WSU Capstone

Small Utility Asset Management ProgramBrown & Kysar Inc. and Accent

Group Report: ECE 452 Capstone DesignMatthew Johnson, Troy Foley, Tim Barko, Bogdan Lysenko

5/5/15

SMALL UTILITY ASSET MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................................................1II. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND......................................................................................................2III. LITERATURE SURVEY..................................................................................................................................2IV. SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT.........................................................................................3V. METHODS OF APPROACH...........................................................................................................................3

A. INITIATION AND PLANNING...............................................................................................................................4B. RESEARCH.........................................................................................................................................................5C. ASSET HIERARCHY...........................................................................................................................................5D. DATA UPLOAD..................................................................................................................................................6E. SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION.............................................................................................................................6F. TESTING AND DEPLOYMENT.............................................................................................................................7G. POST IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT....................................................................................................................7

VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION........................................................................................................................8A. MONTHLY TESTS...............................................................................................................................................8

VII. EXPECTED RESULTS...................................................................................................................................14VIII. TIMELINE AND WORKLOAD SHARING AMONG THE TEAM.........................................................14IX. IMPACT OF THE PROPOSED SOLUTION...............................................................................................15X. CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................................16XI. BIBLIOGRAPHY:...........................................................................................................................................17


I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARYOur senior group project name is “Small Utility Asset Management.” The problem we were presented with was, that it is hard for small utilities to manage their power system assets due to lack of resources and expertise. Our sponsors presented to us a project that could potentially help small utilities better manage their substations, reduce/prevent power outages, and lower expenses of overseeing the substations. Our job during the fall semester was to gather initial data on the equipment and what goes into the process of a 1 month, 1 year, and 5 year maintenance plan, and develop an operating range for each monthly test. During our spring semester input all of that data into a software program that will be able to keep track of all maintenance records and show trends of wear and send alerts when needed.

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II. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUNDThe rapidly aging utility infrastructure in the United States is either at or beyond its expected life cycle. This creates a major problem for small utility companies that lack the resources or expertise, and in most cases both. What is the most efficient and inexpensive way to maintain a healthy substation and still provide great customer service? Erik Kysar with BKI and Dave Chaney with Accent think they might have a solution. Erik has the extensive knowledge and know how in everything that has to do with maintaining a small utility and Dave has twenty plus years’ experience with software applications and consulting.

For our senior project Erik and Dave proposed to develop modules for a new on-line asset management system that specifically targets small utility substations. Our first few meetings were spent talking about what was expected of us, and what we needed to accomplish. Erik explained that we will be working with a small utility company, Wahkiakum PUD, Which agreed to let us come and tour their substation and explain to us the process that they go through when they make their routine weekly maintenance. After visiting the substation and talking with the lineman, Shane Pfenniger, we had a much clearer picture of a substation and what was needed to be done. This will be explained in greater detail in methods of approach.

The task of our group was to research each major component in the substation and find the operating standards for each one. One of the issues that we encountered was that one of the substations was built recently, within 4 years, and the other one is 40-60 years old. Some of the companies that made the equipment are no longer in business or have stopped making components for substations altogether, this will be explained in literature survey.

After gathering the necessary information on all the equipment for all three substations, we needed to put all of that information in into the Varasset program. In order to do that we worked closely with Ryan Widmer, the software engineer. After successfully inputting all the data points into Varasset we had the chance of going out to the substations again with Erik and Shane to test out the program.

III. LITERATURE SURVEYTo get the all the appropriate data we had to comb through a lot of information. As mentioned before, not all the companies that made the equipment are still around. This made it difficult to find manufacturer specifications and recommended maintenance for components that are located at the old substations. Most of the information that we did find was from IEEE and Bureau of Reclamation, they have a lot industry standards for specific equipment no matter the age. We also got a significant amount of help from Erik and his extensive knowledge of substations.

Another problem we encountered was a massive amount of information on the transformers. The information was really overwhelming, we did not know where to stop. There are many tests that need to be performed on the transformers and we did not know which ones were pertinent to our project. We could have done our project on transformer tests alone and still would not have finished by the end of the spring semester, there is just a massive amount of information concerning transformers. While

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doing our research we found out that manufacturer recommendations for maintenance and test did not always agree with those of the IEEE and Bureau of Reclamation standards. After taking to Eric about both of these issues, we were able to come up with an agreement on what tests we need to focus on and which standards were we going to use for those tests.

When conducting research on reclosers and circuit breakers, Eric recommended contacting John Obrien to help us with information on reclosers. John was able to send us manufacturer recommendations for maintenance and specifications. The problem we ran into here was that the manufacturer recommendations were a little vague on how often maintenance and tests needed to be performed. Talking to Erik again, we decided that maintenance for these components depended on where the substations were located and what kind of weather conditions they were subjected to.

Before we put all the data that was gathered in to the Varasset program, we first needed to get familiar with it. As mentioned before, we needed to worked closely with Ryan in order to understand how to the software worked. A few times we needed to schedule meetings with Ryan outside our usual Friday meeting in order for him to further explain how to correctly organize the equipment data so it can be properly input in the software.

IV. SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECTWhen considering implementing an online asset management program the first step is to determine how much you are determined to monitor. For a small utility like Wahkiakum they will still have hundreds of poles, miles of line, substation equipment, trucks, and employees. All of this could be tracked in an online asset management software program. For the purposes of this project we were determined to narrow our scope to something manageable, but would also provide a valuable tool that could help predict trends in equipment. We decided to only concentrate on the substation equipment that Wahkiakum PUD currently owns, which we determined would be an achievable goal.

Below you will see a list of the assets that were tested.

1. Transformers2. Circuit Breakers Oil/Vacuum3. Reclosers4. Control House5. Fuses6. Landscaping/Fencing7. Grounding wire8. Battery Back-ups9. Switches10. Voltage Regulators11. Meter Readings

V. METHODS OF APPROACHWhen we took the problem on, our sponsors needed to keep reminding us that this is not a software problem. A proper asset management plan needs to be implemented as a whole, the software is only

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the tool used. With that in mind we decided that new inspection procedures would need to be developed. Those procedures would then need to be organized into a preventative maintenance schedule. We wanted the Varasset software to have an automatic work order generation on certain dates of the year. After doing the research on inspection procedures we knew that we would need monthly, yearly, and 5 year inspections. We also wanted our software to have the capability of storing, analyzing and comparing current and past data to predict trends in the equipment.

A. INITIATION AND PLANNING

During this stage we conducted numerous meetings with our project sponsors so that we could narrow down exactly the type of product we wanted to develop. The goal was an easy to use online hosted asset management program that could track all assets, store and analyze data from tests, and send automatic notifications to the clients. Taking their advice we avoided taking on too much too fast and stuck with only the substations themselves rather than trying to incorporate the miles of line and poles Wahkiakum PUD also owns and operates. We then developed a business process flow diagram that would map exactly how the sequence of events our asset management plan would go through. Below you will see a flow chart; you can see that it is broken down into two distinct groups, the client and the asset management team.

For the purposes of this project Wahkiakum PUD is the client and we are the asset management team. It starts with a field inspection being completed by the client, where the data will be uploaded to the Varasset server hosted by the asset management team. This data is then analyzed to see if any of the data points fall outside of the required range. If not the process is complete until the next inspection, if there is a flag a warning notification is generated and sent to the engineer of record and client. This flag is then reviewed by the engineer and a plan is generated with recommendations, which is sent to the client. The client then generates a new work order to conduct repairs. The last step is to complete a new field inspection. With this diagram in mind we began implementing each step of it, starting with the field inspections.

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B. RESEARCH

To begin we contacted all manufacturer representatives to obtain technical specification sheets, as built drawings, recommended maintenance schedules, and any other pertinent information required. The team compared them to the IEEE and governmental standards for maintaining and testing substation components.

Taking that information into account, three inspection procedures were developed after consultation with industry professionals. They helped the team narrow down the necessary tests that need to be performed and at what times. Optimal ranges for each test that is applicable in the monthly procedure will also be determined. This data is what the asset management software will be analyzing and comparing to previous data sets.

Inspection Procedures:

1. Monthly2. 1 Year3. 5 Year

C. ASSET HIERARCHY

Attached to this document is a PDF file containing our asset hierarchy/meter designation chart. Below you will see a small part of the entire document. The importance of developing this chart cannot be understated, this is basically a map of our entire software program. It lists each asset, their child assets, the components attached to them, and the meters used to measure them. When it came time to upload our data to the Varasset platform this chart was the perfect reference to make sure we did not forget any aspect of it.

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D. DATA UPLOAD

To make it easy to upload all of our data, we were supplied with a number of excel templates by the Varasset programmers, below is a list of these templates and an example. These templates were then populated with all of asset and meter data and uploaded straight to the program. The importance of this step cannot be understated, it saved us incalculable man hours.

Templates1. Asset Type2. Meter Data3. Meter Association4. Picklist Type5. Picklist Association6. Condition Data7. Attribute Data8. Classification Attribute Data

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Above is a small portion of our meter condition template. What this spreadsheet contains is every meter in our program and the asset it is applied too. It also contains the upper and lower action limits for each of those meters. These are the values that if entered in our field inspection, trip the automatic warning notification.

E. SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION

When we came to the software portion of this project we took to heart the advice we were given by our sponsors to keep it as simple as possible. We achieved this by utilizing the software’s features of automatic notifications. Using these notifications we have set up automatic work order generation, warning notifications for meter readings that falls outside their upper and lower action limit and tailor made user based security.

F. TESTING AND DEPLOYMENT

To test our program and verify that it is in working order, we will enter in data on certain pieces of equipment to verify that the automatic notifications are sent out and also sent to the correct parties. We will also want to determine that the most recent test entered is compared to past results, and to generate a graph, if applicable, of any trends that are spotted. For example a trend could be spotted by graphing the temperature readings of a transformer over the course of a year. To do this we will enter back to back monthly inspection reports and wait for the report that is generated and sent to the client. If a suitable comparison has been made then we will determine that the software is operating correctly.

G. POST IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT

There will be much needed support after the program is in use. We anticipate at least once a year a patch would have to be uploaded to the clients program to account for any errors or change in how the reporting is done. Also if there is any new substation equipment purchases these will need to be added

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to the software program. The program is also very adaptable and newer and more advanced modules can be incorporated.

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VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONThe first semester we mainly focused on gathering information on the kinds of test that are required for each piece of equipment that Wahkiakum PUD has in there substations, along with the operating parameters for each test. In order to get the most pertinent tests and operating parameters we wanted to get input from several different sources. With some of the equipment we were able to contact the manufacturer and get their required and recommended tests. But for others the equipment was old enough that the manufactures no longer existed. For this we needed to find what the IEEE and ANSI standards were. We then contacted some of the industry professionals to find out what they would consider the most important tests that should be done for each piece of equipment. With this data we came up with the tests that we felt were the most important these tests are the most crucial to maintaining substation equipment.

A. MONTHLY TESTS

We will not be listing every test that is contained within our software program, but if you look at the chart above you can see a small glimpse of the types of tests we have implemented. Those tests are for the monthly inspection of the old transformer located at Cathlamet substation.

Inside our software program all of these tests were entered into our preventative maintenance schedules, below you will see figure showing these.

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Once all our data was uploaded into the software, we began organizing and creating a preventative Maintenance schedule for each substation. Each schedule contained every asset being tracked and the meters attached to them. We also kept in mind the order in which the assets came. When walking the substation we wanted to conduct our inspection in the most efficient manner possible so as to limit the amount of time it takes to complete. Inside each of these PM’s we can then schedule when we want the inspections to occur and how often. For this project we are focusing on the monthly procedures, below you can see the last date we performed our tests along with the next date scheduled. Once this scheduling is complete, the work orders to conduct the inspection will automatically be generated and sent to the lineman. For the purposes of this project we set that notification to occur via email.

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In the picture below you will see a Work Order highlighted, this is a Cathlamet Substation Monthly Inspection. This is similar to what a lineman would see if they opened up their version of the program. A list of their personal work orders that were slated to be done. If one were to open up the work order they would see a list of child work orders contained inside this monthly inspection. These child work orders are the individual asset inspections, every component inside the substation that needs to be inspected monthly.

The lineman would then open up each of these child work orders in the sequence listed and conduct the inspection by opening the meter readings tab, which is shown below.

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The order of the inspection at this time is not in proper order for the most efficient inspection of the asset. In the future we would like to order these meters as efficiently possible that an inspector does not have to circle the asset continually to take all of their readings.

The program also allows the lineman to open up each of these meters and review the last entered meter value, and enter in any comments he has in regard to that meter. For example if a lineman was visually inspecting the bushings on a voltage regulator, and he noticed a crack in the A phase bushing, he could note that in the appropriate location. If you look at the screen shot below you can see this.

The most important aspect of our project has to this point not been discussed. The capability of taking the measurement history of each meter in the program gives an engineer the ability to track the history of the asset. What this means is that you can plot each meter reading automatically on a graph, from there it is easy to see any trend the data may be taking. If you look at the graph below you will see the max oil temperature reading for the Cathlamet substation regulatoroser.

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In the graph you can see a clear trend upwards over time. It then hovers right around the action limit which is 65 degrees above ambient temperature. A simple graph like this gives allows the engineer to know ahead of time when an asset is beginning to break down, or possibly needing maintenance.

We worked in close contact with the programmer Ryan Widmer from Accent to make sure these were all operational, this was a key deliverable for our project since it proved that the program worked. With them being automatic it took out all of the technical knowledge one would need, and since a small utility usually has no engineers on staff this was important. Below you can see a shot of the email that is generated when a work order is established. This is for a monthly voltage regulator inspection.

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If an inspector/lineman were to conduct this inspection, and one of their data points was outside the range determined for the meter a warning notification is sent. An example of this is below.

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VII. EXPECTED RESULTSUpon completion of this project we hope to have a simplified version of Varasset to present to Wahkiakum PUD. This software will then be used as an asset management to assist them with tracking and maintaining each piece of equipment in all three of their substations.

With this software they will have an asset management tool that will help them track and maintain their equipment in many different ways. This software will have the ability to notify them when and what kind of tests needs to be performed. This will also include the option of have a tablet connected to this system the lineman, or inspector can take out to the site and enter in the results of the monthly test. These results will then go into a database that will store and compare the entered data to the recommended operating parameters, and if the new data entered is outside of the specified operating parameters a warning notification will be sent to a member of the staff, along with anyone else that the PUD would like to inform. The goal with this notification would be to allow the utility to see a possible failure before it happened, giving them a chance to address the problem before they have a major outage. Another useful part of this software would be the ability to look back at previous data and watch to see if there are any trends that would indicate a possible problem.

VIII. TIMELINE AND WORKLOAD SHARING AMONG THE TEAM

Team Member ResponsibilitiesMatt Johnson Team leader, scheduling

New transformer research and report Air Switch research and report Business Process Flow Populating Excel spreadsheets to be uploaded into software

Troy Foley Old transformer research and report Voltage regulator research and report Scheduling site visits Asset Hierarchy Action limits Entering New Meters Adjust Meters after field tests.

Tim Barko Reclosers research and report Old circuit breaker research and report Route stop sequence

Bogdan Lysenko Circuit switchers research and report Fuses research and report User based security

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IX. IMPACT OF THE PROPOSED SOLUTIONWithout a preventive maintenance program problems in a power delivery system are often only detected by their failure, causing untimely outages along with major damages to the equipment; but by implementing the proposed Varasset program small utilities would be able to better predict and address an problem in their system before they become a catastrophic and cause severe outages, or damage to equipment. This not only allows them to save money on equipment repairs, but also allows them to have more control on the outages that occur. With the ability to foresee problems before they cause an outage, they can often resolve issues without interrupting the power delivered to the customer. If the problem does require an outage they are able to notify their customers that there will be an outage, along with scheduling the outage at a time that would have the least impact on the customer. Another bonus to using the Varasset software would be the ability to track historical data, allowing tends to be detected, this offers a chance to predict equipment failure well before it happens, giving the utilities plenty of time to plan, and budget for the replacement of that piece of equipment. Varasset has the potential of becoming a very powerful tool helping small utilities offer much more reliable power source, along with keeping the cost of operation down.

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X. CONCLUSIONAt the beginning of this project we were presented with the problem of small utilities that do not have the knowledge or the resources to have a preventative maintenance program. Our task was to take Wahkiakum PUD three substations and find all the pertinent tests that should be done on a monthly basis, along with all crucial operating limits for each piece of equipment. Then with the help of the varasset team we uploaded our findings into the software to develop a tool that would track all of the assets for the substations that Wahkiakum PUD owned. Next we set up automatic notifications that would send out an email with notification that a preventative maintenance procedure is scheduled to occur, along with an automatic work order being generated and place into the lineman’s work orders box. With everything uploaded we were ready for the field test, so we set the first preventative maintenance test to happen on March 20, ten days before our test date we received an email notifying us that all three of Wahkiakum’s substations were scheduled to have their monthly tests done. After the notifications were received we checked to see if the work orders had been generated, and all three were in the work order box. The first challenge we ran into was the night before our test, we were checking to make sure everything was in order and we noticed that our only one of our work orders had all of the meters attached to it. We tried to find the problem but were unable to get it resolved before or field test, so we had to take the meters outside of the work orders. The next challenge occurred at the first substation, here we were unable to get internet access so we had to take our meters in excel and input them once we had access. We also noticed that we had put a meter for all three phases on a voltage regulator, and only one meter was needed. Other than these minor issues our field test was a huge success, we simply had to make a few adjustments to our meters, and varasset’s software programmer was able to find our problem with the work orders a correct it. With all this working it was time to test our system to see if it truly would save store and analyze data from tests. We were getting close to the end of the semesters so we only had time to set a few of the meters up to send out notifications if the equipment was running outside of the recommended operating ranges. After these were set we ran through these meters entering in faux data where we intentionally entered data outside of the specified ranges. We checked our inbox and there were notifications for every time we went over the specified ranges.

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XI. BIBLIOGRAPHY:FIST 3-30 TRANSFORMER MAINTENANCE (n.d.): n. pag. Bureau of Reclamation. Oct. 2000. Web. 6 Dec. 2014. <http://www.usbr.gov/power/data/fist/fist3_30/fist3_30.pdf>.Acceptance Testing Specifications for Electrical Power Distribution Equipment and Systems. Portage, MI: InterNational Electrical Testing Association, 2007. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

Jimmy Scarborough (personal communication November 10, 2014)

C.P.Systems, Maintenance Procedures, CG Transformers, 2010

IEEE Standard Test Code for, Liquid – Immersed Distribution, Power, and Regulating Tranformers, IEEE std. C57.12.90, 1999

IEEE Guide for Diagnostic Field Testing of Fluid Filled Power Trandormers, Regulators, and Reactors, IEEE std. C57.152, 2013

IEEE Guide for the Application, Installation, Operation, and Maintenance of High Voltage Air Disconnecting and Interrupter Switches, IEEE std. C37.35, 1995

IEEE Guide for Acceptance and Maintenance of Insulating Oil in Equipment, IEEE st. C57.106, 2002

IEEE Guide for the Interpretation of Gases Generated in Oil Immersed Transformers, IEEE std. C57.104, 1991

elimsan salt cihazlari ve elektromekanik san ve tic A.S. (n.d.). SF6 Gas Circuit Breakers. Uzuntarala.

S&C elrctric company. ( 2014, april 21). Types SMD-1A, SMD-2B, SMD-2C, SMD-3, and SMD-50.

Sulfur hexafluoride circuit breaker. (2014, september 17). Retrieved 11 16, 2014, from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur_hexafluoride_circuit_breaker

"Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6): global environmental effects and toxic byproduct formation". J Air Waste Manag Assoc 50 (1): 137–41. January 2000. PMID 10680375.

"Reclosers." Cooperindustries. Accessed December 4, 2014. http://www.cooperindustries.com/content/dam/public/powersystems/resources/library/280_ReclosersControls/S280441.pdf.

OMICRONenergy. "Circuit Breaker Testing" YouTube video, 5:51. March 21, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKXPeTvmVQg

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