Lovion OUTAGE Fault Management

Fault Management with Lovion OUTAGE

Fault Notification

The workflow of handling a malfunction involving a supply company may start with a call from a customer in the control room or a call centre. Critical factors for recording the fault in a software tool are to ensure full accessibility to the fault notification and the ability to quickly and effortlessly enter data into the database. Permanent notification availability is guaranteed with Lovion OUTAGE, which records the initial fault message in Lovion BIS, a software with integrated mechanisms specifically designed for these types of scenarios. If necessary, the system can operate on a self-sufficient network. The easy-to-use and quick data registration for malfunctions is made possible through optimised and intuitively operable entry screens. Thus, the fault elimination process can be executed quickly.

Documenting a Fault

Lovion OUTAGE also offers the option of easily recording faults on mobile devices on site or by entering past network failures from a file. Matching information between data that was captured offline and the central Lovion OUTAGE database is possible if both datasets are available. The matching process is done periodically if a network connection exists. Alternatively, the user can authorize a matching process to take place. The malfunction is documented in the main menu where all current faults are listed, including their processing status. The documentation in Lovion OUTAGE is based on different roles. The user is provided with various tools to document the details of the outage. After the first click, data regarding the division, type and time of the fault notification is automatically entered into the database.

Interactive Graphics

If the address was inserted into the navigation fields, this data is used to automatically circle the area in the map with the corresponding address. The affected part of the map is displayed along with all recorded damage locations of the division after a perimeter search is carried out. A division has to be specified for the search. During the registration of a gas malfunction where gas odour is detected, the user is guided through a checklist in order to react suitably and to give instructions to the caller. In the next step, additional information concerning the caller is recorded. Furthemore, the documentation of the malfunction is done in line with the guidelines of the ferderal network agency (BNetzA) and the relevant organisations (DVGW, AGFW, FNN, BDEW). For this purpose, the required catalogues for describing a fault are provided.

Eliminating the Fault

After the call has been completed, the on-site malfunction elimination process begins and is documented in Lovion OUTAGE. Not only is the information about the person who called to register the malfunction forwarded to on-site technicians, but also information about current maps, the location and affected equipment. By inserting the organisation unit in the database, the responsibility for the next few steps of the process is set. This means that the notification has reached the next step of the workflow. In case material or construction and assembly works are required to fix the malfunction, a task can be created in Lovion OUTAGE. If an interface for an enterprise resource system has been implemented, for example Lovion ERP CONNECT, the data can be transmitted to this system.

Fault Documentation

Once the work on the fault is completed, the information about the cause of the malfunction, the damage and the duration is documented. The data documentation is done in line with the guidelines of the resprective organisations. Entering this data has been made as easy as possible. Available catalogues for individual selection are filtered according to the correct context, thereby minimising data errors. Furthermore, individual comments can be added. In most cases, the exact location of the malfunction is only identified at this stage. The areal geometry in the map is automatically replaced by a point symbol and the connection to the damaged equipment is established. As of this point, this data is stored in the fault notification.

Determining the Scope of the Fault

The key indicator for interrupted performance and untimely delivery of energy during an outage can be evaluated interactively in Lovion OUTAGE for each voltage and pressure level. Successive restoration of supply can also be simulated and associated data can be recorded and documented. The end consumers or the assessed performance interruption can be determined via geographical selection using auxiliary lines or a network analysis. By entering the corresponding disruption time, the key performance indicator is immediately calculated and saved as an PDF outage report.

Quality Assurance

After evaluating the scope of the disruption, the fault is forwarded to the quality assurance department where data entries are verified and reviewed for completeness before documentation is concluded. Quality assurance is completed when it is marked by a green symbol in Lovion OUTAGE, making it easily readable in the list.

Reports

Standard reports (BNetzA according to § 52 EnWG, FNN, DVGW) can be generated for daily, weekly and quarterly reports via Lovion OUTAGE. The data is also processed for the XML-Webservice of the BNetzA and the Q-Element is calculated according to § 19, 20 AregV. Next to the reports, it is also possible to analyse the network quality. For this purpose, the key peformance indicators (SAIFI, SAIDI and CAIDI) regarding the supply reliability are calculated.

Disruption frequency H u (SAIFI): This key performance indicator determines how often a customer is affected on average by a supply disruption per year.

Disruption length T u (CAIDI): This key performance indicator determines the average dirsuption length per customer.

Unavailable Q u (SAIDI): This key performance indicator is the product of disruption frequency and disruption duration. It is a measure of probability, evaluating the supply disruption of a customer at any time or in other words, the average total length of a supply disruption within one year.

Medium max. duration of supply restoration: The medium max. duration of supply restoration determines how long it takes on average for the whole supply to be restored for all affected customers if an outage occurs causing a supply interuption.

Other key performance indicators: Further statistical data such as the statistical value of supply reliability is calculated based on the IEEE 1366 indices that were defined by the international UNIPEDE expert committee DISQUAL. These are taken into account in Lovion OUTAGE.