POWER August 2011 - 45

2011 Smart Grid award
AMI with an OMS. (See the table for a list
of vendors.)
The new meters communicate with the
utility using power line carrier (PLC) technology.
Hallquist explained that PLC made
sense because, although VEC does share the
AT&T wireless cell phone network to obtain
data from some, but not all substations,
the cellular network is not reliable enough
for the demands of the smart grid. " VEC is
aggressively collaborating with telecommunications
providers to replace that communications
medium with fiber optic lines, " he
wrote in a Jan. 18, 2011 letter to the editor
of the Rutland Herald newspaper. In June,
Hallquist noted that AT&T's GSM network
would be used for communicating with the
final meters, to be installed by July 2012.
Unlike some other deployments of smart
meters, VEC's primary rationale for introducing
meters equipped with bidirectional
communication capabilities (the " smart " element)
was to improve service, rather than
change end user behavior right away. The
smart meters were a prerequisite for introducing
a new OMS, which was commissioned in
February 2008.
Smart Meters: Just the Start of
Service-Improvement Technologies
The OMS consists of a GPS system that is
available to both the dispatch center and field
crew team members via their laptops. That
GPS system is linked to the smart meter information,
which can show which addresses
are without power.
Hallquist says that, " Prior to integrating
the OMS with smart meters, it took at least
20 employees to manage a minor outage.
Several would be answering calls and entering
data while an equal number were running
and sorting outage tickets to determine outage
locations. The OMS system automated
the process. The line crews all have laptops
on their vehicles and are able to drive directly
to the outage location. This also significantly
reduced search time. In the past, the crews
would be sent to a general map location and
have to search. The system resulted in a 40%
reduction in outage time (Customer Average
Interruption Duration Index, or CAIDI).
" The OMS system also presents the outage
causes in a report form so that the data
can be used to improve system performance.
VEC began to use the data to prioritize its
work and investments by using the OMS
data as part of a weekly root cause analysis
meeting. VEC members saw significant reductions
in outages since the implementation
of the OMS. The average number of outages
(the System Average Interruption Frequency
Index, or SAIFI) was cut in half " (Figure 2).
VEC currently has the best outage perforAugust
2011 | POWER
Vendors involved in VEC's smart grid projects. Source: VEC
Component
Meters/AMI equipment
Meters
Meters
Meters
Meters
Meters
Device server
Telecom equipment
Telecom equipment
Relays/remote terminal unit/meters
High-voltage automated switches
Distribution circuit reclosers
Distribution circuit reclosers
Transmission class circuit breakers
Communications equipment
Communications equipment
Servers
Servers
SCADA
Stainless steel cabinets
In-home display
Business software solutions
Aclara
Itron
Elster
Vision
Electro Industries
Landis+Gyr
Lantronix
Adtran
DCBnet
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories
S&C Electric Co.
G&W Electric Co.
Cooper Power Systems
HVB AE Power Systems
GE
ABB
HP
Dell
OSI
APX
Tendril
National Information Solutions Cooperative
Note: Vision was Austin International. VEC is using them as a third-party installer of smart meter modules, taking
off-the-shelf meters and converting them to smart meters.
www.powermag.com
45
Vendor
mance of the major Vermont utilities, which
is especially impressive because the others
have a higher percentage of urban customers,
who are easier to reach.
Next came substation upgrades. To date,
approximately 60% have been modernized.
By the end of 2012, all of VEC's substations
will be " smart, " thanks to intelligent elec1.
Challenging territory. Vermont Electric Cooperative was formed as part of the Rural
Electrification Act of 1936. Its rural footprint, which includes serving island customers, presents
cost challenges, which is one reason it has always been eager to adopt technologies that contain
costs. Courtesy: VEC

http://www.powermag.com

POWER August 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER August 2011