lightning strike analysis for outage prevention
TRANSCRIPT
Lightning Strike Analysis For Outage Prevention
Dr. Comfort Manyame, GISPMid-South Synergy Electric Coop, Navasota, TX
USA
Introduction• Mid-South Synergy has 23000 Electric and
2500 water meters
• 2800 miles of distribution line
• Six county 1600 mile-2 territory
Outages – 2011/2012
Rationale• 30 % of outages in Mid-South Territory
are lightning related• 2011 and 2012 alone had 1000 outage
events attributed to lightning• Need for design improvement• Need for cost reduction (truck rolls and
man hours) during routine arrestor inspections and post-storm assessment
Objectives1. Analyze lightning strike data using GIS
2. Improve workflow for: – Lightning damage assessment– Lightning arrestor Inspection
3. Use GIS to improve line design based on lightning data analysis
Data and Methods• Software
– ArcGIS 9.3.1– Spatial Analyst– GeoEXT Lightning tool
• Data– Earth Networks and USPLN Network
lightning data– Outage data
Workflow• Web delivery of lightning data
• Lightning tool runs as a service on ArcSDE and does the following:
1. Grabs the data from Earth Networks2. Creates on the fly feature classes (strike
data, nearby lightning, recent lightning)3. Sends email notification and Google maps
link for strikes meeting certain criteria
Lightning Warning
Lightning data analysis1. Lightning stroke point data converted
to lightning density grids using Spatial Analyst
2. Density grid reclassified into Low, Medium, and High lightning zones
3. Strike zone grid converted to polygon4. Polygon incorporated into Partner
Staking Software for better line design
Inspection workflow• Email notifications have helped in:
1. Pinpointing where to send crews to inspect lightning arrestors (for routine maintenance)
2. Pinpointing where to send crews after a storm passes through to inspect possible lightning damage
3. The possibility to look back at lightning data to investigate outage causes
Lightning Outages
Discussion and Conclusion• Line design now incorporates lightning
data. – Intensify arrestor placement in medium and high risk
outage areas and vice-versa– *Compare 2013 lightning outages to 2012 data to
see the effectiveness of the intervention
• Lightning data can now be pushed to other systems within the enterprise for decision making
Discussion and Conclusion• Storing lightning data in geodatabase
has resulted in huge savings, no longer have to buy archive data
• More field productivity since crews know where to look for damage