Increase Reliability – Without Increasing Costs
Make more efficient use of the existing network
Every utility with a distribution network is looking for ways to increase reliability. Generally, this involves increased capital investment. But it needn’t always. Aclara Software offers both supply-side and demand-side tools to help utilities increase network reliability.
Aclara Software's Nexus Distribution Asset Optimization delivers a key-and often excluded -component of any distribution asset management program: accurate estimation of network utilization for downstream assets at and below the substation level. These downstream assets typically represent the greatest portion of a utility’s distribution investment.
Aclara’s Distribution Asset Optimization applies sophisticated and proven load profiling and aggregation techniques that leverage existing customer billing, SCADA, GIS, load research, and other available data sources.
The result: accurate estimates of hourly usage for any point on the network, from substation to pole transformer, without the need for extensive metering and telemetry. The bottom line: more accurate planning and asset sizing, lowered risk of component failure, reduced capital costs, and reduced operating costs, proven in operation at several utilities.
In addition to traditional utility data sources, Wire Vision benefits from the availability of customer end use data generated by Aclara’s customer-facing ENERGYprism® solutions, which can significantly improve the accuracy of load profile forecasts.
ENERGYprism customer care solutions support demand-side programs aimed at reducing peak demand. One of the issues facing many utilities implementing customer controlled demand-side management and critical peak pricing programs is how to get customers – particularly mass market customers – to respond to price and other signals. The keys are: a) finding the customers who are likely to have the most significant impacts and; b) effectively communicating with customers about what their options are and how much impacts these options will have. ENERGYprism accomplishes both objectives with:
- screening tools that let customers self-select demand-response programs by projecting potential savings, and enable utilities to identify the customers that would yield the greatest program impacts and;
- e-Mail and web-based communications that explain options and their likely impacts, and keep customers informed of how they are doing.
Both Distribution Asset Optimization and ENERGYprism leverage valuable customer data to help utilities make more efficient use of distribution and generation resources. The integration of these applications will enable utilities to play what-if games on network loading, based not only on current load profiles and projected weather conditions, but also on expected customer response to critical-peak and demand-response situations.