Utility companies need to get technical to make it through the storm

At the start of this month [3-8 December] Storm Desmond hit the UK with devastating results in affected areas.

The resulting flooding forced thousands of people to leave their homes without any chance of returning before Christmas and also caused more than 43,000 homes to be cut off from basic utilities.

Increasingly severe storms such as Desmond (and Storms Abigail, Barney and Clodagh before that) have caused the utility industry to look for new ways to help them communicate with their customers during storm situations and get vital services up and running as fast as possible, and as safely as possible, in extreme conditions.

Extremes of weather can no longer be considered as one-offs. Storm research in the US shows an increase in severe weather is related to a five to ten percentage increase in the time customers go without power each year. The increase in frequency and severity of storms not only hitting the UK, but globally, is putting pressure on utility companies to have pre-planned, yet dynamic response mechanisms in place to deal with customers and businesses suffering from the impact of storms. In the short term, temporary fixes may be required, with safe connectivity a medium term goal and storm-proofing a longer term project.

In such circumstances, the priorities for utility companies are to:

1. Quickly identify current capacity and need for additional resources
2. Quickly on-board resources (e.g. internal, contractors and volunteers)
3. Ensure and maintain the safety of customers and crews
4. Identify, locate, and prioritise outages – often for teams unfamiliar with each other and with processes
5. Communicate accurate estimated time for restoration of services (ETRs)
6. Manage restorations and re-schedule non urgent work postponed due to storm

Managing these tasks in the most effective and efficient way, is increasingly supported by mobile technology.

Rapid and accurate decision making and field-based communication can be hugely enhanced by taking an integrated approach to the use of mobile technology, big data and analytics. Big data and analytics can be used to forecast and plan for emergencies even before any adverse weather situations. Simulations of potential storm impact in geo-sensitive locations based on historical data, along with an assessment of potential vulnerabilities prior to any damage being done and modelling of how best to allocate field-based teams gives a utility service provider a huge advantage.

“As several studies have point out, response times are unnecessarily delayed as outage coordinators are unsure of where their crews have been dispatched, what outages remain and where to dispatch crews that completed a restoration project.”

By taking this approach, the utility industry can forecast skills and training requirements, enabling smooth resource allocation, deliver faster restoration processes and effective and real-time communication systems within workforce teams and with customers.

Once out in the field, teams will need real-time access to information about the current situation, however unexpected. Here, outage detection analytics can tell central managers and dispatchers where problems are located, and information delivered via ruggedised mobile devices about the skills needed, team locations, and equipment available and best routes to site can prove vital to the effectiveness of real-time resource allocation in high-demand situations.

And it doesn’t end there. Even after a storm has passed and priority services restored, utilities firms need to assess the overall damage done and plan and prioritise for full restoration of services to normal levels.

Mobile technologies suitable for use in the field have advanced significantly over the last few years and can now be used reliably in all types of field environments to deliver real time communication both to and from crews, for example status updates of the work assigned to each crew, live viewing of their locations and job progress and route information. This brings the benefits of real-time awareness and control, improving response effectiveness and helps to unify the workforce so that the most efficient approach is taken by all available utility and non-utility crews throughout the storm emergency.

Research shows how utility companies are starting to incorporate these technologies into their plans, with over half of utilities (58.4 per cent) looking to invest in big data and analytics in 2016 and over a third (37.5 per cent) stating that mobile devices and apps are in their top two investment priorities for 2016.

Incorporating these technologies will benefit both utilities companies working to manage services during and after storms and the customers suffering from the impacts of storms.

Benefits include:

1. Enhanced customer service through faster time to reinstate services and more effective communication
2. Having the right resources available in the fastest time with the most suitable skills and equipment results in faster restoration and more reliable Estimated Time for Restoration (ETR)
3. A holistic view of resources and optimisation of the entire workforce (including 3rd parties) for Planning, Scheduling Dispatching and Execution before, during, and after a storm emergency