NISC Members to Proactively Identify Distribution Losses and Over/Under Loaded Transformers - National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC)

NISC Members to Proactively Identify Distribution Losses and Over/Under Loaded Transformers

Lake Saint Louis, Mo., October 1, 2013 — National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC), an IT and software solution provider to 700 utility and telephone organizations, announced at their 2013 Member Information Conference a new Smart Grid Distribution Analysis module for their popular Meter Data Management System (MDMS).

As part of the new Distribution Analytics solution, transformer load conditions and feeder losses are analyzed using advanced circuit-modeling capabilities along with interval meter usage data. Utilities can now proactively locate and replace critically overloaded or underloaded transformers at every customer service location. Recognizing and replacing these overloaded transformers will help utilities avert failure, which translates into significant operational savings.

“NISC is pleased to make this new module available to the 120 utility Members currently using our cloud-based MDMS,” said Todd Eisenhauer, Vice President of Engineering and Operations for NISC. “The robust underlying modeling used for Distribution Analysis will serve as the foundation for bringing additional engineering analytics into NISC’s core products going forward.”

Using hourly data available from the smart grid, the NISC Distribution Analysis solution scans 720 times more data points than past transformer-loading solutions, which ran on monthly data. NISC MDMS provides verified, validated data which leads to a more precise solution that is highly-accurate in detecting anomalies in transformer load. As a cloud-based and distributed architecture, the NISC MDMS is accessible from virtually anywhere, and can scale to perform the computationally intensive processes required by hundreds of utilities all collecting advanced meter data. All operational reports are dynamic, customizable and easy to share with anyone in the organization.

“We are very pleased with the timely feedback and analysis being provided by the new Distribution Analysis module,” said Tom Musick, Director of Engineering and Operations at Pioneer Electric Cooperative in Piqua, Ohio, a beta-test site for the solution. “We have already identified transformer conditions needing immediate attention and are excited to have this daily analysis at our fingertips without any manual effort.”