Cherokee Electric Cooperative Upgrades Dispatch Center with mPower’s OMS™ & Integrator™ Software

New displays featuring system map and outage alerts.

Background
Cherokee Electric Cooperative (CEC) provides power to a unique service area that includes 450 miles of shoreline around Lake Weiss, the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, and parts of Dixie Alley, a known hotspot for severe weather with storms producing abundant lightning, high winds, and occasional tornados. This scenario results in more outages and unusual travel routes for restoration teams—creating the need for an Outage Management System with the ability to share and access important outage information quickly and easily. 

The Solution
In an on-going effort to provide reliable power and excellent customer service, CEC partnered with mPower Innovations to update their digital maps and deploy mPower’s web-based IntegratorTM and OMS software at their dispatch center. The new software combined with their updated GIS, gives CEC the ability to respond faster to incidents and power outages. In addition, CEC updated their dispatch center with new monitors to help visualize outages on the map and through their new OMS. 

“mPower’s Integrator™ has already made a huge impact to our dispatching and mapping. We no longer have to shuffle paper outages and organize pole numbers to location outages. Within moments of a member’s call or an AMI reading, we can visually see where the outages are occurring. Our outages also automatically restore as our meter’s report “restored” which is invaluable,” says Luke Johnson, the System Analyst at CEC. “We have been very impressed with Integrator’s™ usefulness and customizability.”
As outage data is received, mPower’s Outage Management System (OMS) analyzes the data to determine what is causing the outage. Once identified, CEC can dispatch crews to restore power.
With mPower’s  IntegratorTM software, CEC is able to visualize OMS data on their updated GIS maps for all CEC personnel to use. Crews can easily access data, add notes, and close outage tickets in the field from their smart devices. As new outages are reported, crews in the field can see these outages populate on their maps, giving them the ability to respond to outages nearby. This helps reduce the need to return to outage areas multiple times. 
CEC is also using IntegratorTM to build and maintain public outage maps that their members can access through CEC’s website. 

Moving Beyond OMS
By tying CEC’s AMI system into IntegratorTM , metering information can now be accessed directly from the GIS map. This allows improved troubleshooting of issues associated with power quality and load profiles. In addition, IntegratorTM can be used to generate reports that help identify overloaded transformers, reclosure issues, voltage issues and maintenance of electric system assets. By analyzing this data, CEC can proactively improve reliability by reducing outages caused by overloaded or unmaintained equipment. 

Next Steps
CEC plans to add mPower’s Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system later this year. Once installed, calls for outages will be immediately routed to the OMS reducing response times to outages. CEC will also have the ability to add messages to the phone system to let the customers know they are aware of the outage or provide estimated restoration times. The IVR system also has the ability to send outage and restoration notifications via email or text alerts.  

Interested in mPower's OMS and IVR Solutions? Learn more about them by registering for our next webinar! Register here.