System Assessment and Optimization
Clear Path Utility Solutions was retained in 2016 by the COO of a major utility in Canada undergoing a transition from a provincially owned and operated utility to an investor owned and publicly traded utility. The work scope was to perform an in-depth assessment of their vegetation management program, processes, standards and procedures. The assessment included a statistically representative sampling of vegetation conditions and workload on over 100,000 km (about 62137.12 mi) of overhead line, stratified by climatic zone, time since last worked and voltage class.
Deliverables Included
- A comprehensive assessment of reliability performance
- VM work practices (scope and cycle)
- Analysis of vegetation related outages over a 5-year period based on climatic zone, voltage and when work was last performed
- Analysis of system vegetation conditions based on climatic zone, voltage and when work was last performed
- Interrelationship between the two
- Development of reliability and cost models to determine the optimal scope and cycle to achieve desired results
The utility was coming under intense scrutiny from elected officials, regulators, and customers to improve electric reliability and reduce costs under the new entity. Experiencing over 10,000 electric service disruptions annually (more than half caused by trees) and 4th quartile VM cost performance, put the vegetation management program directly in the crosshairs of various stakeholders.
System Assessment and Optimization Strategy
Cost and reliability models showed a direct correlation between cycle frequency and the point where costs escalate and reliability degrades. Armed with this information and field condition and workload survey information, Clear Path modeled various scenarios related to cost/cycle and expected reliability results. Work scope (representing unit cost) and cycle (representing frequency of feeder/circuit work) were matched with linear projections of reliability degradation to determine the optimal scope and cycle.
System Assessment and Optimization Results
Projections indicated modifying the work scope and shortening cycle frequency by 50% would reduce outages by 25% while keeping costs flat compared to the previous 3-year period. Clear Path presented the models and projections to the Provincial Energy Board later that year as part of their rate case resulting