FCIs cut the cord

By Mike Ueland, VP of Sales – Americas, Telit Wireless Solutions, Inc.

By adding wireless connectivity to faulted circuit indicators, utilities can help cut overhead costs and help reduce the length of outage times – taking a first step toward Smart Grid applications.

Power outages cost the U.S. economy $80 billion annually according to the Department of Energy. Electric utilities also pay a steep price, including personnel hours spent tracking down the source of outages.

Over the past three decades, electric utilities have used faulted circuit indicators (FCIs) to speed up the task – and thus reduce the cost – of tracking down the source of an outage. FCIs clamp to a cable, detect a fault and loss of current or voltage, triggering a change in their mechanical or LED strobe “target.” Line personnel dispatched to the outage area then look for the “target” indicator to identify the outage source.

FCIs are a major asset, but they’re not a perfect solution. Some drawbacks:

• They still require line personnel to walk or drive around, looking for the tripped indicator. Depending on the utility’s size and the markets it serves, it can take from 10 minutes to an hour to drive the length of a circuit. That increases response time, personnel hours and fuel costs.

• Line crews must know where FCIs are located in the outage area. But that’s only a first step because then they have to check all of them.

• If the fault is located on an underground line, the task can be even more time-consuming. The fault-finding process of sectionalization also stresses equipment, such as cable connectors and transformers, potentially reducing their operating life and increasing the likelihood that they’ll produce outages in the future. That creates additional costs.

Taking FCIs to the Next Level
What’s needed is a way to maximize the value of FCIs by mitigating their shortcomings. One option is to embed a wireless modem in the FCI so that it can report a fault directly to the utility’s operations center which use applications such as SCADA and OMS (Outage Management System). This approach helps reduce the time and costs associated with tracking down the location of permanent and momentary faults.

For example, the Cooper Power Systems OutageAdvisor Fault Detection and Location Solution now includes FCIs with an integrated cellular module provided by Telit Wireless Solutions. When the OutageAdvisor FCI detects a fault, it transmits the outage data and location via the cellular network back to the utility company. This approach has several benefits:

• Armed with detailed location information, the utility now can dispatch a line crew to a specific section of cable where the fault appears to be. That saves time in terms of fuel and personnel hours, and it helps reduce outage times, which means less revenue impact and better CAIDI, SAIDI and SAFI figures.

• Utilities can leverage existing cellular networks rather than having to build or expand their own wireless infrastructure to support the additional FCI functionality. Using commercial networks also means that a utility can deploy these FCIs immediately, instead of waiting until its in-house wireless network is built or upgraded. As a result, this solution can have an immediate impact on the utility’s overhead costs and its CAIDI, SAIDI and SAFI figures.

• The Telit wireless module adds only 7 grams to the FCI’s weight, and it uses a combination of the line’s electrical current and a rechargeable battery for power.

• The Telit module is not simply the “guts” of a cell phone repackaged for use in FCI applications. Instead, the module is designed specifically for industrial applications such as utility telemetry. For example, the Telit module has a temperature range of -30° to 80° Celsius. Before being integrated with Cooper’s FCI solution, the Telit module’s ruggedized design proved its durability and reliability in a variety of outdoor utility applications, such as AMR.

Here’s one way that a utility might calculate the savings from a wireless FCI. Suppose that it pays journeymen linemen $27 per hour and that they spend about 50,000 hours each year tracking down faults. If wireless FCIs can cut that time by half, the savings could be around $675,000.

But is it Reliable?
One obvious question is, do cellular networks have coverage that’s seamless and reliable enough to ensure that fault reports always get through to the utility? The short answer is they do, for a variety of reasons.

For example, the Telit GC864-QUAD module uses GPRS, a cellular data standard that has been in commercial service worldwide since 2001. That history means that wireless carriers have had ample time to extend coverage not only throughout urban and suburban areas, but also into rural and sparsely populated areas. As a result, there are very few places left that aren’t covered by GPRS service signal, so utilities can deploy the OutageAdvisor solution without fear that they’ll work in some places but not others.

Many wireless FCIs will wind up installed on lines 20 feet or higher. That location helps improve signals and in turn further reduces the chances that the unit can’t connect to the cellular network.

Wireless FCIs also are reliable underground. For example, one utility told Cooper that it wasn’t concerned about underground wireless coverage because its crews regularly use their cell phones in the same areas where the FCIs would be installed.

It’s important to note that even when above- or below-ground cellular coverage is weak to the point that phone calls can’t be made, that doesn’t necessarily mean that a wireless FCI won’t work in that location. That’s because data traffic can still get through in areas where the cellular signal is too weak to support a voice call. The Telit GC864-QUAD provides additional reliability by using a transceiver with high sensitivity: -107 dBm at 850 or 900 MHz, and -106 dBm at 1800 or 1900 MHz.

The Integration Factor
OutageAdvisor’s wireless connectivity isn’t the only advantage that it offers to electric utilities. Unlike other products, OutageAdvisor’s wireless FCIs don’t simply upload their information to a website or relay it to a handheld unit that line crews must carry. Instead, OutageAdvisor feeds the FCI data to operations platforms such as SCADA and outage management systems. This approach reduces the time and the personnel costs necessary to track down the location of permanent and momentary faults.

OutageAdvisor integrates with operations platforms by using a protocol exchange to convert the FCIs’ fault data into a format that those platforms can use such as DNP and ICCP. This design also means that utilities can continue to use the platforms they’re familiar with, and they can deploy OutageAdvisor quickly because extensive customization isn’t required.

OutageAdvisor also integrates with the emerging Smart Grid concept proposed by groups such as the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Cooper sees OutageAdvisor as the first of many future Smart Grid applications, where utilities can get real-time information about the performance of the electric utility distribution network, which will help guide their planning and operational decisions.

Leveraging the cellular network is ideal because it’s paid for and maintained by another company. So whether the application is FCI or load control, utilities can get into Smart Grid without the financial burden and lead time of deploying a network. The ability to leverage another party’s network is particularly valuable for voluntary applications such as load control, where only a few customers initially choose to participate. And if an application turns out to have a weak business model, the utility isn’t stuck with an in-house network.

Some utilities may be hesitant to use cellular-based FCIs because they’re concerned that the network will become congested or unavailable exactly when key outage data is pouring in – during and after a major storm or disaster. This possibility is not as great as it might seem, for at least two reasons:

• As Hurricane Katrina, 9/11 and other recent disasters have shown, data traffic frequently gets through even when the network is overloaded to the point that voice calls are difficult to make. That’s because unlike voice, which is a real-time application, data packets can grab whatever bits of capacity are available in order to get through.

• In the case of the OutageAdvisor, the FCI immediately reports an event within minutes of occurrence, preceding the majority of customer calls that may contribute to network congestion. Additionally, since the device only reports by exception, both the time connected and amount of data sent are minimal.

• The FCC has proposed regulations that would require wireless carriers to add at least eight hours of back-up power service to cell sites. It’s important to note that before Katrina, most carriers already had generators and batteries at many cell sites. Since then, they’ve added back-up power to additional sites. For example, in 2007, Sprint spent $59 million to add back-up power to its sites in storm-prone coastal communities, as well as portable “cells on wheels,” which are cell sites on trailers that can be brought to disaster areas in order to supplement the permanent sites.

Why Now?
Wireless FCIs are in the right place at the right time. Electric utilities face increased pressure from regulators and customers to improve system reliability and customer service. As a result, the business case for products such as OutageAdvisor hinges partly on improvements to reliability as measured by indices such as SAIDI and CAIDI. Utilities can face fines or delays in the ability to raise rates based on their reliability performance.

Another reason is that the cost of providing electric service isn’t getting any cheaper. (Fuel costs are a prime example.) Standard, non-wireless FCIs can shorten patrol times by up to 50 percent, depending on the number of FCIs deployed, and adding wireless connectivity can produce additional saving. By minimizing the amount of time tracking down an outage, OutageAdvisor can significantly help reduce a utility’s overhead costs, freeing up capital for other, revenue-generating projects.

Finally, by making FCIs wireless and then integrating them with a utility’s existing platform, such as SCADA, OutageAdvisor turns a useful lineman’s tool into a powerful troubleshooting device that more departments can leverage. The upshot is that utilities then can be more responsive to customers, to regulators and to shareholders.