Crew Scheduling and Dispatch

How mobile solutions improve restoration efforts

BY JIM MENTON, ClickSoftware

Electric utilities are modernizing the power grid to meet the demands of an increasingly digital society. In the same way, mobile solutions are helping service personnel (line crews, contractors, and supervisors) respond to catastrophic storm events in ways that were unforeseen a few short years ago. These mobile solutions can provide technicians with a range of logistical and emergency response capabilities.

Common mobile capabilities can help eliminate the time-consuming staging process required for crew assignment when rapid response is critical. Moreover, the collaborative potential for all mobile-based users assures that a more accurate estimated time for restoration (ETRs) is shared in a comprehensive manner to utility stakeholders.

Finally, due to increased severity of storm activity, electric utilities are striving to minimize outage times and minimize fines levied by the regulatory authority for noncompliance of service-level agreements (SLAs).