Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS)

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Advanced distribution management systems, or ADMS, can help utilities connect the dots across various systems and processes to improve their ability to coordinate their infrastructure and operations, much like a traffic cop managing vehicles at an intersection.

The Nuts and Bolts of Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS)

ADMS is essentially a platform that supports distribution management and optimization to maximize grid reliability and accelerate outage restoration.  ADMS combines the outage management system (OMS), and the supervisory control and data acquisition or SCADA system functions to provide a holistic view of operations.

One of the key benefits of this tool is that it can automate certain outage management tasks that were previously very manual and time consuming.  With ADMS, real-time data collection, predictive analytics, and damage assessment tasks can be achieved with ease.  Here are 3 specific ways that ADMS can help optimize outage restoration:

• Predictive maintenance: The system can utilize overhead line sensors to collect data on utility equipment and assets, identifying potential failures or malfunctions before they actually happen. This obviously helps with reliability.  It can also create automated alerts and schedules for regular preventative maintenance activities.
• Optimized workflow planning: The system can help streamline the scheduling of maintenance tasks so resources are allocated to where they’re needed most. It can also break down silos by ensuring both field crews and office personnel have access to the same insights.
• Integration with legacy systems: ADMS is a “system or systems” that is flexible enough to be implemented in multiple ways, but one word of caution – a deployment will not be successful without strategic and resource support directly from the top of the organization.

Given the growing level of system fragmentation occurring not only within the utility industry but in the world as a whole, it makes sense to deploy a “system of systems” to tap into them all seamlessly.  And heck, if ADMS can substantially improve the efficiency of outage restoration, you know I’m all for it!