Many energy firms have turned to digital know-how to streamline operations and enhance employee effectivity. One instance is Omaha Public Energy District (OPPD), the Twelfth-largest public energy utility within the U.S. OPPD lately determined to deploy tons of of semi-rugged TOUGHBOOK 55 gadgets throughout a number of models, together with meter technicians, troubleshooters, line crews, and system safety and automation personnel. To raised perceive the thought course of behind the implementation, POWER posed some inquiries to Brent Saltzman, supervisor of Endpoint Engineering at OPPD.
POWER: What challenges does OPPD face as one of many largest public energy utility suppliers within the U.S.?
Saltzman: As one of many largest public energy utility firms within the nation, OPPD serves greater than 400,000 prospects throughout 5,000 sq. miles in jap Nebraska. Electrical energy demand within the territory is rising at an unprecedented charge. The corporate’s subject personnel work tirelessly to deal with buyer wants, they usually want know-how that may work as laborious as they do.
To accommodate this demand and proceed to deal with buyer wants successfully, OPPD knew it wanted to adapt and remodel to turn out to be a digital utility firm. The objective was to boost the corporate’s effectivity and enhance buyer communications by the deployment of related know-how options. This included integrating knowledge administration techniques and strong communications networks into workflows to raised acquire, retailer, and analyze electrical energy knowledge in real-time.
POWER: What options supported OPPD’s journey towards changing into a digital utility firm?
Saltzman: To assist with the transition and the corporate’s evolution, OPPD was on the lookout for a dependable cell computing resolution to exchange outdated consumer-grade gadgets, which had been liable to connectivity delays, bottlenecks, and compatibility points. We would have liked a tool that might face up to the difficult circumstances of utility work, assist legacy {hardware}, and develop with the corporate. As part of this transfer, OPPD additionally wished to transition paper-based techniques to digital platforms to make sure correct knowledge seize, extra environment friendly reporting, and extra dependable knowledge accessibility within the subject.
OPPD selected to deploy 200 Panasonic Join TOUGHBOOK 55 gadgets. These semi-rugged gadgets deliver each sturdiness and performance, exceeding OPPD’s efficiency and reliability wants in a spread of environments to assist meter technicians, line crews, troubleshooters, and system safety and automation personnel all through their day by day work.
POWER: What are a few of the advantages that know-how brings to OPPD’s subject personnel?
Saltzman: The rugged cell gadgets are particularly useful for troubleshooters. Many occasions, these groups work on 12-hour rotations and wish fixed entry to their machine all through the day. For instance, if a buyer loses energy, a troubleshooter receives the placement particulars of the outage by OPPD’s computer-aided dispatch (CAD) software program. They should entry essential details about the state of affairs earlier than they arrive onsite to allow them to work shortly as soon as on location to mitigate the outage and assist prospects. That is made attainable with lengthy battery life and hot-swappable batteries of TOUGHBOOK gadgets, which additionally give employees entry to the data they want by a wide range of connectivity choices. And, with these connectivity choices, OPPD’s employees can now entry real-time geographic data system (GIS) knowledge to facilitate distant asset inspections and expedite response occasions.
The TOUGHBOOK 55 gadgets additionally assist subject personnel work in difficult environmental circumstances, like rain, snow, and vivid daylight. Many occasions, utility outages could be as a consequence of excessive climate, and consumer-grade gadgets aren’t all the time designed to carry up by environmental rigor. Nonetheless, rugged gadgets have a big display screen with brightness settings that enable OPPD employees to view important data in excessive vivid or darkish circumstances and a touchpad that can be utilized whereas carrying gloves. This reduces time spent discovering a spot to work away from the solar glare or getting again in a van to take off gloves within the chilly to finish reviews.
Together with reliability within the subject, the semi-rugged gadgets can simply combine into the corporate’s operations and workflows, minimizing the burden on OPPD’s IT [information technology] group. Working with Panasonic Join allowed the OPPD group to arrange and deploy the gadgets for subject use on day one.
POWER: How is OPPD empowering its communities to thrive now and into the longer term?Â
Saltzman: OPPD’s shift to a digital utility firm is not only about modernization. It’s a dedication to addressing our prospects’ wants in the present day, whereas making ready for challenges which are prone to come across the nook. By integrating rugged cell know-how with a deal with customer-centric options, OPPD can meet subject employee wants for productiveness, effectivity, and adaptability to make sure our communities have the facility they should thrive.
—Aaron Larson is POWER’s govt editor.
