WSU Capstone

Small Utility Asset Management Program
Brown & Kysar Inc. and Accent
Group Report: ECE 452 Capstone Design
Matthew Johnson, Troy Foley, Tim Barko, Bogdan Lysenko
5/5/15

SMALL UTILITY ASSET MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................................................................1
II. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND.................................................................................................................2
III. LITERATURE SURVEY................................................................................................................................................2
IV. SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT ..................................................................................................3
V. METHODS OF APPROACH ........................................................................................................................................3
A. INITIATION AND PLANNING.............................................................................................................................................4
B. RESEARCH .........................................................................................................................................................................5
C. ASSET HIERARCHY...........................................................................................................................................................5
D. DATA UPLOAD..................................................................................................................................................................6
E. SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION..........................................................................................................................................6
F. TESTING AND DEPLOYMENT...........................................................................................................................................7
G. POST IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT .................................................................................................................................7
VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .....................................................................................................................................8
A. MONTHLY TESTS..............................................................................................................................................................8
VII. EXPECTED RESULTS .................................................................................................................................................14
VIII. TIMELINE AND WORKLOAD SHARING AMONG THE TEAM ...............................................................14
IX. IMPACT OF THE PROPOS ED SOLUTION.........................................................................................................15
X. CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................................................16
XI. BIBLIOGRAPHY: ..........................................................................................................................................................17

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I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Our senior group project name is “Small Utility Asset Management.” The problem we were presented
with was, that it is hard for small utilities to manage their power system assets due to lack of resources
and expertise. Our sponsors presented to us a project that could potentially help small utilities better
manage their substations, reduce/prevent power outages, and lower expenses of overseeing the
substations. Our job during the fall semester was to gather initial data on the equipment and what goes
into the process of a 1 month, 1 year, and 5 year maintenance plan, and develop an operating range for
each monthly test. During our spring semester input all of that data into a software program that will
be able to keep track of all maintenance records and show trends of wear and send alerts when needed.

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II. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
The rapidly aging utility infrastructure in the United States is either at or beyond its expected life cycle.
This creates a major problem for small utility companies that lack the resources or expertise, and in
most cases both. What is the most efficient and inexpensive way to maintain a healthy substation and
still provide great customer service? Erik Kysar with BKI and Dave Chaney with Accent think they
might have a solution. Erik has the extensive knowledge and know how in everything that has to do
with maintaining a small utility and Dave has twenty plus years’ experience with software applications
and consulting.
For our senior project Erik and Dave proposed to develop modules for a new on-line asset management
system that specifically targets small utility substations. Our first few meetings were spent talking
about what was expected of us, and what we needed to accomplish. Erik explained that we will be
working with a small utility company, Wahkiakum PUD, Which agreed to let us come and tour their
substation and explain to us the process that they go through when they make their routine weekly
maintenance. After visiting the substation and talking with the lineman, Shane Pfenniger, we had a
much clearer picture of a substation and what was needed to be done. This will be explained in greater
detail in methods of approach.
The task of our group was to research each major component in the substation and find the operating
standards for each one. One of the issues that we encountered was that one of the substations was built
recently, within 4 years, and the other one is 40-60 years old. Some of the companies that made the
equipment are no longer in business or have stopped making components for substations altogether,
this will be explained in literature survey.
After gathering the necessary information on all the equipment for all three substations, we needed to
put all of that information in into the Varasset program. In order to do that we worked closely with
Ryan Widmer, the software engineer. After successfully inputting all the data points into Varasset we
had the chance of going out to the substations again with Erik and Shane to test out the program.
III. LITERATURE SURVEY
To get the all the appropriate data we had to comb through a lot of information. As mentioned before,
not all the companies that made the equipment are still around. This made it difficult to find
manufacturer specifications and recommended maintenance for components that are located at the old
substations. Most of the information that we did find was from IEEE and Bureau of Reclamation, they
have a lot industry standards for specific equipment no matter the age. We also got a significant
amount of help from Erik and his extensive knowledge of substations.
Another problem we encountered was a massive amount of information on the transformers. The
information was really overwhelming, we did not know where to stop. There are many tests that need
to be performed on the transformers and we did not know which ones were pertinent to our project. We
could have done our project on transformer tests alone and still would not have finished by the end of
the spring semester, there is just a massive amount of information concerning transformers. While
doing our research we found out that manufacturer recommendations for maintenance and test did not

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always agree with those of the IEEE and Bureau of Reclamation standards. After taking to Eric about
both of these issues, we were able to come up with an agreement on what tests we need to focus on and
which standards were we going to use for those tests.
When conducting research on reclosers and circuit breakers, Eric recommended contacting John
Obrien to help us with information on reclosers. John was able to send us manufacturer
recommendations for maintenance and specifications. The problem we ran into here was that the
manufacturer recommendations were a little vague on how often maintenance and tests needed to be
performed. Talking to Erik again, we decided that maintenance for these components depended on
where the substations were located and what kind of weather conditions they were subjected to.
Before we put all the data that was gathered in to the Varasset program, we first needed to get familiar
with it. As mentioned before, we needed to worked closely with Ryan in order to understand how to
the software worked. A few times we needed to schedule meetings with Ryan outside our usual Friday
meeting in order for him to further explain how to correctly organize the equipment data so it can be
properly input in the software.
IV. SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
When considering implementing an online asset management program the first step is to determine
how much you are determined to monitor. For a small utility like Wahkiakum they will still have
hundreds of poles, miles of line, substation equipment, trucks, and employees. All of this could be
tracked in an online asset management software program. For the purposes of this project we were
determined to narrow our scope to something manageable, but would also provide a valuable tool that
could help predict trends in equipment. We decided to only concentrate on the substation equipment
that Wahkiakum PUD currently owns, which we determined would be an achievable goal.
Below you will see a list of the assets that were tested.
1. Transformers
2. Circuit Breakers Oil/Vacuum
3. Reclosers
4. Control House
5. Fuses
6. Landscaping/Fencing
7. Grounding wire
8. Battery Back-ups
9. Switches
10. Voltage Regulators
11. Meter Readings
V. METHODS OF APPROACH
When we took the problem on, our sponsors needed to keep reminding us that this is not a software
problem. A proper asset management plan needs to be implemented as a whole, the software is only
the tool used. With that in mind we decided that new inspection procedures would need to be

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developed. Those procedures would then need to be organized into a preventative maintenance
schedule. We wanted the Varasset software to have an automatic work order generation on certain
dates of the year. After doing the research on inspection procedures we knew that we would need
monthly, yearly, and 5 year inspections. We also wanted our software to have the capability of storing,
analyzing and comparing current and past data to predict trends in the equipment.
A. INITIATION AND PLANNING
During this stage we conducted numerous meetings with our project sponsors so that we could narrow
down exactly the type of product we wanted to develop. The goal was an easy to use online hosted
asset management program that could track all assets, store and analyze data from tests, and send
automatic notifications to the clients. Taking their advice we avoided taking on too much too fast and
stuck with only the substations themselves rather than trying to incorporate the miles of line and poles
Wahkiakum PUD also owns and operates. We then developed a business process flow diagram that
would map exactly how the sequence of events our asset management plan would go through. Below
you will see a flow chart; you can see that it is broken down into two distinct groups, the client and the
asset management team.
For the purposes of this project Wahkiakum PUD is the client and we are the asset management team.
It starts with a field inspection being completed by the client, where the data will be uploaded to the
Varasset server hosted by the asset management team. This data is then analyzed to see if any of the
data points fall outside of the required range. If not the process is complete until the next inspection, if
there is a flag a warning notification is generated and sent to the engineer of record and client. This
flag is then reviewed by the engineer and a plan is generated with recommendations, which is sent to
the client. The client then generates a new work order to conduct repairs. The last step is to complete a
new field inspection. With this diagram in mind we began implementing each step of it, starting with
the field inspections.

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B. RESEARCH
To begin we contacted all manufacturer representatives to obtain technical specification sheets, as built
drawings, recommended maintenance schedules, and any other pertinent information required. The
team compared them to the IEEE and governmental standards for maintaining and testing substation
components.
Taking that information into account, three inspection procedures were developed after consultation
with industry professionals. They helped the team narrow down the necessary tests that need to be
performed and at what times. Optimal ranges for each test that is applicable in the monthly procedure
will also be determined. This data is what the asset management software will be analyzing and
comparing to previous data sets.
Inspection Procedures:
1. Monthly
2. 1 Year
3. 5 Year
C. ASSET HIERARCHY
Attached to this document is a PDF file containing our asset hierarchy/meter designation chart. Below
you will see a small part of the entire document. The importance of developing this chart cannot be
understated, this is basically a map of our entire software program. It lists each asset, their child assets,
the components attached to them, and the meters used to measure them. When it came time to upload
our data to the Varasset platform this chart was the perfect reference to make sure we did not forget
any aspect of it.

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D. DATA UPLOAD
To make it easy to upload all of our data, we were supplied with a number of excel templates by the
Varasset programmers, below is a list of these templates and an example. These templates were then
populated with all of asset and meter data and uploaded straight to the program. The importance of this
step cannot be understated, it saved us incalculable man hours.
Templates
1. Asset Type
2. Meter Data
3. Meter Association
4. Picklist Type
5. Picklist Association
6. Condition Data
7. Attribute Data
8. Classification Attribute Data
Above is a small portion of our meter condition template. What this spreadsheet contains is every
meter in our program and the asset it is applied too. It also contains the upper and lower action limits
for each of those meters. These are the values that if entered in our field inspection, trip the automatic
warning notification.
E. SOFTWARECONFIGURATION
When we came to the software portion of this project we took to heart the advice we were given by our
sponsors to keep it as simple as possible. We achieved this by utilizing the software’s features of
automatic notifications. Using these notifications we have set up automatic work order generation,

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warning notifications for meter readings that falls outside their upper and lower action limit and tailor
made user based security.
F. TESTING AND DEPLOYMENT
To test our program and verify that it is in working order, we will enter in data on certain pieces of
equipment to verify that the automatic notifications are sent out and also sent to the correct parties. We
will also want to determine that the most recent test entered is compared to past results, and to generate
a graph, if applicable, of any trends that are spotted. For example a trend could be spotted by graphing
the temperature readings of a transformer over the course of a year. To do this we will enter back to
back monthly inspection reports and wait for the report that is generated and sent to the client. If a
suitable comparison has been made then we will determine that the software is operating correctly.
G. POSTIMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT
There will be much needed support after the program is in use. We anticipate at least once a year a
patch would have to be uploaded to the clients program to account for any errors or change in how the
reporting is done. Also if there is any new substation equipment purchases these will need to be added
to the software program. The program is also very adaptable and newer and more advanced modules
can be incorporated.

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VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The first semester we mainly focused on gathering information on the kinds of test that are required for
each piece of equipment that Wahkiakum PUD has in there substations, along with the operating
parameters for each test. In order to get the most pertinent tests and operating parameters we wanted to
get input from several different sources. With some of the equipment we were able to contact the
manufacturer and get their required and recommended tests. But for others the equipment was old
enough that the manufactures no longer existed. For this we needed to find what the IEEE and ANSI
standards were. We then contacted some of the industry professionals to find out what they would
consider the most important tests that should be done for each piece of equipment. With this data we
came up with the tests that we felt were the most important these tests are the most crucial to
maintaining substation equipment.
A. MONTHLY TESTS
We will not be listing every test that is contained within our software program, but if you look at the
chart above you can see a small glimpse of the types of tests we have implemented. Those tests are for
the monthly inspection of the old transformer located at Cathlamet substation.
Inside our software program all of these tests were entered into our preventative maintenance
schedules, below you will see figure showing these.

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Once all our data was uploaded into the software, we began organizing and creating a preventative
Maintenance schedule for each substation. Each schedule contained every asset being tracked and the
meters attached to them. We also kept in mind the order in which the assets came. When walking the
substation we wanted to conduct our inspection in the most efficient manner possible so as to limit the
amount of time it takes to complete. Inside each of these PM’s we can then schedule when we want the
inspections to occur and how often. For this project we are focusing on the monthly procedures, below
you can see the last date we performed our tests along with the next date scheduled. Once this
scheduling is complete, the work orders to conduct the inspection will automatically be generated and
sent to the lineman. For the purposes of this project we set that notification to occur via email.

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In the picture below you will see a Work Order highlighted, this is a Cathlamet Substation Monthly
Inspection. This is similar to what a lineman would see if they opened up their version of the program.
A list of their personal work orders that were slated to be done. If one were to open up the work order
they would see a list of child work orders contained inside this monthly inspection. These child work
orders are the individual asset inspections, every component inside the substation that needs to be
inspected monthly.
The lineman would then open up each of these child work orders in the sequence listed and conduct the
inspection by opening the meter readings tab, which is shown below.

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The order of the inspection at this time is not in proper order for the most efficient inspection of the
asset. In the future we would like to order these meters as efficiently possible that an inspector does not
have to circle the asset continually to take all of their readings.
The program also allows the lineman to open up each of these meters and review the last entered meter
value, and enter in any comments he has in regard to that meter. For example if a lineman was visually
inspecting the bushings on a voltage regulator, and he noticed a crack in the A phase bushing, he could
note that in the appropriate location. If you look at the screen shot below you can see this.
The most important aspect of our project has to this point not been discussed. The capability of taking
the measurement history of each meter in the program gives an engineer the ability to track the history
of the asset. What this means is that you can plot each meter reading automatically on a graph, from
there it is easy to see any trend the data may be taking. If you look at the graph below you will see the
max oil temperature reading for the Cathlamet substation regulatoroser.

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In the graph you can see a clear trend upwards over time. It then hovers right around the action limit
which is 65 degrees above ambient temperature. A simple graph like this gives allows the engineer to
know ahead of time when an asset is beginning to break down, or possibly needing maintenance.
We worked in close contact with the programmer Ryan Widmer from Accent to make sure these were
all operational, this was a key deliverable for our project since it proved that the program worked. With
them being automatic it took out all of the technical knowledge one would need, and since a small
utility usually has no engineers on staff this was important. Below you can see a shot of the email that
is generated when a work order is established. This is for a monthly voltage regulator inspection.

PAGE 13
If an inspector/lineman were to conduct this inspection, and one of their data points was outside the
range determined for the meter a warning notification is sent. An example of this is below.

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VII. EXPECTED RESULTS
Upon completion of this project we hope to have a simplified version of Varasset to present to
Wahkiakum PUD. This software will then be used as an asset management to assist them with tracking
and maintaining each piece of equipment in all three of their substations.
With this software they will have an asset management tool that will help them track and maintain
their equipment in many different ways. This software will have the ability to notify them when and
what kind of tests needs to be performed. This will also include the option of have a tablet connected to
this system the lineman, or inspector can take out to the site and enter in the results of the monthly test.
These results will then go into a database that will store and compare the entered data to the
recommended operating parameters, and if the new data entered is outside of the specified operating
parameters a warning notification will be sent to a member of the staff, along with anyone else that the
PUD would like to inform. The goal with this notification would be to allow the utility to see a
possible failure before it happened, giving them a chance to address the problem before they have a
major outage. Another useful part of this software would be the ability to look back at previous data
and watch to see if there are any trends that would indicate a possible problem.
VIII. TIMELINE AND WORKLOAD SHARING AMONG THE TEAM
Team Member Responsibilities
Matt Johnson  Team leader, scheduling
 New transformer research and report
 Air Switch research and report
 Business Process Flow
 Populating Excel spreadsheets to be uploaded into software
Troy Foley  Old transformer research and report
 Voltage regulator research and report
 Scheduling site visits
 Asset Hierarchy
 Action limits
 Entering New Meters
 Adjust Meters after field tests.
Tim Barko  Reclosers research and report
 Old circuit breaker research and report
 Route stop sequence
Bogdan Lysenko  Circuit switchers research and report
 Fuses research and report
 User based security

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IX. IMPACT OF THE PROPOSED SOLUTION
Without a preventive maintenance program problems in a power delivery system are often only
detected by their failure, causing untimely outages along with major damages to the equipment; but by
implementing the proposed Varasset program small utilities would be able to better predict and address
an problem in their system before they become a catastrophic and cause severe outages, or damage to
equipment. This not only allows them to save money on equipment repairs, but also allows them to
have more control on the outages that occur. With the ability to foresee problems before they cause an
outage, they can often resolve issues without interrupting the power delivered to the customer. If the
problem does require an outage they are able to notify their customers that there will be an outage,
along with scheduling the outage at a time that would have the least impact on the customer. Another
bonus to using the Varasset software would be the ability to track historical data, allowing tends to be
detected, this offers a chance to predict equipment failure well before it happens, giving the utilities
plenty of time to plan, and budget for the replacement of that piece of equipment. Varasset has the
potential of becoming a very powerful tool helping small utilities offer much more reliable power
source, along with keeping the cost of operation down.

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X. CONCLUSION
At the beginning of this project we were presented with the problem of small utilities that do not have
the knowledge or the resources to have a preventative maintenance program. Our task was to take
Wahkiakum PUD three substations and find all the pertinent tests that should be done on a monthly
basis, along with all crucial operating limits for each piece of equipment. Then with the help of the
varasset team we uploaded our findings into the software to develop a tool that would track all of the
assets for the substations that Wahkiakum PUD owned. Next we set up automatic notifications that
would send out an email with notification that a preventative maintenance procedure is scheduled to
occur, along with an automatic work order being generated and place into the lineman’s work orders
box. With everything uploaded we were ready for the field test, so we set the first preventative
maintenance test to happen on March 20, ten days before our test date we received an email notifying
us that all three of Wahkiakum’s substations were scheduled to have their monthly tests done. After the
notifications were received we checked to see if the work orders had been generated, and all three were
in the work order box. The first challenge we ran into was the night before our test, we were checking
to make sure everything was in order and we noticed that our only one of our work orders had all of
the meters attached to it. We tried to find the problem but were unable to get it resolved before or field
test, so we had to take the meters outside of the work orders. The next challenge occurred at the first
substation, here we were unable to get internet access so we had to take our meters in excel and input
them once we had access. We also noticed that we had put a meter for all three phases on a voltage
regulator, and only one meter was needed. Other than these minor issues our field test was a huge
success, we simply had to make a few adjustments to our meters, and varasset’s software programmer
was able to find our problem with the work orders a correct it. With all this working it was time to test
our system to see if it truly would save store and analyze data from tests. We were getting close to the
end of the semesters so we only had time to set a few of the meters up to send out notifications if the
equipment was running outside of the recommended operating ranges. After these were set we ran
through these meters entering in faux data where we intentionally entered data outside of the specified
ranges. We checked our inbox and there were notifications for every time we went over the specified
ranges.

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XI. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
FIST 3-30 TRANSFORMER MAINTENANCE (n.d.): n. pag. Bureau of Reclamation. Oct. 2000. Web. 6
Dec. 2014. <http://www.usbr.gov/power/data/fist/fist3_30/fist3_30.pdf>.
Acceptance Testing Specifications for Electrical Power Distribution Equipment and Systems. Portage,
MI: InterNational Electrical Testing Association, 2007. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.
Jimmy Scarborough (personal communication November 10, 2014)
C.P.Systems, Maintenance Procedures, CG Transformers, 2010
IEEE Standard Test Code for, Liquid – Immersed Distribution, Power, and Regulating Tranformers,
IEEE std. C57.12.90, 1999
IEEE Guide for Diagnostic Field Testing of Fluid Filled Power Trandormers, Regulators, and
Reactors, IEEE std. C57.152, 2013
IEEE Guide for the Application, Installation, Operation, and Maintenance of High Voltage Air
Disconnecting and Interrupter Switches, IEEE std. C37.35, 1995
IEEE Guide for Acceptance and Maintenance of Insulating Oil in Equipment, IEEE st. C57.106, 2002
IEEE Guide for the Interpretation of Gases Generated in Oil Immersed Transformers, IEEE std.
C57.104, 1991
elimsan salt cihazlari ve elektromekanik san ve tic A.S. (n.d.). SF6 Gas Circuit Breakers. Uzuntarala.
S&C elrctric company. ( 2014, april 21). Types SMD-1A, SMD-2B, SMD-2C, SMD-3, and SMD-50.
Sulfur hexafluoride circuit breaker. (2014, september 17). Retrieved 11 16, 2014, from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur_hexafluoride_circuit_breaker
"Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6): global environmental effects and toxic byproduct formation". J Air Waste
Manag Assoc 50 (1): 137–41. January 2000. PMID 10680375.
"Reclosers." Cooperindustries. Accessed December 4, 2014.
http://www.cooperindustries.com/content/dam/public/powersystems/resources/library/280_ReclosersC
ontrols/S280441.pdf.
OMICRONenergy. "Circuit Breaker Testing" YouTube video, 5:51. March 21, 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKXPeTvmVQg

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