Electric utilities rely on Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS) to manage their modern power grids because they support the evolving landscape of energy consumption and consumer technologies. Underpinning ADMS, Esri’s ArcGIS® Utility Network data model supports electric distribution operators in taking full advantage of many high-value ADMS applications with functions addressing microgrids, electric vehicles, demand response, and sustainability. This leads to improved system reliability, safety, and more efficient outage restorations.
CORE Electric Cooperative (CORE) and Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) are two utilities using GIS as a foundational system to optimize their ADMS investments and improve the resiliency and efficiency of their electrical grids. Both organizations are leveraging the Utility Network model to drive higher fidelity data for their ADMS platforms, with GRU having recently migrated to the new ArcGIS Enterprise and CORE in the process of migrating. Positioning the Utility Network model as the ADMS’s source GIS empowers both utilities to modernize their enterprises and enable robust grid management.
Better GIS Data for Enhanced Grid Management
Modern ADMS products support multiple internal applications and are typically integrated with numerous other utility enterprise applications. Each of these applications will have specific data requirements. Providing quality GIS data to each ADMS application and integration is essential to optimizing operations and, in many cases, is required for the application(s) to operate at all. Quality data is also critical for powering advanced applications of the Distribution Management System (DMS) to provide meaningful and actionable results.
Leveraging Real-world Data Modeling Constructs for ADMS at CORE
Supporting CORE’s business transformation and ADMS optimization, the cooperative is migrating its electric distribution data to ArcGIS Pro and the Utility Network. CORE’s goals for grid modernization include improving outage operations and response times, creating safer and more reliable power conditions, supporting connection to renewable energy sources for its members, refining customer demand response programs, and implementing condition-based asset management.
The Utility Network provides real-world modeling constructs that support and require high-fidelity GIS data. It allows utilities to model their electric network configurations accurately and enables advanced tracing and reporting analytic capabilities when complete data consistently supports the model. To achieve this, the Utility Network enforces stricter attribute and connectivity rules to ensure data meets these requirements.
Similarly, ADMS requires high-fidelity data to drive its associated applications and power system models. The Utility Network, therefore, feeds the ADMS with the data it needs to operate at its highest potential.
Key Utility Network data modeling constructs that support ADMS model build and management needs include:
Structural, connectivity rules and containment associations supporting:
- Substation connectivity
- Switchgear connectivity
Terminal configurations and subnetwork tiers supporting modern grid topologies:
- Bi-directional energy flow
- Native support for secondary meshes, underground residential distribution (URD) loops, spot networks, and distributed energy resources (DERs) installed anywhere along a circuit
Network attributes (cost, descriptors):
- Cached to support tracing performance
- Easy to manage with propagation
Network Diagrams for modeling schematics:
- Generated and editable schematics based on subnetwork
- Sent to ADMS for operators to use for switching
- Allows the Enterprise GIS to display the ADMS-generated information to both internal and external stakeholders
By approaching its ADMS implementation with standardized, high-fidelity Utility Network data and related modeling constructs already in place, CORE intends to significantly reduce the timeline for implementing an operational ADMS.
Incorporating Internal Substation Assets for Outage Management at GRU
GRU has recently migrated to the Utility Network data model. This move was the first step towards building a more robust ADMS network model and supporting outage management operations with more complete data. Following the migration, GRU upgraded to the latest AspenTech OSI GIS extractor software, Leitmotif, to feed the ADMS with the newly migrated data.
Typical GIS data requirements for an OMS/ADMS include the following:
Good, connected network data
- Consistent voltage and phasing between conductors and devices
- Upstream/downstream identified for circuits (sources/sinks identified)
The normal status of switchable devices is populated and correctly set, including ‘Normal Open’ features
Required attributes are correctly populated, including:
- Phasing
- Voltage
- Feeder ID (possible Feeder ID2)
GIS network business rules are implemented for:
- Transitions between high voltage, medium voltage, and low voltage networks
- Phasing connections
- Consistent voltage
Interfaces also have their own GIS data requirements. For example, when integrating with a Customer Information System (CIS), customer information must be related to a spatial feature in the GIS, typically the Service Point feature by account number or some other unique identifier. This relationship will allow operators to identify the customer location in the ADMS and identify the probable outage device during an outage event.
Positioning the Utility Network data model as the source GIS for all AspenTech OSI Electra applications, including ADMS, enabled GRU to incorporate its newly modeled substation features into the ADMS model build. This, in turn, is helping provide more comprehensive outage management, regulatory reporting activities, and network tracing capabilities.
GRU’s legacy geometric network provided limited tracing capabilities, only including feeder networks and default values for the substation assets. As part of the shift to a connected model, internal assets, such as transformers, breakers, busbars, transfer buses, and transfer breakers, were mapped within the substation features with greater detail and accuracy. The completeness of the substation data and inclusion of the substation networks and circuits enabled GRU to achieve more advanced and comprehensive tracing within the ADMS network model for enhanced outage operations and restoration support.
Maximizing ADMS and Enterprise Investments
Utilities investing in ADMS should also invest in their GIS for more significant ROI and optimization. Without high-fidelity GIS data to feed the ADMS and its high-value applications, utilities will not fully realize the extent of their grid management capabilities. CORE and GRU are two examples that show how leveraging the ArcGIS Utility Network data model can help modernize utility operations and prepare your organization for current and future grid management technologies.
Connect with UDC to learn more about the journey to grid modernization at CORE and GRU and learn how we can help you prepare for your ADMS transformation.