EnergyIP receives outage and restoration events as part of the core meter reading functionality. However, when you combine that core functionality with the Outage Event Management application you have a very robust outage and restoration management solution. The Outage Event Management application delivers only the most pertinent information to your Outage Management System (OMS), so that the system doesn’t get overwhelmed during storms or massive outage events.

Real Time Power Status Verification

The Outage Event Management application includes a power status verification service providing a high-performance web service and JMS-based interface to request power status that can be used by the utility’s Outage Management System to confirm a restoration activity before crews leave the scene. The utility’s OMS can send EnergyIP power status requests by individual or lists of meters, r service points or distribution nodes. Upon receiving the request, EnergyIP determines which AMI system is in use at the location(s) and routes the request accordingly. Upon receiving the power status response, EnergyIP validates the result, in some cases using AMI system-specific rules, and provides the appropriate response to the requesting application, such as power on or off, unknown power status, communication failure, or unknown ID/reference. This power status service can be integrated with the utility’s OMS to automate clearing of “Single Lights Out” events by automatically issuing a power status request when these call records are generated by the call center or IVR systems.

Bellwether Filter

The filtering services of the Outage Event Management application include a Storm Mode where only outage events from critical “Bellwether Points” are forwarded to the utility’s OMS. System operators can set any Service Delivery Point to be a Bellwether Point based on business requirements. This functionality prevents the utility’s OMS from being overwhelmed by a large-scale outage.

De-Bouncing Filter

Additional filtering services use a “de-bouncing” delay to hold outage events for a configurable period and suppress any outage events when a restoration event is received within the delay period (e.g., five minutes). Both events are logged by the core event subsystem, but the filter eliminates these spurious event reports to the utility’s OMS.

Open Field Order Filter

The eMeter Outage Event Management application will also filter events originating from Service Delivery Points that have open field orders as tracked by the Service Request records. This filter eliminates spurious events due to normal, planned fieldwork. The Outage Management application has an “Open SR Check Basis” parameter used to identify the filtering logic to be used. All of the filtering options are based on a lookup table using the SR Types/Subtypes defined in the outage application properties. Note that this option is most useful when meter service work updates are provided to EnergyIP via the Activity Gateway. The following options are available:

• Open Status Only: Filters on any SR’s in Open status.
• Normal Business Days: Filters on SR’s in Open status and if the event occurred on the day of week and during the time period defined for business hours in the application properties. The application will also check the Calendar to verify the event date is not a holiday. This setting assumes the outage is caused by a crew working on the open SR if the event is on a business day and will only send the notification to OMS during non-business hours and holidays.
• Work Planned Dates: Checks the planned start and end date/times of the “WMS Field Activity” activity in open status. If the outage event occurred within the planned dates of the activity, then the event will not be sent to OMS. If the activity planned dates are null, then the event will be processed and forwarded. Similar to the Normal Business Days setting, but provides more accuracy in the expected timeframe of the crew’s work that may cause the outage.