How technology is changing testing and performance monitoring
BY AARON RUDGER, Keynote
North American electric utilities are experiencing a rapid shift to a mobile- first environment. Numerous research firms are confirming that the sale of smartphones and tablets has overtaken personal computers. For electric utility workers, the ability to work without a cumbersome laptop is welcome, and the capabilities of smartphones are now impressive.
While smart phone and tablet sales eclipsing PC sales is...
How to reduce peak load in constrained areas of the grid BY W. HUGH GAASCH, Retroficiency With an aging infrastructure, rising demand, and an increasingly stringent regulatory climate, utilities across the country face some tough decisions in the coming decade. The American Association of Civil...
Many fleet executives working at electric utilities have doubts about implementing global positioning system (GPS) tracking technology into their fleet operations. A number of doubts exist. For example, GPS technologies are designed to track a vehicle’s whereabouts; this can lead to trust issues...
How managers and field technicians can benefit from global positioning BY RYAN DRISCOLL, GPS Insight The global positioning system (GPS) was originally designed for the U.S. military so that soldiers could easily find their objectives and to coordinate troop and supply movement. Now, the...
Inspection, training, and safety support from the factory floor BY BILL PUTNAM, Yale Cordage Among the many tools on an electrical utility vehicle, the most widely and heavily used is the winch line. Offering the versatility of pulling, lifting, and setting equipment, the winch is found at the...
A coalition of large energy consumers and ratepayer advocates has filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), urging the agency to prohibit transmission owners from independently planning "local" transmission projects exceeding 100 kilovolts (kV). The coalition argues...
Remote field operations present the safety organization with a myriad of challenges when it comes to ensuring the safety of the people that you send out to work in the field every day. Without a doubt, this includes the line workers, but it also includes nearly every member of the staff whose...
For many utilities, scheduling each day’s construction and restoration work means manually organizing and keeping tabs on ever-changing crew schedules and resources. Managers meticulously update whiteboards dotted with color-coded magnets representing crews and trucks. Augmenting the...
In June 2012, the Ontario Legislature unanimously passed Bill 8, the Ontario Underground Infrastructure Notification System Act, which, among other things, requires owners of buried infrastructure in the public right of way – including municipalities, universities, hospitals and private...
Utility workers are often subjected to challenging working conditions for hours at a time, yet are responsible for many mission-critical tasks. These workers must communicate with the entire organization while also representing the customer-facing side of their company. Equipping workers with...
Utility workers and linemen work in one of the most mobile industries in the country. Think about it: utility workers are always moving from one project to the next as efficiently as possible. Since utility workers rely so heavily on their work vehicles, it is critical that they drive a vehicle...
