IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2020 - 41

using the ADMS to improve reliability. This required replacing aging field devices with advanced recloser controllers,
replacing radio with cellular communications for improved
uptime/bandwidth, and upgrading the metering system for
real-time outage information. In addition, remote terminal units (RTUs) were replaced with intelligent electronic
devices (IEDs) to further integrate status, protection, and
control functions. Ultimately, 150 individual RTUs were
replaced, all substation reclosers were updated, and 50 field
reclosers were added to the system. All of these equip Peninsula Light Company to reconfigure the network in response
to a fault and restore service quickly and provide operators
with load and demand information.
Once Peninsula Light Company completed the physical
and digital upgrades to its grid, the utility took the next step
toward reliability improvements, i.e., implementing FLISR
on the entire system to segment, isolate, and restore as many
areas as possible in the event of an outage.
Peninsula Light Company sought a robust ADMS platform to facilitate the deployment of integrated applications
in an evolutionary fashion as utility needs changed. The utility planned to begin upgrades with an integrated status and
control system and then to deploy FLISR, before considering
additional ADMS applications. Vendor evaluations included
reviewing the tools provided to ensure the accuracy of the
field data and software, which would increase the efficiency
and productivity of the utility's small team. The vendor's
willingness to partner with Peninsula Light Company in the
development of additional features and capabilities was also
studied. The last consideration was resiliency and the vendor's ability to support a redundant server scheme in geographically diverse locations.
The importance of an offline, project-based data validation system to the utility cannot be overemphasized. An
ADMS that would enable the utility to validate the accuracy
of configuration changes and GIS data imports before being
used in production was paramount. The accuracy of data
and the network model in the old GIS had become increasingly inaccurate over time, as demonstrated by the utility
detecting more than 50,000 errors when connectivity tests
were conducted from the substation to end-of-line meters.
The utility's goal was to use the offline system to correct the
network model and maintain the accuracy of the system as
it grew.
Having found an ADMS vendor that met all of these criteria, Peninsula Light Company partnered with an operational technology (OT) consultancy and built out its operational network to include redundant servers in an off-site
data center and additional redundancy in the headquarters
building, along with go-bag workstations that included a laptop, cellular modem, and satellite phone. Two-factor authentication, a mobile device management system, and limited
compartmentalized access provided the resiliency required
and guaranteed that critical infrastructure protection best
practices were incorporated.
january/february 2020

Results
Peninsula Light Company has seen little to no unplanned
downtime, even under stress, since commissioning the new
OT infrastructure, architecture, and the tri-redundant ADMS.
The most recent storm season brought more snow to its territory than has been seen in more than 70 years (see Figure 3).
This caused an outage of all transmission lines connected to
the Peninsula Light Company service territory and was the
first system-wide outage since the system was commissioned.
Previously, operators lost communication with field devices
and were required to restart or perform emergency maintenance on the legacy SCADA system, all of which interfered
with their ability to manage restoration activities efficiently.
With the new ADMS in place, operators were able to focus
solely on the outage and power restoration.
Equally as important, the utility has realized cost and
operational savings through the enactment of the ADMS.
Peninsula Light Company's financial savings are primarily
a result of the elimination of unnecessary work and the loss
of productivity caused by system crashes. In the past, the
utility would often factor time into switching orders/plans
to dispatch staff to SCADA system-equipped sites. As each
site is brought into the ADMS with a cellular modem, that
need has now disappeared.

figure 3. Heavy snow and large trees take down power
lines in Peninsula Light Company's territory. (Source:
Peninsula Light Company; used with permission.)
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IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2020

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