When roughly 60,000 Avista Utilities customers lost power last week during a violent wind storm, the Spokane companys new high-tech, power-outage reporting system, which it developed over several years at a cost of $10 million, got its biggest test.


Avista hasnt determined yet exactly how much time the new system saved crews when restoring power to customers, but the repair process went much more smoothly than it would have in the past, says Al Fisher, the companys director of operations.


Several weeks ago, when another storm tore through the Inland Northwest and cut power to 20,000 Avista customers, the new system shaved an estimated 12 to 24 hours off the time it took the company to restore power to its customers, Fisher says.


This helps us organize our work and efficiently manage outages, he says. Its about getting customers back in service as quickly as possible, and were able to get the bulk of our customers back on a lot faster now.


The new system is based on software, which Avista developed in-house, that combines geographic information system (GIS) technology with maps of Avistas power infrastructure, says Curt Kirkeby, the companys applications manager. Avista, prompted by the severe outages during the ice storm of 1996, started developing the software in 1999, he says. It began using the system in some parts of its network in late 2001, and completed the entire transition process about a year and a half ago, so that the system now covers all 338,000 of the companys customers, Kirkeby says. Avista has invested in research, software development, equipment, and training to build the system, Fisher says.


Avista was the first utility in the U.S. to build and implement a GIS-based power-outage system, Kirkeby claims. There are now a handful of utilities across the country that have deployed similar systems, he says.


The software allows Avista employees to view the companys distribution system on a computer-generated map and to see how each electrical customer is connected to that system, Fisher says. When a customer calls to report an outage, a dispatcher can locate the customer on the map and follow the power lines to trace the outage to its most likely origin, given the number and location of other nearby customers who also have reported outages.


Dispatchers then send a crew to the site of what they believe is the source of the problem, such as a blown transformer, rather than to a specific customer. In the past, Avista employees responded to each customer who reported an outage and checked each part of the power line to discover the source of the outage, which was much more time consuming, says Terry Daniels, the companys Spokane construction manager.


Its a night and day difference, says Daniels. It allows you, at a glance, to make decisions you couldnt before, and to find the spot where the problem is and pinpoint where our trucks are.


As part of the new system, Avista also is incorporating another piece of software, installed on laptop computers equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) device, to track the location of its maintenance crews, Fisher says. During an outage, everybody who works with the system can locate the nearest truck on the map and dispatchers send the crew in that truck to repair the problem, says April Spacek, the companys chief distribution dispatcher. In the past, dispatchers relied on radio messages between crews to obtain such information, which took more time, she says.


Currently, Avistas gas service crews are equipped with the laptops, and the company plans to equip its electrical service trucks with such computers next year, Kirkeby says.


The ability to track the location of each crew on a map also helps improve safety for crews, Fisher says. For instance, dispatchers can see if one crew working on part of a power line is in danger because another crew working on a different portion of the line is preparing to switch the power back on, he says. The company already had procedures in place to handle those instances, but the system provides an additional support to those procedures, he says.


Part of the new system also includes a software program that compiles and organizes information about outages, such as how many customers have lost service and where theyre located. The program bundles customers into groups based on the source of the power outage, rather than counting them all individually, Kirkeby says. In the past, dispatchers had to keep track of thousands of slips of paper documenting each customers report, Spacek says.


Contact Emily Brandler at (509) 344-1265 or via e-mail at emilyb@spokanejournal.com.