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Reliable and affordable electric power is the key energy cornerstone for a dynamic, modern economy. When the lights go out, it becomes clear to all of us just how dependent our businesses and personal lives are on electric power.
Providing reliable electrical service is essential to a successful utility company, and we have numerous programs in place to help ensure the efficiency and reliability of our electrical system. This starts with applying high standards to the planning, engineering and construction of our systems, and continues with the ongoing maintenance and improvements to our system, including iintroducing innovative new technologies to increase efficiency and reliability.
On Labor Day, 2008 a major storm hit the Phoenix-metro area, testing our system's reliability and our employees' mettle. Both passed with flying colors. This video depicts the company's restoration efforts.
A concerted effort to improve the health of the electric grid over the last decade culminated in an all-time best year for reliability for the company. In 2008, APS recorded its best-ever results in measures that reflect outage frequency. According to the final Clear Weather System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) metrics, APS customers saw an average of 0.78 outages, down from 0.98 last year and 1.66 in 1996.
With weather factored in, customers experienced 1.57 outages, down from the previous record low of 1.60 set in 2002. Our 2008 SAIFI results are expected to be in the top quartile of investor-owned utilities nationwide, and is a 51percent improvement since 2000. Distribution outages are down 31 percent from a decade ago. Put another way, in 2008, despite adding another 18,000 customers, we kept the power flowing 99.97 percent of the time, even with our summer storms.
To help ensure system reliability, APS is also involved in several power line projects in Arizona. APS is continuously evaluating new technologies and implementing those that make sense. Below are some examples of new technologies that we are implementing which will enhance our electric system reliability:
In 2008, APS received the electric utility industry's highest honor, The Edison Award, for developing a landmark system that monitors major transformers in near-real-time. The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) gives this award each year to honor an electric utility for outstanding contributions to the advancement of the power industry.
The Transformer Oil Analysis and Notification (TOAN) system allows APS to automatically monitor transformer oil data, receive notification of abnormalities nearly in real time, and take necessary preventive actions. The net result is that catastrophic transformer fires may one day be a thing of the past - not only for APS, but for the entire electric industry. APS has filed two patents and has received inquiries from other utilities about TOAN.
"APS' new system for monitoring transformer performance is a remarkable achievement and could potentially benefit electric utilities everywhere," said Tom Kuhn, President of EEI. "Electric transformers are a key component in the transmission and delivery of electricity, and by providing real-time monitoring of their performance the TOAN system greatly increases system reliability and saves money in replacement and repair costs. This system represents a significant step forward in managing and monitoring the electric grid."
The development of the TOAN system by APS engineers is an example of the type of technology innovation that Pinnacle West and APS is pursuing to create a more sustainable energy future.
APS prides itself on innovation and service, and the latest developments in smart meters and the company’s Distribution Operations Management System (DOMS) are two cutting edge technologies which will benefit customers and APS. The company designed the DOMS software system to replace wall maps, track outages information in real time, and manage electrical loads, construction and repair crews. Like many utilities across the country, APS relies on paper wall maps with color-coded pins to understand the big picture of its distribution electrical grid.
When completed, DOMS will allow APS to manage and track information and make updates to this grid via computer. In 2008, APS completed the first phase of implementation of DOMS system wide and will monitor its performance over the summer of 2009.
While APS’ traditional methods of managing electrical loads and its response to outages work well, there is a need for new technology to address the continued rapid growth of APS’ service territory. The company's goal is to not only address the growth, but to remain ahead of it. The objective of the DOMS project is to improve outage communications and reliability reporting, and further reduce customer power-outage durations.
In the long run, the overall effect of DOMS will be a mass integration of APS services and systems. This will consolidate the systems at five distribution operating centers covering about 35,000-square miles in the Phoenix Metro area and four state regions into one as needed. It also means a merging and addition of computer systems. From this, DOMS will have the potential for quickly providing planning analysis, power-flow analysis and suggested switching tools to maintain the electrical grid.
The implementation of DOMS will improve many of the ways APS does business in the future. It will affect the areas of construction, operations, maintenance, data quality and customer care. For APS crews in the field, DOMS will link to crew management and call-out tools to better monitor manpower requirements. The systems fault locater ability will also reduce the time necessary for troubleshooting to isolate faults.
Replacing an existing transmission line with an aluminum conductor composite reinforced transmission line allows APS  to increase a transmission line's capacity without disrupting the surrounding community. The process also uses existing poles, towers and line locations.
The aluminum lines carry more than twice the electrical power of conventional lines of the same size and does it at higher operating temperatures with minimal conductor sag.
This is another example of the new technologies that will help APS meet the demands of the future.
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