135 WEL Networks | 2018 Asset Management Plan wel.co.nz NON-NETWORK SOLUTIONS AND SUPPORT SYSTEMS 7.2.1. NETWORK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (NMS) The NMS enables the fast and efficient control of the electricity network for the operator. It consists of the General Electric PowerOn Fusion software package and data storage systems connecting with our SCADA Devices through an IP based wide area network. The Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) network includes Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) that communicate back to the control room equipment in real time. The key business benefit of the system is to enhance the safe, reliable and efficient management of the network, as well as providing effective customer service. The NMS consists of the following subsystems: ƒ ƒ Distribution Management System (DMS) and Switching Management ƒ ƒ Outage Management System (OMS) ƒ ƒ Trouble Call Taker, with smart meter information integration ƒ ƒ Reporting ƒ ƒ Webviewers ƒ ƒ Historian These subsystems are described as follows: Distribution Management System (DMS) and Switching Management The DMS is the core of the NMS. It collects the real time information and disseminates it to users and other subsystems. A key element of the DMS is the connectivity model that allows operators to easily see the effects of actual and planned switching through animation of the diagram with the current energisation state. It also controls all switching management steps (preparation, validation and execution) and can enforce built in safety logic throughout all stages. This is a particularly powerful aspect of the system, especially from a safety perspective and enforcement of operational procedures. Outage Management System (OMS) The OMS is an application designed to aid in the management, prioritisation, administration and reporting of outages on the network and individual customers. The OMS automatically associates customer calls and clusters of calls to the one incident and to the respective devices supplying them. To do this OMS relies on the Installation Control Point (ICP) to transformer relationship and the connectivity of the DMS. ‘Last gasp’ data from the Smart meters has been integrated with the OMS to improve fault location by simulating customer calls. Trouble Call Taker, with smart meter information integration The Trouble Call Taker records customer calls and provides vital information to the Dispatch Team. The information derived from the calls is integrated with the OMS to predict the location of faults or likely future faults. It can also be used for post event analysis. It is available to the internal WEL Dispatch Team as well as the external after-hours call centre. Reporting The reporting system performs queries over the NMS database using MS SQL Reporting Services and there a large number of system and in-house developed reports tailored for different parts of the business. All network reliability information (SAIDI, SAIFI etc.) is captured by the NMS and is presented in reports. The annual reliability disclosure reports are also automatically generated. Webviewers The PowerOn product provides a web based view of the operating single line diagram and a linked geographic view (based on GIS). This provides visibility of the system to a wider audience in the business. Historian All analog points with the NMS are recorded and stored within a product called TrendSCADA. This then makes the data available as tables and trends to other users in the business. The NMS system has recently been upgraded to PowerOn Fusion V5.2.2.9 and consists of multiple application servers distributed over the WEL main office and the Disaster Recovery Centre. There are communication gateways to the WAN (Wide Area Network) at each of these sites. Most of the core system is virtualised on recent high quality hardware. Such arrangements ensure high availability and resilience of the system. There are separate pre-production and development environments. Some mobility functionality has been developed to allow the dispatch of fault jobs to field devices and the completion of fault reports from the field. The future mobility strategy is under review with a number of possible extensions and improvements being considered.