![]() IntelliTeam senses an outage on its primary feeder and automatically switches the critical load to a backup feeder. The equipment purchased, IntelliTeam, was a joint venture between Cooper and S&C Electric. Utilities often receive blame for a power outage regardless of the cause therefore, SSEMC’s decision to purchase an automatic source transfer (AST) scheme was relatively easy. ![]() The following year, a large customer choice load experienced a few outages and, as a result, some additional improvements were necessary. Load and event information was stored in a shared database and made available to engineering employees to support many daily engineering tasks. In 2000, SSEMC transitioned to Microsoft Windows for SCADA, and the engineering benefits were immediate. The system was reliable but difficult to configure, ran proprietary protocols and was, in effect, a technology island. The original SCADA system was based on DEC Alpha hardware running OpenVMS. The coop has used a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system and remotely operated substation switches for years. Like many utilities, SSEMC continually struggles with how best to use available technology. Snapping Shoals EMC (SSEMC) is a cooperative serving more than 90,000 members/owners. Lastly, getting employees to buy in and change old work practices to take maximum advantage of new high-tech systems can be challenging. And, it can be difficult to abandon a piece that is not meeting goals and start over after the initial investment is made. It is easy to end up with multiple high-tech islands, with pieces that are not being used to their fullest extent. Integrating multiple high-tech systems together and producing results in that same environment can be a formidable challenge. Installing a new high-tech system in an established utility environment can be difficult. Utilities continually search for new ways to improve reliability and efficiency with technology.
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