Improve Distribution System Reliability & Efficiencies

Challenge

Utilities answer to a growing number of stakeholders when it comes to the design and optimization of distribution systems. Regulators and customers clamor for increased performance and reliability. Operators want accurate and reliable load and outage data to analyze existing transformer performance and to deploy new equipment. Engineers require conformance to standards. It’s nearly impossible to right-size equipment and manage these expensive assets effectively while keeping pace with these growing demands. In the past, over-sizing equipment may have been effective in preventing outages and overloaded infrastructure but hardly a cost-effective way to manage assets and capital expenditures.

Solution

Right-sizing new and existing equipment requires the reliable and accurate load data provided by an automatic meter reading (AMR) system. Utilities can take full advantage of Itron’s powerful distribution asset optimization and design software tools when these tools have access to actual meter data. When load data and outage data are combined, Itron’s Distribution Asset Analysis (DAA) solution can identify improperly rated or sized distribution equipment, which can then be replaced with properly sized equipment. Itron’s distribution design tools, Distribution Staker and LD-Pro, can help gas, water and electric utilities analyze consumption, automate the design process and ensure conformance to engineering standards.

Benefits

Improved system reliability

Provides more accurate transformer load data

Improves system-wide asset loading information

Improves management of over- and under-utilized assets

Improves forecasting of near-term trouble spots and long-term distribution needs

Reduces transformer failure

Reduces capital equipment costs