Cooperative Achieves Record SAIDI Score for Second Year in a Row

United Power’s core responsibility to its members as an electric cooperative is ensuring consistently reliable power, which means the lights stay on and the power continues flowing whenever you need it to be available. Several years ago, the co-op’s operations and engineering staff began coordinating the implementation of an innovative system maintenance strategy. It incorporated embedded devices throughout the system and preventative maintenance practices to meet ambitious goals for reliability and resiliency – defined as the ability to rapidly recover from power outages, such as reducing frequency or duration. 

Results exceeded expectations. United Power successfully prevented thousands of potential power interruptions before they occurred, dramatically reducing the number of outages members experience and limiting the duration when outages do occur. The strategy has produced sustained improvements in reliability and resiliency year-over-year since it was implemented in 2017, cementing the cooperative’s status among the best performing electric utilities in the country. 

By the Numbers

Electric utilities measure system performance and develop improvement plans using a variety of indicators, such as the System Average Interruption Duration Index – more commonly known as SAIDI – and the System Average Interruption Frequency Index, or SAIFI. These indicators, among the many that United Power and other electric utilities use to measure how successful systems are performing, essentially analyze data and calculate outage expectations for an average member. 

SAIDI measures the total outage time an average member would expect to experience over the course of a year (cumulative duration of all outages experienced). The national average is approximately 120 minutes. United Power has not produced a SAIDI score above 72 minutes since 2017 and has maintained a score below 60 minutes – less than half the national average – for the past two years. 

SAIFI measures the total number of outages an average member would expect to experience over the course of a year (frequency of outages experienced). United Power’s SAIFI score of 0.65 in 2023 means the average meter experienced fewer than one outage throughout the year. Put another way, many of the cooperative’s members did not experience an outage last year.

Other performance indicators are used, as well. One of those indicators measures the system’s overall availability rate. The co-op’s availability in 2023 was greater than 99%. 

“These metrics demonstrate the success of the strategies we are using to improve reliability and resiliency across our system,” said Mark A. Gabriel, United Power’s President and CEO. “Thank you to our operations and engineering teams, who are responsible for interpreting data from the system and designing the strategies we practice in the field.”

Preventative Maintenance Practices Installed 

United Power incorporated a proactive approach to system maintenance in 2017. The strategy relies on analyzing data collected across thousands of miles of line and isolating the worst-performing segments. Targeted maintenance projects are then scheduled to improve the performance for that segment. 

One example of this strategy is the co-op’s drone maintenance program. The program began in United Power’s mountain territory, where accessing poles and infrastructure can be difficult and time consuming due to the rugged terrain and weather. Drones can quickly conduct detailed investigations and document broken, failing, or aging equipment. Drones have saved the cooperative countless hours and prevented hundreds of potential outages. Since completing initial inspections in Coal Creek Canyon and Golden Gate Canyon, the drone maintenance program has been used throughout the entire service territory.

Advanced Monitoring Technology

Preventative maintenance would not be possible without automated monitoring devices embedded throughout the system that report irregularities and potential concerns. These devices capture important information to help system operators determine the best power restoration process in the event of an outage and can help crews in the field pinpoint the time and location of a fault. 

The ability to quickly locate a fault, identify its cause, and restore power to members, often remotely due to redundancies built into the system for this very purpose, has significantly improved the cooperative’s outage response and reduced the duration of outages. Identifying problematic areas would be difficult without this information and could create additional delays in power restoration because lineworkers would need to physically inspect miles of line to locate and repair the cause. 

Readying for the Power Supply Transition

United Power will be transitioning to new power suppliers on May 1 as the cooperative exits its existing power supply contract. United Power’s robust distribution system is ready to take the cooperative into the future of our new energy supply. This transition will have no impact on the system’s reliability. 

The added flexibility of additional power supply contracts as the cooperative grows may even improve system performance in the long term with the ability to make proactive infrastructure upgrades. 

United Power is already among the best performing electric utilities in the country, and leadership at the co-op is continually seeking to improve its system reliability and resiliency. Whether it is proactive maintenance strategies, automated devices, or other system improvements, the cooperative is always looking for ways to improve and meet member expectations.