Extreme weather events such as hurricanes, blizzards and huge electrical storms have the power to wreck property, put lives at risk and keep millions shivering or sweltering in the dark for hours, days and even weeks. But now utility companies have some power too: the power to protect their customers in advance with an innovative solution called Storm Readiness Testing (SRT).

This integrated end-to-end solution ensures that your utility systems are ready for extreme weather well before the next storm strikes. SRT provides advance verification that your applications won’t fail, customer/field inquiries can be completed in a reasonable time frame and response times are realistic.

How does it work? SRT uses interactive, data-based simulations and historical profiles to assess how well your systems, applications and interfaces can handle storm volumes, from very small to extremely large. It tests functionality and measures performance during spikes, surges and stress, covering four major storm-critical systems individually and as integral parts of an environment:

  • Outage Management Systems (OMS), ensuring uninterrupted customer outage reporting and up-to-date alerts.
  • Mobile Workforce Management (MWFM), securing communication with off-premise employees and field teams and protecting mobile apps and PC software.
  • Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), allowing anytime, anywhere access to real-time data on any device for fast, reliable operational decisions.
  • Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), enabling communications within an interconnected group of networks, data management systems and smart meters.

Choose a Best-Practice Provider

As is true for every other quality engineering or software testing solution, the effectiveness of your Storm Readiness Testing depends on the quality of the services. Be sure to choose a provider that adheres to SRT best practices like these.

Comprehensive: You should expect comprehensive SRT services that start with a complete assessment of the applications to be tested, along with test environments, and cover test development, planning, execution, reporting and automation. The best providers offer exceptional project management talent as well—poor project management is a major reason some SRT projects fail.

Data-Based: Target loads—minor storms through mega events—should be based on customer outages during actual storms over as many years for which you have data, with replay of actual outages during peak hours of previous storms.

Continually improving: The best SRT providers keep building on their knowledge and experience, constantly making improvements and adjustments.

Why Wait?

The next devastating storm can happen anytime. The right time to prepare is right now. Learn more about how SRT services can help keep your customers safer and more secure in any weather.