IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2020 - 54

figure 4. The dashboard for DER orchestration.

establish and follow processes for its maintenance and back
that up with resources. A common message from utilities
that have implemented an ADMS with advanced applications is the importance of remembering the operation and
maintenance plan to maintain the system once the capital
expenditure implementation project is completed.
The other side of the model maintenance equation is that
the software system vendors must provide good data management and validation tools as part of a model management
environment. A continuous import of model updates from
offline sources, such as a GIS, to the online ADMS must be
supported, and it should be transparent and seamless with no
interruption to operations or loss of dynamic data. The model
management environment should automate the detection and
correction of data model errors as much as possible. The use
of analytics to leverage the increasing observability of the
distribution power system to further automate model maintenance is a key area where vendors can continue to improve
their ADMS offerings. In addition, to have a viable advanced
applications deployment, the network analysis algorithms
must have enough numerical robustness to handle a reasonable number of model data errors. In particular, if the distribution power flow can reach convergent solutions in the presence of model data errors, those solutions can be very helpful
in diagnosing the source of errors so they can be corrected.
An ADMS implementation project should leverage the
huge industry investment that has gone into defining standards, such as the IEC CIM, which is a very useful data
dictionary for power system models. Using standards is
especially valuable where interfaces between disparate
systems and vendors are in play. Try to avoid proprietary
protocols for intersystem interfaces or between systems and
field equipment, limiting them to legacy situations as much
as possible.
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Finally, to achieve a successful ADMS with advance
applications, the ADMS software vendor and the distribution utility must believe in a long-term partnership with
transparency, trust, and a firm commitment to each other's
success. In cases where system integrators and/or consultants are also engaged in an ADMS implementation project,
the same philosophy should apply.

For Further Reading
B. Palmintier et al., "Feeder voltage regulation with highpenetration PV using advanced inverters and a distribution
management system, a Duke Energy case study," National
Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, Technical Report
65551, 2016.
J. Hiatt and E. Boardman, "Operator and dispatcher experience with the new combined DMS, OMS and DSCADA
at Alabama Power," in Proc. DistribuTECH 2016 Conf. Exhibition, Orlando, FL.
M. D. Simms, "Duke Energy production experience with
CVR," IEEE Power and Energy Society, 2016. [Online].
Available: http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/td/dist/da/doc/
Duke%20Energy%20Production%20Experience%20with%
20CVR.pdf
E. Harakel, "PPL electric utilities: Lessons learned from
deploying an automated outage restoration system," in Proc.
DistribuTECH 2018 Conf. Exhibition, San Antonio, TX,
Jan. 2018.
L. Clark and E. Boardman, "I sing the mapboard electric,"
IEEE Power Energy Mag., vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 33-41, Sept./Oct. 2011.

Biography
Ethan Boardman is with General Electric, Redmond,
Washington.
p&e

january/february 2020

http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/td/dist/da/doc/Duke%20Energy%20Production%20Experience%20with%20CVR.pdf http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/td/dist/da/doc/Duke%20Energy%20Production%20Experience%20with%20CVR.pdf http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/td/dist/da/doc/Duke%20Energy%20Production%20Experience%20with%20CVR.pdf

IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2020

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