Dive Brief:

• American Electric Power (AEP) and General Electric have launched an Integrated Distribution Operating Platform (IDOP) that the companies say prepares the utility for the grid for future.

• The software connects GE’s primary utility software solution offerings: Geospatial Information System, Outage Management System and Advanced Distribution Management System.

• Working together, AEP and GE will be able to integrate operations, maintenance and construction with the IDOP software.

Dive Insight:

The Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems that have controlled utility operations for decades are no longer up to the tasks facing utilities as they move toward more resilient and flexible grid operations.

Data, from smart meters, grid sensors, field crew mobile devices and even customers must be organized in a way that does not overwhelm operators.

Large vendors such as GE, Schneider Electric, Siemens, Alstom and Oracle are all vying to bring software to market that will meet the needs of the changing needs of the modern utility.

In January 2014, both GE and Siemens launched Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) software designed to meet those needs. Those systems provide the common platform for a range of previously siloed utility platforms that monitored geographic information, outages, and asset management systems.

GE says that the functions delivered by IDOP have traditionally been provided by multiple vendors, requiring utility operators to manage multiple applications from multiple workstations.

The company says the IDOP platform will eliminate this complexity by deploying three integrated software products that AEP can control from a single work station, lowering costs, reducing maintenance and optimizing productivity. It is also able to provide real-time network information to standardize data presentation and visualization.

Deployment of the three applications throughout AEP is scheduled to be completed in May 2016. IDOP is the first deployment of GE’s PowerOn Advantage ADMS in the U.S.

“These applications are also the foundation of managing the grid of the future – a grid that will be smarter, more resilient and able to adapt to needs of a rapidly changing distribution system incorporating distributed generation and storage devices throughout the grid,” Tom Kirkpatrick, vice president of customer services, marketing and distribution services for AEP, said in a statement.

AEP is the latest in a string of utilities to deploy new distribution management systems and other software solutions to manage the emerging two-way grid. Austin Energy and Arizona Public Service, both utilities facing significant growth in solar generation, recently outlined their grid management initiatives to Utility Dive, and Southern California Edison announced last month it would invest $2.5 billion on DER integration, including up to $500 million on grid management software systems.