Zurich, Switzerland, April 8, 2015 - ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, today joins the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and CenterPoint Energy for the successful completion of an initiative to advance the reliability of the Houston power network by deploying an advanced intelligent grid system.
The deployment includes ABB enterprise software solutions comprising an advanced distribution management system (ADMS), integrated with a mobile workforce management system and an advanced outage analytics package tying the systems together.
Five years ago, CenterPoint Energy was awarded a $200 million Smart Grid Investment Grant to deliver valuable benefits to consumers and the environment through the company's Advanced Metering System (AMS) and Intelligent Grid (IG). The IG, which includes the ABB software solutions, is designed to improve service to the utility's 2.3 million metered customers, and includes installation of 31 substations and 771 intelligent grid-switching devices on 188 distribution circuits - making this deployment one of the world's largest ADMS systems in operation. Leveraging the ADMS software from ABB, this intelligent "self-healing" grid can more quickly identify, isolate and restore power outage locations. Since 2011 it has helped customers avoid more than 100 million outage minutes.
"We are proud to have contributed to CenterPoint Energy's vision to transform the delivery of electricity for their customers," said Claudio Facchin, President, ABB Power Systems division. "The deployment of these advanced enterprise software solutions sets a benchmark in terms of predicting, reacting to and minimizing the impact of outages."
ABB's Network Manager DMS provides real-time monitoring and control, network analysis, network optimization and outage management for sub-transmission, medium and low voltage distribution networks, in an integrated software platform. By efficiently managing their distribution assets, utilities can better cope with the continual changing world of distribution - improving reliability and efficiency, and reducing the impact of outages.
"Collaborating with companies like ABB allows us to automate the grid and improve the way we operate," said Kenny Mercado, Senior Vice President Electric Operations, CenterPoint Energy. "Last year we saw power reliability improve by more than 28 percent, and we expect this trend to continue."
Additionally, ABB's Service Suite mobile workforce management system built specifically for the energy and utility industry allows field operations and dispatch personnel to "do more with less" by proactively serving customers and maintaining field assets, reducing operating costs and improving customer service. ABB's advanced business analytics platform delivers industry-specific insights and analysis, derived from the myriad data and signals across the utility distribution network, helping utilities restore power more quickly and safely.
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility, industry, and transport and infrastructure customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in roughly 100 countries and employs about 140,000 people.
