Analytics for Power Grid Distribution Reliability in New York City

We summarize the first major effort to use analytics for preemptive maintenance and repair of an electrical distribution network. This is a large-scale multi-year effort between scientists and students at Columbia and MIT and engineers from Con Edison, which operates the world’s oldest and largest underground electrical system. Con Edison’s preemptive maintenance programs are less than a decade old, and are made more effective with the use of analytics developing alongside the maintenance programs themselves. Some of the data used for our projects are historical records dating as far back as the 1880’s, and some of the data are free text documents typed by dispatchers. The operational goals of this work are to assist with Con Edison’s preemptive inspection and repair program, and its vented cover replacement program. This has a continuing impact on public safety, operating costs, and reliability of electrical service in New York City.