Between the Poles

Practical Infrastructure Management Solutions for Utilities

I just came across an article in Electric Light and Power that describes several practical applications that utilities have deployed with little fanfare for designing new infrastructure, managing network assets, or planning improvements for grid modernization.  Some of the challenges that these solutions help address are minimizing backlogs, providing a unified view of infrastructure data, empowering the field force, improving design productivity, incorporating intelligent design data into workflows for business processes such as outage management and maintenance, and developing and maintaining digital network models, all of which are going to be essential for the coming smart grid.

Handheld Devices

Up until a year ago the only handheld alternatives that utilities and telcos had for their field staff were either PDAs or notebooks such as Panasonic Toughbooks.

PDAs

PDAs, while fine for tabular information, simply don't have enough graphic real estate for most graphic applications.  Also they run specialized operation systems such as Windows CE, PocketPC, Mobile5, or PalmOS. I know of several companies that tried PDAs, but ultimately replaced them with notebooks.

Notebooks

There are problems with notebooks as well. They are too bulky to take up poles or down manholes. They are also expensive. Some companies bolt them to their trucks so they can't be lost or dropped.

Pocketable

Since early 2005 there has been an alternative.  For over a year  I've been carrying an OQO (www.oqo.com), which is a handheld small enough to go in your pocket (called "pocketable") , with enough screen resolution, 800 x 480, to support serious graphical applications like DWF Viewer and Autodesk Design Review, and able to run full XP Professional.   I have shown the device to many utilities and telcos, and the things that appeal most about it are the form factor, the graphic real estate, and its ability to run full XP.  The latest device, Model 01+, has 512 MB RAM and a 30 GB hard drive and supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Firewire,and USB.  Literally you can run AutoCAD on this device.  The screen is transflective, which means you can see it in bright  sunlight.  And it's reliable. I picked up a USB GPS and have taken the device cross country skiing, hiking, and carried it around the world on airplanes (I like to stick the GPS up against the window on planes to track where we are).  The only serious problem I have had is losing the stylus.

Carry with you UMPCs

Now there is another alternative. Last week at Cebit in Hannover, three devices that are similar to the OQO, but larger were shown.  These devices are called ultra mobile PCs or UMPCs and are "carry with you" as opposed to pocketable.  All three UMPCs at CeBit had touch-sensitive color screens, measure 7 inches across diagonally, and support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB. They weigh just under a kilo, which is twice as much as the OQO, and have 30GB to 60GB hard drives, run on Intel's ultralow-power Pentium and Celeron chips, and support Windows XP Tablet PC Edition with an additional piece of software called the Touch Pack, which provides an on-screen keyboard that you can type with your thumbs.  Microsoft refers to this platform as Origami. Intel sees a tremendous future for these small mobile devices.  Last year they created a new division for mobile devices, called the LPIA Division. 

With these devices currently you can get about two hours of usage.  But as a result of reduced power consumption especially by the screen and improved battery technology, Intel is projecting lower power consumption and improved battery technology so that over the next few years you can expect to see "all day" devices.

UMPCs are in the US$1100 to 1200 range, which compares favourably with most notebooks.

The important trend I see here is that increasingly you will see low cost all day handhelds with a range of form factors, but able to run standard operating systems like XP, Linux, and Max OS X.  This will enable a revolution in mobile computing solutions with full connectivity over W-Fi and 3G and intelligent applications on the handheld that I expect will dramatically improve the productivity of field workers.

Field Force Automation and the Aging Worforce

At the recent Eastern Utility Forum one of the critical areas that was identified by participants, which included power, gas, and railroad companies, is the aging workforce.  This is a bigger problem for utilities than for other industries.  A UTC  Research Report "The Aging US Workforce and Utilities Industries" reported that the average age in the utility sector is 3.3 years higher than the US national average, that half of the utility workforce is over 45, and not enough young people are being recruited to replace experienced staff who are approaching retirement.  What this means for utilities is that they are facing a critical loss of knowledge and skills.

The 2005 GITA Technology Review reports that field force automation was among the top three applications for the electric, gas, and water industries.  A plausible explanation for the critical importance of field force automation for utilities is the aging workforce.

One approach that some utility companies have used is mentoring, where experienced workers are encouraged to assist in knowledge transfer to new employees.  Another is to encourage older workers to remain on the job through flexible working hours and other enticements.   

But in my opinion the solution is ultimately going to involve IT.  At the Forum this was brought home in a very tangible way by Kodi Ekker and Mike Nelson from Idaho Power and Vito Lee, Denis McCombs, and Mohan Inguva of Nevada Power.  They showed how they have addressed this problem and how it is going to be addressed by more and more utility companies in the future.  They demonstratied what I would call intelligent desktop solutions.  Intelligent solutions like these help younger workers be productive, but without the necessity of years of on the job training to acquire the knowledge that more experienced workers have absorbed through many years of experience.  These systems integrate the production of a construction drawing, engineering analysis, and generation of a bill of materials and job estimates in a single, accessible package.  In the context of the aging workforce problem that utilities are facing, the critical benefit for the future is that with basic AutoCAD skills a relatively inexperienced person can efficiently perform the design, engineering, and financial estimating tasks that are required to complete a work order. 

Looking further down the road, with a handheld computer with enough computing power and graphical real estate to run intelligent applications like this in the field together with wireless communications to exchange information with a central data repository, I think you can foresee the possibilities for enabling younger, inexperienced workers to be productive, dramatically improving the flow of engineering design information between the field and the office, and improved data quality.  The business benefit is improved quality of service to the customer.

 

Eastern Utility Forum

Earlier this week Autodesk hosted a forum for large organizations responsible for managing infrastructure networks.  Participants included power, gas, municipal, and railway companies.  The aspect of the forum that I found most interesting was the common perspective on the business problems that companies responsible for managing infrastructure networks are facing.   Lisa Campbell of Autodesk led a discussion of the the most urgent business issues.  For many of these there was a consensus among the participants.  I would single out two key IT issues for which there was a consensus among the participants.  Integration is a major issue for large utilities.  Mark Julian of First Energy in his introductory remarks  emphasized the importance of tailoring integrated IT solutions to the companies business processes and objectives and not the other way around.  A key aspect of this challenge is the integration of solution from different vendors.  For example, all the participants are faced with integrating ERP systems from SAP, Peoplesoft and others, geospatial technology from several vendors, workflow, asset  and outage management systems from Indus, LogicaCMG, and Invensys, as well as other systems form other vendors.   The business benefits are improved customer service, increased competitiveness, greater productivity and reduced costs.

Field force automation is a key issue that is driven by an aging work force at most utilities and telecoms.  Mobile solutions are also driven rapidly improving technology.  For example, reliable wireless communications, either WiFi and 3G, is becoming increasingly prevalent in many jurisdictions.   I've attached a general architecture for addressing the immediate challenges of field force automation, getting reliable facilities data to the field force and enabling feedback from the field in the form of red lines or markups.  This architecture is scalable, general in the sense that it can support a variety of geospatial tools and hardware, and simple.  The key components are a single point of truth such as  an Oracle spatially-enabled RDBMS containing data about the network infrastructure , a field viewer for viewing and redlining in the field on handheld devices, for example an OQO (www.oqo.com), a cache of light-weight design drawings, and an enterprise synchronization tool ,such as iAnywhere's Afaria (www.iAnywhere,com), to automate the distribution of software and data to the field and to post red lines and markups back to the records people in the central office.  At the forum, Brad Lawrence outlined ENMAX's field force automation solution, a key aspect of which was ENMAX's policy of prioritizing red lines and markups from the field by guaranteeing 24 hour turnaround.  Brad outlined the business benefits of  a basic field force automation solution such as this.  One of the most important is improved data quality which means fewer "returns", more efficient cable locates, improved ability to respond to emergencies,  happier regulators, and reduced costs.