Ecologic Analytics Enables New Intelligence for Smart Grid Outage Management

Ecologic Analytics, LLC - 09.14.2009

Ecologic Analytics, a leading provider of meter data management systems (MDMS) for electric, natural gas and water utilities, announced its Enhanced Outage Management (EOM) module today, the first application of its kind that intelligently leverages AMR/AMI assets for quickly detecting power losses, smartly scoping their size and location and verifying the effectiveness of restoration activities.

The business logic and rules within this major advance in outage management software provide more than simple filtering of redundant and momentary outage data. EOM interprets last gasp and power-up notifications and identifies the distinct characteristics displayed by sustained outage events. Using its smart scoping capability, EOM determines which meters to proactively ping in order to precisely confirm the full extent of the outage. Once the impacted service points are confirmed, EOM delivers transformer-level information about "real" outages to the utility's Outage Management System (OMS).

"Using AMI data to support the OMS is not a new concept," said David Hubbard, co-founder and chief technology officer for Ecologic Analytics. "But providing a solution that differentiates between momentary and real events and calculates transformer status based on meter data is unprecedented in the market today."

Utilizing the Ecologic MDMS with EOM ensures the utility's OMS is not flooded with unnecessary data throughout the entire outage and restoration event. EOM continuously checks the OMS to determine which affected transformers have already been recognized as "out" or "restored." The module simultaneously analyzes the volumes of data available through the AMR/AMI system. EOM quickly correlates these data streams and delivers updated outage or restoration status information only for impacted service points undiscovered by the OMS.

This additional high-definition view greatly enhances the efficiency and confidence with which outage events can be managed and provides a near-real-time status—meter by meter, transformer by transformer and region by region—of the restoration process.

Further enhancing strong customer service for the utility, EOM coordinates with the Ecologic MDMS VEE modules - WAVE™ and iWAVE™, to generate precise zero consumption reporting during outage periods. This enables highly accurate proration, and when appropriate, estimates of the usage for each service point during the event, significantly improving the integrity of customer usage presentment and billing data for the utility.

According to Gartner Research, "OMS systems are evolving from an emergency response decision support system into a component of an integrated intelligent grid platform."1 To this end, Ecologic Analytics is opening a critical path for the smart grid. Enhanced Outage Management enables utilities to maximize existing OMS capabilities through efficient use of huge volumes of additional data available through existing or planned AMI/AMR deployments and similar asset investments. EOM enables improved responsiveness to customer inquiries during outages and more efficient assignment of field resources based on more precise actionable data, thereby supporting faster time to resolution of these disruptive events.

EOM is available today with the current version of the Ecologic MDMS. For more information, visit www.ecologicanalytics.com/EOM.pdf.

About Ecologic Analytics

Ecologic Analytics, LLC is a leading provider of meter data management systems (MDMS) for electric, natural gas and water utilities. Ecologic Analytics offers a flexible, configurable and highly scalable enterprise software solution that receives data from any AMI/AMR system and/or manual source, supporting the dynamic operational and business processes needed for smart grid initiatives. Founded in 2000, the company is headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Media Contact Information

Matt Schwarz
Director of Marketing Communications
Ecologic Analytics, LLC
Phone: (952) 843-6043
Fax: (612) 395-5535

Footnote1: Gartner Research, "Magic Quadrant for Outage Management Systems," June 2009

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