Maintenance software enhances utility’s reliability

Even before deregulation made changes imperative, Austin Energy, a publicly owned Texas utility, had been assessing its maintenance philosophy. The utility, which serves more than 300,000 customers, was looking to change its time-based maintenance program to one involving an integrated, predictive system.

“We did substation maintenance when it became unavoidable,” says Clint Rogas, the utility’s process manager for power delivery transmission. “We really didn’t keep any records or have any automated test equipment. It was like putting out brush fires. When we went out and did our monthly station checks in the field, we’d record breaker counters, problems and other figures on paper. All that data went into a drawer. We didn’t do anything with it unless there was an emergency.”

Several years ago, Austin Energy began using the SubMate substation maintenance program from Corvallis, Ore.-based Digital Inspections to gather data on its substations. When the company introduced Cascade, the system’s Windows-based successor, the utility upgraded.

The system offers one integrated database that includes the network group, the substation group and the transmission group, all of which are on the same reporting structure. The user has control of enterprise-wide data from a central base station via any number of remote base stations, as well as portable field units. User-defined parameters automatically trigger maintenance orders and allow for long-term maintenance forecasting, as well as tracking time, parts usage, allocation and inventory.

The system uses a geographically based hierarchy, with each office, service center, facility and piece of equipment representing a “location.” Users at each location have access to designated subsets of a consolidated database.

Additionally, the system allows any Austin Energy employee with a PC and access privileges to view the latest system information from the office or in the field. Secure data replication to and from the central base station repository is provided, and inspection forms can be customized.

“You can have a system administrator at the top with total control, and then you can have a certain level of user at the electrician’s level,” Rogas says. “It’s easy to control the movement of data, and it’s much easier for employees to plan their work, because database updates from the top are so simple.”

The system streamlines coordination between field workers, managers and information technology personnel at Austin Energy. For example, when a maintenance worker notices equipment defects in a substation, he can make a note on his field unit. From the truck, via a mobile phone anda laptop or a PC, the information is uploaded onto the network, and a maintenance order is generated. Later, the work order is confirmed by the substation engineer at headquarters, who schedules it for the technicians. They, in turn, can access the network to check for parts availability and location.

When the work order is completed, the repair information is uploaded and stored for future reference. “One of our big issues is customer retention,” Rogas says. “That’s based partly on reliability. Using the system to predict problems will be beneficial to our reliability.”