Switching order management that simulates every step on the live network, so an unsafe step is blocked before anyone touches the network
Every switching step checked before anyone touches the network.
See one case, screen by screen ↓Before anyone works on a de-energised cable, the control room writes a switching order: the breakers to open, the switches to lock, the sections to prove dead and the earths to apply, and later the reverse. Most orders are written by cloning the last order for the same assets and editing it, then checked by a second engineer who reads it. A restoration step that was right in the old order can be wrong in the new one, and a reader who sees a familiar sequence passes it.
The errors that hurt people are sequence errors: closing onto an earthed section, earthing a section still live from the far end, opening a disconnector on load, issuing a permit before every earth is on. The errors that hurt customers are break-before-make steps that drop a whole feeder when an alternative feed was there. And after the job, the record often does not close: field confirmations logged after the SCADA event, a clearance released by the wrong person, an earth still recorded as applied after its permit was cancelled.
Estimated split for one planned 11 kV switching order, in hours, by hand and with the solution — sized for a writer with 30–40 orders a week and a checker with 6–10 a day.
Six agents find, draft, simulate and check every switching order on the live network, then reconcile it against SCADA; the senior control engineer approves and signs.
Lumina Utilities' Distribution Control North has a cable joint to replace on the Palm Quarter ring: joint J-14 on 11 kV cable Marisol F4 – PQ1 Cedar Lane, on Thursday 15 October, 09:00–15:30. Here is what happens to its switching order, screen by screen, in the working solution.
An online partial-discharge alarm on 7 Oct reads 2,400 pC at joint J-14 against an alarm level of 500 pC, trending up since August. Joel raises work request WR-48213: points of isolation CB F4 at Marisol Primary and switch PQ1-A at PQ1 Cedar Lane, earths ES-F4 and PQ1-AE, and PQ1–PQ6 kept on supply from Westhaven via W7 — 1,654 customers, 3.1 MW. Four priority customers are on the ring, including Northgate Clinic's dialysis unit.
“I need the cable dead and earthed both ends from nine till half three. Nobody on the ring should lose supply.” — Joel Mwangi
Ravi writes SO-26-0418 rev A, 16 steps, cloned from SO-25-0911, a November 2025 joint on cable PQ1–PQ2. The agents check it as soon as he submits. The prior-order finder finds 3 earlier orders on CB F4 and PQ1 and shows rev A is 81 % identical to SO-25-0911. The network simulator runs all 16 steps from the SCADA states on the Marisol–Westhaven model.
Prior-order finder: “rev A is 81% identical to SO-25-0911 — step 7 copied unchanged from its step 9”
Rev A opens CB F4 at Marisol before switch PQ6-B is closed. On the diagram every RMU from PQ1 to PQ6 goes off supply: 1,654 customers, including Northgate Clinic and 3 life-support registrations, for the roughly 22 minutes it takes to reach PQ6 — 36,388 customer minutes on a job that needed none. SO-25-0911 did exactly this.
LSR 5.4 · “An alternative feed exists: close PQ6-B first.” — Warning
At step 6 the crew closes earth switch ES-F4, so cable F4–PQ1 is earthed. Step 7, copied from SO-25-0911 step 9, closes CB F4 to restore supply. In the old order the worked section was PQ1–PQ2 and this cable was never earthed. Here CB F4 would close onto the crew's earths. The run stops, CB F4 is ringed in red on the diagram and the step is marked Blocked: it cannot be issued.
“LSR 4.3 · CB F4 would close onto cable F4–PQ1, earthed by ES-F4 at step 6. This step cannot be issued.”
The order drafter proposes rev B as a side-by-side change to the order, not a rewrite. Close PQ6-B now comes before Open CB F4, so all 1,654 customers stay on supply. The copied step 7 is removed: the restoration close of CB F4 already sits at new step 13, after both earths are off. Earths, permit and restoration are unchanged; 15 steps.
The drafter changes as little as possible and explains each change. It never issues or approves an order.
Rev B is applied and the simulator re-runs every step: 0 blocked, 0 customers off supply, 3 notes. The brief parallel of Marisol and Westhaven through PQ6-B is permitted, both on Coral Ridge 132 kV at an angle of 0.4°. W7 Ridgeway carries 7.3 MW of its 8.0 MW rating (91 %), forecast 7.6 MW (95 %) at the 15:00 peak — within the limit.
LSR 7.1 · “W7 Ridgeway at 7.3 MW of 8.0 MW (91%); forecast 7.6 MW (95%) at the 15:00 peak — within the 100% limit.” — Note
Approve and sign stays shut while any step is blocked or warned. With rev B clean, Leila sees the order, the work, the window, 15 of 15 steps simulated with 0 blocked, and 0 customers off at every step. She signs with her password and the meaning “Checked and approved for issue”. Kwame Asante issues it on Thursday at 09:00, with permit PTW-26-3318 to Tomás Reyes.
“I read every step twice. It's the step I read once that worries me.” — Leila Haddad
While SO-26-0409, CB 3K2 maintenance at Kingsgate Primary 33 kV, runs, Kwame instructs Hamid Rahimi on radio channel 4. Each step carries the time instructed, the repeat-back, the field confirmation and the SCADA event — 3K2 ISOLATED 09:21:57, ES-3K2 CLOSED 09:30:52 — and the order reconciler marks each one Match. Step 7, the permit, waits for Kwame to confirm it.
“Repeat-back, confirm, next. One step at a time.” — Kwame Asante
SO-26-0396, a cooling fan replacement on transformer T1 at Westhaven Primary, finished Monday at 16:58. 13 of 15 steps matched SCADA and the radio log automatically; 4 of 4 earths were applied and removed. Two flags go to Leila: the field confirmation that ES-T1H was open came in after the disconnector and CB 3T1 had closed, and the clearance for PTW-26-3288 was released by the control room operator, not by Hamid Rahimi, who received it.
“The earth was off in time; the record is not.” · LSR 6.5: only the person who received a clearance may release it, unless a transfer is recorded.
The earths board lists 11 earths under 5 clearances, from SCADA, permits and field confirmations. Ten are under a live permit. E-HR3 at Harbour Road substation, transformer T3, is still recorded as applied 40 hours after permit PTW-26-3290 was cancelled. Until it is confirmed removed, LSR 4.3 blocks any close onto T3's 11 kV side; Leila asks the field to confirm, with a photo.
“Still recorded · 40 h after permit cancelled”
The same switching order, seen by the five people who own it — what their week looked like, and what it looks like now.
Six agents find, draft, simulate and check every switching order on the live network, then reconcile it against SCADA; the senior control engineer approves and signs.
Searches 5 years of switching orders, incidents and complaints on the same devices and sections, scores how much of a draft was copied, and checks whether each copied step's worked section, earths and feeds still match this order.
Drafts the switching and restoration sequence from the work request, clearance requirement and connectivity model — isolation boundary, points of isolation, earths, make before break — or proposes a revision that clears a finding.
Steps every action through the network model from the current SCADA states and, after each step, works out live, dead and earthed sections, customers off supply, feeder loading against rating with the forecast for the window, and any parallel between sources.
Tests every simulated step against the 10 rules of the Lumina Switching Safety Rules, issue 7, and reports each finding with the rule, the step, the device and the simulated state that triggered it. A Block finding stops the order from being issued.
Lists the customers off supply at each step by site, with priority and life-support registrations, works out customer minutes from the order's timings, and checks that notices for planned interruptions go out in time.
During and after execution, matches each step's radio-log instruction, field confirmation and SCADA event; flags out-of-order records, devices without telemetry that lack evidence, clearances released by someone other than the receiver, and earths still recorded after their permit is cancelled.
Approves and signs. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Ask in plain words about an order, an earth or a rule — or say what to change. Every answer points to the rule, the simulated state or the record behind it.
Why is step 7 of SO-26-0418 blocked?
Step 7 of rev A closes CB F4 onto an earthed cable. At step 6 ES-F4 is closed, so cable F4–PQ1 is earthed; closing F4 from the live Marisol busbar onto it breaks rule 4.3. The step was copied unchanged from SO-25-0911 step 9, where the worked section was PQ1–PQ2 and the cable from Marisol was never earthed. Rev B deletes it; the restoration close of F4 already sits after both earths are off.
Who would lose supply under rev A?
At step 3, opening CB F4 before PQ6-B is closed drops all 1,654 customers on PQ1–PQ6, including Northgate Clinic's dialysis unit and 3 life-support registrations, for the ~22-minute drive to PQ6: 36,388 customer minutes. The request asked for the ring to stay on supply, and rule 5.4 asks for make before break. Rev B closes PQ6-B first: nobody goes off.
Which earths are on the network right now?
11 earths under 5 clearances. Ten are under a live permit. One needs you: E-HR3 at Harbour Road T3 is still recorded as applied 40 hours after permit PTW-26-3290 was cancelled.
Make a control-room close wait for the field to confirm the earths are off
Proposed as rule 6.6 (Block): “A close from the control room waits for the field to confirm every earth on the section is off.” Yesterday's SO-26-0396 shows why: CB 3T1 closed at 16:51, four minutes before the earth removal was confirmed. It applies to orders checked from now on, once the Head of Network Control signs it.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
What the checker enforces, who signs and how fast the record must close are settings, owned by the control room.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Also a second senior engineer for | 33 kV+, or priority customers off | 33 kV+, or priority customers off · 132 kV only |
| Tell the engineer above / block above | 90 % / 100 % of rating | Feeder loading after a transfer, as a share of the feeder's rating |
| Forecast used | Peak of the work window | Peak of the work window · Now |
| Parallels permitted | Same 132 kV group, under 10° | Same 132 kV group, under 10° · Never |
| Make before break | Warn if another feed exists | Warn if another feed exists · Block |
| Priority and life-support notice | 48 hours | Notice before a planned interruption; other customers 5 days |
| Travel time between sites | From the crew's last location | From the crew's last location · Fixed 20 min |
| Reconcile every completed order within | 12 hours | Stale-earth alert 2 hours after a permit is cancelled; devices without telemetry need a photo and repeat-back |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample network data · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures (BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries 2024, via Relia Magazine — electrical power-line installers and repairers, 13.8 fatalities per 100,000 full-time workers against 3.3 for all workers). Regulatory context: OSHA 29 CFR 1910.269(m) (de-energising lines; clearance release by the employee in charge); Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, reg. 13. Lumina Utilities, its network, substations, customers, people and records named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
Software that takes a switching order from the work request to a checked, signed and reconciled order: the sequence of breakers to open, switches to lock, sections to prove dead and earths to apply, and the restoration. Switching Order Management adds six agents that find prior orders, draft the sequence, simulate every step on the live network, check the safety rules and the customer impact, and reconcile the completed order against SCADA. The senior control engineer approves and signs.
The network simulator steps every action through the network model from the current SCADA states. After each step it shows which sections are live, dead or earthed, which customers are off supply and how loaded the feeders are. The safety rule checker tests each step against your switching rules; a step that breaks a block-level rule, such as closing onto an earth, is blocked and the order cannot be issued.
Yes. The prior-order finder shows how much of a draft was copied and from which order, and checks whether each copied step's worked section, earths and feeds still match. In the sample case it found rev A was 81 % identical to a 2025 order, with step 7 copied from a job where the cable was never earthed.
The customer impact checker counts the customers off at every step, names priority and life-support customers, and warns when a step breaks before it makes while another feed exists. The order drafter then sequences make before break. In the sample order that kept 1,654 customers, including a dialysis unit, on supply.
Yes. The order reconciler matches each step's instruction, repeat-back, field confirmation and SCADA event, during and after execution. It flags out-of-sequence records, clearances released by someone other than the person who received them, devices without telemetry that lack evidence, and earths still recorded after their permit is cancelled.
Yes. The agents read the network model and SCADA but never operate a device, issue or approve an order, or release a clearance. A blocked step has no override; every order needs the senior control engineer's e-signature with its meaning, and rule changes need the Head of Network Control's signature.
Yes. The rules are yours, by section and issue, and each is set to Block or Warning. Approvers, the second-engineer rule, loading limits, parallels, make before break, notice periods, travel time and the reconciliation clock are all settings. A new rule can be back-tested against your completed orders before it is signed.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your switching rules, order template, network model and a sample of completed orders — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own switching orders first.
Every answer as numbered steps, with the exceptions beside them, not pages later.
1-min demoControl Room Shift LogNo abnormal condition lost at shift change.
1-min demoPlanned Outage ManagementNo outage approved while its backup feed is out, and every customer told in time.
1-min demoWe'll run Switching Order Management on a sample of your own completed switching orders and your network model.