IMPROVING RELIABILITY WITH SMART GRID ANALYTICS

Challenges abound as utilities strive to meet growing electricity demand while lowering maintenance and operating costs, and guaranteeing safety and reliability. Traditional maintenance strategies rely on schedule-based (just-in-case) replacements, which can lead to overconsumption of spare parts, more frequent and longer planned-maintenance downtime and even an increased chance of failure. At the system level, traditional technology, although considerably advanced, has not completely prevented cascading failures in the interconnected grid. This panel will discuss applications of smart grid analytics technologies to detect degradation and predict impending failures at both the equipment and system levels, thus allowing utilities to be more proactive, enabling more efficient maintenance, lower costs and increased availability. Speakers: Scott Albrechtsen, Senior Load Advisor, BC Hydro Kathy Ball, Senior Industry Consultant, SAS Virgilio Centeno, PhD, Associate Professor, Virginia Tech Brad Klenz, Principal Systems Architect, SAS Joseph LoPorto, PE, Manager, T&D Automation, PHI Mark Matthews, Senior Data Analyst, Duke Energy LaMargo Sweezer-Fischer, Reliability Manager, Distribution, FPL