, they led to improved predic-
tive modeling, which brought about improvements of
maintenance tools based on the probability of failure
and asset criticality using real-time data interpretation.
This approach has been described as a blending of in-
formation technology (IT) and operational technology
Integration of IT and OT data makes for a complete picture of the utility’s
(OT), but it is more than that. The improved asset man- infrastructure. Courtesy of ABB.
aging programs are merging IT and OT, changing the
individually oriented systems into a balanced platform with be repaired, refurbished or replaced.
business intelligence and operational understanding. In addition, IT/OT blended platforms assist utility decision
The integrated IT/OT software has added another dimen- makers in making choices concerning when an asset should
sion to modern asset managing solutions. It offers self-diag- be scheduled for maintenance or repair. It also calculates the
nostic equipment, condition monitoring and process automa- risks that will be associated with the work. This decision as-
tion software, which help users to make risk assessments for sistance is timely with the pressure from regulators and stake-
actions related to asset decisions. Helping utilities to under- holders. Utilities must reduce costs by optimizing mainte-
stand risks has led to a better grasp of the consequence of an nance and capital expenditures by spending resources where
action. This thinking has steered utilities to make thorough, they are needed most and at the most opportune time.
strategic and fscally sound choices about which assets should Navigant Research reported, “Improving asset manage-

Asset performance systems provide the information needed to balance work with financial management. Courtesy of ABB.

14 T&D World | July 2017

 tdworld.com

ment is a key way in which utilities can address

these challenges. Asset management is one of the
most complex elements of the utility business.”
The general consensus among research orga-
nizations found asset performance and health
management are the most challenging tasks for
the next generation of asset managing technolo-
gies. The emphasis will be on expanding enter-
prise asset managing performance programs to
include greater connectivity between work and
operation management tools.

Raising the Bar

The art and science of managing assets has
come a long way since the early days of account-
ing ledgers and spreadsheets. The industry has
moved from paper-based manual inspections to
computer-based asset managing systems that use
data from the entire organization. At the same
time, digital technology has advanced signifcant-
ly, resulting in smart grid sensors being integrat-
ed into equipment and components used on the
T&D network. The disadvantage of this has been
the increased volume of data that overwhelmed
analysts, but another technology, the Internet of
Things (IoT), is addressing the data deluge.
With its big data, analytics, modeling, and
cloud-based storage and computing, IoT has
been introduced by manufacturers. A few ex-
amples include the ABB and Microsoft collabora-
tion of ABB’s Asset Health Center 3.0 and Micro-
soft’s Azure Cloud Platform, the GE and Oracle
collaboration of GE’s Predix and Oracle’s Asset
Cloud Platform, and the Siemens and Accenture
partnership to provide cloud-based managing
applications. These and other vendors’ develop-
ments are improving the process, but they also
are making the technology more complex while,
at the same time, helping the user.
The modern asset management tools tend
to identify more risks and require more actions
than a utility can resolve with its limited resourc-
es, which is where the next emerging technology
promises a machine-learning process. Machine
learning is also referred to as deep learning and Attaching value to big data is hard, but the four V’s is an approach gaining acceptance.
AI, but — whatever it is called — it has given com- Courtesy of IBM.
puters the ability to help humans make decisions based on ing platforms. This development of AI platforms appears to
predictive models. AI gained attention in the power industry be the next logical progression for the evolution of the smart
when the correlation processes driven by algorithms started grid, because big data is here and humans need help using it.
being used in the nuclear generation industry. It is going to be expensive and it will be disruptive, but it is
With the deployment of smart grid technology and intelli- inevitable. Throughout history, technology has not stood still
gent equipment, it was only a matter of time until manufactur- and has only been disruptive to the unprepared. As utilities
ers started adapting the correlation process to the T&D grid, embrace the new asset management tools and processes, they
which is leading the grid to AI. AI promises real-time cogni- can better manage their T&D assets, which results in lower
tive understanding to sort through all the risk measures and costs to customers with better returns to shareholders and a
mitigation activities identifed by the enterprise asset manag- more reliable grid for everyone.

July 2017 | T&D World 15

 tdworld.com
Managing Assets
On the Electric Grid
One of the hottest topics in the power-delivery
industry is how utilities are managing assets.
By Gene Wolf, Technical Writer
W
hen the average manager, engineer and mainte-
nance technician hear the words asset management,
their typical response is less than positive. Tell them
they have to go to an asset management meeting, and one
would think they had been sentenced to the most arduous
task imaginable. After all, the term asset management is really
bean-counter speak for accounting work, or is it? Not really.
Whether they realize it or not, non-accounting utility person-
nel have been using asset managing information for longer
than most people have been working in the industry.
Utility personnel do not typically think of T&D equipment
in abstract terms such as assets, but rather circuit breakers,
transformers, reactors, lines, circuits, structures and such.
The T&D system has been providing information from these
electrical apparatuses for a long time. And utilities have been
doing this through devices common to the grid such as relays,
16 T&D World | July 2017
supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), distribut-
ed control systems (DCS), meters and remote terminal units
(RTUs), to name a few.
Utilities use intelligent digital components to monitor
their operational parameters and the parameters of the sys-
tems they make up. Now this data can be sent for analysis to
centralized digital asset management platforms through the
Internet of Things (IoT) or standard communications chan-
nels, and be used by utilities to improve their internal process-
es. In the following pages, several utilities share their experi-
ences with digital asset technology. But frst, it is important to
understand the changes that have taken place in asset man-
agement since the introduction of the smart grid.
Digital Technology
When smart grid technology came along, it started chang-
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ing the T&D grid into an interconnected system with devices

that communicated data. The smart devices contained sen-
sors, monitoring systems, self-diagnostic systems, mini camer-
as and many other digital technologies. This triggered a mas-
sive food of big data that produces real-time situational data
critical to understanding the equipment’s condition. In other
industries, these devices are connected to the internet, but the
power-delivery industry has not yet embraced IoT because of
cybersecurity issues and competition among utilities.
The big story in managing assets today is digital technol-
ogy. Several of the technology drivers such as information
technology (IT), operational technology (OT), big data,
cloud-based computing and IoT are modernizing asset perfor-
mance systems. When combined, these schemes provide utili-
ties a different vantage point for managing their assets with
real-time condition monitoring using correlation processing.
Globally, many utilities are interested in the convergence
of IT and OT data for asset managing software, and this inter-
est is not coming exclusively from large corporations. Small-
to mid-sized utilities have determined enterprisewide asset
management systems make sense for them, too. Interestingly,
some utilities are working with manufacturers on custom-
ized products, while others are using standard out-of-the-box
applications.
Some utilities also are using standardized products but Connecting data is the most valuable advantage of an asset perfor-
mance management system. Courtesy of ABB.
integrating them with their existing customized systems. De-
velopers of this digital asset technology are facing an inter- system for feld personnel to use. Over the years, the utility’s
esting challenge. Some of the standardized asset managing infrastructure grew beyond the capabilities of its existing end-
platforms utilities use are ABB’s Ability Ellipse on Microsoft of-life mobile system. The utility needed a state-of-the-art sys-
Azure, GE’s Predix, IBM’s Maximo, Schneider Electric’s tem that could operate on both Microsoft Windows and Apple
EcoStruxure and Siemens’ MindSphere, to name a few. iOS platforms from laptops, tablets and other leading-edge
Digital asset management systems can be tailored to ft a devices. Nearly 2000 feld personnel would rely on the system
utility’s requirements, but it helps if the utility knows what it for feld engineering and inspection processes.
expects the platform to provide and has a detailed specifca- Working with ABB and AMT-SYBEX, National Grid ex-
tion of what those requirements are. Typically, utilities are tended the existing Ellipse system to its feld personnel using
looking for out-of-the-box features like asset life-cycle man- Fieldreach for data collection. This project united the Nation-
agement, condition-based maintenance sched-
uling, inventory management, asset risk trade-
off management, organizational cooperation
between departments and integration of busi-
ness processes.
Utilities also are interested in improvements
to their data analysis, easy integration with oth-
er systems (for example, SCADA and DCS) and
user-friendly software for their employees. An-
other feature gaining popularity is the ability
to incorporate the enterprise asset managing
system with environmental, health and safety
systems.

Expanding Systems
National Grid has several million customers
for gas and electricity delivery in the UK. It uses
most of the components of ABB’s Ellipse enter-
prise asset management system, but National
Grid has developed its own data collection End-to-end asset management starts with intelligent equipment. Courtesy of ABB.

July 2017 | T&D World 17

 tdworld.com

decision making and risk

reduction.
On-line data is gener-
ated by all the intelligent
smart grid devices and
monitoring systems in-
stalled on a utility’s T&D
infrastructure. Off-line
data is produced from feld
maintenance records, lab
results and diagnostic test-
ing reports.
Several years ago, Austin
Energy announced plans to
work with Doble Engineer-
ing and OSIsoft to address
this issue. The utility in-
stalled the dobleARMS as-
set management platform,
which has an OSIsoft PI
server. All of Austin Ener-
gy’s data is fed into the PI
Cutting-edge asset health systems assess risks for maintenance options and present information in easy-to-
read dashboards. Courtesy of ABB.
system through SCADA to
collect, store, organize and
al Grid mobile processes into a seamless system that could be distribute data. The dobleARMS system combines the on-line
accessed by Windows and iOS devices through a single sign- and off-line data in an all-inclusive asset risk system running
on. It is now possible for feld personnel to access asset man- on servers in Doble’s data farm.
aging data such as maintenance history and asset condition The asset managing system compares the Austin Energy
directly on their mobile devices. National Grid’s management data with industry databases. The resulting analysis performs
noted, with this asset managing expansion, “Everyone wants a failure mode review along with health and risk indexing,
an iPad now.” which provides Austin Energy with asset information to assist
the utility in making asset decisions.
Of-Line Testing
Data can be separated into two general classifcations: off- Down Under
line and on-line. Off-line data is used typically for retrospec- TransGrid is a transmission network provider that con-
tive analysis, while on-line data is used for real-time interac- nects distribution utilities and industrial companies with
tive analysis. Most utilities have a combination of these two power stations across the state of New South Wales, Austra-
asset data classifcations, and the challenge is how to integrate lia. It has roughly billions of dollars’ worth of assets to keep
both forms of data into useful asset health information for track of and to keep in top working condition. The challenge
for TransGrid is to provide safe, reliable, effcient
transmission services to meet customer demands
and regulatory requirements with these assets as
they age and more are added to the system. That
is why the utility is always looking for better ways
to manage and improve the health of its assets.
In 2013, TransGrid completed the deployment
of an enterprise asset management system using
ABB’s Ellipse platform. TransGrid reports the
software provides it with asset life-cycle, mainte-
nance scheduling and business processes. Since
going into service, the Ellipse system has become
very valuable to the utility for collecting all the de-
tails about its assets and has made it easy to sched-
ule maintenance.
Ellipse also houses the utility’s human re-
The digital substation gets data from every component in the yard. Courtesy of ABB. source (HR) data and enforces common costing

18 T&D World | July 2017


Pushing assets to their full abilities requires a framework of real-time health indices for decision making. Courtesy of ABB.
rules across the organization. The system enables TransGrid
to plan the construction of new assets and connect that infor-
mation to its supply, fnance and HR functions.
Born from the Storm
Hurricane Ike devastated CenterPoint Energy in 2008
when it left 1.9 million consumers in the dark because of
storm-related outages, some of which lasted for weeks. As a
result, CenterPoint fled for a US$200 million Department of
Energy stimulus grant to improve the reliability of the Hous-
ton power grid. CenterPoint used $150 million of the grant
to accelerate the installation of smart meters. The remaining
$50 million of the grant was used for the automation of 31
substations; the installation of 866 intelligent-grid switching
devices on more than 200 distribution circuits, and distri-
bution line monitors with remote terminal units. A wireless
radio-frequency mesh telecommunications network was also
built across the utility’s coverage area.
In 2016, this work was tested by another severe storm with
wind, lightning and widespread fooding. More than 240,000
customers experienced interrupted service. The storm re-
quired more than 600 overhead line fuses and 650 transform-
ers to be taken out of service, which resulted in extensive out-
ages. Swift restoration by the feld crews was also hampered
because of road closures across Houston, Texas. This required
handling a large amount of data on the power outages, to un-
derstand the situation, prioritize actions and deploy resources
quickly.
The heart of CenterPoint’s intelligent grid platform is
ABB’s Network Manager advanced distribution management
system. The utility uses information from 2.4 million ad-
vanced meters and feld sensors to enable real-time grid moni-
toring and control. The system was also integrated with ABB’s
Service Suite mobile workforce management software and an
tdworld.com
advanced outage analytics package to tie it all together.
CenterPoint reported it can quickly identify, isolate and
restore power, reducing outage times. In addition, the utility
said the smart meters combined with data analytics provide
immediate insight into a situation, so the right crews with the
right equipment are dispatched to the affected areas so power
can be restored quickly to the customers.
Asset Health Monitoring
American Electric Power (AEP) estimates 33% of its power
transformers are at least 50 years old and approximately 18%
are 60 years old or older. As a result, in 2013, AEP partnered
with ABB to develop a systemwide analytical tool called the
Asset Health Center.
Phase one was deployed enterpriswide in 2016. This stage
relies on real-time performance data generated by vital sta-
tion equipment. Initially, AEP decided to monitor its new
transformers and retroft extra-high-voltage (EHV) trans-
formers. The system monitors parameters such as gas leaks,
temperatures, fan currents, bushing health, partial discharge
and dissolved gas.
The next phase is expected to include pilots for 138-kV
power transformer monitoring, underground cable monitor-
ing and capacitive voltage transformer monitoring.
This system is designed to move AEP from time-based
maintenance to condition-based maintenance. The asset
health system integrates equipment-based operational tech-
nology and enterprise information technology. In addition,
the software package leverages operational and diagnostic
expertise contributed by AEP to reduce the consequences of
equipment failures and outages using asset condition data,
predictive analytics and risk modeling.
AEP’s asset health system has prevented the failure of
three EHV power transformers, saving the utility an estimated
July 2017 | T&D World 19
 tdworld.com

Energy project used Oracle’s Enterprise Asset

Management business suite and ABB’s Service
Suite mobile workforce management system.
Oracle’s Utilities Customer Care and Billing
suite was applied to CLK Energy’s four regions.
Also, Oracle’s E-Business Suite enterprise re-
source planning modules were implemented
for HR, fnance, logistics, procurement and
projects. They also used Oracle’s Utility Ana-
lytics, Data Warehouse and Oracle’s E-Business
Suite business intelligence applications.
The system also needed data from a geo-
graphic information system (GIS), so Esri’s
ArcGIS was selected for asset mapping and net-
work modeling. Esri’s network models and feld
automation equipment provided GIS mapping
Today’s T&D infrastructure is asset intensive, with data being produced from every and asset coding, which included customer in-
component. Courtesy of ABB.
dexing and GIS-enabled network modeling for
$15 million to $20 million. In addition, AEP reported it each of the four regions. The modeling included mapping of
has discovered a partial-discharge signature in its review of the mid-voltage and low-voltage circuits from the substation to
monitoring data, which has led to a new ultra-high-frequency the customer’s meter.
partial-discharge alarming scheme for personnel safety. The utility elected to use integrated GIS mapping for the
entire network model and included asset hierarchy. This is a
End-to-End Managing master data repository of network assets and their status, pro-
Several years ago, CLK Energy, the largest electric utility in viding operations, maintenance and planning access to the
Turkey, began a program to modernize its system and give it assets’ condition and situation.
a true end-to-end enterprise management system. The project These engineering and analytics tools have been described
is estimated to be more than 80% complete to date, and the as a connected asset life-cycle management system with the
results have been better than expected. To give a perspective capability to reduce failures. The platform also offers a switch
of CLK Energy, it distributes and sells about 46 TWh of elec- from the age-old calendar-driven approach to maintenance
tricity per year to approximately 10 million customers in 11 to a more effcient condition-based maintenance program,
cities across four different regions. CLK Energy has four retail enabling CLK Energy to prioritize maintenance and replace-
companies and four distribution system operators, so it was ment decisions, optimize asset investment strategies, and im-
not an easy undertaking. prove productivity and safety. This implementation combined
CLK Energy’s goal with the project was to be more effcient key elements from ABB, Esri and Oracle to create an end-to-
by using the latest technologies and taking advantage of a ful- end asset performance management system that has improved
ly integrated IT/OT operating structure to unify all its busi- CLK Energy’s ability to operate more effciently, reduce out-
ness processes and technical solutions. Since the onset of the ages and meet regulatory requirements.
project, CLK Energy has brought components together pri-
marily from ABB, Esri and Oracle to produce a state-of-the-art Asset Management Landscape
enterprisewide asset managing system across the group’s eight These examples of utilities integrating asset managing sys-
operating companies. tems into the enterprise are showing a sneak preview of the
Because of the project, a real-time network control and digital utility of the future. By integrating IT and OT data
management solution from ABB was deployed that included together, and adding IoT technology and cloud-based com-
ABB’s Network Manager SCADA, distribution management puting with data storage, it will be a utility different from any-
system and outage management system as well as outage life- thing seen before.
cycle management systems for all four distribution regions. These platforms are moving beyond connected systems
This implementation included SCADA human machine that simply gather data, flter it and predict trends from it to
interface, single-line diagrams and network controls from determine the health of an asset. Essentially, they are using
transmission substations to service transformers. This project cognitive computing to make sense of the massive amounts of
represented a signifcant milestone, as it was one of the frst data being produced from the interconnected network of the
SCADA implementations in Turkey’s electricity distribution smart components and assets to make decisions.
market and the frst global implementation of ABB’s outage To paraphrase an old saying, “You can’t avoid risk, but —
life-cycle management system. with today’s correlation processing and deep learning tools —
A complete end-to-end asset managing system requires it can be minimized.” It is going to be a technological adven-
the business side of the utility to be included, too. The CLK ture working with this smarter grid.

20 T&D World | July 2017

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Enter the digital substation

New complexities and the need for a more flexible and intelligent grid are
driving a digital revolution across the power value chain. The digital sub-
station is acenterpiece of an increasingly automated grid. IEC 61850 auto-
mation systems with the IEC 61850-9-2 process bus along with intelligent
electronic devices enable seamless integration of protection, control and
communication equipment. These smart substations incorporate innovative
products like compact disconnecting circuit breakers (DCB) with built-in
Fiber Optic Current Sensors (FOCS) as well as sensor equipped transformers
and switchgear - all supporting our vision of a stronger, smarter and greener
grid. new.abb.com/grid
—
Smart asset health
management by turning data
into actionable intelligence

In today’s digital and connected world, smart technologies can handle real-
time data from sensors and mobile devices and connect the Internet of
Things. The convergence of information technologies (IT) and operational
technologies (OT) facilitates condition-based and predictive monitoring and
maintenance to drive asset optimization and efficiency. Whether it is a soft-
ware-based asset health center solution to manage a fleet of transformers,
by prescribing recommended maintenance actions, or sensor-based remote
intelligence to enable real-time condition monitoring of assets from remote
locations. ABB is continually working to enable a stronger, smarter and
greener grid. new.abb.com/grid