Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro to advance outage management system

Located in southwestern Ontario, where hot summers 30 degrees C 86.0 degrees F and cold winter -20 degrees C -4.0 degrees F storms can cause power outages, Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro sought out a proven outage management system to help them continue to deliver operational efficiencies, reduced outage times and enhanced communications for its more than 90,000 customers.

The utility required a system that would readily integrate with their existing smart grid systems - including smart metering technology, supervisory control and data acquisition SCADA and geographic information system GIS mapping -- from multiple vendors.

"We selected ACS for their ability to support broad smart grid functionality and for their first-class system installation, documentation, training and support," said Matt Ferraro, Project Manager for Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro. "ACS has successfully delivered the PRISM OMS to other utilities with impressive success. The ACS OMS complements our smart grid systems, leveraging data from smart meters and SCADA, as part of a four-phase, multi-year initiative. We believe partnering with them gives us the real-time automation and analysis we need to minimize outages and enhance customer communications."

PRISM OMS is distinct for its architecture, built on a single network model. It was developed by ACS from the same real-time platform the company uses for SCADA/DMS, enabling real-time automation and analysis with high performance not typically associated with legacy OMS solutions. At Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro, PRISM OMS will seamlessly share real-time field data with the utility's existing SCADA system from Survalent Technology.

The OMS for Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro will also include ACS' DASmapTM tools for automated import of the network model from the Intergraph GIS, enabling the control room operators to pin point power outages.

ACS Executive Vice President, Strategy, Sales, & Marketing Kevin O'Hara, said, "Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro has a history of providing safe, reliable electricity to their customers. Today, they have selected the industry's first truly real-time OMS platform, as a further complement to their smart grid initiatives, to help improve outage response and provide superior service for their customers."

This is the second Canadian OMS deployment for ACS.