Application of multimedia in providing operational information on transmission system

The role of information technology has been assuming increasing significance in all areas of business and some more so than in the electricity supply industry. Traditional areas of power system management such as system operations, SCADA and telemetry are recognized users of information technology, but a need has been identified to make this technology available to operations and maintenance staff. This paper describes the solution adopted in providing transmission staff with a multimedia based system to quickly provide staff with all the necessary preliminary information required to attend a fault on the power system. Visual, textual, audio and technical data are made available to the engineer, all of which he will need before attending the fault. Extensive assessment of the package by a large number of transmission operations and maintenance staff has confirmed the soundness in application of this technique whilst identifying minor refinements to the final version. It is concluded that the system will be of major benefit to transmission staff and it is intended to extend these facilities to all power circuits