So you need an asset management tool that does not try to be all things to all people, but rather succeeds in meeting the needs of those specific functions with a feature set designed to meet their needs.

Cascade was designed from the ground up to be a utility asset management system, not by assuming that all utility functions are the same, but by recognizing the fact that they are different and creating a feature set that allows each utility department to configure their assets, triggers, procedures, inspections, and tests the way they need them. See our Overview of Cascade to learn more about the specific utility functions that Cascade serves.

Let’s face it. Even though all parts of the electric utility are focused on delivering electrical energy to the customer, the asset management needs of those functional departments are widely varied. For example:

• Transmission lines require a different approach for maintenance than distribution lines. Different inspection methods, different environmental situations, different structures, and different maintenance intervals. Even different consequences for a failure
• Distribution is not singular. The needs of an overhead line department can differ from the needs of an underground department, even though both are functionally achieving the same end result.
• Generating plants have unique needs. Their large rotating equipment with complex feed and monitor systems differ drastically from the geographically distributed assets of most of the rest of the utility. They tend to be much more planned outage-oriented than many other parts of the utility, with much work needed to be planned and achieved in a very short time period, often months or years out.
• The equipment “inside the fence” requires different skill sets, different test sets, different management techniques, and different degrees of urgency than the equipment outside the fence.
• Even inside the fence, there is a differentiation. The system protection portion of the utility has a very different job than what is classically called “the substation”. It is more than just millivolts versus kilovolts. Substation engineers and technicians worry about dissolved gas results, power factor test, breaker timing, and other physical events. System protection (relay) engineers and technicians are more concerned about electromechanical calibration, setting history, and setting orders.
• Then, there is the “cross-over” equipment. Reclosers, sectionalizers, line-mounted switches, and other pole-mounted or pad-mounted equipment.