Pedernales Electric Cooperative Implements Trimble's Distribution Management System for Effective Outage Response and Restoration

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May 25, 2017, 06:30 ET

SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) announced today that the Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC), the largest electric distribution cooperative in the U.S. with more than 288,000 meters in central Texas, has implemented Trimble's Distribution Management System (DMS). PEC will use Trimble DMS for operational administration of its electric network as well as outage management and response. Trimble DMS features core Outage Management System (OMS) capabilities that can boost a utility's outage response and service restoration times, improve communications and safety with crews and customers, and enhance the electric network's overall operational efficiency.

"We are impressed with both Trimble's DMS solution for outage management and Trimble's ability to understand our unique requirements to implement the solution on-time and on-budget," said Lawanda Parnell, PEC chief information officer. "In fact, what was originally planned as a one-year project due to its complexity was completed in only four months thanks to the Trimble's professional services team and their collaboration with PEC."

Brad Hicks, PEC's vice president of engineering and energy innovations added, "We are thrilled with our decision to go with Trimble to enhance PEC electric service delivery and outage restoration, quickly and effectively, for all our cooperative members. Trimble's solutions enable PEC to more proactively respond to outages and engage with our members, giving them the critical information they need."

Trimble DMS leverages Trimble's connected "live" network modeling technology and spatial functionality. It includes seamless interoperability with substation automation, advanced metering infrastructure, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, work order systems, customer information and notification systems, and crew and vehicle location systems. Trimble DMS also includes an extensive set of outage reports and statistics and serves as a comprehensive system for outage management with features and functionality for:

Outage communications optimized for PEC staff, field crews and member notifications
Outage mapping that visualizes date, time and location of outages, number of members affected, estimated outage restoration times, status, cause of outage and more
Switch planning and simulation to understand member service impacts of planned or unplanned outages
Trouble call management to quickly report, identify and isolate outages and their locations via Trimble's call center software and interfaces to Customer Information System (CIS) and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems
System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) calculations based on yearly number of minutes the average customer is out of power
Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI) calculations based on outage duration and response

"This was a great project from the start with Trimble and PEC teams working closely together to effectively implement the Trimble DMS solution," said Benoit Mallen, business area director for Trimble Energy Americas. "We're proud that PEC is now using Trimble DMS to deliver safe and reliable power to the people and communities of their growing service area."

About Pedernales

Pedernales Electric Cooperative, based in Johnson City, Texas, is a large electric distribution cooperative, delivering electric power to more than 288,000 meters in an 8,100-square-mile service area. Founded in 1938 with the help of then-Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson, PEC provides safe, reliable and low-cost energy services to all or parts of 24 Central Texas counties located in one of the fastest growing areas in the U.S. For more information about Pedernales Electric Cooperative contact: [email protected] or visit: www.pec.coop.

About Trimble's Energy Division

Trimble's Energy Division provides enterprise solutions that enable hundreds of electric and natural gas utilities worldwide to optimize distribution networks with strategic and operative asset management solutions for planning and construction to operations and maintenance. Trimble's Energy solutions include advanced systems for network modeling and management, investment planning, outage management, maintenance management as well as mobile applications for field data collection and as-built documentation. Electric and natural gas utilities use Trimble's Energy solutions to improve system reliability, enhance system integrity, lower operational costs, better meet regulatory requirements, increase safety, reduce risk and achieve planning and operational excellence.

For more information, visit: energy.trimble.com.

About Trimble

Trimble is transforming the way the world works by delivering products and services that connect the physical and digital worlds. Core technologies in positioning, modeling, connectivity and data analytics enable customers to improve productivity, quality, safety and sustainability. From purpose built products to enterprise lifecycle solutions, Trimble software, hardware and services are transforming a broad range of industries such as agriculture, construction, geospatial and transportation and logistics. For more information about Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB), visit: www.trimble.com.

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