Webinar Recap – Case Study: Optimal Substation Asset Planning at Baltimore Gas & Electric
In today’s utility landscape, the stakes are higher than ever. With aging infrastructure, the push for modernization, and the increasing demands of the energy transition, utilities are constantly juggling priorities. They need to ensure reliability, manage risks, and make financially sound decisions, all while addressing environmental and safety concerns. This balancing act becomes even more challenging as assets age and the grid becomes more complex. It’s no longer just about maintaining the status quo—it’s about making strategic investments that will future-proof the grid.
When planning interventions for various assets, utilities must weigh a variety of complex criteria into their decision making.
For example, how do you decide between replacing a 37-year-old transmission structure costing $150,000 and a 52-year-old transformer costing $1.5 million? Such a costly decision requires considering various criteria including asset reliability, risk exposure, safety concerns, environmental impact, labor costs, and more. The complexity multiplies as the number of assets and criteria increase, making optimal decisions virtually impossible without advanced software.
BGEs journey with Copperleaf
Pat Carberry, Senior Manager at BGE, shared how their implementation of Copperleaf has significantly transformed their approach to asset planning. Their journey began with a pressing need to address aging infrastructure, particularly oil circuit breakers (OCBs) that were long overdue for replacement. BGE had developed an asset health score to rank their 600 OCBs, taking into account factors such as maintenance history, age and oil sample data to prioritize which OCBs to replace each year.
However, they realized that simply identifying the worst-performing breakers and replacing them across multiple locations was inefficient, leading to logistical challenges across their substations. This prompted BGE to seek a more intelligent solution. After evaluating various tools, they found that Copperleaf’s ability to assess all assets and bundle interventions within specific locations was a perfect fit for their needs.
By optimizing our substation asset planning, we’re not just reacting to problems—we’re proactively future-proofing our entire grid.
Pat Carberry
Senior Manager
BCE
Long-Term Value
Starting with a small, focused scope on OCBs, BGE quickly recognized the broader value of Copperleaf and expanded its use across all their substation assets to better manage system performance projects and optimize their asset investment strategy.
With Copperleaf, BGE manages over 62,000 assets and can perform comprehensive analyses that used to take months in just a few hours. BGE now plans beyond the typical five-year horizon, addressing long-term needs like equipment lead times and regulatory filings. The tool also shifted their focus from asset replacement programs to comprehensive system performance projects, streamlining their processes and freeing up capacity of engineers who previously spent time planning to focus on capital execution projects.
Copperleaf’s value framework gave us the data to make smarter, more objective decisions—whether it’s reliability, safety, or financial impact, the numbers are all there to guide the way.
Pat Carberry
Senior Manager
BGE
Lessons Learned
As BGE transitioned from traditional methods to a data-driven approach, they learned a number of key lessons:
- Data Quality Challenges and Making Assumptions: Many utilities, including BGE, struggle with incomplete or inconsistent data. However, it’s important not to let data gaps hinder progress. Making assumptions, understanding how they impact results and refining them over time can help move forward while continuing to improve data quality.
- Understand Variables Early: Transparency in how Copperleaf software calculates and optimizes decisions is essential. BGE learned that investing time upfront to understand the variables and inputs at a detailed level can save significant adjustments later and lead to more accurate results.
- Expanding Beyond Asset Replacement Programs: BGE realized that traditional asset replacement programs were too narrow and that a more holistic approach to system performance projects, including the bundling of related assets and interventions, leads to better planning and resource allocation.
Looking Ahead
BGE is focusing on refining their assumptions and value framework as they continue to use Copperleaf for asset replacement analysis and are working on developing standardized asset health scores across all Exelon operating companies, integrating these scores into Copperleaf to better reflect the effective age of equipment.
BGE plans to leverage Copperleaf for future asset investment planning through 2029, ensuring alignment with their long-range plan and aim to incorporate Copperleaf data into project approvals and reporting processes to enhance decision-making across the organization.
To learn more, watch the full webinar recording: