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For power companies, the management of wooden poles, transformers and wire assets is very complicated and requires a lot of manpower. These large, high-value items may be moved by multiple employees and contractors at any time. During storms and the resulting cleanup, asset tracking becomes more difficult and more important. This is because understanding the condition of the materials on hand is critical to the restoration of power.
Westar Energy in Kansas has adopted an automated system based on RFID technology to track the inventory of utility poles and transformers. The company’s suppliers have attached passive EPC Gen2 UHF RFID tags to the utility poles and transformers in all storage areas, and installed RFID readers at the gates of the storage areas. Passive EPC Gen2 UHF RFID tags are also attached to the contractors and Westar vehicles traveling to and from the storage area. In this way, Westar can know who withdraws the assets, when they are withdrawn, and when they are returned. With this data, Westar can know the number and status of assets on hand at any time. This also saves employees the time spent on asset inventory and searching.
Westar Energy is the largest electricity provider in Kansas. The company powers 69,000 residential and commercial customers and has 13 power plants. At the same time, it maintains 6,300 miles of transmission lines and 28,000 miles of distribution lines. More than 10 years ago, the company began to look for RFID solutions to help track the entry and exit of goods in the storage area. However, at that time the technology was not mature enough to provide a solution within an acceptable price range. Rick Boswell, the company’s supply chain manager, said that about four years ago, the company revisited the system provided by American RFID Solutions.
In 2013, the solution was installed in 3 storage areas of the company. The company needs to track a wide variety of tools and materials. At present, the company has selected telephone poles and transformers as pilot projects. Hundreds of utility poles and transformers are stored in each storage area.
At any time of the day or night, employees may take out utility poles or transformers for emergency repairs. Before installing the RFID system, Westar employees filled out the form to record before leaving the storage area. When returning unused tools, employees also need to fill out another form.
These forms often fail to provide complete, clear, and accurate information, which also poses challenges for asset tracking. According to the company, inventory counting is a cumbersome manual process that needs to be carried out once a year.
Now, Westar pole manufacturers need to attach XtremeRFID UHF tags to the bottom of each pole. Transformer manufacturers need to use cable ties to attach Metalcraft’s rugged RFID tags. In this way, the tag is not disturbed by the metal environment.
In 2013, Westar conducted a label durability test for several months. Employees attached various types of tags to the poles and transformers, and transported them to the gate reader for reading to confirm the best tag types, placement, and location of the reader antenna.
According to John Rommel, marketing manager of American RFID, several difficulties were encountered during the installation process. The gate of a storage area was facing the road. In order to avoid misreading the vehicles on the road, the company had to change the antenna installation method. In addition, the company also needs to change the software algorithm to avoid misunderstandings. The tag tag of the transformer may be blown away by high winds, so American RFID added a metal gasket inside the tag to prevent this from happening.
The company installed Motorola FX9500 readers and multiple antennas at the gates of the three storage areas to identify incoming and outgoing vehicles.
Installed on the windshield of every vehicleRFIDThe tag, the tag code has a unique ID number, and is bound to the vehicle information. When the empty vehicle approaches the gate, the reader will read the vehicle and transmit this information through the wireless network.
After the truck is loaded with poles and transformers. Drivers still need to fill out paper forms. When the vehicle leaves the gate, the RFID system will read the event and determine which items were removed and record it.
Westar staff will collect and process these paper forms. In addition, every day staff also need to compare the inventory data of the company’s host system and RFID solution. Boswell said that if a discrepancy is found, the staff will need to carry a Motorola MC3190-Z reader to read the ID number of each tag for inventory counting. Boswell said that the technology reduces labor costs and ensures the correctness of inventory.
(Exclusive manuscript of rfid world network, please indicate the source author for reprinting!)
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