As electric utilities continue to enhance and modernize their power grids, many are considering Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) and Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) implementations to help streamline grid operations.
CORE Electric Cooperative (CORE), a pioneer in grid sustainability and innovation, is preparing the way for peer utilities to follow on its path to modern grid management. Recently completing a roadmap for implementing ADMS and DERMS technologies and integrations, CORE is one step closer to its goal of deploying an optimized ADMS to improve the resiliency and efficiency of its electrical distribution grid.
Leading Colorado’s Energy Transformation
Located in Sedalia, CO, CORE holds the title of the largest electric distribution cooperative in Colorado and one of the largest in the US. Formed in 1938 by a group of residents, the cooperative has grown to include over 165,000 members, covering a service area of 5,000 miles along Colorado’s Front Range.
As a member-owned organization, CORE’s investment in the communities it provides for is nothing new. Since its beginnings, the cooperative has continually invested its margins back into grid improvements in areas of innovation, reliability, and sustainability to better support its organization in the present and help prepare it for the future. The most recent advancements to grid operations include deploying an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and Substation Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). CORE emerged as a leader in AMI implementation amongst other Colorado utilities when it fully transitioned to smart meters back in 2020.
CORE’s goal of implementing an ADMS is helping to fulfill its long-term vision of building a fully connected electrical distribution model, which will create safer and more reliable power conditions for its organization and the communities it serves.
“Our main goals for these initiatives were to improve system reliability, safety, and interoperability between devices.
Alex Lionakis, CORE Electric Cooperative
Understanding ADMS
Before UDC and CORE began mapping out the cooperative’s ADMS and DERMS Roadmap, it was vital that CORE first understand what was commercially available in the ADMS and DERMS space as well as the ins and outs of the technology and implementation process. “I didn’t have an appreciation of the complexities around modeling, the software implementation, the data, the quantity of data involved, and the business impacts involved,” Alex Lionakis, Electrical Engineer for CORE, stated.
Recognizing where its organization could go and what was possible with the new technology empowered the cooperative to create a better plan for its organization with a realistic pace for technology adoption.
Seeking Industry Advice
For a real-world understanding on the process and challenges of implementing an ADMS, CORE looked to its peer utilities further along in developing their ADMS platforms. “I learned a lot in these discussions with people from their previous experiences,” Alex says.
An important takeaway from these meetings was that CORE needs to ensure the product development roadmap of the chosen software vendor aligns with its roadmap and vision. “There might be functionality that we plan to implement that may not align with a certain vendor, which could cause problems,” Alex explains. Referencing these industry discussions, CORE can anticipate and effectively prepare for implementation challenges around technology, logistics, economics, and supply chain.
“We expect many challenges to come from what we’ve learned through the road mapping process.”
Alex Lionakis, CORE Electric Cooperative
Coordinating for Success
Crucial to the planning and the ultimate success of the ADMS rollout throughout the organization was ensuring that all impacted lines of business and stakeholders were equally represented and involved early on in the development of the roadmap. According to Alex, he was unaware of the intricacies of implementing an ADMS on an organizational level. “Just based on my background, I tended to think of it primarily from a hardware level,” he recalls.
Since the ADMS and DERMS integrations would increase the level of data exchange between CORE’s systems and devices, the near-real time ADMS data could be leveraged across departments and shared throughout the organization to help support a variety of operations. This made it important to include all departments in the road mapping process that could benefit from or be impacted by the data supplied by the future ADMS, including Operations, Information and Technology (IT), and Business.
“ADMS is a system of systems that will impact our entire company.”
Alex Lionakis, CORE Electric Cooperative
Going forward, CORE will need to facilitate open communication and coordination between departments to effectively maintain the ADMS data over time.
Enhancing Wildfire Prevention
CORE’s legacy wildfire mitigation plans are currently centered around more traditional prevention methods using aerial drones. The added system visibility and near real-time updates afforded by an ADMS will help increase safety for wildfire prevention as CORE can target system improvements through condition-based maintenance and predictive analytics. For instance, ADMS will support automated maintenance processes for fault locations. “By installing sensors along power lines, we’ll be able to monitor system conditions at a more granular level,” Alex adds.
Managing Change
CORE’s users were an important consideration when building the roadmap. To streamline the technology adoption and effectively prepare its users, CORE and UDC developed an organizational change management (OCM) strategy as well as created a sandbox environment for users to experiment with the new ADMS functionalities ahead of the shift. The environment provides the same user interface experience as the fully deployed ADMS which should make for an easier move to the new technology.
The hands-on experience with using the ADMS system and data outputs throughout the roadmap process further enabled CORE to make informed decisions for its organization and derive the most business value from the future implementation.
Operating ‘Tomorrow’s Grid’
CORE’s first challenge on its journey to grid modernization involves creating an electrical distribution model to serve as the infrastructure of the ADMS based on Esri’s Utility Network model. CORE will again be setting the precedent for other utilities to follow as most do not have this level of detail of system electrical modeling. To create this model, CORE will first need to gather a detailed inventory of all operational devices as well as implement data governance measures to ensure the model’s continued accuracy with future system enhancements.
Running in parallel, CORE’s Business and IT departments are collaborating to build a network architecture that can support the ADMS and DERMS integrations while also maintaining the division between North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection (NERC CIP) security perimeters and the new operational technology (OT) environment. The cooperative is also lab testing field hardware that serves as the networking paths.
Though there is a long road ahead to implementing an ADMS with many different challenges, Alex is not deterred. Instead, he is excited to see what comes next. “It is really just the beginning for us.”
If you would like to learn more about CORE’s ADMS and DERMS Roadmap, see The Modern Grid Management Journey at CORE and our joint PowerTalk with CORE for Energy Central. Read about UDC’s ADMS Consulting services to learn how we can help you reach modern grid management.