System Operations Coming Full Circle - or Circling Back

Back when I was a System Operator, approximately 27 years ago, it was different. The same, but different.

We switched out lines, busses, and portions of the system while maintaining system reliability. We responded in a timely manner to unplanned outages, trouble and system stability issues that would arise real-time. But we did so with intimate knowledge and the ability to assess and switch portions of the system without a pre-written switch order or a template as most control rooms use today.

As my career progressed after 7 years as an operator, I then became a Shift Supervisor, and then an Outage Coordinator. It was then that I recognized the value of an operator’s cognitive ability to switch independently, without canned switch orders. A few years later in my career as the manager of the control center, I was informed by my peers as well as my director that most other control centers “Do it this way now”, and that the future of canned pre-written switching templates was upon us. I learned that the other two control rooms within our company had both transitioned over to save file copies of past switch orders to use over and over again. Sure, they sold it to me saying: ”the canned switch orders are only a reference” and reassured me that they should always be checked against the system model which as we all know is dynamic from one minute to the next. I still had heartburn over it.

My boss at the time was always good to hear my point of view on these types of issues. After listening to my objection on this issue, and what I felt was my strongest point, that we would inevitably be “dumbing down” the highly respected and expertly trained skill of writing switch orders, he told me that he would consider leaving the process alone and opting to make it a matter of choice. I was impressed with that decision, but in the back of my head I could hear the comments from my colleagues and industry peers that while the rest of the System Operations world had already or was in the process of transitioning to canned switch orders, some guy in upstate NY opted to keep his operators hand writing switch orders real-time. That was when I agreed to embrace the “New Way” and thus our control room began saving switching templates, electronically writing them and saving them for repeated use, and in the end compromising the skills required to write switch orders on the fly.

Please don’t get me wrong, as I understand there is a place and a benefit to canned pre-written switch orders. But the age-old skill of spontaneously writing and writing quickly, and then issuing switch orders within minutes of a bus fault, or early stages of a voltage collapse, or in response to an MVA involving wires on a motor vehicle with people trapped inside is a valuable asset to have within a control room.

I feel strongly that those of us in the field of System Operations need to come full circle, or circle back if you will. Back to the way we used to do it.  It's ok to say we tried it, and even better to admit that it’s no better, and in some case worse for wear. Some may say it's just as good, but can anyone really say the process drafting and issuing switch orders is better than it was 20 or 30 years ago? I know that I can’t say that. We just need to go back. Back to the way it was then. When I first learned it. Ok, maybe I am becoming one of those old guys, you know the ones.  The guys that trained us and taught us the ways of how to switch at ANY time in ANY circumstance. Those old guys would always complain when there were changes to a process that worked, and worked well.

Maybe I’m just like them. Those old guys. I sure hope so.