Electric Power Service disruptions are not only irritating to Utility customers and regulators, they are incredibly expensive as well. In fact, each minute of mitigated SAIDI can save a utility $500K to $1.5 million in O&M costs, depending on pre-existing restoration processes and levels of feeder automation.

Sentient Energy Sensors and Ample™ Analytics deployments at major utilities are demonstrating a savings of up to 20% of annual SAIDI resulting from the deployment of advanced sensor technology that monitor, detect, analyze and communicate faults and disturbances. The deployment of Sentient Energy’s Grid Analytics System (GAS) is providing utilities with the ability to quickly deploy line monitoring devices at a fraction of the cost and implementation time of typical automation program and complement previous grid automation investments. Just do the math and you will realize the remarkable ROI that this technology can offer utilities — and SAIDI reduction is only part of the value proposition.

While SAIDI reductions alone are justifying these new sensor deployments, the power of advanced grid analytics is now positioning electric utilities to actually reduce SAIFI by identifying pre-fault grid disturbances that can be mitigated to avoid future outage and improve power quality. These real-time analytics also provide distribution grid operators with the ability to manage Distributed Energy Resources.

The distribution grid is changing and intelligent grid sensors and analytics provide outstanding ROI and the tools that utilities need to significantly improve safety, reliability, and resiliency.