Storm Outage Restoration: Data Management and Technology Application 2013

Following the string of extreme weather events impacting the breadth of the nation, electric utilities are under increasing pressure from regulators to perform rapid restorations and invest in cost-effective storm hardening to minimize outages after a storm. In 2012 alone, the cost of weather related outages to the US economy has been estimated to be as much as $52Bn.

To alleviate the cost of outages, speed up response and meet regulatory and customer expectations, utilities must leverage outage restoration technology and manage data inputs from AMI, SCADA, customers and first responders to facilitate rapid restorations, inform system hardening decisions and effectively manage an army of crews and resources during major outages. With so many technologies and processes out there, the most efficient way to assess which one to use and how to use it is hearing how others have done it and what effect it had on restoration.

Additionally pressure from regulators and customers on utilities to develop increasingly resilient grids through hardening is growing. Over the next 3 years, billions of dollars will be spent on storm hardening efforts across the nation and thousands of man-hours spent on preparing for the next super storm. Understanding what actually goes into a hardening program, which types of hardening to invest in and how each part provides benefits to justify the expenditure however, is a major challenge.

To overcome these challenges, we are delighted to introduce the only Storm Outage Restoration: Data Management & Technology Application Initiative where 20+ senior representatives from Electric Utilities will present success stories and case studies on how they have used innovative technologies to reduce outages, how data has been managed to increase the speed of response and how they have designed and justified expenditure on hardening programs.