US Energy Provider Depends on Sierra Wireless RV55

US Energy Provider Depends on AirLink RV55 For Ideal Mobile Office

For a company to stay competitive, it needs to be able to provide a reliable, trustworthy product and a stellar customer service experience. Utility companies are uniquely positioned in that they offer a critical service to nearly every individual and business within their service area. While their customers often have a limited selection - if any - of which utility provider to use, the company is still beholden to its customers to provide excellent service – failing to do so could mean losing municipal or state-wide contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Mobile Electric Utility Service Vehicles

To provide an excellent customer service experience, utility companies are now increasing their efforts to reduce outages and downtime by deploying M2M solutions that enable them to deploy response and repair crews more quickly and track the location of their crews so that they can be properly dispatched or diverted as the situation requires.

However, monitoring their crew members and the equipment needed to complete their jobs - including vehicles and communications equipment - requires additional monitoring, management, and maintenance. Being able to handle these tasks remotely increases the response and efficiency of field workers, as it eliminates the need to return to their home base for equipment troubleshooting and repair.

The Challenge

Improving Workforce Management Across 67,000 Square Miles

When one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric system operators — serving six million customers — launched a work management improvement initiative, the energy provider had goals in three primary areas.

Safety: Provide visibility to crew and hazard locations, and reduce response to hazardous situations.
Reliability: Improve restoration response time.
Financial: Increase productivity and reduce the cost of work.

With the electric system operator’s service territory covering six states and over 67,000 square miles, the company faced the challenge of delivering reliable data communications in harsh environments.

A solution that is flexible, expandable, and manageable was essential for success.

The Solution

Sierra Wireless AirLink

Before selecting the Sierra Wireless AirLink RV55 rugged in-vehicle platform, the large US energy provider reviewed several other wireless communications devices from leading M2M vendors, but they were less full-featured, easy to deploy, or as rugged as the AirLink.

Many years ago, when they first selected AirLink devices as their preferred communications equipment, the cutting edge device they deployed was called the Pinpoint X. Today however, the RV55 now serves as the communications hub inside the energy provider’s fleet of service trucks, providing field workers with a comprehensive mobile office environment. The intelligent gateway’s persistent broadband connection provides data transfer to hard-mounted, in-vehicle laptops, as well as GPS capability that is integrated with the company’s automatic vehicle location (AVL) database software, powered by Track Star International.

Airlink Pinpoint X for Electric Utility Service Vehicles

The energy provider selected Sierra Wireless M2M wireless data solutions to implement both its AirLink and AVL database software solutions. With a partner, the organization set up and configured the AirLink devices and continues to receive product support.

“As an M2M solutions provider, our role is to pull together components to help our customers deploy an overall solution that meets their requirements,” explained the company’s strategic technologies engineer. “The combination of the rugged, intelligent, and easy-to-deploy AirLink device and the robust TrakStar GPS solution was ideal for what the electric system operator needed.” While Track Star was the right choice for the organization at the time, today, a more compatible solution would be a CompassCom solution through our partners at MCA.

The AirLink RV55 is a compact, full-featured mobile communications platform powered by ALEOS™ embedded intelligence. ALEOS ensures persistent network connectivity and, in conjunction with AirLink Management Service (ALMS), provides extensive remote management capabilities, which the energy provider uses to manage and troubleshoot device issues.

Airlink RV55 for Electric Utility Service Vehicles

“From an IT standpoint, remote management is key for us,” explained a representative from the energy company at the time of the original solution deployment. “Within a few years, we want to have 2,500 devices out in the field, and we don’t want to increase the work needed to manage all those devices.”

According to the company’s President, “Integration with Sierra Wireless products has been our smoothest and most complete third-party integration because of the embedded ALEOS intelligence and Remote Access Protocol available in AirLink devices.”

Applications of the AirLink in-vehicle solution for the national energy provider include:

Tracking: When dealing with the dangers of storm-induced outages, dispatch can track field vehicle locations and provide faster, more efficient responses to emergencies.
Scheduling: GPS location tracking provides better resource utilization and fuel savings.
Mapping: Drivers have access to digital drawings at their disposal, so they can see crews in their area and ensure no work overlap.
Workflow: Wireless, mobile data collection cuts administrative time by automating timesheets and allowing workers more wrench time.

The Results

Improved Safety, Reliability, and Cost Efficiency

Safety

GPS tracking provides the company with knowledge of crew locations at all times. The company can dispatch more efficiently to reduce road time and respond quickly to distress calls from field workers in dangerous locations or environmental situations. Broadband communication also reduces radio traffic to free up bandwidth for local emergency response systems.

Reliability

More efficient dispatching and service workflow help the energy provider improve its industry performance for power restoration and customer service. Increased visibility to digitally updated circuit data and schematics for field workers provides more accurate information than paper charts and reduces unintentional work overlap.

Financial

The improved workflow provided by a mobile office environment allows more work to be completed in a shorter period or by fewer people, reducing overtime and contractor costs. Integrated dispatch and scheduling systems allow for checks on each job phase, reducing the overall cost of work performed. More efficient dispatching and routing based on vehicle location saves on travel time and fuel costs.

About USAT

Device Provisioning, Activation and Installation Services

USAT specializes in designing and deploying fixed and mobile wireless data connectivity solutions for energy businesses of all sizes — complete with implementation, training, proof of concept (POC), system auditing, and on-site RF surveying services with optional engineering maintenance contracts.

Our team not only helps you select, provision, and activate devices, we make sure they work in practical applications and real-life situations.

For over 25 years, USAT has provided cellular communications solutions for various energy companies and electric utilities across the USA. With our extensive catalog of world-class routers, gateways, and software designed for remote monitoring and management in even the harshest environments — you can count on us to get and keep you connected.

Advanced always-on connectivity translates to less manual equipment maintenance, reduced downtime, and an overall increase in your business's ROI. Contact the experts at USAT to learn how our wireless networking solutions can help meet your organization's exacting needs.