Leveraging line sensors and advanced analytics to modernize the grid
In a time where utilities are amidst significant disruption with the digital revolution and increased pressure to transition to a multi-directional grid, it is imperative to increase grid resiliency and flexibility. Today, the distribution system accounts for 92% of all electric service failures.
Sentient Energy provides innovative solutions to help utilities improve reliability, save energy, enhance power quality and enable the transformation of the grid. Together with AWS, utilities are reducing their operational and maintenance costs by leveraging the power of advanced analytics and cloud computing.
When combined, our line sensing devices and Ample analytics platform, can:
Our Cloud-Native Ample analytics suite provides true architectural flexibility. It is scalable to handle any size of sensor fleet as well as exceptional performance to process large volumes of data effectively. Leveraging the sensor data and machine-learning, Ample can quickly locate and react to unplanned outages as well as provide utilities with predictive indicators of impending outages to increase reliability and preempt outage. In addition, with sensor data, Ample can enable proactive maintenance by identifying potential equipment failure, vegetation interference and harmonics disruption.
• Highly available and fault tolerant
• Self-healing applications
• Zero downtime upgrades
• Lightweight and efficient services
• Auto scalability (= more efficient use HW)
• Better UI response time
• No storage of plain text credentials
• Intra service level encryption
• Zero trust Auth. (Principle of least privilege)
• Standardized & automated upgrades
• Fewer maintenance touchpoints
• Centralized logging (= easier to support)
• Integrated concentrator (DNP3/104)
• Defined API
• On premise
• Cloud
• Hybrid of on premise and cloud
• Daily event detection report
• Harmonics tracker
• Transformer health
When utilities have a more granular view of their system, patrol areas are narrowed, and crews are better equipped to address the fault. Line sensors and communicating faulted circuit indicators (FCIs) are a proven method to improve utility reliability metrics such as outage durations, system average interruption duration index (SAIDI), and operations and maintenance (O&M) costs.
Utilities typically see improvements of 20% or more in Customer Minutes Interrupted (CMI) on feeders with line sensing deployments. The improvement is largely due to a significant reduction in patrol time, with some utilities reporting upwards of 65% patrol time savings.
System planning teams don’t always have load data for the locations they need to make the most effective planning decisions. Visibility of system load at additional points on the system provided by intelligent line sensors can fill in these data gaps. This is especially important as DERs and EVs are increasingly added to power networks — creating significant changes in historic load curves and making load forecasting much more complex.
Line sensor load data is available within minutes of sensor installation, so utility system planners can benefit from the information as soon as they integrate the data insights into decisions and work processes.
The large amount of data collected when capturing system anomalies, the computing resources required for machine learning, and scalability over time often necessitate that analytics modules be deployed in the cloud.
Preempting outages due to vegetation contact and equipment failure provides significant system average interruption frequency index (SAIFI) improvements and O&M savings. And by preventing future outages utilities also improve long term SAIDI metrics.
AWS and its providers on Marketplace empower electric utilities to improve reliability and customer satisfaction, lower operating costs, and safeguard critical infrastructure.
Sentient Energy’s Managed Cloud is available directly through the AWS Marketplace.
Read this blog on utility value streams from deploying line sensors and analytics
Visit our solution page to learn more about how to preempt outages using line sensing and machine learning
Read how line sensors can help decrease operations & maintenance costs with improved vegetation management
We help utilities deliver safe, reliable and efficient power.
