Customer-Level Outage Tracking System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing outage management systems primarily track power outages at the circuit level, failing to provide detailed information on individual customer experiences, which limits utilities' ability to guarantee reliability and measure service quality under deregulation.
Innovation Solution
A method that creates individual customer records for power outages, analyzes historical data to determine causes and corrective actions, and uses graphic representations to show compliance with customer expectations, allowing for targeted resource allocation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If outage management systems track power outages at the circuit level using traditional methods, then the system complexity is reduced and data collection is simpler, but the measurement precision of individual customer outage experiences deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments outage tracking from the circuit level to the individual customer level. Each customer receives a unique identifier and maintains individual outage records, allowing precise tracking of each customer's outage experiences separately from others on the same circuit. This segmentation enables the system to capture granular outage data while managing complexity through structured data organization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism - a communication interface between customer premises equipment and the utility system - that automatically transmits outage information. This intermediary captures outage events at the customer level and relays them to the utility's database, enabling precise individual tracking without requiring complex manual data collection or direct integration with every customer's electrical infrastructure.
2Reliability
If utilities implement individual customer-level outage tracking, then service quality measurement improves, but the loss of information increases due to the volume of individual records
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a standardized outage record template that is copied and instantiated for each customer experiencing an outage. Each record follows the same structure with fields for outage start time, end time, duration, and customer identifier. This copying approach allows the system to maintain individualized tracking while managing data through a consistent, organized format that prevents information loss and facilitates efficient retrieval and analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent establishes preliminary data collection mechanisms in place before outages occur - unique customer identifiers are assigned, communication interfaces are configured, and database structures are prepared. This preliminary setup enables automatic capture of outage information as it happens, preventing information loss that would occur with post-outage manual data gathering and ensuring complete service quality records.
3Productivity
If traditional outage management systems are used with circuit-level tracking, then the ease of operation is maintained, but the productivity of outage response deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where individual customer outage records are automatically aggregated and analyzed to generate system-wide outage patterns and trends. This feedback loop provides utilities with actionable intelligence about frequent outage locations, affected customer segments, and response effectiveness, enabling continuous improvement of outage management productivity while maintaining operational simplicity through automated analytics.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary data organization and customer identification before outage response activities begin. By having unique customer identifiers pre-assigned and communication channels pre-configured, the system enables rapid productivity improvement during actual outage events, as responders can immediately access individual customer information and track resolution status without manual data gathering or complex coordination.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for analyzing historical outages at the customer level for the purposes of determining root-cause and possible corrective actions is described herein. The present invention enables a utility to identify problem areas and prevent future outages from occurring.