Many of you have technology deployed to increase performance and accuracy of necessary functions like billing, engineering, service restoration and customer services.  In many or most cases an overall reduction in cost or gain in efficiency was identified which lead to the decision to install these systems.  

There is probably additional value to be gleaned from these systems beyond what you are currently getting.  Essentially more ROI for little or no additional system investment can be obtained with just some time and labor to extract useful information and add reports to existing systems, displays and outputs.

Some (well, several) cooperatives have existing SCADA/Load Management systems that they use to gather data and to “sort of” monitor their electric system.  However, not many really know where the data originates, what “limits” were set for alarms, how to determine what the limits need to be, or what it really means when various limits are exceeded.  In addition we’ve seen cooperative technical staff struggle to get the dispatch and operations staff trained to use the provided information to advantage, to determine if communications circuits were (not) responding, to detect errors in the data, and to find opportunities to exploit the existing system capabilities.

In some cases this has needlessly lead to valuable systems being ignored, falling into disrepair or even turned off.  And in some cases it has poisoned the water for additional technology improvements.   

We can help you to improve access to, and improve the use of, existing systems, data and information which will improve the overall success of the cooperative.  We take a measured approach, assessing your needs and processes to develop a “technology roadmap” that leads to improved operations and efficiency.  Not only that, but we’ll help you implement the plan (we like to get our hands dirty!).  We typically start with the operational area and move into the balance of enterprise, opening the various doors to share the data/information available or “almost” available in the other areas.

This technology plan identifies areas where business functions (operational, financial, services, disaster recovery, other) could be improved with changes to the use of, or by the simple sharing of, existing data and information.  Such a plan could move your cooperative, step by step, into a fully integrated shop with all departments and systems freely sharing data and information.

By the way, we are also MultiSpeak® Certified System Integrators. 

The main point here is that it doesn’t always take a major upheaval or system replacement to improve your operations.  And, a program which takes advantage of what you already have, coupled with a measured plan to incrementally improve your systems and capabilities is much more likely to be accepted by your staff, peers, manager or board. 

Please contact us to discuss opportunities!

Robert Duval    robert.duval@enervision-inc.com
Charles Nash   charles.nash@enervision-inc.com