A SMOC or a smart meter operations center acts as a centralized hub for AMISPs in monitoring and maintaining the health of metering infrastructure. This includes bringing together all pieces of information for IT system implementation, project progress, and KPI monitoring to ensure timely delivery of services. In this context, utilities need to keep in mind that the true potential of SMOC is unlocked when the smart metering data is presented in easy-to-view data format. The integration between SMOC and utility dashboards enable enterprises to move beyond simple monitoring and leverage the data for informed decision making. This blog will explore how integration between SMOC and utility dashboards allow utilities to enhance operational efficiency, deliver better service and maintain grid reliability.
How SMOC Integration with Utility Dashboards Enhances Decision Making for Utilities?
Advanced analytics and predictive maintenance
The integration of SMOC data with advanced analytics offers a proactive approach to asset management, anticipating equipment failures, optimizing maintenance schedules and also predicting spikes in demand. This enables the utilities to reduce instances of downtime, improve grid reliability and lower operational costs. For instance, instead of reacting to failures, utility companies can now anticipate them, and schedule maintenance during off-peak hours to minimize service disruptions. By analyzing voltage levels from smart meters and combining them with weather forecasts, businesses can predict potential transformer overload that can occur during heatwaves.
Visualizing this data on a dashboard enables personnel to take preemptive measures against load balancing, or deploy mobile transformers to prevent outages. Moreover, SMOC solutions like Grid also leverages sophisticated algorithms to detect subtle anomalies in meter performance that may indicate possibilities of impending failure, allowing operators to do proactive replacement before a complete breakdown takes place.
Key metrics and KPIs generally tracked:
Predicted vs actual failure rate: Comparing instances of predicted equipment failures against actual failure to assess the accuracy of the predictive maintenance model.
Maintenance cost reduction: Minimizing expenses and associated costs as a result of optimized scheduling.
Uptime improvement: Increase in system uptime duration due to proactive maintenance approach.
Demand forecasting accuracy: Measurement of analytics accuracy when forecasting energy demand.
Improved outage management
When outages occur, an ideal SMOC can provide data highlighting the affected areas, the extent of the outage and the estimated time to be taken for restoration. When this data is visualized via dashboards, utility personnel can dispatch field crews more efficiently, provide real-time updates to their consumers and fast-track the restoration process. Moreover, the real-time tracking of crew activity and progress further enhances situational awareness.
For instance, Grid’s SMOC leverages advanced GIS capabilities to pinpoint the exact location of outage on a mapping dashboard. Utilities are able to view the number of affected customers, estimate restoration times and build a level of transparency with consumers, enhancing their overall experience.
Key metrics and KPIs generally tracked:
Number of active outages: Real-time count of ongoing outages.
Outage duration: Average time taken to restore service, also known as MTTR (Mean-Time to Repair)
Number of Consumers Affected: Total count of customers affected by each outage
Restoration progress: The percentage of outages that has been resolved over time.
Outage frequency per DT/Feeder: The total number of outages in specific regions over a certain period.
Cybersecurity monitoring
As smart meters continuously transmit and share data at regular intervals, cybersecurity becomes paramount. By integrating a SMOC with security dashboards, utilities can monitor suspicious activity, detect anomalies, and respond faster to possible threats in near real-time. This process includes monitoring communication patterns between various devices within the utility network, data flows and access logs. For example, a sudden increase in meter data requests from an unfamiliar IP address could signal a potential cybersecurity threat. Real-time alerts and visualization on security dashboards allows teams to quickly investigate and respond to threats, and avoid escalation of issues.
Key metrics and KPIs generally tracked:
MTTD (Mean Time to Detect): Average time taken to identify a security threat
MTTI (Mean Time to Investigate): Average time from when the fault was detected to the IT team initiating the investigation progress.
Incident response time: Average time taken to respond to security threats.
Threat detection rate: Percentage of threats that have been successfully detected.
False positive rate: Percentage of notifications or alerts that are incorrectly identified as potential threats.
Workforce management dashboard
The purpose of this reporting and dashboarding is to efficiently track field operators related to smart meter installations, repairs and maintenance. After all, efficient workforce management is critical for optimizing field operations and ensuring that tasks are completed on time. A workforce management dashboard when integrated with a SMOC, can provide real-time transparency into the activities of field technicians, improve resource allocation and enhance operational productivity. Utilities and other stakeholders involved in metering projects can identify potential bottlenecks and optimize the workflows by tracking key metrics such as work order completion rates, average time taken to complete per task, and response times to unexpected hindrances.
Key metrics and KPIs generally tracked:
Work order completion rate: Percentage of work orders that are completed on time.
Field technician efficiency: Average time taken per task such as installation or repairs.
Average response time for repairs: Time taken to attend to and resolve reported issues.
Pending work orders: The number of works that are uncompleted.
Faulty device replacement time: Total duration to replace or repair faulty meters/devices.
System health and monitoring dashboard
This dashboard is leveraged by utilities to monitor the overall health and performance of the AMI network. Utilities receive a comprehensive view of the AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) ecosystem, with utilities being able to proactively identify and address potential issues before they start impacting performance. An ideal SMOC gathers data from multiple sources within the AMI, including smart meters, MDM (meter data management), GIS (geographical information systems), etc.
The utility can configure the SMOC against predefined thresholds, and when the threshold is breached, the SMOC auto-triggers an alert. These alerts can be sent to utility personnel with regards to instances of discrepancies such as installation challenges, or operations & maintenance. Moreover, new age SMOC solutions can create an overview of all the system health issues, offering drill down capabilities into all stages of a meter-to-cash process, such as data collection, billing, VEE (validation, editing, estimation) processing, etc.
Key metrics and KPIs generally tracked:
Communication uptime: Percentage of time the system is fully functional.
Device availability rate: Percentage of meters and gateways communicating with the central system.
Alert response time: Average time taken by the system when responding to critical alerts (device failure or meter malfunction)
Communication success rate: Percentage of successful data transmissions vs attempts
System latency: Average time taken for meters to communicate readings.
Forward-thinking utilities must note that the journey towards a smarter and more resilient grid begins with embracing the possibilities that are brought by SMOC and utility dashboard integration. With Grid’s SMOC, the ability to anticipate equipment failures, proactively manage outages and take data-driven decisions is now within reach for utility stakeholders. Connect with us today and get to know how you can build a comprehensive SMOC that is tailored to meet your organization’s unique requirements, maximizing the returns of your smart grid investments.
