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MultiCom - Multi-Utility Operations
Applications
Today’s Utility Challenge
The business environment
today demands your company to improve the efficiency of processes that have a
positive impact on financial performance. The ability to optimize overall
efficiency, continuously improve quality, and assign value to tangible and
intangible assets – is now the ultimate goal of businesses.
Utilities are increasingly
under pressure to improve and increase financial performance. Cooperatives,
Municipalities, and REAs are chartered with greater degrees of member service
while more effectively utilizing existing resources. Broadening the services
provided is an effective way to increase the bottom line while more effectively
putting resources to their best advantage.
Much like performing control
center consolidation or opening up regional centers; cooperatives are
increasingly banding together to obtain operational efficiencies and cost
savings by functioning as operations service providers especially for night
“roll up”. Until now the operational tools (particularly in the areas of network
and outage management) have not supported a multi-utility operations focus.
The PSI MultiCom Solution
The PSI Multiple Utilities
Command and Control (MultiCom) enables an operations service provider to assume
the responsibilities of other service territories when operations roll up;
typically during evening and night operations. In the morning members may desire
to take the operations control back for themselves.
During evening and night
consolidation, it is important with reduced staff, that they have and maintain
an overall understanding of what is happening in the field. With PSI MultiCom,
the summary tools show all current events, conditions, and states for all
companies of interest that have not been resolved, closed, or completed. This
provides the end user with the overall system-wide view for all the companies
they are responsible for.
From the summary tools,
MultCom supports rapid client detail tool switching between any of the companies
of interest. This enables the user to switch into the detailed tools for a
designated company and take any necessary actions required to control devices,
dispatch crews, and close out cases of trouble. Client switching between
companies ensures a common user look and feel and consistent actions and
controls are available between companies.
Summaries and detail tools
provide Company-sensitive views and navigation. In addition, the user is
presented with appropriate Visual Cues, Color Coded States for crews and cases,
and Text-Based Clues for outage details and summaries.
MultiCom functionality is
supported by the entire PSI application suite including Network Management, Call
Entry, Outage Management, and Crew Management.
The MultiCom solution not
only facilitates the Multi-Utility consolidation of operations but naturally
supports the automatic gathering of activity logs and utility performance data
for reporting even during periods when remote users are operating your system.
MultiCom Foreign Adaptors
MultiCom Multi-utility
functionality is native to all PSI installations. To remotely manage another
utility that does not use PSI software products is possible though Multicom
Foreign Adaptors. The Foreign adapters are installed on the remote utilities
system and run PSI services and special client foreign system adaptors to
interact with the non-PSI managed information such as customer data, calls,
cases, and crews. MultiCom foreign adaptors can be implemented on non-PSI
systems supportting open interfaces for data and events.
MultiCom Information Integration
MultiCom supports data
sources from disparate information sources so no matter what systems are in
operation, whether homegrown or from third party vendors, MultiCom can utilize
available data. This is an important consideration when supporting smaller scale
utilities where information sources and content are highly variable. Source data
can be non-geographic in nature such as from a facilities distribution database,
planning systems, or could utilize the PSI graphic model designer. Geographic
data from any Geographic Information System (GIS) can be exported. Customer data
can be extracted from any Customer Information System (CIS), Customer Billing
System (CBS) or a simple ODBC connection can provide the necessary access to
customer data.
Getting Started With MultiCom is Simple
MultiCom has very few data
element requirements. Network Management needs a minimal set of devices
(breakers, switches, transformers, etc.). Outage Management needs a simple
customer database and optional customer to serving device relationship. Over
time as more infomation becomes available the richness of the MultiCom data
model can be improved. A simple Network and Outage management data model can be
established in as little as a few weeks time.
MultiCom Enables the Service Provider
As Utilities look to
positively impacting their bottom line, expanding services has the advantage of
leveraging existing resources and improving efficiencies. The choice of systems
and software can have a large impact on how easily the transisition from a
utility-centric focus to that of an external solutions provider can be made.
MultiCom has been specifically designed to bring value-added benefits to the
Service Providers and these can be incrementally "rolled out" as solution
offerings to the member utilities. It’s not too soon to get started.
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