The economic freeze induced by COVID-19 has led to a slump in several industries, but the utility sector has been bestowed with a special duty – ensuring resilience and reliability during an unprecedented health crisis. Apart from their core responsibility of safeguarding the flow of electricity into the national power grid, utilities are now required to act as ‘first responders’ and keep up with the unique demands of the coronavirus pandemic.
To a large extent, the ability of any country to flatten the COVID-19 curve today depends on keeping the ventilators running, supporting the industrial manufacturing of medical supplies, and equipping the citizens for self-isolation and telecommuting.
An ongoing lockdown – where everyone is home with their televisions, laptops, and air conditioners running day and night – is leading to an increase in the demand for electricity.
All this could possibly stress the power grid, prompting utility providers to plan for more preemptive maintenance activities in the coming months. But given the strange circumstances, we are in today, any unexpected interruption in the power supply could have dire consequences for keeping the society functional and civilized. Therefore, energy companies need to make sure that all customers, and especially public health service providers, are informed about any possible power outage well in advance.
Common challenges with planned outage notification
Australian power distribution companies are required by law to notify consumers of planned outages through a physical card drop at their premises. Given the time-consuming nature of this process, the work is often delegated to third-party field carders. But there are several challenges that utilities still need to face, including:
- Ensuring that the right outage notification card reaches the right address at the right time
- Arming the field crew with updated map prints and enabling them to finish their jobs efficiently
- Maintaining exhaustive physical logs of card details, such as timestamp, delivery location, name of the receiver, etc.
- Validating the data submitted by field carders without any photographic proof or knowledge of the exact geo-coordinates of where the drop-off has been made
And let’s not forget that this system neither allows the field carders to capture any additional information nor does it have a provision to account for wrong addresses or discovery of an additional drop point under the same transformer or feeder line.
In these trying times of the COVID-19 outbreak, utility leaders simply cannot afford poor outage communication. And why should they, when there are ways to augment and enhance the physical card drop process through digital technologies.
FieldOn Carding App: GPS-based power outage management system
Compatible with all SAP and GIS solutions preferred by the utility industry, FieldOn Mobile Field Carding App has geolocation at its core. The system allows for the creation of carding jobs directly from SAP, specifying the precise drop points. To avoid unnecessary travel by the field crew during COVID-19, the jobs can be assigned to the nearest available carder in a particular area.
Print-outs of the cards are taken as usual but the field carders receive the details of their tasks directly through an intuitive, easy-to-use mobile app. And instead of carrying a physical map, field carders can use the app itself to access the updated map – both online and offline – for navigation.
In this map, all areas that are at high risk of the pandemic or have been designated as containment zones can also be identified to ensure the safety of the field crew.
Once a card is dropped at a customer premise, the carder can take a photo as the app captures the timestamp and location. All this information is relayed instantly to the administrator at the back office, confirming that the drop is complete. Any meter location discrepancies are identified and analyzed by the system, which negates the scope for any delinquency by third-party contractors. All incidents are flagged and sent to GIS technicians to investigate and correct.
The app also has a provision to prioritize carding jobs. So, all life support customers such as hospitals and nursing homes can be notified of the outages on priority, giving them ample time to arrange for backup generators.
In conclusion
As operators of critical infrastructure during the coronavirus crisis, energy companies are not only required to juggle the needs of their customers efficiently and ascertain that public health service providers are not caught off-guard, but they also must take extra steps to keep their employees safe.
Instead of relying solely on traditional, complex carding processes, utility providers can leverage new technologies such as FieldOn Carding App to:
- Increase customer satisfaction and ensure no customer is left behind
- Safeguard field crew safety during COVID-19
- Improve workflows and bring down operations and maintenance (O&M) costs
- Keep grids operational with minimized workforce
- Reduce lost market opportunities
To receive more details about FieldOn Carding App, click below.