ATLANTA, GA — (Marketwired) — 09/24/14 — Each year, power outages create on going challenges that ultimately lead to lost resources, time and revenue. Therefore, in order to restore power quickly to customers it is critical for utilities to enhance their current mutual assistance, damage assessment and emergency management efforts.
Kimberly Smith, Director, Emergency Preparedness at ComEd recently spoke with marcus evans about key topics to be discussed at their upcoming
That we needed to improve most importantly our communications to our customers. We needed to improve our Storm CAIDI and also reduce the length of time it takes to restore that last customer.
In addition, the ability to bring on mutual assistance earlier in the storm event was of necessity.
We are currently looking at Damage Assessment I.T. applications.
We have increased the number of Mutual Assistance FTE–s we have been able to release and we are receiving more than in the past. Our on-boarding has improved with our newly redesigned External Crew Mobilization (ECM) room and participation in that room from representatives of our Contractors of Choice. Also, we have recently joined Southeastern Electric Exchange (SEE).
We use historical data and a color code model that was built by partnering with our weather service. Based on the color code we receive from our weather service, we determine the number of resources we will need to manage that particular event.
This continues to be an on ongoing effort for us. A major focus, and the reason for the creation of our internal Storm Communications Dashboard, is to ensure that we are broadcasting consistent messages during storms across all channels and audiences. We also implemented iFactor to more effectively communicate outage information to our customers and we put new metrics in place for our larger storms: % of Jobs/Tickets with Multiple ETR–s and % of Jobs/Tickets with Expired ETR–s. We also have an ETR philosophy where we establish a global (initial) ETR at either 6, 12 or 24 hours depending on the amount of customers that are out of service after the storm front has passed. Then at different stages of restoration, we will bulk upload ETRs at the Operating Center level, the device/transformer level and then at the customer/ticket level.
Currently, day to day on a blue sky day we can –ping– a meter to confirm customers are restored prior to our crew leaving the area. We can also send a mass ping out to multiple customers later in a storm event to confirm customers are on or off and either send a crew or save a trip for a crew. We are in the early stages of smart meter integration into our outage management system and have quite a bit of work yet to do in this area.
As Director of Emergency Preparedness at ComEd, Kimberly is responsible for oversight, development and execution of emergency preparedness and response strategies for ComEd and in collaboration with sister companies PECO in Pennsylvania and BG&E in Baltimore.
ComEd is an energy delivery subsidiary of Exelon Corporation and one of the largest utilities in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, ComEd provides service to approximately 3.8 million customers across northern Illinois, or about 70% of the state–s population.
As the longest running meeting in the marcusevans Energy Series, the will provide vital information and strategies for utilities to enhance their mutual assistance coordination, emergency management, distribution technology and reliability metrics. For more information, please check out the or contact Tyler Kelch, Marketing Coordinator, Media & PR, marcus evans at 312-894-6310 or .
Marcus evans conferences annually produce over 2,000 high quality events designed to provide key strategic business information, best practice and networking opportunities for senior industry decision-makers. Our global reach is utilized to attract over 30,000 speakers annually; ensuring niche focused subject matter presented directly by practitioners and a diversity of information to assist our clients in adopting best practice in all business disciplines.
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Tyler Kelch
Marketing Coordinator, Media & PR
marcus evans
312-894-6310