LDC INNOVATORS
HYDRO OTTAWA REDUCES COSTS, MAXIMIZES CONTROL WITH OWNED FIBER LINES
New Fiber Lines are 1,000 Times Faster than Leased Legacy Lines By Kara Kuryllowicz
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tate-of-the-art technology is at the heart of the advanced telecommunications systems that gives Hydro Ottawa the timely, accurate data required to maximize efficiency, productivity and performance. “Ultimately, everything we do is about improving our service and restoration for our customers, and we need an extremely efficient telecom infrastructure to make that happen,” says Louis Voisine, Grid Technology Manager with Hydro Ottawa, which serves approximately 328,000 residential and commercial customers across 1,100 square kilometres. “The more automation and information you have, the faster you’ll restore power, and the happier your customers will be.” Hydro Ottawa is committed to the smart grid, automation and remotely accessing data to reduce costs and improve service to its customers. “In each of the 30 years since we started automating, our performance numbers have improved, with our outage duration decreasing consistently,” says Voisine. Hydro Ottawa had been leasing fiber optic cables from third parties since the 1990s. During its business evaluation, the company recognized that installing its own fiber optic infrastructure would be more cost effective over time. In 2016, Hydro Ottawa began installing the fiber optic cables it needed to carry vital distribution system data. While cost proved to be a primary driver, Hydro Ottawa also preferred to selfmanage its bandwidth. The result was more secure data and a higher level of control. “We’re far better off building owned infrastructure, capitalizing that asset and running our own systems than incurring costs that come off the bottom line,” says Voisine. “Our leased lines could not keep up with the demands of a modern SCADA system, the new metering infrastructure, security cameras and more.” How much faster is the new technology? Compare the dial-up modems that Canadians relied on in the 1990s to the speed we take for granted today. Those legacy networks ran 9,600 bits per second, while the current networks carry about 1,000,000 bits per second.
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Whenever possible, Hydro Ottawa will use its own poles and underground infrastructure to install most of its fiber cable. In some locations this may not be possible due to congestion. Fiber technology and associated costs have improved over the years. Installing cables with more fiber strands than are required has become the norm. “In 2018, you’re getting 12 times as many fibers at half the cost,” says Voisine. An Intergraph G/Technology user and Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure customer since 2003, Voisine and Hydro Ottawa knew the location-based technology and its capabilities intimately. Intergraph G/Technology Fiber Optics Works (FOW) was the logical choice to manage Hydro Ottawa’s new fiber optic and telecom systems. In 2016, Hydro Ottawa added FOW to help manage its new telecom network from the enterprise, through the back office and into the field. FOW’s ability to maintain extensive attribution about each fiber device and conductor, to track connectivity and to share this information with all Hydro Ottawa users and systems was highly desirable. FOW also helps plan, connect and deploy fiber networks and supports full tracing capabilities, fault analysis and path redundancy. In addition, it assesses, manages and tracks the status of projects, equipment and connections. “The ability to do all of the splicing, track those splices and determine which services are connected to which fiber within a single tool is invaluable,” says Voisine. While working with the legacy telecom network that manually documented the connections at each splice or device, Voisine was aware of the massive amount of effort required to track and maintain this information in spreadsheets. “FOW is simple and provides immediate access to the many reports we need to satisfy various departments,” says Voisine. Since the front-end GIS operators are more concerned with the cables’ geography, they interact primarily with G/Technology, while the telecom technicians who look after the connections rely exclusively on the FOW module. Overall, employees’ transition to FOW was incredibly intuitive, mainly because it is an extension of G/Technology. With just a half-day of training, they were able to embrace the FOW features that were new to them. While Ottawa Hydro is an existing G/Technology customer, FOW’s capabilities and features work independently and will benefit the many utilities that need to document the connections at each splice or device. “For me, the power of FOW is all about the back end, where I can track splices, equipment, connections and circuits,” says Voisine. “That’s where FOW makes a big difference to me and would prove relevant to any utility.” Kara Kuryllowicz is a Contributing Writer at Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure. For more information on Hexagon, visit www.hexagonsafetyinfrastructure.com.
THE DISTRIBUTOR
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FALL 2018