PA Consulting launches the world's first artificially intelligent system to prevent power outages by predicting asset failures weeks in advance

iPredict™ alerts utilities when underground assets will fail, providing essential time to fix issues before an electricity outage and ensuring energy reliability to mission-critical services such as hospitals, fire stations and rescue services.

News provided by

PA Consulting

Apr 28, 2020, 09:00 ET

NEW YORK, April 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- PA Consulting (PA), the consultancy that's bringing ingenuity to life, has co-developed iPredict™, the world's first artificially intelligent system to prevent power outages by predicting asset failures weeks in advance. PA co-developed the system with San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E) and industrial Internet of Things and machine learning experts Toumetis.

By showing which assets are likely to fail within the next two weeks, iPredict™ lets utilities plan repairs and safely fix issues before a power outage. This allows a utility to reduce customer outages, improve customer satisfaction, reduce overhead and maintenance costs, and improve public and employee safety. Since its development, iPredict™ has an 80 percent success rate for predicting equipment failures two weeks out, and 90 percent success rate for predictions three days out.

When unplanned outages occur, utilities must make emergency repairs – install new equipment, dispatch crews and control traffic, and coordinate logistics – all with increased time and expense. With iPredict™, utilities can predict and plan repairs, reduce customer service disruptions and give customers advanced notice about the planned improvements and outages. By providing advanced warning of disruption, utilities can ensure energy reliability to mission-critical services such as hospitals, fire stations and rescue services.

In real time, iPredict™ collects and analyses high frequency power quality data to identify the warning signs of an imminent failure of distribution system components. iPredict™ then applies machine learning techniques and algorithms to combine historical high frequency sub-cycle data with data from Operational Systems including distribution connectivity models to identify the failures. SDG&E also expects to utilize iPredict™ for overhead equipment failures.

Gregg Edeson, Reliability Lead at PA Consulting and ReliabilityOne™ Program Director, said: "As a forty-year veteran of the power industry, I know first-hand the benefits a system like iPredict™ can bring. iPredict™ provides utilities with an opportunity to safely fix assets, lower risk for their employees, and minimize disruption for customers. This system is focused on improving reliability, employee safety, and giving utilities a necessary snapshot of the health or degradation of their assets, before the lights go out."

Tom Bialek, Chief Engineer at SDG&E, says: "We've worked with PA on numerous initiatives, from their ReliabilityOne™ program to circuit risk data modelling. We were eager to co-develop this first-of-its-kind program that could benefit the entire industry by proactively predicting underground and overhead equipment failures."

PA has been focused on energy reliability for two decades, having created the ReliabilityOne™ program which recognizes US electric utility reliability performance. PA is an industry leader in utility systems, AI and machine learning, and data analytics and supports US utilities who are seeking ingenious ways to strengthen their power grids to ensure they are resilient, reliable, and safe. iPredict™ is another asset that utilities must have in their toolbox to prevent power outages and provide their customers with the highest levels of reliability.

About PA
We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future in a technology-driven world. As strategies, technologies and innovation collide, we create opportunity from complexity. Our diverse teams of experts combine innovative thinking and breakthrough use of technologies to progress further, faster. Our clients adapt and transform, and together we achieve enduring results. An innovation and transformation consultancy, we are over 3,200 specialists in consumer, defense and security, energy and utilities, financial services, government, health and life sciences, manufacturing, and transport. Our people are strategists, innovators, designers, consultants, digital experts, scientists, engineers and technologists. We operate globally from offices across the UK, US, Europe, and the Nordics. PA. Bringing Ingenuity to Life. www.paconsulting.com

About Toumetis
Toumetis is a leading provider of predictive analytics solutions for a smarter Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Combined with our advanced machine learning capabilities, the flexible Cascadence™ platform helps Fortune-1000 companies improve efficiency, quality and throughput by distributing highly efficient algorithms that enable asset performance data to be intelligently cascaded to stakeholders in secure, permission-based views. Working across North America and Europe, our team of industry-leading data scientists and developers bring more than 50 years of experience in predictive analytics and machine learning to take your IIoT solution from concept to completion in weeks or months, not years. http://toumetis.com/

About SDG&E
SDG&E is an innovative San Diego-based energy company that provides clean, safe and reliable energy to better the lives of the people it serves in San Diego and southern Orange counties. The company is committed to creating a sustainable future by providing its electricity from renewable sources; modernizing natural gas pipelines; accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles; supporting numerous non-profit partners; and, investing in innovative technologies to ensure the reliable operation of the region's infrastructure for generations to come. SDG&E is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy. For more information, visit SDGEnews.com or connect with SDG&E on Twitter (@SDGE), Instagram (@SDGE) and Facebook.

SOURCE PA Consulting