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Agenda

Company overview – who is Otter Tail Power???

Interruption monitoring system end of life – technology migration

Solution search

Solution selection and Itron partnership

OTP phased implementation approach Benefits and next steps

Lessons learned

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Company Overview –Who is Otter Tail Power???

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Otter Tail Corporation Structure

Vinyltech Corporation

PVC pipe manufacturerPhoenix, AZ / 2000Steve Laskey51 employeeswww.vtpipe.com

Northern Pipe Products, Inc.

PV pipe manufacturerFargo, ND / 1995Steve Laskey91 employeeswww.northernpipe.com

T.O. Plastics, Inc.

Custom plastic parts manufacturerClearwater, MN / 2001Mike Vallafskey151 employeeswww.toplastics.com

BTD Manufacturing, Inc.

Metal fabricatorDetroit Lakes, MN / 1995Paul Gintner829 employeeswww.btdmfg.com

Otter Tail Power Company

Electric UtilityFergus Falls, MN / 1907Tim Rogelstad747 FT employeeswww.otpco.com

ELECTRIC MANUFACTURING PLASTICS

VARISTAR

IOU: Nasdaq – OTTR2017: $850M net

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Energy Resource Mix

57%

1%

20%

22%

Coal Gas/Oil Renewable Purchased

2017US – 30%Worldwide – 37%

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Quick Facts• 70,000 square-mile service

area

• More than 5,800 miles of transmission lines

• Over 600 communities served

• 132,200+ customers

• Approximately 800 employees (including part-time)

• About 800 MW of owned generating capability

• About 245 MW wind

Average 220 customers/community!!!

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OTP Demographics Summary:

• Large land mass• Many small communities• Small customer density• Very rural, agricultural• Tri-state

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OTP’s Legacy Interruption Monitoring System“IMS”

- OTP measures reliability at the feeder level- Due to demographics, it is a good approximation

- Lots of exposure – transmission and sub transmission- Majority of interruptions occur on “upper” delivery systems

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TVM

OTP’s “Old” Interruption Monitoring System

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OTP’s IMS End of LifeSupplier quit manufacturing equipment two years ago

2G Sunset, AT&T 12/31/16, Verizon 2018?

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Replacement Solution Search and Requirements

Primary Objective: Provide accurate interruption data for indices’ calculations as required by

regulatory entitiesFlexible to meet future reporting requirements

Secondary Objective: System hardening and restoration improvementsProvide system analytics for optimized operationsIdentification of worst performing line sectionsInterruption by cause analysis, 80/20 pareto analysisPrioritize future maintenance and capital expendituresInterruption alarms/notifications to appropriate responsible partyVegetation management data

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Next-Generation IMS Search Requirements

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Replacement Solution Search and Requirements

New IMS Requirements• Meet all reporting

requirements, MN/ND/SD commissions

• Calculate indices: SAIDI, SAIFI, CAIDI, MAIFI, CEMIn, etc.

• Identify “major event days” 2.5 beta method

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Replacement Solution Search and Requirements

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

$0

$500,000

$1,000,000

$1,500,000

$2,000,000

$2,500,000

$3,000,000

$3,500,000

$4,000,000

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

dollars

SAIDI

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Replacement Solution Search and Requirements

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Weather-related/total interruptions

Weatherrelated/totalinterruptions

Linear (Weatherrelated/totalinterruptions)

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Series1

Interruption by cause analysis

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Replacement Solution Search and Requirements

After an exhaustive search, OTP decided to partner with Itron to provide a new interruption monitoring system utilizing a solution based on AMI technology…

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Reasons/Benefits for Selecting AMI Solution AMI is the pathway to industry transformation

This solution provides OTP with AMI experience

Provides a DA platform for the future

Ease of installation

Existing GIS integration

Itron provides complete managed servicesAllows OTP to focus on its core competenciesNo need to focus on managing IT systems

Itron solution met all requirements +Indices’ calculationsInterruption/voltage alarming2.5 beta Storm NormalizationInterruption by cause analysisProvides analytic data to optimize our operationsPlus provided a platform to expand and grow

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Phased ApproachOTP (currently) Measures Reliability at the Feeder Level

Bellwether

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Outage Detection – Bellwether AMIWhat do we get?

» Interruption Monitoring System with strategically placed AMI meters

• One or more meters per phase per Feeder Section

• Non-AMI service points (customers) assigned to Circuit Phase

• Dashboard display with current outage status or historic data

• Email/text interruption notifications to utility personnel

• Outage detail communications via web services

» Benefits

• Alternative to SCADA or OMS which fits our demographics

• Inexpensive startup and operation

• Scalable with additional meters

• Additional meters increases granularity for both interruption and voltage analytics

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OTP — Phased Approach

2018 completion

350 feeders

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Additional Near-Term Benefits

Once the basic platform is set, additional meters can be deployed downstream from the original bellwethers

Downstream of sectionalizing equipmentTrunk line reclosersProblem lateral circuitsEvery fused lateral circuitEnd of lines for voltage profiling analytics

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Additional Deployment – Outage Analysis

Feeder

A

A

A

Section 1

T1

A

Feeder

A

A

A

A

A

A

Section 2

Section 1

Feeder

A

A

A

A

A

A

A

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

1 Feeder Section 2 Feeder Sections 3 Feeder Sections

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Voltage Analytics

AMI locations measure voltage on three phasesHigh or low voltage exception alarming near real-time

Historical voltage for loading analysis

Future AMI additions provide end-of-line analysisVoltage profiling

Additional AMI meters synergisticSupports both voltage and interruption analytics

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Voltage Analysis Provides Additional Interruption Detection Granularity

» Every outage bellwether provides voltage data – usually closer to feeder trunk

» Every voltage bellwether provides outage data for redundancy and restoration validation – usually closer to feeder/lateral endpoints

» Voltage coverage needs drive better outage analytic performance

» Outage coverage needs drive better voltage analytic performance

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Benefits and Next Steps

Full AMI Deployment OptionsLarger community(s)Large population center/regionsIndustrial park(s)One state…Plans underway for one feeder full deployment study

AMI deployed community/region/state would realize full benefitsRemote connect/disconnectReduced CAIDIInstant readings, no need for estimated readsCustomer access to interval data via web portalEtc.

Lessons Learned…

• GIS added tasks and workload

• Meter shop added tasks, new technology, and workload

• Legacy system process change for meter read personnel

• Bellwether meter install location identification (Field Lesson)

• Get ready to introduce about three dozen new acronyms into your daily conversations…

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Benefits and Next Steps

Improved interruption detection

Improved reliability analysis

Improved voltage analysis

Transformer load monitoring

Theft detection/revenue protection

Future distributed intelligence applications CUSTOMERBENEFITS

OTP BENEFITS

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Benefits and Next Steps

We are just getting started…

Implementation of this project will…Introduce OTP to AMI technology

Meet our reporting requirements going forward

Provide system analytics

Improve our restoration efforts

Most importantly…

PROVIDE A TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM FOR THE FUTURE

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