power grid international may 2013
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YOUR POWER DELIVERY MEDIA SOURCE
24 Oncor’s AMI
34 Transformer Maintenance
38 Strategic Vegetation Management
T H E O F F I C I A L P U B L I C A T I O N O F
1305PG_C1 1 5/3/13 3:56 PM
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S&C ELECTRIC COMPANY
IntelliRupterÆ PulseCloser, available in voltage ratings of 14.4 kV through 38 kV, features PulseClosing Technologyôóa unique means for verifying that the line is clear of faults before initiating a closing operation. Pulseclosing is superior to conventional reclosing. It greatly reduces stress on system components, as well as voltage sags experienced by customers upstream of the fault.
Scada-MateÆ Switching System, in voltage ratings of 14.4 kV through 34.5 kV, is ideal
for automating overhead distribution feeders. All necessary functionsósensing, control, and communicationsóare provided in one
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Automation needs change and grow with increased load, capacity, and
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changing needs, economically, in voltage ratings of 14.4 kV through 25 kV.
6800 Series Automatic Switch Controls provide
remote reporting of switch status points,
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IntelliNodeô Interface Module allows IntelliTeam SG to work with a wide array of new and existing intelligent electronic devices from other manufacturers.
IntelliNodeô Interface Module allows
S&Cís IntelliTeamÆ isnít just automatic service restorationS
ince its introduction in 1997, S&Cís IntelliTeamÆ Automatic Restoration System has become the industryís standard. The latest versionó
IntelliTeamÆ SGóis a universal solution for improving grid reliability. It works with S&C IntelliRupterÆ PulseClosers, Scada-MateÆ and Scada-Mate CXô Switches, Remote Supervisory Pad-Mounted Gear, and Remote Supervisory VistaÆ Underground Distribution Switchgear. And, using S&Cís IntelliNodeô Interface Module, IntelliTeam SG works with protection relays and recloser controls from other manufacturers too.
But we didnít stop there. Now weíve developed IntelliTeamÆ VV and IntelliTeamÆ DEM, along with leading-edge communication products, to meet other important needs of the intelligent grid.
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Remote Supervisory PMH and PME Pad-Mounted Gear feature power-operated switches which respond to opening and closing signals from a remote location. This gear, available in ratings of ��������������������������� ���� ����������� ��� �������control equipment group, for a completely integrated and self-powered automated switching and protection package.
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Remote Supervisory VistaÆ Underground Distribution Switchgear, in ratings of 15.5 kV through 38 kV, provides automated switching and fault protection, and can also perform auto-sectionalizing without tripping the main breaker. Up to six load-interrupter switches or fault interrupters can be motor operated in a single unit.
PureWaveÆ Community Energy Storage System provides distributed electric energy storage, for reliable, local backup power for consumers. The multiplicity of unitsóintegrated and controlled by the IntelliTeamÆ DEM Distributed Energy Management Systemóoffers higher aggregated availability . . . keeping the grid functioning for more consumers.
The IntelliTeamÆ DEM Distributed Energy Management System aggregates PureWaveÆ Community Energy Storage Units into a dispatchable energy source. It provides fully automated charging and discharging of the energy storage units, either at scheduled times or to meet target demand at feeder and substation transformer levels.
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PowerGrid International™: ISSN 1547-6723,
is published 12 times per year (January,
February, March, April, May, June, July, August,
September, October, November and December)
by PennWell Corp., 1421 S. Sheridan Rd., Tulsa
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2013 by PennWell Corp. (Registered in U.S.
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4 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
MAY 2013 VOLUME 18.05
30 A Holistic Data Analytics Strategy is Critical for Smart Grid ProjectsRobert Sherick of Southern California Edison and Steve Ehrlich of Space-Time Insight examine four things utilities need to consider as they launch smart grid projects: volume, complexity, governance and security.
46 Products
47 Calendar/Ad Index
48 From the Pages of Electricity History
24 Case Study: Oncor’s AMIRichard Schertz of Oncor and Greg Leon of EDX Wireless explain how the Texas T&D utility solved a problem after its AMI project was operational in many urban areas: The same system design would not work in sparsely populated regions.
38 Strategic Vegetation Management Contributes to Improved ReliabilityKevin Jones of ACRT Inc. lists three easy steps to achieve a successful utility vegetation management program.
Caption
Green Button GROWS
Chris Irwin of the Department of Energy shares how some 16 million customers across more
than 20 utilities are using the Green Button to make sense of their electricity usage data.
Caption 20
From the Editor 6
Notes 8
How to Generate Better 16Intelligence, More Wind Power
and Increased Profits With Advanced Business Analytics JJ Jamieson of Versify Solutions Inc. writes that
variable energy resources need to be backed by a dispatchable source of generation. Enter advanced
business analytics software.
34 Transformer Maintenance Key to Grid ResiliencyNihit Bhardwaj of Siemens writes that power transformers are one answer to many utility problems.
42 How to Master Big Data for the Next-generation UtilityAndy Bane and Paul K. Bower of Ventyx say it’s easy to master big data with the “Four V’s.”
1305PG_4 4 5/3/13 4:01 PM
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EDITOR IN CHIEF Teresa Hansen
918.831.9504 [email protected]
SENIOR EDITOR Kristen Wright
918.831.9177 [email protected]
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jennifer Van Burkleo
918.832.9269 [email protected]
ONLINE/ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jeff Postelwait
918.831.9114 [email protected]
GRAPHIC DESIGNER Deanna Taylor
918.832.9378 [email protected]
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATOR Angie O’Dea
918.831.9431 [email protected]
CIRCULATION MANAGER June Griffin
918.832.9254 [email protected]
SUBSCRIBER SERVICE P.O. Box 3264, Northbrook, IL 63264
phone 847.559.7501 fax 847.291.4816 [email protected]
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, NORTH AMERICAN POWER GENERATION GROUP
Richard Baker 918.831.9187 [email protected]
PENNWELL CORP. IN EUROPE PennWell International Limited
The Water Tower, Gunpowder Mill Waltham Abbey, Essex EN9 1BN, United Kingdom
phone +44.1992.656600 fax +44.1992.656700
CHAIRMAN Frank Lauinger
PRESIDENT/CEO Robert F. Biolchini
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION (CFO)
Mark C. Wilmoth
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Phone 918.835.3161 Fax 918.831.9834 [email protected] http://pennwell.com
POWERGRID International is the offcial publication of
6 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
EDITOR IN CHIEF TERESA HANSEN
FROM THE EDITOR
Are You a ‘Friendly’ or an ‘Unfriendly’?
The International Energy Agency predicts the global solar market
will grow more than 10 percent annually until 2021. Solar is the
fastest-growing energy source in the U.S., according to the Solar Energy
Industries Association (SEIA). SEIA’s “U.S. Solar Market Insight 2012
Year in Review” states the U.S. installed 3,313 MW of solar photovoltaics
in 2012—an industry record. California became the first state to install
more than 1,000 MW in a year, according to SEIA, with growth across all
market segments: residential, commercial and industrial and utility-scale
solar. More than half of 2012 solar installations represented large utility-
scale projects, but more home and small business owners are taking
advantage of solar panels’ falling prices and installing small-scale solar at
a record rate, according to the report. The report reveals nearly 83,000
California homes were fitted with solar panels in 2012 for 488 MW. A
San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) employee said that on average, 400
SDG&E customers installed solar panels each month during 2012. That
average grew to 700 during the first three months of 2013.
Anticipating this shift, software companies developed algorithms
to help predict supply and demand fluctuations and power electron-
ics manufacturers developed new technology to help grid operators
deal with intermittent production. Several manufacturers have been
working on solar inverter technologies. Technology challenges are
being addressed and advancements will continue. I’m not confident,
however, that utilities are preparing in other areas affected. I received
an article pitch this week that describes “the conflict between utilities
and solar that’s brewing (raging in some places) around the U.S.” The
expert who offered the article is the CEO of a clean power finance
company touted as one of the only companies in the solar finance
sector that works with utilities to channel their capital into distributed
solar assets so utilities can access new revenue streams. The CEO
thinks solar represents a threat or major new opportunity for utili-
ties. He refers to utility holding companies’ attitudes toward solar like
military parlance; on military maps, you have reds, yellows and blues
(unfriendlies, neutral/unknowns and friendlies). He even named a
friendly and unfriendly utility.
Using military parlance might be a little extreme, but utilities can resist
or embrace solar; they can’t ignore it. The stats I mention reveal that cus-
tomers aren’t as entrenched in the current paradigm as utilities. Customers
will choose based on needs and budgets. Utilities must be ready to serve
these customers or they might be labeled “unfriendly” and be left behind.
1305PG_6 6 5/3/13 4:01 PM
WINDPOWER® 2013 Conference & Exhibition
May 5 – 8, 2013 � Chicago, IL
AWEA Wind Power on Capitol HillJuly 9 – 10, 2013 � Washington, DC
AWEA Finance and Investment Seminar
September 9 – 10, 2013 � New York City, NY
AWEA Ohio Wind Energy SummitSeptember 24, 2013 � Columbus, OH
AWEA OFFSHORE WINDPOWER Conference & Exhibition
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AWEA Wind Energy Fall SymposiumNovember 6 – 8, 2013 � Colorado Springs, CO
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NOTES
8 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
EnerNOC LAUNCHES GREEN BUTTON INITIATIVE OPEN DATA PROJECT
GDF SUEZ ENERGY RESOURCES AGREEMENT WITH VIRIDITY ENERGY
STRENGTHENS DEMAND RESPONSE CAPABILITIES
26 that will result in production-ready
products and fledgling businesses.
EnerNOC maintains a repository that
includes more than 50 billion
energy readings from the
thousands of commercial
and industrial sites on its
platform worldwide and
has invested more than
$160 million in its technology
and network infrastructure.
Details on EnerNOC’s Green Button
initiative participation are available at
http://open.enernoc.com. For Green
Button information, go to http://green
buttondata.org.
demand response events. The compa-
ny serves commercial, industrial and
institutional customers in 12 markets:
Delaware, Texas, Massachusetts, Maine,
Maryland, New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Illinois, Connecticut,
Ohio and Washington, D.C. The com-
pany serves some 80,000 accounts for
customers with a peak demand ranging
from 50 KW to more than 200 MW, with
an estimated peak load totaling nearly
10,000 MW.
Viridity Energy will use the retail
electricity supplier’s supply and trading
capabilities to monetize actionable load
opportunities for customers. Both com-
panies will take part in a pilot project
that targets several large commercial and
industrial power users that use standby
generation, battery storage and automat-
ed control and measurement technology.
EnerNOC Inc., a provider of cloud-
based energy management software,
announced its newest EnerNOC Open
project, Open Data. As part of its partici-
pation in the Green Button Initiative and
to encourage open source collaboration
that advances energy management inno-
vation, the company has scrubbed and
anonymized one year of granular energy
data from 100 large buildings.
Developers and engineers can access
the data for noncommercial purposes
such as research, integration testing and
hackathons.
Green Button is an energy industry
initiative that responds to a White House
GDF Suez Energy Resources NA, one of
the country’s largest competitive retail elec-
tricity providers to commercial, industrial
and institutional customers, announced
an agreement with Viridity Energy to pro-
vide comprehensive, customized demand
response solutions.
Through this agreement, large ener-
gy users will have access to customized
decision-making tools that align opera-
tions with load-management strategies and
provide opportunities to reduce energy-
related costs. The market knowledge and
supply expertise of GDF Suez Energy
Resources combined with the customer
load-optimization capabilities of Viridity
Energy will give buyers the potential to
mitigate peak energy costs and decrease
capital expenditures.
“Using electricity at the right time can
really make a difference in a company’s
bottom line, particularly for large energy
users,” said David Coffman, vice presi-
dent of marketing for GDF Suez Energy
Resources. “By leveraging our and Viridity’s
call to action to provide customers with
easy access to their energy use data in a
simple format. The release of EnerNOC’s
Open Data project is timed with
the start of the EnerNOC-
sponsored Boston
CleanWeb Hackathon and
Data Jam that began April
5 that brings together entre-
preneurs and developers to
tackle problems at the intersec-
tion of energy, sustainability and the
Internet. The hackathon is a three-day
sprint to build prototype applications
and business ideas. The data jam is
a 90-day marathon culminating June
capabilities, we
plan to bring big
benefits to these
commercial and
industrial customers through practical,
economic energy management strategies
customized for them.”
Eric Alam, senior vice president of
western region sales at Viridity Energy,
said GDF Suez Energy Resources is a
strong retail electricity provider that
understands the value of load flexibility
and how it can be monetized for its
customers.
“Viridity Energy specializes in provid-
ing the tools necessary to unlock that
value, and together we bring a new
approach to overall energy management
through the convergence of supply and
demand-side strategies that lowers energy
costs in a powerful way,” Alam said.
GDF Suez Energy Resources will be a
key strategic advisor to Viridity Energy
in evaluating and analyzing custom-
er load and behavior for year-round
1305PG_8 8 5/3/13 4:01 PM
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� Integrate renewable energy resources
�� Moderate peak demand
EnerSys® OptiGrid™ Stored Energy Solutions is a complete, packaged solution that combines the right battery chemistry, power
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NOTES
10 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
PG&E EMPLOYEES VOLUNTEER DURING APRIL
stuffing backpacks for students, build-
ing playgrounds and installing solar
panels on Habitat for Humanity homes.
ABOUT POINTS OF LIGHT
Points of Light, the largest organization
in the world dedicated to volunteer
service, mobilizes millions of people to
take action that is changing the world.
Through affiliates in 250 cities and
partnerships with thousands of nonprofits
and corporations, Points of Light engages
more than 4 million volunteers in 30
million hours of service each year. It brings
the power of people to bear where it
matters most. For more information, visit
http://pointsoflight.org.
ABOUT HANDSON NETWORK
The volunteer-activation division
of Points of Light Institute, HandsOn
Network, includes 250 community
action centers that deliver 30 million
hours of volunteer service each year
and extend to 16 countries around the
world. These centers focus on helping
people plug into volunteer opportuni-
ties in their local communities, partner-
ing with more than 70,000 corporate,
faith and nonprofit organizations to
manage volunteer resources, and devel-
oping the leadership capacity of volun-
teers. Annually, the network delivers
volunteer service valued at $626 mil-
lion. For more information, visit http://
handsonnetwork.org.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) in
April launched its first Month of Service
program, which featured more than 100
employee volunteer projects throughout
Northern and Central California as part of
National Volunteer Month.
PG&E partnered with HandsOn
Network and Points of Light, a leading
volunteer organization, on the projects.
PG&E CEO Tony Earley officially launched
the program April 4 with nearly 80
employee volunteers at Candlestick Point
State Recreation Area in San Francisco.
Volunteers removed graffiti, cleaned the
shoreline, planted native vegetation and
conducted other park renovations.
“For more than a quarter of a century,
one of the most significant ways we have
served our communities is through our
volunteer program,” said Ezra Garrett,
PG&E vice president and chief sustainabil-
ity officer. “Last year alone, PG&Eers gave
more than 41,000 volunteer hours to com-
munities throughout our service area. And
each year, these numbers continue to grow
as our employees generously give their
time to support our neighbors in need.”
Anchored by PG&E’s annual Earth
Day clean-up and restoration projects
in partnership with the California State
Parks Foundation, the Month of Service
also featured other volunteer activities
that cater to the broad range of employ-
ee interests. Volunteer activities includ-
ed restoration of state parks, neigh-
borhood emergency response training,
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1305PG_10 10 5/3/13 4:01 PM
eTWACSTM
Create Your Intelligent InfrastructureTM � �������������� � �����������������������
Capacity, reliability, and�� �������������It’s easy to get hung up on what technology is better, faster, or newer when making smart grid decisions. A truer measure of success is whether the technology you select works reliably and effectively.
That’s why utilities that want a flexible and powerful smart grid system need eTWACS. Aclara’s eTWACS collects over 99 percent of meter reads and handles a wealth of additional data, including interval reads, load control, outage data, billing, and on-demand reads. How? The eTWACS protocol increases capacity through parallelism and concurrent communications. With eTWACS, data moves simultaneously through substations and over distribution feeders and buses without missing a beat.
Want to know more? Contact Aclara and find out how eTWACS can turn your power lines into data superhighways.
What’s the secret tosmart grid success?What’s the secret tosmart grid success?
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NOTES
12 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
EYE ON THE WORLD
Energate Inc., North America’s leading provider of consumer
demand response and home energy management solutions for
utilities and their customers, announced the rollout of its Consumer
Engagement for the Smart Grid (CESG) program.
Qualified Ontario consumers can opt into the program via
participating local distribution companies (LDCs) or directly through
Energate online to receive a fully funded Energate Foundation smart
thermostat and home energy gateway, with additional innovations
to follow. The foundation delivers vital energy information and
control based on time-of-use pricing with easy to use options to
help save on energy costs while delivering value to the province’s
smart grid and demand response goals.
The objective of the $7.8 million CESG project is to stimulate
consumers’ engagement in home energy management by leveraging
and extending the
smart grid into homes. As part of
the CESG program, participants will receive
real-time usage data via Energate’s Foundation, which
provides whole-house energy consumption information
along with a fully programmable smart thermostat.
Foundation keeps track of savings over a 30-day period
and helps users better manage their energy costs
through multiple complementary consumer-friendly
options such as home energy dashboards and mobile applications.
It also can be set up to display the past 24 hours of electricity
consumption, as well as seven-day averages to provide trending
feedback to consumers. As a result, consumers can monitor usage and
reduce or shift consumption from peak to nonpeak periods based on
time-of-use rates.
Qualified Ontario homeowners who deploy Foundation also will
be able to participate in Phases 2 and 3 of the CESG project that
provide innovations that could include advanced mobile apps, more
advanced home energy management features, and extended moni-
toring and control of other energy-using appliances. Participants will
provide feedback to Energate, Ontario’s Ministry of Energy and the
LDCs on the value of these advanced technologies in achieving their
personal goals and preferences.
“PowerStream is committed to customer satisfaction,” said
Brian Bentz, president and CEO of PowerStream. “The program
with Energate allows us to test advanced technologies with our
customers to better understand how they view this smart grid
opportunity.”
Up to 1,000 homes in Ontario will be equipped with these
advanced technologies as part of the CESG demonstration and
feedback program. Homeowners can indicate their interest by
reviewing the qualifications and signing up at http://energateinc.
com/cesg. Participants will be selected based on qualification
criteria, regional program limits and the terms of a participant
agreement.
Participating LDCs include Cambridge & North Dumfries Hydro,
Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro, Waterloo North Hydro, Hydro One,
Hydro Ottawa, Peterborough Utilities, PowerStream and Veridian
Connections. Additional LDCs also may propose to participate in
the project.
1,000 Ontario homes to be equipped with Energate smart grid technology
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1305PG_12 12 5/3/13 4:01 PM
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FIELD SERVICES
Software and services keeping you connected and compliant
TRAINING
SYSTEMPROTECTIONDATABASE
Visit www.enoserv.com/PG
PROTECTIVERELAY TESTING
SOFTWARE
May 2013 | 13 www.power-grid.com
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Panel, SCADA Add-In,
Master/Slave Alarm Suppression,
Remote Alarm Annunciation, Load
Curtailment, Virtual RTU, System
Configuration Status, MultiSpeak and
Dynamic Voltage Reduction.
Easley Combined Utilities, a citizen-
created, not-for-profit, locally owned
and controlled utility in South Carolina,
has commissioned a new supervisory
control and data acquisition system
from Survalent Technology, a provider
of smart grid solutions for control
rooms.
The Easley City Water and Light Plant
was created in 1911, and the city’s first
electricity supply was generated in 1912
to operate pumps at the water treatment
plant. It is a member of ElectriCities
of North Carolina
(ECNC), Piedmont
Municipal Power Agency
(PMPA) and South Carolina
Association of Municipal Electric
Association (SCAMPS).
The new system features Survalent’s
highly available, open-architecture sys-
tem based on Windows Server. It includes
several of Survalent’s open system appli-
cations, including: WorldView, SCADA
Explorer, Command Sequence, Event
Data Recording, IED Wizard and Control
EASLEY COMBINED UTILITIES
COMMISSIONS NEW SCADA SYSTEM
1305PG_13 13 5/3/13 4:01 PM
NOTES
14 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
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cations market in 2012. China will drive
the growth of the overall BRICS smart
grid communications market, but lucrative
opportunities also will develop in Brazil
and Russia by 2020. Among the five BRICS
countries, India will grow the fastest with
a projected compound annual growth rate
of 30 percent.
Communications for advanced metering
infrastructure, enterprise and operations
architecture, and distribution automation
will make up the lion’s share of the BRICS
market, accounting for 76 percent and
72 percent of the market in 2012 and
2020, respectively. Communications sys-
tems that enable customer systems and
distributed energy resource integration,
however, will see significant gains during
this period.
Report site: http://smartgridresearch.org
The smart grid communications mar-
ket among BRICS countries—Brazil,
Russia, India, China and South Africa—
will reach $9.5 billion by 2020, accord-
ing to the Zpryme report “Smart Grid
Communications: The BRICS Outlook.”
The report states the BRICS smart grid
communications market will experience
rapid growth during the next eight years,
which Zpryme expects to follow three
distinct phases:
1. The deployment of smart meters
to establish a two-way communica-
tions system between utilities and
subscribers;
2. The addition of new sensors and
other devices at key junctures of the
network to help utilities develop val-
ue-added services to leverage their
smart grid infrastructure; and
3. The development of new services and
software to optimize smart meter
deployments and the overall grid.
Countries such as Russia and Brazil
have major events such as the World Cup
and Olympics as key drivers of overall
electrical infrastructure investments.
China, on the other
hand, must develop
an advanced grid
that can support
the rapid expansion
of its economy.
Alternatively, South
Africa and India
are determined to
develop and provide reliable power to all
their citizens. Thus, South Africa and India
see the smart grid as a key pillar of their
electrical upgrade plans.
In the report, Zpryme examines the
smart grid communications market in
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South
Africa. In addition, the report highlights
46 key vendors that serve the communica-
tions market.
Several network technologies
can be used for communications
in the transmission, distribution
and customer domains in the
smart grid, but none suits all
the applications. An integrated,
two-way communications and
networking platform is necessary
for the smart grid. Methods of
providing these communications
include cellular communications,
power line communications,
broadband over power lines,
ZigBee, radio frequency mesh
network, long-term evolution,
wireless broadband (4G) and
satellite communications, among
others.
Smart grid communications
infrastructure connects many
electric devices and manages the
complicated device communica-
tions. It is constructed in a hierarchical
architecture with interconnected individu-
al subnetworks and
each taking respon-
sibility of sepa-
rate geographical
regions. In general,
the communication
networks include
wide-area net-
works, field-area
networks, home-area networks, local-area
networks, private networks, public net-
works, wired and wireless networks.
The Zpryme forecast indicates the
BRICS countries will account for 24 per-
cent of the global smart grid communi-
REPORT: BRICS SMART GRID COMMUNICATIONS MARKET TO REACH $9.5B BY 2020
South Africa and India see smart grid as a key pillar of their electrical upgrade plans.
1305PG_14 14 5/3/13 4:01 PM
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http://elpconference.com
Executives Seeking
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you likely need an update on the same technologies and trends, but from an executive viewpoint. At end the Electric Light & Power Executive
Conference in San Antonio to get an executive preview of DistribuTECH. T e conference provides an exclusive, intimate atmosphere in which
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JAN. 27–28, 2014HENRY B. GONZALEZ CONVENTION CENTER
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1305PG_15 15 5/3/13 4:01 PM
16 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
BY JJ JAMIESON, VERSIFY SOLUTIONS INC.
Since 2007, more than 40,000 MW
of new wind generation has been
built in the U.S., according to the
American Wind Energy Association
(AWEA).
Tens of thousands of new turbines are
operating, a testament to the entrepre-
neurial and engineering spirit of renew-
able development firms, equipment
suppliers and engineering, procurement
and construction (EPC) companies.
Given the nation’s massive build out
of wind generation, the industry will
be working for the next few years to
operate these turbines efficiently and
integrate their output into the electri-
cal grid.
There’s much work to be done.
Variable energy resources (VERs)
such as wind and solar power need to
be backed by a dispatchable source of
generation.
In the Northwest, hydropower often
backs wind power. In other parts of
John “JJ” Jamieson is director of West Operations for Versify Solutions Inc., a software and services
firm serving the electric power industry. He has more than 10 years of experience at Portland General
Electric and BC Hydro. He has a degree in electrical transmission systems technology, was certified as
a NERC-certified system operator–Reliability in 2007 and is a certified systems engineer.
1305PG_16 16 5/3/13 4:02 PM
18 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
data will not be transformed into business
intelligence.
The primary focus of operators is to
maintain system balance in a reliable
manner.
The time it takes to acquire, analyze and
respond to the data presented becomes
increasingly difficult as the volume of data
multiplies.
Operators need tools to understand
the state of a system in an accessible and
effective manner while facilitating a drill
down into the details if necessary.
Gathering and sharing data is no longer
enough.
The ability to employ advanced analyt-
ics to transform data into business intel-
ligence that guides operational decision-
making is critical in today’s electricity
business.
FERC ORDER 764
CREATES NEW DEMANDS
Operational decision-making is more
difficult with today’s data deluge.
Order 764 from the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) reduces
barriers to integrating renewable gen-
eration resources into the electric grid
by allowing increased flow of informa-
tion, opportunity for alternative integra-
tion models and intrahour scheduling of
resources.
This means operators must have data
and intelligence developed and displayed
in a clear, accessible manner to use the
new intrahour scheduling timelines.
Without appropriate data analytics and
related operational software applications,
wind power operators do not have time to
gather and analyze operational data.
NEW NERC INFORMATION
RECOMMENDATIONS
The North American Electric Reliability
the country, thermal plants typically back
wind and solar generation.
The backup generation ensures power
is on the wire when the wind stops blow-
ing or the sun stops shining.
Backup generation ensures the con-
tracted amount of electricity is produced,
balanced and put onto the grid and
keeps operators, regulators and custom-
ers happy.
But there are significant operational
and financial costs built into the variable
energy market.
The inefficiencies caused by maintain-
ing backup generation and the penalties
for an operator that delivers more or less
than its contracted amount of renewable
energy impose significant costs on the
system and customers.
Beyond establishing integration
charges to offset the cost of integrating
VERs, entities responsible for the
integration of VERs have imposed
charges over and
above base integration
charges—in some cases
10 percent of market
price per megawatt—for
each hour an operator
is out of balance with
its scheduled power
deliveries.
Penalties also can be imposed by sys-
tem operators for operating outside of
established business practices and consis-
tent deviations between scheduled gen-
eration and actual generation.
The integration of VERs brings
additional challenges that can be
mitigated through increased operational
efficiencies.
Using advanced business analytics soft-
ware improves electric system efficiencies.
Operators that use Versify Solutions Inc.’s
V-Renew software applications report
significant efficiency and profitability
gains resulting from:
• Improving forecasting accuracy;
• Running less backup generation and
more effective use of capacity;
• Increasing the efficiency of planning
and operational activities;
• Having detailed insight into how
each turbine is performing; and
• Accessing real-time market prices for
power so operators know whether
they are in the money or out of it,
which facilitates sound operational
decision-making.
The proliferation of variable generation
in recent years has addressed some public
policy challenges but created others.
The U.S. generating fleet is cleaner,
greener and more diverse than it was 10
or 20 years ago and has created a broad
benefits stream that should last decades.
Utilities in 30 states are making prog-
ress toward satisfying
state renewable port-
folio standards (RPS)
that mandate certain
percentages of electric-
ity come from renew-
able sources by specific
dates.
But the rapid expan-
sion of renewable generation has created
new stress points for plant operators,
energy traders, power dispatchers and
reliability organizations.
BIG DATA AND HOW TO USE IT
An exponential increase in plant data
threatens to overwhelm plant operators
and power dispatchers.
Increased data does not mean increased
intelligence.
Without effective software technologies
and fine-tuned industry analytics, big
An exponential increase in plant data threatens to overwhelm plant operators and dispatchers.
1305PG_18 18 5/3/13 4:02 PM
May 2013 | 19 www.power-grid.com
of balancing authority services, compliance
management and energy management ser-
vices.
CECD is a pioneer in variable generation
integration.
It has transformed the way operators
can efficiently and reliably operate balanc-
ing authority areas (BAAs) by using appli-
cations to turn big data into actionable
intelligence and operational optimization
of balancing resources.
CECD leverages their expertise and
use of applications developed by Versify
to operate multiple BAAs at the same
time in a reliable and economic manner
24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
A more complete dis-
cussion of the opera-
tional and financial
benefits of the software
product can be found in
a forthcoming white paper
that will be available at
http://versify.com.
Success in the dynamic
renewable power business
requires plant operators have
increased access to operational
data and the ability to trans-
form that data into actionable
intelligence to increase efficien-
cies and profits.
Understanding market condi-
tions at a more granular level
ensures operators will increase
the efficiencies and profit-
ability of their generators
by turning data into
intelligence.
Plant operators typically focus on opera-
tional data acquired from systems such as
supervisory control and data acquisition
with little focus on market data such as
demand and spot prices.
Traders see spot prices but have limited
visibility into operational conditions at
plants and current grid conditions.
This limited visibility is partly a result
of regulatory restrictions but largely is a
result of the lack of implementing enabling
technologies.
The V-Renew advanced analytics soft-
ware blends two critical data streams—
operational and market—into one flow of
actionable intelligence.
The ability to have more meaningful
intelligence available to all participants in
the industry while respecting regulatory
restrictions increases the efficiency, reli-
ability and economics of electrical system
operations.
For operators, raw data does not pro-
vide the same value as data that has been
transformed by an application into busi-
ness, operational intelligence or both.
Clients who use V-Renew report turn-
ing raw operational data into actionable
intelligence that drives more profitable
decision-making:
• Some renewable energy plant opera-
tors have deferred scheduled outages
at their wind farms to take advantage
of market prices for their power.
• Renewable energy plant owners have
improved response times in shutting
down or bringing up plants when they
are out of the money or in the money.
Other operators decided not to acti-
vate some turbines when prices for
spot power fell below a specific tur-
bine’s break-even level.
Constellation Energy Control and
Dispatch (CECD) is a leading provider
Corp. (NERC) issued a set of recommen-
dations after the Sept. 8, 2011, outage in
Southern California.
A primary focus of the recommenda-
tions was the need for increased sharing
of operational information to planners and
operators so balancing area authorities and
others responsible for system reliability
have a more complete understanding of
conditions in the electrical system to avoid
a reoccurrence of the outage.
The industry must approach this
thoughtfully.
Simply pushing more data to everyone
is not the answer.
The industry must re-evaluate how it
shares data, increase the sharing of this
data and share the data in a way that will
provide intelligence to the people who
must act on it.
We must manage our data while trans-
forming it into actionable intelligence.
OPTIMIZING PERFORMANCE
WITH REAL-TIME INTELLIGENCE
During 2012, spot natural gas prices
occasionally were low enough that some
gas-fired generation displaced some base-
load coal generation.
In this topsy-turvy electricity market,
timely knowledge of what it costs to
acquire energy in the market can empower
generation operators to make better deci-
sions: Should they run their generators,
rely on the market to provide the energy
or, in the case of VERs, activate some
turbines but deactivate others based on
market prices and operational costs?
Plant operators, power dispatchers and
energy traders typically don’t look at the
same sets of data so some operational
decisions with significant profit-and-loss
implications, such as scheduling a turbine
shutdown, may not be made with refer-
ence to market conditions.
gu
pr
1305PG_19 19 5/3/13 4:02 PM
20 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
BY CHRISTOPHER IRWIN,
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
the North
American Energy
Standards Board (NAESB) and others. By
the time PAP 10 was completed, NAESB
had created the standard on which Green
Button is now based (REQ 21, or ESPI).
A half dozen other standards now possess
similar DNA.
The Green Button has its origins in a
health data access initiative called the Blue
Button developed by the Department of
Jane and Robert Brown sat down side
by side, gazing at the computer screen.
“We spent more money on electricity
last month than we did on car payments,
and I want to find out why and what we
can do about it,” Jane said. “This portal is
handy, but I went on and put our usage
into a spreadsheet and correlated it to
activities I was able to pull from our com-
bined Outlook calendars and dropped it
into this presentation,” and cut.
TAKE TWO
Jane Brown set the groceries on the
counter. Her phone chimed with a new
email. Her Cabin Buddy app reported
that usage at the Browns’ little place in the
woods was up 40 percent from yesterday,
and for a big change such as that, Cabin
Buddy was set up to register an alert and
follow up with an email. She called the
Johnsons to ask if they could check if the
cabin door had blown open again.
A few miles away, Robert Brown walked
through the automatic doors of Big Box
Hardware. He was approached by a staffer
holding a tablet computer.
“Would you like a customized energy-
savings shopping list?” asked the staffer.
“All you need to do is give us one-time
access to your utility usage data. We’ll
delete the data as soon as we’re done gen-
erating your list.”
Robert politely declined.
“I’m way ahead of you,” he said.
“I got the same offer by email and
uploaded my file this morning.”
Robert looked at his phone, and there
were the estimated savings per month
and year next to each potential item.
What he really wanted were the supplies
to fix that door on the cabin, but a few
lightbulbs, an air filter and a water heater
blanket were easy enough to pick up, and
because he was already here ... and cut.
THE GREEN BUTTON INITIATIVE
Which scenario is realistic? Two years
ago, the best that most U.S. electricity
customers could hope for was the first
scenario. Now, some 16 million customers
across more than 20 utilities are closer to
scenario two, thanks to the Green Button.
The UCA International Users Group
(UCAIug) launched the OpenADE
(Automatic Data Exchange) Task Force,
which contributed some of the early
emphasis to making energy usage infor-
mation faithful to international standards
and more uniform. The effort accelerated
rapidly under Priority Action Plan 10 (PAP
10) of the then-newly created Smart Grid
Interoperability Panel (SGIP). The National
Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) considered a broad consensus on
energy usage information critical to the
success of many key technologies in the
smart grid and was joined in PAP 10 by
Christopher Irwin is the smart grid stan-
dards and interoperability coordinator for
the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy
Reliability in the Department of Energy.
© CAN STOCK PHOTO INC. / SERMAX55
Green ButtonGreen Button
GROWSGreen Button
GROWSGreen Button
GROWSGreen Button
GROWS
1305PG_20 20 5/3/13 4:02 PM
May 2013 | 21 www.power-grid.com
55
Veterans Affairs to put health care data into
the hands of military veterans. All that was
left to do was to provide a spark, which
was delivered by former White House
Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra
during GridWeek 2011. He challenged
utilities and industry to create a Green
Button and shared the success he saw in
the health care sector.
California, Maryland and Texas com-
mitted, and each added millions of cus-
tomers. In April 2012, the Department
of Energy (DOE) launched the Apps for
Energy contest, which challenged software
developers to build within five weeks apps
that use Green Button data. More than 60
apps were submitted. Four months after
the first Green Button data was available
to customers, an ecosystem of utilities,
vendors, developers and customers was
emerging.
That the NAESB ESPI standard is
embraced so widely means apps devel-
oped for Green Button data are likely to
work with multiple utilities. This delivers
an equally clear victory for interoper-
ability. One more win stems from the
common heritage that the NAESB stan-
dard shares with Smart Energy Profile 2.0,
the IEC Common Information Model,
and a companion effort by the American
Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-
conditioning Engineers. The data will not
be identically composed and structured,
but this convergence coupled with coexis-
tence form the second victory for interop-
erability. The final win for interoperability
requires revisiting scenario two and con-
sidering interoperability from a human
Utilities Committed to Implementing Green Button
Companies Supporting or Pledging to Support Green Button Data
American Electric Power
Austin Energy
Baltimore Gas & Electric
Bangor Hydro Electric Co.
CenterPoint Energy
Central Maine Power
Chattanooga EPB
Commonwealth Edison
Connecticut Light and Power
Consolidated Edison
Efficiency Vermont
Glendale Water and Power
JEA
Kootenai Electric Cooperative Inc.
National Grid
NSTAR
Oncor
Pacific Power
PacifiCorp
PECO
Pepco Holdings Inc.
PG&E
PPL Electric Utilities
Public Service Co. of New Hampshire
Reliant
Rocky Mountain Power
Sawnee Electric Membership Corp.
SDG&E
Southern California Edison
The United Illuminating Co.
TNMP
TXU Energy
Virginia Dominion Power
Western Massachusetts Electric Co.
Yankee Gas
Aclara
Belkin
Building Energy Inc.
BuildingIQ
C3
Calico Energy Services
EcoDog
eMeter - A Siemens Business
EnergyAi
EnergySavvy
EnerNex
EnerNOC
FirstFuel
Gas and Power Technologies
Genability
High Energy Audits
Honest Buildings
HyperTek
iControl Networks
Itron
Lucid
Melon
OPower
Oracle
People Power
Performance Systems Development
PlotWatt
Power2Switch
Retroficiency
Schneider Electric
Silver Spring Networks
Simple Energy
Smart Grid Labs
Smart Utility Systems
Snugg Home
SunRun
Tendril
Wattvision
1305PG_21 21 5/3/13 4:02 PM
22 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
as another point of acceleration for Green
Button this year. NIST also continues to
provide leadership with a new users guide
this year to its NIST Green Button Software
Developers Kit.
Most of the more than 3,000 U.S. utilities
are publicly owned municipal providers
or member-owned
cooperatives. That’s
why it has been a
milestone to add
municipal and
cooperative utili-
ties to the commit-
ments list last year, notably Jacksonville
Electric Authority in Florida, the Electric
Power Board of Chattanooga in Tennessee,
the Kootenai Electric Cooperative in Idaho,
and the Sawnee Electric Membership Corp.
in Georgia. With their unique approaches
to software services and their ownership
models, cooperatives might provide a dra-
matic area for Green Button growth in the
coming year.
This year marks the first international
expansion of Green Button into Ontario,
Canada. With support from the White
House Office of Science and Technology,
the DOE and NIST, a collaboration involv-
ing the Ministry of Energy, utilities and the
private sector is embracing the standard
and the Green Button with substantial
parallels but under the sovereign con-
trol of Canada. Their program is ambi-
tious and aggressive, with Green Button
Download My Data piloting this year and a
shared framework for implementing Green
Button Connect My Data uniformly across
the participants. Their effort eventually
will add another 2 million customers to
the initiative and attract Canadian software
developers.
The success of the Green Button ini-
tiative is credible evidence we are on the
right path.
perspective. In this context, interoperabil-
ity means the ability to recognize the value
of something and how it might be useful
with little or no detailed knowledge—a
shallow interface.
Robert Brown does not have to know
much about his energy data to know that
clicking the Green Button on his utility
website will allow him to share that data
with entities he trusts. Jane Brown does
not have to know much about her energy
data to know Cabin Buddy will use Green
Button data to provide a valuable service.
The third victory for interoperability lies
between the consumer and the data, and
that is why it’s called the Green Button and
not the NAESB REQ 21 Button.
Green Button is growing, but it’s no
longer only about volume; it’s growing in
value, consistency, diversity and across
borders.
San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) was
among the first to implement Green Button
Download My Data, and it is among the
first to implement Green Button Connect
My Data. The difference is primarily auto-
mation but with corresponding increases
in privacy and security protections.
Download is the easiest to implement
and fits nearly every regulatory envi-
ronment that supports Internet access.
Connect is more involved from an infor-
mation technology perspective and might
require updates to regulatory policy but
simplifies access and authorization. In
either case, the value of doing so on
the utility side and the customer side
is increasing. Most utilities already have
dozens of needs to share consumption
data with contracted third parties, as well
as mandated data sharing for regulatory,
efficiency measurement and verification or
academic needs. Converging these feeds
to a single format in the case of Download
or a single data service in the case of
Connect is more efficient and easier to
manage. SDG&E reports high demand
for Connect requests from commercial
accounts and their service provider base,
although the service is still in pilot mode.
Chris King, global chief regulatory officer
of Siemens Smart Grid Solutions, referred
to the eMeter Meter
Data Management
System and said
utilities and ven-
dors can reduce the
number of custom
interfaces they need
to spend time and money on by migrat-
ing to Connect for within-enterprise data
exchange needs. For customers, the appli-
cations that serve commercial and residen-
tial customers continue to grow (although
Cabin Buddy does not exists just yet).
EnerNOC, the demand response com-
pany, recently announced its support of
Green Button data in some measurement
and verification applications.
Having a common standard is great but
does not guarantee that each implementa-
tion of the standard will result in identical
outputs, that is, the domain of a testing
and certification process. Developers have
encountered variations in Green Button
files from different implementing utilities,
which is normal at this point, and the uni-
formity is still light-years ahead of the pre-
cursor alternative, the Comma Separated
Value or CSV format (which served as
the basis for Jane’s actions in scenario
one). To meet the needs of utilities, indus-
try vendors and third-party vendors, the
UCAIug is creating test plans and a certi-
fication program for Download My Data
and Connect My Data, and the Electric
Power Research Institute is supporting
that effort with test case development and
additional tools. With the compounding
benefits of interoperability, this will serve
1305PG_22 22 5/3/13 4:02 PM
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São Paulo, Brasil
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innovation practices in the T&D electric power
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1305PG_23 23 5/3/13 4:02 PM
24 | May 2013www.power-grid.com24 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
BY RICHARD SCHERTZ, ONCOR, AND GREG LEON, EDX WIRELESS
The utility selected EDX SignalPro
software, which combines geographic
information system (GIS) mapping
capabilities with propagation analysis
and automated network layout tools that
provide for efficient dimensioning and
placement of infrastructure equipment.
The software incorporates a 3-D
model of the geographical area of inter-
est, which is built up using a digital
elevation model, land-use data and
building and structure data.
The 3-D model is critical so the
physical issues that affect the perfor-
mance of a complex AMI network can
be accounted for in the design, particu-
larly for rural areas with variant terrain.
After a model is created, the planning
Oncor, the largest electric
transmission and distribution
utility in Texas, accomplished a huge
feat in 2012 when it completed the four-
year deployment of advanced meters
at more than 3.2 million homes and
businesses across more than 100,000
square miles of service territory.
The successful deployment was the
largest installation of the most advanced
meters in the nation.
But along with the advanced metering
infrastructure (AMI) deployment came
the need for a cost-effective way to link
results from infrastructure-heavy urban
environments with that of less-dense
areas of the company’s footprint.
THE PROBLEM
After the Oncor AMI project was com-
plete and operational in many urban
areas, the utility determined that the same
system design used in more populated
areas would not work in sparsely popu-
lated regions because projected costs per
meter served would far exceed the cost
per meter served in urban areas. Design
methodology changes were needed to
achieve a cost-effective deployment in
rural areas where meter density is low.
THE SOLUTION
Oncor developed a plan for rural areas
that incorporated lessons learned in urban
deployment using internal engineering
resources and applying advanced radio
frequency (RF) engineering design
methods and tools.
Like most things in the RF world,
design is an iterative process.
But with the many millions of potential
RF links, some form of design automation
software is critical.
An assessment was taken of
engineering software tools that were
capable of performing RF analysis
of mesh networks and the optimal
design methodologies for Oncor’s
geographically diverse service area.
Richard Schertz is a senior network architect and professional engineer at Oncor. He
recently implemented the RF design standards and processes for Oncor’s AMI network and
was instrumental in the RF engineering for and deployment of Oncor’s smart grid networks.
He has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Texas Tech University and an MBA
from the University of Texas at Dallas.
Greg Leon is director of business development at EDX Wireless and focuses on
assisting smart grid vendors, consultants and utilities to better design and deploy their
wireless networks. Leon has a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from the
University of Iowa and a master’s degree in telecommunications from the Interdisciplinary
Telecommunications Program at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where he was a Digital
Energy Fellow.
C A S E S T U D Y :
1305PG_24 24 5/3/13 4:02 PM
May 2013 | 25 www.power-grid.com
of the complex mesh architecture can be accomplished in a
way that respects the unique physical issues of the service
area and the capacity constraints of the vendor’s equipment.
The product is designed to support large-scale AMI mesh
networks and accurate modeling of morphologies from the
dense, large pine trees of East Texas to the sparse vegetation
and plateaus of West Texas.
AMI MESH ARCHITECTURE
As shown in Figure 1, the AMI mesh architecture
implemented by Oncor consists of a data processing center,
more than 400 collection radios called collectors, 11,000
repeaters or routers and electric meters on customer premises.
The collectors are connected to the data processing center
by circuit or cellular modem.
ONCOR’S AMI MESH NETWORK 1
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26 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
2 3
Meters can report directly to a
collector, router or another meter,
adding complexity to the design
process.
One or more routers can communicate
directly to a collector.
The maximum number of router
hops should not exceed 14.
The maximum reliable router hop
count is limited to 10 in densely
forested areas because the router-to-
router RF connections often experience
signal degradation.
DATA GATHERING
To perform an effective RF design, a
utility must gather data from various
sources.
The first set of data consists of
spreadsheets that detail the meter
number and location gathered from
internal utility systems.
Another spreadsheet contains
potential router-mounting asset data,
such as pole information and loca-
tion of all poles with transformers and
streetlights in the design area, and
was generated from distribution asset
records.
Poles with streetlights and transform-
ers are used as router locations because
they have accessible power.
The last set of internal data is a list
of substations and the location of each
substation that can be used as a collec-
tor site.
AMI SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS
The specifications of the radios for
the collectors, routers and meters are
obtained from the manufacturer of the
radio equipment.
The minimum data required includes
the transmit power of all radios, antenna
gain, polarization and receiver-required
signal-to-noise ratio.
Network specifications provided by the
manufacturer included hops for failure
of a transmission to or from a meter, the
number of meters that can report through
a collector and the optimal spacing of
routers around a collector.
RF MODELING, ANALYSIS
After all site and equipment
information is gathered, the information
can be loaded into EDX SignalPro.
The next phase is to set the RF propa-
gation tool parameters and databases
for the design area.
The required information includes a
database that contains the terrain eleva-
tions throughout the design area, street
and road maps and a clutter database
that models land usage.
Clutter data consists of desert, range-
land, farmland, forests and urban and
suburban areas.
Each of these clutter types has a
TERRAIN ELEVATIONS TERRAIN CLUTTER
1305PG_26 26 5/3/13 4:02 PM
May 2013 | 27 www.power-grid.com
4 5
preferred router locations.
Once the router layer is defined, the
design tool can be used to determine
potential mesh routing from the routers
back to the collectors.
The modeling tool uses similar mod-
eling techniques described, but the
hop count system parameter must be
included in the router mesh layer.
Additional design considerations
include:
• Locating repeaters and routers on
top of plateaus and other high
spots to take advantage of the ter-
rain;
• Using company assets such as tow-
ers for collector locations; and
• Placing intermediate routers on
links that are encumbered by ter-
rain or clutter.
DESIGN EXAMPLE
An example of the design analysis
distinct effect on RF propagation.
The modeling tool accounts for each
clutter type in a different way.
Figure 2 shows the terrain denoted
by the bright green at
the higher elevations
and blue at the lower
elevations.
Figure 3 shows
clutter on top of the
terrain. Dark green
denotes forests, light
green is open or
rangeland and blue is lakes.
Once the parameters and terrain or
geographic databases are defined and
mapped, the RF design tool is used to
automatically select router locations.
The RF modeling tool accomplishes
this by:
• Calculating the signal strength
from the candidate router loca-
tion to meter level along a radial
from an omnidirectional antenna
in 1-degree increments along the
360 radials around the antenna;
• Using the terrain database to deter-
mine where terrain
blockage of the sig-
nal occurs;
• Using the clutter
database to represent
land coverage struc-
tures and types that
will block or attenu-
ate the RF signal;
• Determining when the signal
strength transmitted to or from a
meter drops below an acceptable
level;
• Using point-to-point link calcula-
tions so a meter can hop through
an adjacent meter to a router; and
• Using automation techniques
to analyze a large set of candi-
date routers and identifying the
The modeling tool accounts for each clutter type in a different way.
PREMISE METERS THAT MUST BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE AMI SYSTEM
ALL POLES WITH TRANSFORMERS, STREETLIGHTS
1305PG_27 27 5/3/13 4:02 PM
28 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
6 7
upon the urban design model called for
three collectors and 245 routers.
The final implementation, based on
the method described here, used two
collectors and 115 routers.
The savings in capital was some
$340,000 for the 5,200 meters in the
service area, or $65 per meter.
This design was successfully
deployed, and all meters were served
without further optimization.
Subsequently, this method was used
for the remainder of the Oncor AMI
infrastructure design in rural areas,
which resulted in a cost savings of more
than $4 million.
Oncor also is using the software
and expertise developed during AMI
deployment to optimize distribution
automation RF mesh design and plans
to use the tool for microwave path anal-
ysis and transmission dynamic line rat-
ing RF-based monitoring systems.
process is shown in Figures 4, 5 and 6.
Figure 4 shows the location of all the
premise meters that must be accessed
through the AMI sys-
tem.
Figure 5 shows the
location of all the poles
with transformers and
street lights.
Figure 6 shows a
completed design with
all the collectors and
routers placed to opti-
mize meter coverage
and minimize infra-
structure costs.
The lines are the mesh links between
routers and routers and collectors.
A significant amount of link redun-
dancy is evident.
Link redundancy is desirable to miti-
gate the effect that the failure of a single
router can have.
Also, this design has two collectors
that enable a ring topology.
Because a ring is formed, a collector
failure can be overcome
by routing around the
loop.
The hop count will
increase, but reliability
is maintained.
Figure 7 is a detailed
view of mesh linking.
CONCLUSION
The design process
is complex, and a cost-
optimized solution cannot be achieved
by simple rule-of-thumb design.
Through its aggressive efforts and sig-
nificant planning, Oncor implemented
a new structure that provided a great
cost savings in overall deployment and
in rural areas.
The original infrastructure plan based
COMPLETED DESIGN WITH ALL COLLECTORS, ROUTERS
DETAILED VIEW OF MESH LINKING
The savings in capital was some $340,000 for the 5,200 meters: $65 per meter.
1305PG_28 28 5/3/13 4:02 PM
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1305PG_29 29 5/3/13 4:02 PM
30 | May 2013www.power-grid.com30 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
A Holistic Data Analytics Strategy is Critical for Smart Grid Projects
BY ROBERT SHERICK, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON, AND STEVE EHRLICH, SPACE-TIME INSIGHT
in climate, topography, environmental
concerns and other public policy issues.
Data analysis is a central part of the
ISGD. SCE needs to keep close tabs on
what’s working and what’s not so it can
suggest improvements to the design and
Smart grids will figure prominent-
ly in the power landscape of the
future. In cities, states and countries the
world over, the foundation is being laid
for infrastructure, products and services
that incorporate greener power sources
and innovative technologies that maxi-
mize efficiency.
This is a vital evolution, but one that’s
still in its early stages. Fully modernized
smart grids will take time and some
trial and error to get right, which is why
efforts to test, validate and measure the
success of approaches are imperative.
A smart approach to smart grid
development is especially important in
California.
The state’s goal is to have 33 percent
of its power mix come from renewable
sources by 2020.
Utilities, power generators, grid oper-
ators, the public utilities commission
and other industry players all have a
stake in identifying technologies that
support this objective.
Case in point: as one of California’s
(and the nation’s) largest electric utili-
ties, Southern California Edison (SCE)
is focused on finding ways to deliver
power to consumers safely, reliably, sus-
tainably and cost-effectively.
This is the impetus behind the Irvine
Smart Grid Demonstration (ISGD) proj-
ect, which is managed and led by
SCE and funded through the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009.
The project is designed to demon-
strate the interoperability and efficacy
of smart grid technologies within a
controlled environment. ISGD will be
deployed at the University of California,
Irvine (UCI) and SCE’s MacArthur
Substation in Newport Beach. The
location sites are typical of heavily
populated areas of Southern California
Robert Sherick is principal manager for grid advancement and power systems technologies for
Southern California Edison, one of the largest U.S. electric utilities. SCE delivers power to more than 14
million people in central, coastal and Southern California.
Steve Ehrlich is senior vice president of marketing and product development for Space-Time
Insight, a provider of next-generation situational intelligence solutions.
1305PG_30 30 5/3/13 4:03 PM
In here, meters keep in touch, so your crews don’t have to.
In the network of possibilities, meters report usage in
real time. The power grid monitors itself to identify
problems before they become outages. And utilities
put resources where they’re needed most. As the
only communications provider offering complete
smart grid solutions, AT&T is a partner you can
rely on to manage your data, so you can focus on
managing your power grid.
Discover what AT&T Smart Grid Solutions can do for you at
att.com/smartergrid
© 2012 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other AT&T marks contained herein are trademarks of
AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
Go to http://pgi.hotims.com for more information.
1305PG_31 31 5/3/13 4:03 PM
32 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
customizing point-to-point digital inte-
gration between devices and systems is
cost-prohibitive.
Organizations need a way to cost-
effectively correlate, analyze and pres-
ent information as a cohesive whole so
decision-makers can understand the big
picture.
3Governance. Just as smart grid
assets and devices are widely dis-
tributed, so is the responsibility for
managing all of the data components
involved.
Multiple stakeholders might need to
take part in smart grid decision-mak-
ing, from operators and technology
providers to back and front office utility
company staff, policymakers and even
consumers.
These multiple stakeholders have tra-
ditional uses for “their” data.
Understanding the usefulness this
data provides to others will take time
and might lead to new processes within
an organization.
Data analysis solutions therefore must
consider the needs of diverse informa-
tion consumers and varying levels of
access.
4Security. Finally, data
security and privacy
issues require careful con-
sideration.
Smart grid data con-
tains more detailed data
on customer energy usage
and electric system opera-
tions.
Customer confidential-
ity and privacy must be
protected.
As the data collected about consumer
behavior becomes more granular, pro-
tecting this information is essential.
Equally important is maintaining a
performance of the smart grid technol-
ogies that are part of the demonstration
project.
But this task can get challenging as
more streams of information are gener-
ated by sensors, devices, equipment
and systems throughout the grid.
The following are some key consid-
erations organizations need to consider
as they launch smart grid projects that
require in-depth awareness of an array
of moving parts:
1Volume. Massive data volumes
otherwise known as big data chal-
lenge many organizations, and this
trend is particularly acute in the power
industry. Newer technologies such as
synchrophasors, advanced distribution
equipment, smart meters and smart
appliances, in addition to traditional
operational systems and devices, are
producing an avalanche of real-time
information. Managed wisely, this data
is a valuable asset that helps stakehold-
ers efficiently orchestrate grid opera-
tions, stay on top of potential issues and
predict requirements. Managed poorly,
it can become an overwhelming burden
that’s problematic to store and maintain.
An ability to process and interpret large
quantities of data quickly is key.
2Complexity. Volume, however, is
only one part of the equation. In
smart grid environments, the diver-
sity of data sources and the pace at
which information is generated add
complexity to information analysis that
is unprecedented.
For example, data may be generated
in real time by thousands of devices
and source systems from smart meters
and in-home thermostats to sensors on
solar panels, transform-
ers, circuits and other
infrastructure.
When multiple sources
and formats of data are in
play, switching between
application screens, com-
paring numbers from
piles of spreadsheets or
weeding through static
text documents to find
and analyze critical infor-
mation is neither effective nor efficient.
These manual, ad-hoc approaches to
data management are too slow, cumber-
some and prone to error. Meanwhile,
Utilities need to consider four things as they launch smart grid projects: volume, complexity, governance and security.
1305PG_32 32 5/3/13 4:03 PM
May 2013 | 33 www.power-grid.com
improved monitoring and control sys-
tems. The optimization of the interac-
tion of these devices within the distri-
bution grid will be a large component of
a smarter grid. This device integration
and the associated data analysis will
be the next challenge for utilities. The
increasing volume and complexity of
data from these devices also will require
a renewed data governance model and
a highly secure cybersystem to ensure
data is collected, processed and visual-
ized to enable smart, secure decision-
making.
As smart grid projects gain momen-
tum, power industry stakeholders must
be able to closely track the cost, benefits
and impacts of new technologies and
understand how all elements of the
grid are coming together in real time to
bring greener power to consumers.
With so much data streaming in from
so many sources, a holistic, situational
approach to information analysis will
help organizations transform moun-
tains of smart grid data into valuable
insight that helps them forge a safe,
sustainable and successful path.
vehicle charging on off-peak energy
consumption; and keep tabs on on-site
solar generation and energy storage
systems and overall grid reliability. Key
to making this work is the software’s
ability to correlate and analyze real-time
and historical data from
diverse sources seam-
lessly so decision-makers
get an accurate, complete
view of what’s happen-
ing throughout the smart
grid at a glance. Also
important are innovative
visualization techniques
such as color-coding, 3-D
representations and ani-
mation, which help infor-
mation consumers intuitively make
sense of complex data.
Looking beyond the ISGD proj-
ect, SCE anticipates the technology
deployed in ISGD will be adopted
increasingly throughout the SCE service
area. Interconnected devices and infor-
mation—programmable thermostats,
electric vehicles, storage devices and
distributed generation—will require
secure, reliable electrical system. The
increased points of entry to a smart
grid must be secured and managed to
maintain overall system reliability of the
transmission and distribution systems.
A robust cybersecurity system is criti-
cal to the success of the smart grid,
and monitoring this cybersecurity land-
scape will require analyzing security data
through improved visualization tools.
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
WITH SITUATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Because a smart grid project encom-
passes multiple technology assets, big
data sources and stakeholders, a secure,
situationally aware approach to infor-
mation analysis is critical. Decision-
makers must be able to digest and
analyze large volumes of real-time
information holistically instead of in
a piecemeal fashion where important
connections might be missed.
In the case of the ISGD
project, SCE selected a
situational intelligence
software solution from
Space-Time Insight that
combines multidimen-
sional spatial maps with
sophisticated analytics
to build visualizations of
structured and unstruc-
tured data from different
underlying domains.
This solution serves as the eyes of
the ISGD, enabling project participants
to quickly see, understand and assess
the performance of the many diverse
technologies deployed within the dem-
onstration. For example, SCE can use
the situational intelligence software to
do things such as: analyze the costs
and benefits of circuit voltage optimiza-
tion; understand the impact of electric
As smart grid projects gain momentum, stakeholders must closely track the cost, benefts and impacts of new technologies.
1305PG_33 33 5/3/13 4:03 PM
34 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
Entergy’s James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in Scriba, N.Y.
1305PG_34 34 5/3/13 4:03 PM
May 2013 | 35 www.power-grid.com
Utilities often struggle with balancing
their budgets, including capital for
new investments and operational needs
to manage existing assets while focusing
on reliability. At the same time, emergency
outages create rippling effects throughout
a system and lead to stretched budgets and
concerned customers. Power transformers
are one answer to these problems.
Preventative maintenance of transform-
ers with proactive upgrades can provide
maximum output and prevent costly
repairs or change outs. Utilities that want
to capitalize on the benefits of their opera-
tions as the smart grid evolves can rely
on end-to-end solutions focused on the
complete life cycle management of their
transformers.
As with all smart grid systems, technol-
ogy is used to interface with other devices
in the network to assist with stability and
monitoring. In the event of an outage, the
smart grid can locate failures and notify
operators. For instance, during a portion
of its smart grid implementation to tie in
distribution substations throughout the
Houston area, a customer required recur-
ring switching at its distribution substa-
tions. It needed a solution that could deliv-
er real-time load availability on existing
transformers while constantly monitoring
the health of the asset to extend their lives.
Siemens Smart Grid Services provided a
TMDS transformer monitoring and diag-
nostic system to directly address the issues.
Because of multiple switching cycles,
transformers undergo extraneous stress
in managing power distribution, which
can decrease their life span. Transformer
monitoring and diagnostic technology can
monitor transformer loads and record data
while providing diagnostic tools that can
help turn raw data into actionable infor-
mation. This information is transformed
using advanced modeling based on a
particular utility’s transmission and distri-
bution system. The technology can help
avoid unplanned failures, lower mainte-
nance costs and extend useful transformer
life, allowing asset owners to take correc-
tive action before problems occur.
Because of the complex relationships
between how the transformer performs
and how it is expected to perform during
infinite scenarios, system implementation
requires expertise in transformers, as well
as data integration and analysis. With
the right technology, customers gain real-
time transformer loading with minimal life
reduction, reduced frequency and dura-
tion of outages and are moving from time-
based to condition-based maintenance.
Such expert monitoring systems can
facilitate asset condition-based equipment
servicing for extended asset life span. When
it comes to equipment servicing, it’s often
a misnomer in the industry that a certain
company can only work on certain equip-
ment. Fortunately, IEEE standards univer-
sally guide technicians, and Occupational
Safety and Health Administration regula-
tions prepare everyone, regardless of their
affiliation, to do the job safely. Although
standards and qualifications are essential,
there are many other factors to consider,
such as project management skills, indi-
vidual and group experience, reliability
BY NIHIT BHARDWAJ, SIEMENS
Nihit Bhardwaj is the product line manager
for transformer life cycle management at
Siemens Smart Grid Systems and Services.
Reach Bhardwaj at nihit.bhardwaj@siemens.
com or 919-274-0335.
1305PG_35 35 5/3/13 4:03 PM
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May 2013 | 37 www.power-grid.com
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We are proud to announce the release of the newest
functionality of the Tettex 2293 Winding Analyzer: the
Turns Ration Measurement application. With this addition,
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��The 2293 is an automatic winding analyzer, optimized for
three phase power and distribution transformer measurements.
performing civil analysis, etc. For a
nominal investment, these activities
can be planned and can save valuable
downtime when a transformer needs to
be replaced in an emergency.
No one looks forward to emergen-
cy service. It’s costly, time-consuming
and has the potential to derail other
important tasks. Transformer replacement
programs are driven by prioritizing trans-
formers according to their condition and
their contribution to network reliability, so
transformers in the most critical locations
and in the worst condition are the first to
get replaced. Utilities must continue their
focus on contingency planning and sched-
uled maintenance, which allow transform-
ers to play a critical role in efficient, reliable
power delivery.
fail before their predicted end of life. Once
a failure occurs, damage control becomes
the top priority. How quickly power can
be rerouted or the failed transformer can
be replaced will determine the extent of
lost revenues.
Having a detailed replacement plan on
the shelf can save millions in downtime
costs. Even when a spare transformer is
available on-site, days might be wasted
developing hauling plans, comparing criti-
cal dimensions of the spare transformer,
and especially references.
Recently Siemens was called dur-
ing an emergency outage at genera-
tion station in the Northeast when a
competitor’s transformer had failed
unexpectedly.
Several years prior, Siemens was
involved in another project at that
station and had provided turnkey
installation of a new transformer.
This time, however, the customer needed
to have its failed transformer disconnected
and moved and the spare slid into place.
The move was completed in record time,
and power was restored to a critical gen-
eration station.
Ideally, a transformer is replaced just
before it reaches its end of life. In real-
ity, however, no matter how scientific a
replacement methodology is, forced out-
ages still occur because some transformers
An Entergy transformer in Sterlington, La.
1305PG_37 37 5/3/13 4:03 PM
38 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
BY KEVIN JONES, ACRT INC.
management plan can be achieved by
following these steps:
• STEP 1: Assess the system. By
combining the expertise of trained
arborists with statistical sampling
and modeling techniques, a util-
ity can determine the impact veg-
etation could have on a utility’s
circuits. With this knowledge, the
most effective action can be deter-
mined for ongoing vegetation
management. Without it, planning
becomes difficult.
• STEP 2: Perform a pre-inspec-
tion. Skilled arborists who walk a
utility’s system note the location,
condition and growth rate of veg-
etation and line clearance require-
ments. They tag trees and shrubs
for removal or trimming and enter
The measure of a utility’s success
is based on reliability. When the
power goes out, the failure can be mea-
sured by the number of customers affect-
ed by the interruption of service and
associated emergency line clearance and
restoration expenses.
Having a strategic, comprehensive
vegetation management plan can help
utilities lessen the likelihood that trees
will cause an outage.
“The issue with managing the veg-
etation is one of mitigation of cost and
risk,” said Richard Jackson of Arbor
Intelligence. “It obviously is not pos-
sible to maintain a distribution system
that eliminates all tree-related outages.
In terms of vegetation management, we
think it is best to express success in
terms of balance. A system that is con-
stantly being managed, or constantly
striving to not be managed as complex
adaptive systems tend to do, will display
greater volatility as the system is pushed
further from its equilibrium.”
In addition, balanced utility vegetation
management (UVM) programs are vital
to reducing a utility’s overall operating
costs and preventing unforeseen ones.
Considerable overtime charges gener-
ated by tree and wire issues can be pre-
vented with UVM programs.
Having a sound vegetation
Kevin Jones is a business development
manager with ACRT Inc. and an ISA Certified
Arborist and Utility Specialist. Reach him at
STRATEGIC VEGETATIONManagement Contributo Improved Reliability
1305PG_38 38 5/3/13 4:03 PM
May 2013 | 39 www.power-grid.com
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RELIABILITY PERSONIFIEDFrom work planning and notification, to safe and efficient line
clearance, to emergency storm response, we take reliability seriously.
Go to http://pgi.hotims.com for more information.
submitted back to the contract tree
crews for correction.
Vegetation management is key to pre-
venting outages, but some might be
reluctant to get started by investing in
a system assessment because they think
the money could be used to get more
tree work done.
Lake Region Electric Cooperative
Operations Manager Joe Belz under-
stands that reservation. He said that
without a comprehensive plan, however,
utilities have no way of knowing how to
wisely and effectively spend their main-
tenance dollars. The common saying, “If
you can’t measure it, you can’t manage
it,” aptly applies to vegetation manage-
ment, he said.
The cooperative’s CEO, Tim
to ensure vegetation regrowth won’t
create issues before the next trimming
cycle. It also determines the order of
work, which is crucial when consid-
ering cost.
• STEP 3: Complete a post-audit.
Establishing accountability increas-
es the efficiency of a UVM program.
It might be naive to expect a con-
tractor to do anything but make a
profit, but with post-audit, the work
of tree-trimming crews is inspected
to determine whether they followed
the work plan and specifications.
Work is checked for proper prun-
ing (amount and techniques), as
well as scheduled tree removals and
herbicide applications. This ensures
premature regrowth does not pose
an issue. If a problem is found, it is
butes all the information into a database
for tracking. This data is used to
create detailed work plans, which
detail steps for tree-trimming crews
1305PG_39 39 5/3/13 4:03 PM
40 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
Customer Relations is Cornerstone of Successful UVM
Positive customer relations can contribute to the success of a utility
vegetation management program. A utility needs well-versed, courte-
ous representatives to foster positive public relations with customers
and notify them of tree-trimming or removal activities that will affect
them. When encountering the inevitable issue of a refusal, it is impera-
tive to engage the customer with a utility spokesperson trained in
conflict management. By properly communicating with a customer who
doesn’t want his tree disturbed despite the risk of interrupted electric
service, an experienced utility representative can help resolve the chal-
lenge, which leads to a more positive outcome.
1305PG_40 40 5/3/13 4:03 PM
May 2013 | 41 www.power-grid.com
Go to http://pgi.hotims.com for more information.
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are completing restoration work.
Achieving the best vegetation man-
agement program requires a firm com-
mitment and resources. Following
these steps will help ensure the system
is properly maintained and eliminate
unnecessary costs for work that wasn’t
done or that was done improperly.
Thompson, said waiting adds to costs.
“The studies showed that if we didn’t
jump on these issues quickly, more and
more trees were going to become a prob-
lem and increase costs down the road,”
Thompson said. “It was a front-loaded
option but gave the best solutions for
the long run.”
Although a UVM composes a large
portion of costs for a utility, it’s impor-
tant to realize the connection between
increased overtime and reduced veg-
etation management. When utilities
defer maintenance, they push back trim
cycles. But the vegetation doesn’t stop
growing. The larger trees and brush
become, the more expensive vegetation
management becomes, especially when
it entails extra overtime for linemen who
FOLLOW A 3-STEPUVM PLAN
1
1305PG_41 41 5/3/13 4:03 PM
42 | May 2013www.power-grid.com42 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
How to Master BIG DATA for the Next-generation Utility
BY ANDY BANE AND PAUL K. BOWER, VENTYX
market data is available from many sourc-
es, and data on consumers such as data
generated by social media is becoming
increasingly important. Enterprise data is
produced and consumed at a rapid rate by
a growing number of applications, from
enterprise asset management and mobile
work force management to distribution
management, human resources and cus-
tomer-facing applications.
Much of this big data is unstructured,
or at best semi-structured, including
data pertaining to asset health conditions
(e.g., photos, maps and experience-based
expertise with specific assets). Much of
a utility’s historical data can be unstruc-
tured, as well, which presents challenges
around turning this data into structured
results that provide actionable insights. In
addition, as grid systems tie increasingly
into energy markets, utilities are having
Organizations across the power
industry are excited about big data’s
potential to address broad industry chal-
lenges and open opportunities for improv-
ing operations. These range from aging
assets managed by an aging work force to
better storm preparation and response to
enabling energy efficiency.
Big data that pours in from the smart
grid, social media, customer calls and
online forms, streaming video and pho-
tography that provide real-world views
of grid assets offer new opportunities for
utilities to improve asset health, accelerate
outage restoration and increase customer
satisfaction.
Driving these solutions, however,
requires more than merely managing big
data. It requires mastering it to tie systems
together in real time—bringing critical
context to the volume and variety of data
and making big data suitable for a wide
range of uses within the organization.
Effectively harnessing big data is essen-
tial to leveraging it for business benefit,
which means consolidating and then veri-
fying it as an authoritative source of busi-
ness-critical information trusted for use
by employees and applications across an
enterprise. Mastering big data means pro-
viding a utility with a single source of the
truth to power improved decision-making
to drive greater operational performance.
THE FOUR V’S OF BIG DATA:
VOLUME, VELOCITY,
VARIETY, VERACITY
By itself, big data creates more chal-
lenges than solutions for utilities. It is also
about the fast-growing variety of data and
data sources, the increased velocity with
which data is created and shared, and the
trustworthiness or veracity of that data—
all of which combine to make big data dif-
ficult to master to gain big insights without
much manipulation and analysis.
Volumes of data are flowing into utili-
ties. For example, massive amounts of
equipment-condition data is generated
every second by smart sensors, monitors
and intelligent devices across the grid
and across day-to-day utility operations.
External data such as weather, credit and
Andy Bane is executive vice president of product management and chief of strategy for Ventyx.
He is responsible for overseeing product management and strategy and new product intro-
duction. He has a degree from the University of Colorado.
Paul K. Bower is senior vice president and general manager for advanced business intelligence
solutions at Ventyx, an ABB company. Prior to Ventyx, he was a co-founder and chief technology
offcer of Obvient Strategies, co-founder and vice president of technical services of CES, leader
of the development team for a revenue and demand management system at Northwest
Airlines, and a developer and system architect at Siemens.
© C
AN
STO
CK
PH
OTO
IN
C. /
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S
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May 2013 | 43 www.power-grid.com
© C
AN
STO
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PH
OTO
IN
C. /
CIE
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S
In turn, big data from these
systems can be leveraged to
improve planning for outages,
predicting equipment failures,
responding to weather events,
and optimizing the flow of ener-
gy and information across the
network—mastering a data man-
agement life cycle.
EXPLORING THE DATA
MANAGEMENT LIFE CYCLE
Mastering the management of
data along this life cycle of plan-
ning, predicting, responding and
optimizing operations requires
mastering numerous types of big
data. But if done successfully, the possibili-
ties for improved operations and decision-
making are just as numerous.
PLAN: IMPROVING STORM
PLANNING, OUTAGE RESTORATION
When utilities prepare for potentially
disruptive events such as storms, planning
and operating models are put into play
using data from previous years combined
with current information on critical assets
across the network. Many things must be
determined, including likely areas of dam-
age, the best location for materials, person-
nel planning and crew placement, ser-
vices to shelters, and how to interact with
municipalities and affected customers.
to process and manage complex
events, which further complicates
the data management challenge.
Meanwhile, new technologies such
as electric vehicles (EVs) and dis-
tributed energy resources only will
complicate matters (e.g., how will
EV-charging data be collected and
transformed into insights?).
All of this data, new and old,
must be mastered to generate
actionable insight.
HARNESSING BIG DATA
WITH MASTER DATA
The best way to master big
data is by taking a master data
approach. A master data approach pro-
vides a central source of business data used
across workgroups, systems, applications
and processes. Master data is consolidated,
authoritative and trustworthy. It has been
standardized, de-duplicated, cleansed and
validated. Its distribution often central-
ized through a management hub, master
data provides a single source of truth to
all stakeholders inside and outside an
enterprise.
The explosion of data utilities are tack-
ling comes from operational technology
sources such as sensors and information
technology (IT) sources such as enter-
prise business applications. It all needs
to be put into context and verified for
accuracy. By ensuring veracity, master data
enables utilities to use their data—big and
conventional, operational technology and
IT, transactional and interactional—in a
just-in-time manner to better manage the
grid. Master data also is pivotal to leverag-
ing external data, such as social network
streams and weather information, putting
the data in context so it is useful for senti-
ment analysis and other analytics.
Master data is pivotal to successful
convergence of operational technology
and IT within a utility. With operational
technology and IT in alignment, func-
tional and physical views of equipment
are brought together along with real-
time data from operational sources to
feed real-time and historical business
analytic solutions that drive real-time
and predictive visibility. This enterprise
visibility is the key to making better
operational and strategic decisions.
As a result, master data will enable
solutions to encompass multiple types
of big data, which will enable utilities
to deploy broad strategies and solutions
that span numerous disparate systems
and business processes.
Volume Velocity
Veracity Variety
THE FOUR V’s OF BIG DATA 1
1305PG_43 43 5/3/13 4:03 PM
44 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
diverse big data into consistent informa-
tion usable for predictive analytics, as well
as in the field to put the results of analytics
into action.
RESPOND: REACTING
MORE EFFICIENTLY, EFFECTIVELY
TO EVENTS
The capture of unstructured data from
sources also can accelerate and increase
the effectiveness of a utility’s response to
network events. This plays out in multiple
ways, but here we focus on an outage
management example. The analysis of
huge amounts of weather data can help
shape a utility’s response to fast-changing
weather conditions. Valuable information
about developing conditions and customer
satisfaction after restoration efforts also can
be harvested from customers via social net-
work streams. Social media channels also
can be used to broadcast or precisely target
messages to customers regarding outage
conditions and restoration efforts and time
lines. Flyover data gathered from drones
can be mapped against existing spatial
data to show impassable roads, downed
lines, flood areas and more to optimize
restoration. When this is combined with
network management and enterprise
historical data on an asset and the expertise
of those most familiar with maintaining a
given asset.
American Electric Power Co. Inc.
(AEP), one of the largest electric utilities
in the United States, is implementing an
asset health center to leverage big data
in this way.
The solution eventually will be applied
across all AEP transmission substations
and integrate equipment-derived opera-
tional technology data with intelligent IT
applications. Thus, it will bring together in
a single system a range of disparate asset
data, algorithms based on subject-matter
expertise and analytic software to trans-
form how AEP maintains its transmission
infrastructure.
Big data also can enhance significantly
the safety, accuracy and quality of actions
carried out in the field.
Consider a field technician who is wear-
ing a pair of safety goggles equipped with
a heads-up display that provides informa-
tion related to the equipment he’s looking
at, including maintenance actions, proce-
dures, notes, tags and even video.
Whether information is flowing into, out
of or within an organization, master data
management is at the core of transforming
Big data has a proportionally big role to
play. For example, the increasing use of
drones to map transmission and distribu-
tion assets and the environment in which
they reside is extremely valuable in plan-
ning even though it unleashes a flood of
unstructured mapping data that must be
managed.
Big data also can be used predictively,
including data on asset health and net-
work reliability. With this data, solutions
can model more accurately and effectively
the impact of storms, earthquakes or other
disasters against the health of the overall
network, including its structures and con-
nections. Big data is there to be leveraged.
As it is taken to the analytic environment,
the data must be consolidated, matched
and verified for quality and consistency so
it is fit for use across end user applications.
Progressive-thinking utilities understand
this need.
For instance, Computerworld.com
recently reported that Reid Nuttall, chief
information officer at OGE Energy Corp.,
said the company has set up an informa-
tion “factory” and business analyst compe-
tency center to find ways to leverage the
data generated from thousands of smart
meters to drive business value, such as
reducing peak demand.
PREDICT: REPLACING REACTIVE
WITH PREDICTIVE SOLUTIONS
Predictive solutions such as asset health
use real-time analytics to get ahead of
potential or developing situations. Asset
health solutions, for example, use real-
time analytics, historical data, operating
history, etc., to flag assets that are trend-
ing toward failure so action can be taken
before failures.
Big data enriches this area. For instance,
asset health applications analyze real-time
sensor data on an asset’s condition and
Optimize Predict
Plan
Respond
HR and Payroll
Meter Data Management
GIS, GPS and VLT
OMS/DMS
Enterprise Asset Management
Mobile Work Force Management Systems
Customer Systems
DMS/EMS/SCADA
Big External Data (such as weather, credit, fnancials)
Big
Indu
stria
l Ent
erpr
ise
Dat
a
Big Equipment Data (such as sensors, monitors)
THE DATA MANAGEMENT LIFE CYCLE 2
1305PG_44 44 5/3/13 4:03 PM
May 2013 | 45 www.power-grid.com
information required to comply with
market regulations.
TURNING BIG DATA
INTO BIG VALUE
Mastering the vast data available to utili-
ties is more than a technology challenge.
If it were just that, then it would be
solved by recent advances in big data pro-
cessing (e.g., Hadoop) and storage.
Big data also is a business challenge that
can be solved only by transforming big
data into business insights.
Mastering big data is essential to bring-
ing together the physical world of assets,
personnel and customers with the world
of systems, business processes and perfor-
mance metrics. It is the glue for aligning
operational technology and IT.
When a utility has mastered the four
V’s of big data, it can harness the tide of
big data to more effectively plan for and
manage outages, better manage its asset
base and capital expenditures, optimize
the flow of energy and enable new levels of
customer engagement.
Meaningful accomplishments are being
made using big data, but mastering the
data will enable utilities to drive a step
change in efficiency, productivity, return
on assets, network reliability, safety and
customer satisfaction.
used to develop more accurate fore-
casts about customer-level loads for
upcoming hours and days, as well as
to help optimize the usage of demand
response programs against current
market conditions.
In smart meter analytics, data man-
agement routines can cull through
15-minute interval data, aggregate it
to the substation level, and validate
and further consolidate the informa-
tion to make it usable from a control
standpoint. Analysis of this data com-
bined with customer profiling can help
smooth the load profile to
benefit customers. Going
farther into the customer
facility or home beyond
the meter, large volumes of
home energy network data
can be leveraged to design
and analyze demand
response and energy effi-
ciency programs.
A Fortune 500 utility
with more than 20 years
in direct load control pro-
grams recently implement-
ed a full demand response
program that empowers
customers with rate struc-
ture options that allow
them to control energy
usage based on demand and hourly rates.
It’s a big data play. Behind the curtains, the
company upgraded its data management
infrastructure with master data technology
so the operational technology data created
by smart thermostats, load control switch-
es and the like is delivered in a trusted,
usable form to its IT systems, including its
customer information system (CIS).
Consequently, the CIS can deliver
accurate daily and monthly forecasts,
and the utility can provide the accurate
information technology systems, utilities
can master big data to improve storm
responsiveness significantly while auto-
mating many decisions typically reliant
on multiple skilled workers.
This variety of information can be
overwhelming unless utilities reconcile
the information and transform the data
for consumption by decision-makers
and IT applications. CenterPoint Energy
integrated business intelligence and ana-
lytics into its advanced distribution auto-
mation system. As a result, CenterPoint’s
system enables complex data from dis-
parate systems to be assimilated and
presented to users in key functions
from operations and customer service to
resource and supply chain management
to simplify decision-making.
OPTIMIZE: STREAMLINING
ENERGY, INFORMATION FLOW
ACROSS THE NETWORK
The effective handling of big data starts
with demand response programs, where
big data that has been mastered can be
Volume
Value
Velocity
Veracity Variety
TURN BIG DATA INTO BIG VALUE 3
1305PG_45 45 5/3/13 4:03 PM
PRODUCTS
46 | May 2013www.power-grid.com
power and air circuit breaker into a 30-inch-wide switch-
gear structure to minimize overall space requirements
and deliver high-level performance. The reduced size and
weight of the compact breaker also make it more manage-
able for operators to handle. The Magnum DS switchgear
meets UL 1558 and 891 standards for alternating current
systems up to 600 volts. Magnum DS switchgear is also
tested to American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
C37.20.7.1 and International Electrotechnical Commission
(IEC) 60947-2 standards. The Magnum 4000A breaker
uses Digitrip unit technology featuring Zone Selective
Interlocking and Arcflash Reduction Maintenance System
technology. The 4000A narrow frame features communica-
tions with Modbus and INCOMT communications.
Eaton Corp.
GO TO HTTP://PGI.HOTIMS.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION
Dual-hazard Knit Shirts
Workrite Uniform Co.
Inc., a provider of flame-
resistant work wear
worldwide, has a line of
knits with new styling in
a leading-edge fabric:
TenCate Tecasafe Plus. The dual-hazard knits protect
against arc flash and flash fire. Workrite is having them
certified to NFPA 2112 and NFPA 1975, and they meet
Hazard Risk Category 2 for NFPA 70E. Made from the
first knit product engineered to withstand the rigors of
industrial laundering, these knits are geared toward indus-
trial and fire service customers. The line integrates styling
from Workrite with a more modern fit, such as longer tails,
raglan sleeves on the T-shirts and high-low hems on the
polos. In addition, the shirts retain their strength, shape
and color after repeated launderings. The FR protection
cannot be worn or washed away. Workrite garments are
protected by a one-year workmanship guarantee. The line
features a long- and short-sleeved polo in navy blue and a
long-sleeved T-shirt in heather gray. More colors and styles
are being added.
Workrite Uniform Co. Inc.
GO TO HTTP://PGI.HOTIMS.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION
Semi-rugged
Ultra-mobile Tablet
GammaTech Computer Corp.’s
semi-rugged tablet PC, Durabook
model CA10, provides wireless
connectivity options that ensure
field engineers and others have
the information they need at their
fingertips. The optional sunlight-readable display allows
users to work and record information in extreme light
conditions. A 10.1-inch TFT LCD display has a two-point
resistive touch-screen panel. It also supports a digitizer
for turning analog touch inputs into digital inputs. A stylus
pen is optional. Support is provided for wireless commu-
nications including Intel Wi-Fi Link 135 and Bluetooth 4.0.
It has hot swappable dual-battery design that offers up to
eight hours of power and a quick menu support for on/off
switches for its radio frequency device, barcode scanner
and RFID/NFC; volume and brightness adjustment; on-
screen keyboard and others. The Durabook CA10 meets
IP43 standard for dust and water spray resistance from all
directions. It meets Military Standard 810G for drop and
shock resistance, withstanding drop tests of up to 4 feet. It
will function in temperatures as low as 0 F.
GammaTech Computer Corp.
GO TO HTTP://PGI.HOTIMS.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION
Switchgear for
Low-voltage Distribution
Diversified industrial manufacturer
Eaton Corp. is expanding its line
of Magnum DS switchgear engi-
neered to protect, control and moni-
tor low-voltage distribution systems.
The Magnum DS switchgear incorporates the Magnum
Narrow 4000 ampere (A) circuit breaker and is designed
for customers who require high-power density in a limited
space. Reducing equipment footprint enables commer-
cial, industrial, institutions and government facilities to
condense electrical closet size and reduce total cost of
ownership. Eaton condensed the Magnum narrow frame
1305PG_46 46 5/3/13 4:03 PM
CALENDAR
May 2013 | 47 www.power-grid.com
SE
PT
EM
BE
RO
CT
OB
ER
NO
VE
MB
ER
DistribuTECH 2014: The industry’s most comprehensive conference on automation, smart grid and T&D
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1928 Substation maintenance trucks carry portable oil-filtering
equipment for use by the Lake Superior District Power Co.
1945 National Color-coding System
The American Standards Association recommends a national unified system
of colored markings to distinguish all physical hazards and the location of safety
equipment to identify fire and other protective equipment. Under the new code, red is
designated for fire equipment and hazards such as low-hanging pipes in passageways.
A combination of green and white is recommended for first-aid kits, dispensaries and
safety or “deluge” showers scattered around chemical areas.
1959 US Bests USSR Production
An evaluation of power production figures shows the U.S.S.R.
is well below U.S. production levels despite Nikita Khrushchev’s
Seven-Year Plan to overtake the U.S. in economic production.
1975 Toyota Boasts 5-passenger Electric Car
Toyota develops a five-passenger electric car said to have met all
of the company’s R&D goals. The prototype achieves a top speed
of 58 mph, a range of up to 125 miles and acceleration to 19 mph
in three seconds. The car is powered by a 192-V lead-acid battery
source of 159.5 ampere hours at the five-hour rate.
1998 What the heck is ‘green power’?
In the “National Residential Customer Monitor,” a 2007 report
by the Edison Electric Institute, only about 10 percent of the 1,000
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CAREER INSIGHTS
Networking After College
RECRUITERS
PRACTICUM
Attracting Graduates to Industry
Fo r t he i ndu s t r y ’ s c a r e e r - m ind e d p r o f e s s i ona l s SPRING 2013
A sup p l emen t t o P ennWe l l pub l i c a t i on s | w w w. P ennEne r g yJ O B S . c om
The New Leadership Needed in Energy
TRAINING INSIGHTS:
Skilled Transition
1304PEJEW_C1 1 4/15/13 10:45 AM
1304PEJEW_C2 2 4/15/13 10:45 AM
2 EDITOR’S LETTER
Energizing the Next
Dorothy Davis, PennWell
3 The New Leadership Needed in Enegry
Dorothy Davis, PennWell
6 TRAINING INSIGHTS
Skilled Transition
Hilton Price, PennWell
10 CAREER INSIGHTS
Networking After College
Tony Lee, CareereCast.com
12 RECRUITERS PRACTICUM
Attracting Graduates to Industry
Jamie Ferguson, Maxwell Drummond
w w w . P e n n E n e r g y J O B S . c o m
SPRING 2013
A PENNWELL PUBL ICAT ION
Stacey Schmidt, Publisher
Dorothy Davis, Content Director
Hilton Price, Editor
Cindy Chamberlin, Art Director
Daniel Greene, Production Manager
Tommie Grigg,
Audience Development Manager
PennWell Corporation
1421 South Sheridan Road
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74112
918 835 3161
PennWell.com
Recruitment Advertising Sales:
Brent Eklund
Petroleum Account Executive
720 535 1264
Ad ve r t i s e r s ’
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1304PEJEW_1 1 4/15/13 10:46 AM
2 Spring 2013 | FOR JOB OPPORTUNITIES, VISIT www.PennEnergyJOBS.com | EnergyWorkforce
Ed i to r ’ s
Le t t e r
AS a member of the PennWell team, PennEnergy’s parent company, I am fast
approaching my seventh year of being engaged in energy. Although my initial
career ambitions were not remotely tied to energy, the knowledge and relationships I
have gained in this industry have changed the course of how I plan to spend the rest of
my working life.
In preparing for this issue, what kept returning was the need to engage the next
group of energy professionals. How do we pass on the passion and commitment needed
to keep this vital industry thriving? We begin by exploring the new leadership needed
in energy on page 3.
For those just starting their
careers, one of the toughest
challenges can be making
the skilled transition from
the classroom to the feld.
On page 6 PennEnergy
speaks with three graduates
of BP’s Challenge Program,
a corporate initiative that
addresses this learning gap to
empower new energy professionals to maximize their careers.
Rounding out this edition are insights from career experts with CareerCast
and global search consultancy Maxwell Drummond. Job seekers will learn how to
effectively network after college on page 10, while recruiters will gain an understanding
of what it takes to attract new graduates to the industry on page 12.
PennEnergy is immersed in the companies, projects, policies and people that impact
all segments of our industry. Most importantly, we are charged with providing content
resources that matter to the true experts, the energy workforce, so you might energize
the next.
Carpe diem!
—Dorothy Davis
Energizing the Next
“Although my initial career ambitions were not remotely
tied to energy, the knowledge and relationships I have
gained in this industry have changed the course of
how I plan to spend the rest of my working life.”
1304PEJEW_2 2 4/15/13 10:46 AM
Cover STORY
Ph
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by
Am
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EnergyWorkforce | FOR JOB OPPORTUNITIES, VISIT www.PennEnergyJOBS.com | Spring 2013 3
The New Leadership Needed in EnergyBy Dorothy Davis
IN the Fall semester of 2012 The
University of Tulsa (TU) launched
a new energy focused post-graduate
degree offering, the online Master
of Energy Business program. As the
content director for PennEnergy, I was
invited to join a speaking panel that
would address the frst class.
Initially, I chose to focus my speech
on the growing trend of integration be-
tween the power and oil & gas sectors.
However, the night before my presen-
tation I had the opportunity to attend
a dinner with those students and enjoy
several presentations from prominent
members of the energy industry. What
I heard that evening not only inspired
me to shift the focus of my presentation
for those incoming TU post-grads, but
was successful in setting me on a path of
active industry advocacy and education.
Along with learning about some ex-
citing new project developments and the
robust growth of the energy sectors, what
stood out was the enthusiastic call from
those already tenured in the industry to
encourage those in attendance to seek
positions of leadership. What they want-
ed most for the energy sectors was to in-
spire others to take up the mantles of re-
sponsibility, service and innovation.
Part of what was so
moving about this expe-
rience is that until my
move to Tulsa, Okla-
homa, in 2001, I had
next to no knowledge of
the industry that pow-
ered my world. While
raised and educated in
New York City as a mas-
sive consumer of energy
products and services,
the industry remained
something abstract for
me. Even as an active
member of community
programs which focused on raising envi-
ronmental awareness, energy remained
a peripheral. I was disconnected from
just how connected I was.
In late 2006 I began my career with
PennWell, a business to business media
company serving the energy sectors. I
came into this feld with a background
in human services and communica-
tions, but found here an opportunity to
maximize my existing skills and chal-
lenge me toward establishing a success-
ful new career. A career that for me, and
I am certain for many you, has since be-
come a passion.
Now here I am, a pro-
fessional under 40 going
into my seventh year
within a corporation
that has been function-
ing in energy for over a
century. As a young pro-
fessional in service to an
industry both vast and
demanding I can no lon-
ger imagine doing any-
thing else. Energy after
all touches everything.
While my role in en-
ergy is primarily an out-
lying one, the demands of
my position are not much different from
what many of you will encounter as they
advance. Rather than requiring exper-
tise in a singular sector, my position re-
quires that I cultivate a level of exper-
tise across the industry as a whole. And
not just the industry of today, but its rich
history as I work to stay at the forefront
of what is ahead.
The most important detail in all of
this is that my experience is not the
exception. Today, energy profession-
als both in outlying roles such as mine
and in more direct felds such as engi-
neering or the geosciences will need
1304PEJEW_3 3 4/15/13 10:47 AM
4 Spring 2013 | FOR JOB OPPORTUNITIES, VISIT www.PennEnergyJOBS.com | EnergyWorkforce
to possess a broad skill set to remain
competitive. Not just competitive, but
in moving the industry forward. That’s
what clicked for me that evening. What
I needed to share with those incoming
post-graduates was not an overview of
the growing trends and benefts of cross
sector collaboration, but the benefts of
cultivating strong leaders to drive it.
The needs of the industry are broad-
ening. Energy now, not in some unspec-
ifed future, is actively recruiting its next
thought leaders. Further, from what I was
hearing the key concepts behind the suc-
cess of that leadership will be diversity,
collaboration and innovation. While
functional and technical specialists will
always be needed, those beginning or
continuing their professional lives with-
in today’s energy must bring more to the
table. Programs like TU’s Master of En-
ergy Business are an important step, but
understand it’s just the beginning. True
masters never stop seeking knowledge.
To quote Eric Hoffer, American so-
cial writer and recipient of the Presiden-
tial Medal of Freedom, “In a time of dras-
tic change, it is the learners who inherit
the future.”
Make no mistake; this is a time of
drastic change. While the energy indus-
try has long been subject to intense cy-
cles, what is on the horizon for our sec-
tors is far more signifcant than a period
of boom or bust.
The new leaders of our industry will
be challenged with maintaining many
of the core initiatives and values that
have strengthened energy since its ear-
liest years while fnding the means to
integrate an evolving culture of diversi-
ty, collaboration and innovation.
The message being shared was that
while it is a very good time to be in en-
ergy, it’s an even better time to be a
trailblazer.
As the industry average continues to
near retirement age, most companies are
bracing to see around half of their profes-
sional staff leave within the next decade.
Further complicating matters, is the fact
that a good portion of those numbers rep-
resents the industry’s current leadership.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Energy Infor-
mation Administration forecasts that de-
mand is expected to rise more than 40
percent over the next 25 years. To frame
this more plainly, we are losing close to
half of our industry professionals as de-
mand will nearly double. This presents
both a daunting challenge and an im-
mense opportunity.
We must encourage young profession-
als to be the leaders this industry needs
and get fully engaged in energy. We must
also encourage energy companies to
broaden their horizons through training
resources and recruitment efforts beyond
traditional industry focused degrees.
The industry today requires all
hands, across all decks. The burdens
of a strained global economy, increas-
ing regulation, resource limitations and
the need to modernize are not oil &
gas problems, utility problems or infra-
structure problems, they are global chal-
lenges. As our industry moves ahead in
fnding ways to connect and integrate
diverse resources, the energy sectors
must also strive to do the same with
their business resources. How? I return
again to diversity, collaboration and in-
novation. These will drive our evolving
industry and its new imperatives.
To grow we must be all-of-the above
in all things. I do not say that lightly and
certainly not as the echo of any political-
ly biased policy. It is meant as a univer-
sal way forward that respects the heritage
of our industry while taking the neces-
sary steps to ensure it continues to thrive.
There is a bright future for all sectors
if we can apply the principles of diver-
sity, collaboration and innovation. Re-
newables are in their awkward adoles-
cent phase and like unruly teenagers
with proper guidance and development
they will prosper and be so worth it. Coal
is facing brutal regulation. To play on
the title of a favorite movie, we must ac-
cept this is no country for old coal. Old
being the operative word in that turn of
phrase; coal is too abundant for the in-
dustry to do anything but cultivate new
ways to harness its power both effcient-
ly and proftably.
While unconventional natural gas
has us swooning, the past has taught us
not to rely too heavily on any single re-
source. Natural gas has its place and it is
in being one part of a dynamic portfo-
lio of energy resources. Hydrocarbons in
general must be approached differently.
While we continue to make great strides
in exploration and production we know
resources are indeed limited. But our vi-
sions and our talents are not. There is al-
ways a way forward.
In my mind, the way ahead is through
a cultivated thought leadership bold
enough to cross boundaries and inte-
grate to meet challenges. We start with
ourselves by taking on the responsibility
of being energy stewards. In doing so we
inspire the next to diversify, collaborate
and innovate! ⊗
1304PEJEW_4 4 4/15/13 10:47 AM
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6 Spring 2013 | FOR JOB OPPORTUNITIES, VISIT www.PennEnergyJOBS.com | EnergyWorkforce
Skilled Transition
How one corporate training program is helping
industry graduates energize for the future.
By Hilton Price
PREPARATION through education
and training is the cornerstone
of entry into the power and pe-
troleum industries. For new graduates
and recruits, it is preparation that pro-
vides the tools to stand out from the
crowd. For the companies hiring these
men and women, it is preparation they
look for when determining who will be
essential staff moving forward.
BP’s Challenge Program is a glob-
al initiative for new graduate recruits in
their frst three years with the compa-
ny. PennEnergy had the chance to in-
terview three graduates of the program,
to discuss how it supplemented their ed-
ucation and prepared them for careers
in the industry.
Here’s what they had to say.
Tracy Gunness
Tracy Gunness is a geologist current-
ly working in Upstream: Exploration
and Appraisal for BP in Trinidad and
Tobago. The graduate of the University
of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Gun-
ness joined the company following an
internship experience. She is current-
ly in the second year of BP’s Challenge
Program and is working on an appraisal
project involving the Manakin feld on
the border of Trinidad and Venezuela.
As a frst year Challenger Gunness won
Technofest, a global competition for
BP’s Challengers.
As a BP intern, did you feel prepared
to handle the challenges ahead of you?
How effective was the education you’d
had before joining the BP internship
program?
TG: I graduated at the top of my
class from the University of the West
Indies, St. Augustine, with a Bachelor’s
degree and First Class Honors in pe-
troleum geosciences. While the uni-
versity helped prepare me for the in-
ternship, at BP Trinidad and Tobago I
had a great opportunity to participate
in a real life project that I used for my
university thesis. The project allowed
me to apply my knowledge from uni-
versity and integrate different aspects
of subsurface, which aided in develop-
ing my technical ability in a holistic
manner far beyond what I could have
achieved solely from university studies.
I was very impressed that BP entrust-
ed in me to lead and complete such an
important project. It was such a great
experience that set the foundation for
my entrance into the company.
As a BP Challenger, you won the Tech-
nofest. What elements of that win were
directly fueled by education and train-
ing through BP?
TG: My coaches defnitely believed
in me before they knew what I was ca-
pable of, since I entered the competi-
tion only a few months after joining the
company as a Challenger. They even
envisioned me winning globally before
the results of the local round were even
announced. Their enthusiasm and con-
fdence in my ability inspired me to al-
ways bring my best to the table. I tru-
ly believe that even though I stood as
an individual in the competition, we
won as a team since my win is a testa-
ment to the great coaching that I re-
ceived throughout my project and to
date. That’s one thing I like about BP.
The company takes pride in teaching
and developing the skills of others.
TRAINING Insights
Ph
oto
by S
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1304PEJEW_6 6 4/15/13 10:48 AM
EnergyWorkforce | FOR JOB OPPORTUNITIES, VISIT www.PennEnergyJOBS.com | Spring 2013 7
Tess us about an experience you had as
an intern that fueled your professional
development.
TG: The story that always sticks out for
me was when I frst started my internship I
was given several objectives for my project.
I was basically tasked to determine fault
evolution, timing and linkage for the area
with some additional geochemical work.
When I fnished the task, I knew some-
thing was missing to complete the story, so
I showed my data to the team leader and he
told me to take the project and run with it.
I was really surprised! I thought they would
send this project to someone more senior,
but my supervisor trusted me to get the job
done and I got the go ahead. I took my data
and integrated it to create an evolutionary
model for the area that showed trap for-
mation and modifcation through time,
as well as gas migration and accumulation.
Then, I used the model to identify where
the best sites could be for exploration. I pre-
sented the work that I had done to my su-
pervisors and other senior decision makers.
They were pleasantly surprised and hap-
py about what I discovered and presented.
They even said that the project I led was
more on a Masters level, not a bachelor’s
level, which was quite satisfying to hear.
How has the Challenge Program sup-
plemented your existing education?
TG: Since I am still relatively new to
the working world, I would say the ob-
stacles I face are the same as any new
employee – developing the right techni-
cal skills, working alongside a team and
adapting to a new environment.
The Challenge Program has helped
supplement my existing education by
providing consistent, structured learn-
ing and development throughout the frst
three years of my career. I am constantly
impressed by the way BP invests time
and resources to help new employees
through comprehensive training cours-
es. These courses are designed in such a
way to bridge the gap between academia
and the industry. They set the founda-
tion with a strong technical understand-
ing followed by exercises in industrial ap-
plication and examples.
It has also helped me grow profession-
ally by providing a roadmap for my career
and allowing me to sample three differ-
ent roles within the organization.
What were the biggest benefts of the
BP Challenge Program?
TG: I’m actually still in the Challenge
Program and am at the end of my second
year. Aside from allowing me to sample
two different roles within the organiza-
tion and providing consistent and struc-
tured learning, Challenge has provided
a sense of community and events which
allow us to give back. Since I have been
here, BP staff members have participat-
ed in several community projects, such
as painting schools and feeding the poor.
What makes me most proud to work at
BP is the company’s community interac-
tion and positive impact.
Carter Clemens
Carter Clemens will soon begin a new
international assignment for BP and was
most recently a production engineer in
the San Juan South Basin in Farming-
ton, New Mexico. In New Mexico, Cle-
mens worked with natural gas and coal-
bed methane, managing 200 wells for BP.
Clemens is a graduate from the Universi-
ty of Texas who studied petroleum engi-
neering and joined the company follow-
ing college. A member of the Challenge
Program who recently completed the
program, Clemens also worked in Wyo-
ming initially, where he was in charge of
nearly 400 wells.
What was it like joining BP after col-
lege? Were you overwhelmed entering
the industry, or did you feel your educa-
tion had prepared you properly?
CC: I chose to work at BP because
of its culture. Specifcally, I like that the
company employed many young people
as well as the company’s “Challenge” pro-
gram that includes technical training. It’s
like college but now you get to apply what
you learned on actual projects around the
world. College prepared me very well for
the oil industry, but the difference with
BP was that it involved hands-on experi-
ence on actual projects. It has a different
feel to it. For me it was standing at the
wellhead after executing a workover I de-
signed and waiting to see whether the well
came back online- it’s tough to get that in
the classroom.
In New Mexico, you oversee 200 wells
for BP. In Wyoming, it was 400. How
did the Challenge Program prepare you
for that responsibility?
CC: You are given a lot of responsibil-
ity from the beginning here at BP. Chal-
lenge also provides you with a world class
training program. I’ve been able to attend
training programs taught by both univer-
sity professors and BP’s technical experts
which allow you to see a very practical
side to things. You also have a huge peer
base that you can use as a resource. As
soon as you join BP you gain a network
of several hundred people with knowl-
edge on different areas of BP’s business.
It also comes in handy to meet others if
you’re new to Houston or a particular
feld location.
1304PEJEW_7 7 4/15/13 10:48 AM
8 Spring 2013 | FOR JOB OPPORTUNITIES, VISIT www.PennEnergyJOBS.com | EnergyWorkforce
Do you feel the knowledge and experi-
ence of the older generation of oil & gas
professionals is available to you?
CC: At BP our teams work in a very
interactive open air environment and, as
a result, we have full access to technical
experts who really are the superstars of
this industry. They serve as our teachers
and mentors. Along with programs like
Challenge they ensure we’re prepared for
the responsibilities of the job.
What is another memorable element of
your post-college training?
CC: One of the things I’ve enjoyed
most is the feld experience. My work
has taken me to Texas, Wyoming, New
Mexico, and Colorado. In addition to the
change in scenery and side trips that these
provide, it’s been helpful more me to see
a wide spectrum of reservoir types. From
an engineering standpoint, different op-
erating conditions provide different chal-
lenges. I feel that the ability to see several
different areas has given me better per-
spective as an engineer. Also, it’s always
fun to tackle new challenges. Out in the
feld you gain a big appreciation of how
much impact what you are doing has on
people. It’s motivating.
Michael Wolanski
Michael Wolanski is a Completions En-
gineer on the Magnus Platform in the
North Sea. His role involves drilling wells
using some of the latest technology. His
career highlight to date, has been the
delivery of the world’s frst ever subsea
multi-stage acid fracture using a new type
of technology. Michael is 27 years old and
has been with BP for fve years.
North Sea platforms present unique
environmental challenges for workers.
How prepared were you for this environ-
ment, and how did training and prepa-
ration through BP infuence you?
MW: I worked as an offshore drilling
engineer for the frst year of the Chal-
lenge program, during which time I
gained first-hand, operational experi-
ence on a rig. BP did prepare me before
I went to spend time on the platforms.
For instance, as well as receiving standard
technical training, I had basic explosive
awareness training and also underwent
a helicopter crash simulation that taught
me how to escape if an accident were to
occur over water.
What were your impressions of the in-
dustry before you began the Challenge
Program? How were they different upon
completion of the program?
MW: The oil and gas industry and
BP have both been a part of my life since
I was quite young. I remember BP staff
used to come and give talks at my school
and once I was taken on a trip to see one
of their facilities. I think it was this early
exposure that led me to appreciate the im-
portance of the sector in delivering ener-
gy to the UK and also the contribution it
makes to the economy. This undoubtedly
infuenced my decision to enroll in a BP
summer internship in 2006. The intern-
ship was in completions and I enjoyed the
experience so much that I decided it was
the feld I wanted to work in, and BP was
the company I wanted to work for. For-
tunately, I was offered a conditional po-
sition, which motivated me to work even
harder in the fnal year of my robotics and
cybertronics degree. In the end, I got the
results I needed and was able to join BP’s
graduate program in 2007.
What has impressed me throughout
my career at BP is how much knowl-
edge we have in the industry and what
we are able to achieve technically. The
scale and accuracy of the drilling, for in-
stance, is mind blowing. I am currently
writing the procedure to install the com-
pletion in a well that more than fve miles
long, and despite its huge scale, the well
will hit very precise coordinates to access
hydrocarbons.
You garnered praise for delivery of the
world’s frst ever subsea multi-stage acid
fracture using a new technology. How
did BP’s training and education aid in
this process for you?
MW: I worked with a team to devel-
op and deliver the world’s frst ever sub-
sea multi-stage acid fracture, using a new
type of technology. Technically, it was the
most interesting piece of work I have ever
undertaken.
It involved designing a system that
would activate various components by
dropping different sizes of activation
balls. This was done while pumping acid
at high rate and high pressure.
To give an idea of scale, the acid was
pumped at a rate that could fll a bath-
tub in about a second and at a pressure
that is the equivalent of an elephant
It’s like college but now you get to apply what you
learned on actual projects around the world.
1304PEJEW_8 8 4/15/13 10:48 AM
Books, Books…
So Many Books
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standing on an inch of space. The sys-
tem was signifcant because it could po-
tentially enable access to more hydrocar-
bons, changing how fnancially viable it
was to further develop certain areas of
the feld we were working on.
Speak a little on preparation, how it has
factored into your career, and how it can
be best addressed for newcomers to the
industry.
MW: The work you get to do at BP
is extremely interesting, but it can be
a steep learning curve. Fortunately, it’s
a great environment to learn in, as the
people working at BP have a lot of ex-
perience to share. You end up learning
a lot from colleagues in both formal
and informal settings and there is al-
ways support if you need it. I also have
a mentor who I meet with on a regular
basis to look at technical challenges.
I also act as a mentor and technical
coach to a number of summer interns
and new BP engineers, which is very
rewarding.
What were your biggest surprises from
training with BP?
MW: I think it’s that every day is dif-
ferent. Some days you receive techni-
cal training, other days its health and
safety training, but it’s that variety that
keeps things interesting. The role itself
is similarly diverse, and some days are
spent performing in depth engineering,
such as stress analysis, and others can
be spent at a vendor’s offce looking at
new products.
What more can the company do to aid
in training future candidates?
MW: BP invested heavily in my
training during the Challenge pro-
gram and has continued to support me
in my subsequent career and I think
the company does a good job of devel-
oping young talent. However, there is
room for improving training across all
companies operating in the sector. We
need to become better, as an industry,
at sharing best practices and in collab-
orating to deliver standardized training
across companies. ⊗
1304PEJEW_9 9 4/15/13 10:48 AM
10 Spring 2013 | FOR JOB OPPORTUNITIES, VISIT www.PennEnergyJOBS.com | EnergyWorkforce
CAREER Insights
Networking After CollegeBy Tony Lee
TRYING to fnd a job
by calling people you
don’t know and asking
them for help probably sounds
dreadful, like a cross between
telemarketing and door-to-
door sales. After all, nobody
likes rejection, and this job-
search strategy is sure to pro-
voke a rash of apologies and
unreturned phone calls.
Yet, what if it works? What
if you can fnd a great job sim-
ply by making phone calls and
meeting with people who want to help
you? Would you try it? That’s the prem-
ise behind networking, the practice of
contacting everyone you know (and ev-
eryone they know) to ask for their advice
and support. And it works.
A survey of more than 1500 success-
ful job hunters shows that 63% found
new positions by tapping their networks
of friends, family members, acquaintanc-
es and anyone else who would help. In
comparison, only 11% found jobs by an-
swering ads, and just 2% by sending un-
solicited resumes to company recruiters,
reports a New York-based career consult-
ing frm.
Although most job hunters have
heard successful networking stories from
friends and colleagues, some avoid the
technique because they don’t like the way
it sounds. They hate the idea of “using”
people to fnd a job, and the equate net-
working with sleazy tactics used by un-
scrupulous salesmen.
“It sounds like a ‘what can you do for
me’ kinds of tactic that I’d only try if I
knew I’d never see the person again,” says
one recent college graduate. He couldn’t
be more wrong.
An effective networking relationship
helps both parties. Contacts enjoy talking
about themselves, how they got jobs after
college and how companies in their in-
dustry are doing. And if they can match
you up with a job somewhere, they’re do-
ing both you and your new employer a fa-
vor that they hope will be returned one
day. It’s a win-win situation.
Where to Start?
The best people to enlist as you
launch a networking campaign
are those you know well and
who know you, such as:
• Brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles,
cousins and any other relatives
who are willing to help, includ-
ing your parents
College friends now in the
workplace
Past professors who also work as
consultants or who have left ac-
ademia for the business world
• Former bosses, and co-workers at full-
or part-time jobs, internships or work-
study assignments
• Neighbors and family acquaintances
Write down a list of people who might
have information on available jobs or,
more importantly, who know other peo-
ple who might be helpful. Realize the
importance of building a wide range of
contacts. Although many of these peo-
ple may never hear about job openings,
they’re critical because of the many
friends and contacts they’ll refer to you.
Next, decide what you’ll say when you
reach people on your list. An approach
that works well is to frst explain your sta-
tus (eg, a recent graduate) and your in-
terest (to gather information about hir-
ing trends in their industry and names
of others who might help you). If the per-
son says she doesn’t know of any open-
ings, reiterate that what you really want
is her opinion of the hiring market and
Tony Lee is the Publisher of CareerCast.com and JobsRated.com This article is reprinted by permission from www.CareerCast.com, © Adicio Inc. All rights reserved.
1304PEJEW_10 10 4/15/13 10:48 AM
EnergyWorkforce | FOR JOB OPPORTUNITIES, VISIT www.PennEnergyJOBS.com | Spring 2013 11
the names of people who might know of
openings. With this reassurance, most
contacts will agree to a brief call, or will
at least call back with a name or two. If
the contact still doesn’t understand, say
thanks and move on.
When calling a contact you don’t
know who was referred to you, use the
same two-part approach, but add a new
introduction: “Hello, Mr. Jones. My for-
mer college roommate Jill Smith sug-
gested I call you.” Or, “Jill Smith at ABC
Corp. thought you might be able to help
me.” Then explain your status and inter-
est and ask for a brief meeting.
Most people love to give
advice and are very willing
to talk about their fled and
the job market if you ap-
proach them the right way,
say career counselors, who
say that recent grads typi-
cally face three types of po-
tential contacts when net-
working. About 25% are real nice and will
help you no matter what you say. About
25% are mean and won’t help no matter
how good or polite you are. The rest are
in the middle and will respond based on
how well you approach them. If you act
like you’re going to plop yourself down in
their chair and say, “Tell me everything
you know,” they won’t help. You have to
guide them, coach them and ask good
questions, they say.
Sometimes your best contact is the
most unlikely. Christine Bowman inter-
viewed on campus for insurance and sales
positions before graduating with a busi-
ness administration degree from the Uni-
versity of Iowa. But she landed her present
position as a staff accountant in Chica-
go through her boyfriend’s sister-in-law.
“Knowing the right people at the
right time helped me get the job,” says
Bowman.
Preparation is Key
To elicit someone’s support in a phone
call, know all you can about the person
you’re calling. Getting through to a con-
tact and making arrangements to see
that person isn’t a victory. That comes
only after you’ve completed a success-
ful interview, and that doesn’t happen
by accident.
Career counselors suggest research-
ing contacts’ companies and industries
before each meeting. Develop an under-
standing of each person’s interests so that
you can discuss your education and ex-
perience as it relates to their background
and to potential needs in the market-
place, he says.
After a successful exchange, send a
thank-you email; then continue to con-
tact the person every month or so to re-
port your progress and ask for new leads.
Don’t become a pest, but don’t think that
one fve minute call or meeting will en-
gage their attention.
“You need to be relentless in using
your network contacts, but don’t be de-
fensive if they don’t return your calls,”
says Taunee Besson, president of a career
consulting frm in Dallas, Texas. If you
rely on contacts to remember you weeks
after a brief meeting or phone call, you’ll
likely be disappointed.
Proven Approaches
To launch and maintain an effective net-
working campaign, consider the follow-
ing fve tips suggested by Ms. Besson:
• Set networking goals
Determine who you want to meet early
on and what you want to fnd out from
each person. As you efforts progress,
evaluate the types of people who are
most helpful and try to contact others
who share their attributes.
• Build networking into your daily
schedule
The months before graduation can be
crazy, but you need to devote at least
15 or 20 minutes to your network each
day for it to pay off. Remember, the
best time to reach most executives by
phone is early (before 8 am) and late
(after 5:30 pm).
• People you respect but don’t neces-
sarily like can be helpful
Sometimes, they’re the most objective
sources of solid information. On the
other hand, people you like and with
whom you share common interests will
be your most valued contacts over time.
• When networking, make develop-
ing a friendship – rather than getting
something – your primary goal
If they like you, people who lack useful
information now will think of you when
an opening arises.
• Join professional organizations
where you can easily meet people who
work in the industry you hope to enter
Campus groups are great, but reach be-
yond them to join organizations com-
posed of working professionals who can
serve as terrifc contacts and mentors.
Networking isn’t easy, but compared
to most other job-search strategies out
there, it’s a highly effective technique
you can’t afford to ignore. ⊗
Sometimes your best contact
is the most unlikely
1304PEJEW_11 11 4/15/13 10:48 AM
12 Spring 2013 | FOR JOB OPPORTUNITIES, VISIT www.PennEnergyJOBS.com | EnergyWorkforce
RECRUITER’S Practicum
Attracting graduates to industryBy Jamie Ferguson
THE oil and gas industry offers
new entrants a diverse range of
challenging career options with
longevity, variety and opportunities for
world-wide travel. However, the pub-
lic’s perception of the industry is often
distorted. Many people living outside
energy hubs like Aberdeen, Calgary
and Houston are unaware of the impor-
tance of the oil and gas sec-
tor in the global economy,
supporting hundreds of
thousands of jobs, contributing
billions of dollars every year to Govern-
ments and supplying the vast majority of
the world’s energy needs. How to attract
young professionals to the oil and gas
industry is high on the agenda at OTC
2012 with a whole event dedicated to
the subject on the opening day.
Figures from the World Petroleum
Council found that 50 percent of its 60
member countries’ workforce is due to
retire in the next ten years. Over the
years, environmental disasters and safe-
ty breaches have contributed to a some-
what negative public opinion of the
energy industry. Last year, research by
the Gallup Organization found only
20% of participants viewed the oil and
gas industry positively- ranking sec-
ond last. This negative perception has
a direct affect on the ability to attract
emerging talent.
Parents of 20-somethings consider-
ing their career path may warn their
children of what was previously an
unstable industry. The energy market
is dictated by oil prices and fuctuating
prices in the 1990’s meant downsizing
and less hiring. As
a result, average work-
force age in developed economies is
somewhere in the mid to late 40s.
The ability to locate hidden reserves
and extract precious hydrocarbons is
based on a comprehensive understand-
ing of science, math and engineering.
These are subjects fewer students in
the Western World are keen to pursue.
In contrast to India and China where 1
million engineering students graduate
annually, 120,000 engineering students
in the U.S is extremely low.
How do we re-position the oil and gas
industry as an attractive career choice to
today’s young graduates? As an indus-
try, we should do more collectively to
engage talent in the countries we oper-
ate. We need to collaborate with
academia and with govern-
ment sectors. Many major oil
companies for example, have long-
term research commitments with major
universities around the world. We must
be proactive in our attempt to reach the
young as they are about to enter univer-
sity and again whilst they are contem-
plating career choices. We should edu-
cate the public about the investment
that the industry makes annually in
research and development, the diversity
of the geographical locations in which
they could live and work, the many
technically challenging projects exe-
cuted each year, the advances in envi-
ronmental safety and how lucrative a
career in the oil and gas industry can
be compared to others. There is mile-
age in the idea that the career choices
of the young should be seen as the larg-
est investment that the industry makes.
It should be tackled with all the same
effort, cunning and intelligence that a
consumer company harnesses when it
looks to attract its customers; especially
so, as energy and the humans that play a
part in producing it, are the life blood of
our civilization. ⊗
Jamie Ferguson joined Maxwell Drummond’s Aberdeen team in 2006 and by July 2011 was promoted to Vice President of Global Business Development. Jamie has extensive experience managing executive level searches for clients spanning the oil and gas value chain and has deep industry networks developed from working on assignments in over 20 countries on 6 continents. Maxwell Drummond International is a world leading retained search consultancy offering professional search services to clients in all sectors of the energy and natural resources industries.
1304PEJEW_12 12 4/15/13 10:49 AM
1304PEJEW_C3 3 4/15/13 10:45 AM
We’ve got people.
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