Animal Analytics: Unlocking the Value of Big Data with PwrMetrix!
RE Magazine in its October, 2018 issue titled “Drawing a Line” highlighted the Utility Industry’s challenge in dealing with Animal Outages. The US Energy Information Administration EIA data shows that animals cause between 7 and 20% of all U.S. power outages annually affecting about 13 million people and causing utilities tens of millions of dollars in economic losses.
Thomas Gwinn, NRECA principal engineer says that nearly all electric co-ops and public power utilities have installed some kind of animal guards to protect their systems, but they are continuing to seek new and innovative solutions to an old problem and thus avoid using the same techniques hoping for a different result. NRECA’s Gwinn also notes that many devices and guards, intended to keep animals, squirrels in particular, off of power lines have failed because, despite all the outages they have caused, we don’t have a really good understanding of how animals behave… until now.
Enter big data analytics in the form of PwrMetrix! Manish Murudkara, Cobb EMC’s Supervisor of Protection and Reliability has utilized PwrMetrix to use big data to take a new approach to protecting its system.
“The software can provide a detailed graphical representation of exactly where and when animal outages happen, along with the creature the crew believes is responsible.”
Additionally, “the software allows a co-op to see the cost of animal-caused and other outages” and
“focus on what type of outage events cost the utility the most allowing it to make rational decisions about where to prioritize preventive measures and how much investment in a particular area makes sense.”
At the end of the day Cobb EMC found that by using PwrMetrix they could not only answer the fundamental issues of what and when but utilized the same data through the software to pinpoint where and how much and take a new approach to managing an old issue.
Cobb EMC has truly gone Next Gen in unlocking the power of data by utilizing the innovative real-time PwrMetrix engine to better utilize and focus it resources, save money, and ultimately better serve its members.
Excellent work Cobb!
