Roadmap for Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS)

in the Integrated Grid

Mark McGranaghan
Power Delivery and Utilization, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), United States
Corresponding e-mail: mmcgranaghan@epri.com

Abstract
The role of the distribution system in the overall power system management and operation is growing in the
integrated grid of the future. Management of the distribution system of the future will require advanced
applications that will be integrated into the concept of an Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS).
This paper presents basic requirements and a roadmap for the ADMS implementation with particular reference
to the variety of functions that may be included and the integration requirements to actually implement these
functions.
Important steps in the roadmap include requirements development, integration issues, new infrastructure
requirements and an implementation plan. The ADMS will be a platform for new applications, data analytics
and integration of new technologies. The distribution management system requirements are changing. New
requirements for interfaces to the transmission management and customer integration are becoming critical.
Creating the flexibility to facilitate these new requirements must be part of the plan.
Keywords: ADMS, Distribution Management, Integrated Grid

1. Introduction
The integrated grid of the future will require more
advanced distribution management functions and
integration of these functions with both overall grid
management and customer management.
The
concept of an Advanced Distribution Management
System (ADMS) will provide the foundation for
these functions.
A roadmap for developing and implementing the
ADMS is needed to provide direction to the ongoing
development.
Important steps in the roadmap
include the following:
1. Developing the requirements. The use case
process can be used for developing requirements
based on examples of important. These should
address existing and future requirements. For
example voltage control requirements must take
into account support for future interfaces with
distributed controls such as smart inverters and
edge control technologies.
2. Integration issues. The ADMS must integrate
with a wide variety of systems. Developing an
open platform to manage existing and future
integration requirements is critical.
3. Monitoring, Control and Communications
Infrastructure Requirements. New sensors
and communication options are becoming
available all the time.

4. Implementation plan.
Similar to the
functional requirements development, the
implementation plan must include a broad cross
section of the organization.
The ADMS will be the platform for new applications,
data analytics and new technology integration. This
will include applications for integrating the customer
with the operation of the distribution system and
applications for dynamic interaction with the bulk
system operation.
2. ADMS Requirements Development
The first step in the roadmap process is a solid
requirements definition.
This process involves
participation from a wide cross section of the utility
organization, including Operations, Planning,
Maintenance, Protection, Assets, and IT. A use
case approach is often used to identify the
applications and how they should operate within a
specific organization. Examples of important use
cases that drive the requirements for the ADMS are
summarized here.

Voltage control.
This is a foundational
capability of the ADMS, especially with the
trend towards conservation voltage reduction
(CVR). It is important to recognize future
requirements of the voltage control function such
as integration with distributed voltage control

devices at the edge of the network, smart

inverters, energy storage systems with voltage
control functions and changing characteristics of
load response to voltage changes.
Fault Location and Fault Management.
Besides traditional fault location functions, it will
be important to have other fault analysis
capabilities that help identify the cause of the
fault (e.g. lightning, vegetation, equipment
failures, etc.), analyze historical performance for
trends and interface with workforce management
systems for fault management. These functions
will drive requirements for monitoring systems
and communication infrastructure.
Support for protection and control systems
and distribution automation. There are many
different architectures for automation of the
distribution system and the ADMS must be able
to interface with all of these different options.
Automation may operate autonomously with
distributed controls or it may be centralized with
decisions by the ADMS itself. Regardless, the
overall optimization of the configuration as the
system is managed and restored should be under
the guidance of the ADMS.
Workforce
Management
for
both
maintenance functions and restoration
functions. The ADMS will need to interface
closely with workforce management systems to
help optimize maintenance practices as well as
storm damage restoration practices.
String
integration with Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) and Outage Management Systems (OMS)
will be required (if the OMS is not considered
part of the ADMS itself).
Management of Distributed Energy Resources
(DER). This will be a critical function for
future distribution management systems. PV,
CHP, other DG, energy storage and demand
response may all be critical resources for both the
local distribution system as well as the overall
resource mix. These resources may contribute
to local reliability through microgrids or
increased ability to reconfigure the system after a
fault or they may be aggregated by the
distribution operator as resources for the overall
grid. Figure 1 illustrates how the distributed
resource management function is often treated
separately
in
initial
implementations.
Eventually, the DERMS function will become
part of the ADMS.
Model Management. The distribution system
model is the key to the success of the ADMS.
This involves full electrical system model
interfaced with the GIS for geographic
information, equipment characteristics, control
system representations, protection functions, and
advanced customer models. The model should

support real time simulations to support system

optimization, reliability, voltage and var
management, and efficiency. There are many
different simulation approaches that can be used
and there may be the need to interface with a
variety of solution engines, including real time
simulators,
Power Quality Management. Power quality
includes voltage control, harmonics, flicker,
voltage variations, like voltage sags, momentary
interruptions
and
reliability.
These
characteristics may be increasingly important for
customers and may involve interaction with
customer system characteristics. The ADMS
should interface with a monitoring system
infrastructure, advanced metering and customer
models to provide an understanding for power
quality characteristics and solutions to avoid
problems.
A good example is managing
resonances that could cause harmonic problems
such as high neutral currents.
Asset Management.
The ADMS will be
involved in managing the distribution system
assets and may implement aging models of the
assets that help provide direction for maintenance,
loading and replacement strategies.
Integration of the Customer. The customer of
the future will be much more complex than the
customer today. In order to optimize system
performance, we will need customer models that
take into account this complexity. The ADMS
will actually need to integrate the customer with
the operation of the grid. Important functions
will include management of electric vehicle
charging, providing an interface for management
of customer loads (smart appliances, HVAC,
water heaters, etc.), understanding of the voltage
response characteristics of customer loads,
interfaces for local DG and energy storage, and
the ability to integrate customer information in
support of outage analysis and restoration.

Figure 1. ADMS will include both traditional

distribution management functions and new
2

distributed resource management functions.

3. ADMS Integration Requirements
The functional requirements developed from the use
cases also provide the requirements for systems
integration as part of the ADMS implementation.
These requirements define the needs for flexible
integration of systems through standards-based
interfaces such as defined in the Common
Information
Model
(CIM).
Integration
requirements include

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Electrical Models
Outage Management Systems (OMS)
SCADA
and
Distribution
Monitoring
Infrastructure (including PQ Monitoring)
Asset Management Systems
Workforce Management Systems
Customer Information Systems (CIS) including
provision for advanced customer models of the
future
Electrical Vehicle Charging Infrastructure
Distributed Resource Management Systems
(DERMS)
New Data Analytics Tools and Engines

The implementation plan is critical. Just as the

functional requirements development must involve a
broad cross-section of the company, the
implementation must involve all of these different
parts of the organization that are impacted as well.

Training
Implementation of system models
Systems integration
Testing protocols and verification
Staged implementation to allow testing and
verification of performance
Feedback to vendor
Continuous development

7. Summary
The future ADMS should be a platform for a wide
variety of new applications. The most important
characteristic of the ADMS is that it should facilitate
ongoing development and interfaces to new systems.
This means requirements should be developed and
verified for open and flexible interfaces to GIS,
system models, customer models, solution engines,
monitoring infrastructure, distributed controls,
protection systems, communications infrastructure
and analysis functions. The requirements for these
functions and interfaces can be developed through a
use case process with participation of all impacted
parts of the organization.

Figure 2. ADMS integration will support model

management and advanced applications.
4. Monitoring, Control and Communication
Infrastructure
The functional requirements and the integration
requirements will drive the need for communications
infrastructure and a monitoring infrastructure.
Expandability
of
this
infrastructure
for
future-proofing is particularly important.
The ADMS should be a platform for integration of
new functions that may come from new data
analytics tools and monitoring/sensor systems.
Therefore, the architecture must be flexible and open
for integration of these new systems as the
technology is developed and becomes available.
5. Implementation Plan
3