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Customer Information
Introduction
Company
Alabama Power Company
Industry
Electric Utilities
Products
Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS), Disruption Planning and Recovery, GridOS Services, GridOS Orchestration Software
CHALLENGE
Increasing resilience against power grid disruptions is a major priority for Alabama Power Company. The U.S. state of Alabama, where its 1.4 million customers live, is no stranger to heat waves, tornados, severe thunderstorms, and the occasional hurricane – meaning that disruptions are a constant risk. Alabama Power seeks to invest in new solutions that enable it to minimize the costs, confusion, and overall duration of power grid disruptions That search led it to GE Vernova Grid Software’s Outage Management System (OMS) – a key component of the Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS).
"When we first started this journey, it was really about, ‘How do we make sure that we have the most reliable, secure grid for our customers?"
Melanie Miller
General Manager, Power Delivery Data & Technology, Alabama Power
SOLUTION
Today, since adopting GridOS ADMS, APCO experiences significant improvements in how it manages and recovers from power grid disruptions by leveraging OMS.
For example, pre-OMS, Alabama Power’s recovery crews relied on a combination of paper maps and telephone calls with the control room to receive dispatches and navigate to their assigned areas. OMS gives recovery crews access to the same detailed, digital, real-time maps that the central control room uses, making it easier to identify where repairs are needed. According to Melanie Miller, General Manager, Power Delivery Data & Technology , this improvement resulted in time and cost savings for Alabama Power.
Alabama Power has also seen improvements to their customer communication processes. When an outage occurs, utility customers are naturally anxious to know what happened and when they can expect to have power again. OMS’ customer communication tools helped Alabama Power more easily provide customers with outage alerts and real-time updates on the recovery process, via text messaging.
For example, pre-OMS, Alabama Power’s recovery crews relied on a combination of paper maps and telephone calls with the control room to receive dispatches and navigate to their assigned areas. OMS gives recovery crews access to the same detailed, digital, real-time maps that the central control room uses, making it easier to identify where repairs are needed. According to Melanie Miller, General Manager, Power Delivery Data & Technology , this improvement resulted in time and cost savings for Alabama Power.
Alabama Power has also seen improvements to their customer communication processes. When an outage occurs, utility customers are naturally anxious to know what happened and when they can expect to have power again. OMS’ customer communication tools helped Alabama Power more easily provide customers with outage alerts and real-time updates on the recovery process, via text messaging.
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