UMEME recently rolled out an Outage Management System (OMS) to improve network outage management processes and faults and to assist in the restoration of power. This explains why they have now been able to authoritatively warn clients 24 hours in advance on their Twitter handle when their power will be off. The OMS enables their team to identify and resolve faults on the electricity network faster to improve power reliability.
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The Outage Management System helps in the prediction of the location of the transformer, fused, recloser, or breaker that opened upon failure and also helps in prioritizing restoration efforts and managing resources based upon criteria such as locations of emergency facilities, size of outages, and duration of outages. UMEME’s OMS is also used to report information on the extent of outages and the number of customers impacted to their stakeholders including; management, media, and regulators. It is also used in the calculation of estimation of restoration times, the managing and calculating crews assisting in restoration.
At the core of a modern outage management system is a detailed network model of the distribution system. The utility’s geographic information system (GIS) is usually the source of this network model. By combining the locations of outage calls from customers, a rules engine is used to predict the locations of outages. For instance, since the distribution system is primarily tree-like or radial in design, all calls in the particular area downstream of a fuse could be inferred to be caused by a single fuse or circuit breaker upstream of the calls.
Climat change affecting power network
In a recent memo, UMEME has come out to inform the public that extreme weather is hitting power utilities hard, leaving them scrambling to keep the lights on – thus utilities must adjust aptly hence the need for an outage management system. Circa 2005, a prolonged dry spell and increased precipitation reduced Lake Victoria’s waterline, limiting the volume of water that could be used to generate hydroelectricity. In 2020 when rain was plentiful, floating vegetation drifted to the Nalubaale (Owen Falls) Dam in Jinja, choking it and leaving the nation enveloped in darkness for days. In the same year, a power line skirting the Wakawaka shoreline of Lake Victoria in Bulidha Sub-County, Bugiri District, Eastern Uganda was submerged. As result, electricity supply to many homes was cut off to reduce the risk of electrocution in case the cables sagged into the lake from which many collect water for domestic use.
It is only the transmission grid that seems to be weatherproof for now, and climate change will be with us over the long haul, increasing the likelihood of weather-induced outages, displacement of communities, and accidents UMEME says. The company as well as communities should take steps to mitigate its adverse effects. On top of the new outage management system, UMEME is turning to sturdier concrete poles, rerouting some lines that previously ran through marshes, and giving staff trees to plant in their compounds.
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