The advent of cheaper, more powerful substation relays, now commonly known as Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs), will have a substantial impact on Powerco information systems. Their impact is two-fold; the sheer volume of information associated with modern relays will require a more capable relay management system than the one currently being used. The second effect is the amount of data that can be gathered and used for network improvement. Improper management of both types of information will lead to worse outcomes for Powerco reliability performance, and ultimately its financial performance.

This report details two projects concerned with the management of IED information.The first project is concerned with a proposed upgrade of the Powerco relay management system. This involved requirements engineering, investigation of database systems and a commercial tendering process. It was found that the data schema had a large effect on efficiency and efficacy of relay management systems. The optimal solution would be to procure a proven relay management system from an established vendor, given resource constraints and proven-for-purpose data schema.

The second project is focused on the deployment of automated event report collection software. The impetus of this project was the inefficiencies that arise from manual collection and processing of network event data from substation relays. These hamper the network improvement process, negatively affecting Powerco network reliability. A Cost-Benefit Analysis was performed to determine if such functionality was worth deploying across the network. It was found that automated event report collection produced operational savings from reduced technician dispatch frequency. Other benefits include greater data captured, faster fault response time, and a transformation of the existing reactive network improvement engineering process to one that is proactive. This will require additional engineering resources to be dedicated to event analysis. A deployment schedule was formulated based on historical reliability and agreed service levels.

The larger implications of this report are that additional resourcing, and careful consideration of the information management processes are required to take advantage of the greater volume of data generated by IEDs.