Imagine a utility managing a vast network of smart meters and power lines in a region where an outage could often leave thousands of consumers without electricity. In situations like this, utility companies face immense pressure to be able to respond swiftly and quickly restore services. However, they face hurdles like siloed communication channels, outdated manual procedures and inefficient resource allocation which hinders the utility’s ability to meet service level agreements. Our focus today will be on WFM (Workforce Management) solutions and how they enable utilities to optimize their emergency response capabilities, bridge gaps in communication and maintain service reliability.
Role of WFM Solutions in Emergency Response for Utilities
Automated incident management
During emergency response, automated incident management is a critical capability. It involves automatically generating tickets during situations like outages, tampering incidents or safety hazards detected by monitoring systems. Here, WFM tools play a crucial role by ensuring that high-risk alerts are prioritized for immediate dispatch. This approach helps utilities reduce response times, ensure greater service availability and improve consumer satisfaction. In case a utility detects a downed power line as a result of a storm in a residential area, an ideal WFM solution would:
- Auto-generate tickets for incidents like this since they would be already integrated with monitoring systems.
- Route the tickets to the nearest available teams with the required skills to handle the situation.
- Ensure all relevant information like location and severity of damage is included in the ticket to facilitate quick resolution.
How Grid Helps:
Grid’s WFM tool automated ticket creation using custom rules based on alerts and events from MDM (Meter Data Management) systems. For example, when a communication error is detected by MDM, tickets are triggered to the HES team and tamper alerts are sent to field operators. Grid’s integration with consumer service portals also allow for ticket creation from consumer reports. Our system auto-assigns these tickets to nearby teams, ensuring that complaints are addressed promptly and efficiently.
Rapid resource deployment
During emergencies, quick and efficient deployment of the right technicians to the right locations become essentially critical. A robust WFM tool would optimize this process by leveraging GPS capabilities and skill-matching to ensure that the closest qualified field operators are dispatched, improving the effectiveness of their response operations. For a utility that needs to respond to numerous outages within a large service area, the WFM solution should be able to:
- Leverage GPS and identify the closest available technicians with the necessary skills to handle each outage.
- Dynamically allocate tasks based on real-time data, and ensure that each technician is assigned the most critical issue within their reach.
- Continuously monitor and update task assignments as new challenges arise or as operators complete their tasks.
How Grid Helps:
Grid’s mobile application provides field operators with optimized routes and real-time updates, improving their ability to quickly respond to these emergencies. Our solution also integrates with existing CRM systems to ensure a seamless data flow, enabling dispatchers to make data-driven decisions regarding resource allocation. Additionally, Grid’s offline capabilities allow technicians to capture data and receive tasks in low-connectivity regions and auto-sync updates once connectivity is restored.
Real-time awareness
It is important for relevant stakeholders within the utility network to be able to track the status and progress of various activities in real-time. Modern WFM solutions offer features such as unified dashboards that offer visibility, which allows stakeholders to assess situations accurately and allocate resources more efficiently. Let’s consider a utility provider that is managing multiple outages during a storm, with teams spanning across locations. In scenarios like this, an ideal WFM solution would generally:
- Provide a real-time dashboard to track field crew location, asset status and ticket progress in real-time.
- Enable dispatchers to monitor outage restoration rates and adjust resource allocation as per requirement.
- Ensure all relevant stakeholders have access to real-time data, improving coordination and decision making capabilities.
How Grid Helps:
Grid’s WFM tool integrates with CRM, HES and MDM software to enable real-time data synchronization. Moreover, our solution also leverages APIs and data streaming platforms like Kafka and MQTT to sync updates across systems. This comprehensive integration approach enables utilities to automate processes like installation data uploads and work order receipt to ensure real-time data flow across multiple components within the utility network.
Before We Wrap Up…
As we have explored above, WFM solutions are more than just mere tools, they bring an enhanced level of coordination, speed and operational intelligence. In a period where consumers expect uninterrupted service and regulatory scrutiny is always increasing, investing in a robust WFM solution is a must for enterprise growth. With the right WFM solution such as Grid, utility companies can face any hurdle with confidence and greater resilience.
Are you curious to know how Grid can help your utility achieve enhanced efficiency and responsiveness during emergencies? Schedule a call with our team today and find out how.
