While traditionally an “in-person” business, the utility industry is revisiting where and how it deploys workers in the face of unpredictable events. The new Oracle Utilities NMS Flex Operations solution securely extends outage management and dispatch capabilities beyond the control room to any desktop device with internet access. With it, storm management personnel can efficiently work from anywhere to bolster response staff and dispatch crews, saving precious minutes, hours, or even days in restoring service to customers.
Designed to quickly scale while preserving systemwide processing speeds, Oracle Utilities NMS Flex Operations provides the core outage management functionality of the Oracle Utilities Network Management System (NMS) control room client. Leading utilities worldwide use Network Management System to improve grid operations, shorten outages, and optimize distribution.
“With extreme weather increasing in frequency and intensity, a growing number of utilities need the ability to scale their outage restoration processes and the number of connected storm dispatchers, supervisors, and coordinators,” said Dan Byrnes, SVP of product development at Oracle Utilities. “A utility using NMS Flex Operations can quickly provision and grant access to new users to manage outages and crews without needing control room client software to run on their computers. The move towards more flexible network operations will give utilities greater agility to respond to whatever Mother Nature throws their way.”
NMS Flex Operations is an essential addition to the Oracle advanced distribution management system (ADMS) suite of solutions and outage management offerings. It allows utilities to ramp up hundreds of new users and provide them with a real-time, operational view of the network from wherever they work. This capability can be crucial for improving field safety and situational awareness and for accelerating restoration times.
The solution can run inside or outside of an IT firewall, providing connection options that align with each utility’s cybersecurity requirements. Once logged in, users can efficiently work through outages from crew assignment to restoration using an intuitive interface designed for ease and efficiency for both existing and new users.
