Many companies have an obligation to exchange their outage data with external systems such as large power markets, reliability coordinators, GADS, TADS, and SDX. If the company itself is attempting to do this synchronization on their own, it’s inevitable there must be a change in their processes every time there is a significant change in an external system. For example, if there are changes to RC outage coordination processes, such as when it utilizes an entirely different web service, the entity must make the update to ensure compliance with the new version.  To accommodate this, these entities must go out of their way to hire development staff to make such changes, as well as IT employees to maintain their servers and databases.

A related issue is all external systems requiring outage data have different guidelines and these procedures are continuously shifting. There is a constant need for sending, monitoring, and updating data to coordinate with these external systems. Companies may also experience unexpected XSD changes to the web services used in communication, as well as the business process changing the workflow of outages in an external system. The Outage Management System used needs to be dynamic to address changing requirements. Having a Software-as-a-Service based OMS system addresses this requirement if the vendor providing the service provides timely updates to address the changes required.

All of the issues covered above may have downstream impacts on entities and their operations. Synchronization of outage data is complex when considering the need to allow outage data to be changed internal to the system and external to the system. An OMS system needs to support flexible rules that define when changes can be made, by whom (or what system) and how to process changes when they are introduced locally within the system or in an external system.

To mitigate the effects of changing system interfaces, there’s a need for advanced Outage Management Solutions that seamlessly integrate and simplify the process with little to no effort required by the entity. Whether or not this is an issue for your company, utilities benefit from Outage Management Solutions in one way or another. With an integrated system such as OATI webOMS, the entire process to exchange outage data with other systems is supported, meaning no manual effort is expended to ensure such compliance. Choose to have this managed through a vendor that goes above and beyond, such as OATI, and you will relieve the headache of outage data exchange coordination of interfaces.

To learn more about webOMS or any other OATI solution, contact communications@oati.net.