Power August 2023 - 22

SMART GRID AWARD
TECO Achieves Highly
Reliable Power Grid Service
with Advanced Technology
Source: Envato Elements
Tampa Electric Company (TECO) has enhanced its power system operation through
the adoption of advanced technology. Its pioneering culture and the benefits
obtained with these new innovative tools have led to its selection as POWER's 2023
Smart Grid Award winner.
Aaron Larson
T
ampa Electric Company
(TECO)
began supplying the Tampa Bay
area with electricity in 1899. Today,
TECO is a subsidiary of Emera Inc., a
geographically diverse energy and services
company headquartered in Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada, that has investments
throughout North America and in
four Caribbean countries. For its part, TECO's
service territory covers about 2,000
square miles in west-central Florida, including
Hillsborough County and parts
of Polk, Pasco, and Pinellas counties.
In total, the company serves more than
800,000 customers, has a generating
capability of more than 5,000 MW, and
maintains nearly 6,300 miles of overhead
distribution and 1,300 miles of overhead
transmission lines.
Technology for an Ever-Evolving
System
With the implementation of a Customer
Resource Management (CRM) tool in
2016, TECO recognized the value process
automation and data consolidation
could provide. Yet, CRM only solved
some of the company's problems.
David Lukcic, senior director of Operations
Technology and Strategy with
TECO, explained, " The pain point was
that the old AMR [automatic meter reading]
meters were nearing their end of
life and needed replacement. We were
looking for a network that was futureproof
and fit into our overall vision. We
wanted an open, expandable network
that allowed a best-in-class bring-your22
own-device
concept that also allowed
the products to expand with our vision. "
Advanced metering infrastructure
(AMI) was the first logical solution. AMI is
an automated metering system. Its purpose
is to provide the meters, network,
and back-office systems to automatically
read meters, process the data, and create
billing and operationally ready data
for other systems in the organization.
AMI allows functions like meter reading,
reconnecting and disconnecting,
monitoring power availability at homes,
and taking direct measurements on system
status such as voltage, current, and
power factor. It also sends events and
alarms when it detects things such as
theft, tampering, power on/off, low voltage,
and more.
The company decided to implement
its AMI in parallel with other initiatives
to achieve a transformational vision for
new customer experiences, operational
programs, and grid management. Included
in the solutions integration were
an Advanced Distribution Management
System (ADMS), work management
upgrades, smart cities IoT (Internet of
Things) projects, a volt/var optimization
tool, and distributed intelligence (DI)
applications.
ADMS is the system that monitors
the status of the distribution system
and relays it throughout other areas of
the organization. It knows the system
layout and what is connected to what.
It can tell when there are outages and
communicate that information to the
parties that need it. TECO's work management
system allows the company
to dispatch repair crews, track progress,
and report on status, assignments, and
other work details.
Meanwhile, smart cities applications
include a street lighting network (Figure
1) that allows remotely turning lights on
and off, or even dimming them, along
with outage notifications. The system
also facilitates other services such as
gunshot detection, parking space management,
virtual fiber, and more.
The volt/var optimization system con1.
Tampa Electric Company's (TECO's) street lighting network allows remote on/off/dimming
capability along with several other innovative benefits. Source: Envato Elements
www.powermag.com
POWER | August 2023
http://www.powermag.com
Power August 2023

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