Aperture for Electricity Networks
Turn grid complexity into clearer operational decisions
Overview
Aperture helps electricity network operators bring together operational, asset, enterprise and external data to understand changing conditions, assess risk and support faster, better-informed action.
Designed for transmission and distribution environments, Aperture works with the systems you already have and can take advantage of platforms such as GE Vernova GridOS® Data Fabric and GridOS Connect where these are part of the customer environment.
The Grid Challenge
More data. More dependencies. Less time to interpret what matters.
Electricity networks are becoming more complex to operate
Operators are managing:
Ageing assets
Increasing weather exposure
Growing volumes of operational data
More distributed energy resources
Greater interdependency across systems
Increasing reliability and resilience expectations
Fragmented information across control, asset, enterprise and external systems
When conditions change, the challenge is often not a lack of data. It is the time required to assemble the right context, understand what it means and decide what to do next.
Aperture is designed to help close that gap.
What Aperture Does for Grid Operators
From operational data to usable context
Aperture brings together information from across the grid environment and helps teams interpret what is happening in the context of assets, customers, weather, procedures and operational priorities.
Contextual Awareness
Combine operational state, asset condition, weather, event history and other relevant information to build a clearer picture of the situation.
Operator Copiloting
Help operators understand likely causes, assess consequences, compare options and identify appropriate next actions.
Operational Learning
Capture decisions, actions and outcomes so operational knowledge can be reused and improved over time
Priority Grid Use Cases
Start with practical grid decisions where better context creates value
Aperture is best introduced through focused use cases where operational, asset, customer and external data can be brought together to support faster interpretation and more consistent action. Example potential use cases include:
Incident and Outage Response
Bring together alarms, network state, asset information, weather, procedures and historical context to help teams understand what is happening and coordinate the response.
Potential Outcomes:
Faster situational awareness
Reduced time spent assembling incident context
More coordinated restoration and field response
More consistent decisions during high-pressure events
Congestion Management
Combine power-flow assessments, demand and generation forecasts, available flexibility and action costs to help teams compare congestion-relief options and identify additional actual usable grid capacity within operational security limits.
Potential Outcomes:
Clearer assessment of secure usable grid capacity
Better comparison of redispatch and countertrading options
Reduced need for renewable generation curtailment
More cost-effective congestion management
Restoration Prioritisation
Compare outage extent, customer impact, asset condition, crew availability, access constraints, switching options and operational risk to support faster restoration planning.
Potential Outcomes:
Clearer restoration priorities
Better use of operational and field resources
Reduced outage duration and customer impact
Better visibility of constraints and dependencies
Asset Risk and Intervention Planning
Combine asset health, loading, defect history, maintenance records, weather exposure and network criticality to identify where intervention is most important.
Potential Outcomes:
Improved asset-risk visibility
Better targeting of maintenance and inspections
Reduced reactive work
Stronger basis for capital and operational planning
Weather and External Event Preparedness
Bring together weather forecasts, fire risk, flood risk, vegetation exposure, asset vulnerability and operational constraints to support earlier preparation and response planning.
Potential Outcomes:
Earlier awareness of emerging operational risk
Better preparedness for severe weather and disruptive events
Improved prioritisation of field resources
Reduced operational and customer impact
Network Constraint Management
Bring together network loading, planned outages, asset limits, switching options, DER behaviour, customer impact and operational constraints to help teams understand where the network is constrained and what options are available.
Potential Outcomes:
Earlier visibility emerging network constraints
Better coordination of switching, outage and field options
Improved understanding of operational trade-offs
More confident constraints mitigation decisions
DER Visibility
Connect DER, demand, generation, network state, customer data and operational limits to help teams understand how distributed resources are affecting local conditions and decision options.
Potential Outcomes:
Improved visibility of DER contribution and impact
Better coordination of local network behaviour
Stronger support for flexibility and demand-response decisions
Clearer context for managing voltage, loading and congestion
Scenario Planning for Resilience
Use operational data, asset risk, weather exposure, outage history, resource availability and dependency information to test scenarios and understand how different preparation or response choices could affect outcomes.
Potential Outcomes:
Stronger resilience and contingency planning
Better understanding of vulnerabilities and dependencies
Improved resource positioning before disruptive events
More confident decisions about preparation, restoration and recovery
Built Around the Existing Grid Environment
Aperture complements the systems already running the network
Aperture does not replace core operational platforms such as SCADA, EMS, ADMS or asset systems. Instead, it works across and above them to help connect information and decision context.
Potential sources include:
SCADA
EMS
ADMS
GIS
Asset management systems
Maintenance systems
ERP
Data platforms
Weather services
Sensor and IoT data
Procedures and operational documentation
External event feeds
Conceptually:
Operational systems + asset systems + enterprise data + external context
Customer data and integration environment
Aperture
Operator insight and coordinated action
Working with GridOS
Designed to work on GridOS, but not dependent on it
Where customers already use GE Vernova GridOS Data Fabric and GridOS Connect, Aperture can take advantage of that environment as a strong data and integration foundation.
This can help make existing operational and enterprise data more useful in the context of specific operational decisions and use cases.
Aperture can also operate in environments using other data and integration platforms.
GridOS is therefore an enabling option, not a prerequisite.
Outcomes
Improve the outcomes that matter most to network operators
Depending on the starting use case, Aperture can help grid operators improve performance across reliability, restoration, asset decision-making, resilience and operator effectiveness.
Reliability and Restoration Performance
Aperture helps teams understand incidents faster, prioritise restoration activity and coordinate action across control room, field and customer teams.
Potential Outcomes:
Faster incident understanding
Faster restoration planning
Reduced outage duration and customer impact
Better coordination between control room, field and customer teams
Asset Performance
Aperture connects asset condition, operational loading, maintenance history and network context to support better prioritisation of maintenance, inspection and investment decisions.
Potential Outcomes:
Improved visibility of changing asset risk across the network
Better maintenance prioritisation
Reduced reactive work
Stronger evidence for capital prioritisation and operational planning
Resilience and Preparedness
Aperture helps teams understand how weather, events, dependencies and operational constraints could affect the network, so they can plan earlier and respond more consistently.
Potential Outcomes:
Earlier preparedness for severe weather and disruptive external events
Improved understanding of operational dependencies and constraints
Stronger scenario planning for resilience, restoration and resource positioning
More consistent response across teams, regions and shifts
Operator Effectiveness
Aperture reduces the effort required to gather information, helping operators access relevant context faster and make more consistent decisions across teams, regions and shifts.
Potential Outcomes:
Reduced manual data gathering
Reduced cognitive load
Faster access to relevant context
More consistent decisions
Better capture and reuse of operational knowledge
Start with a Grid Proof of Value
Start with one high-value grid problem
Aperture is designed to be introduced through a focused Proof of Value built around a real operational use case.
A Grid PoV can help determine:
Whether the use case creates meaningful operational value
Whether the required data is available
How Aperture fits into the existing environment
What success should look like
Whether there is a credible path to production deployment
Start with one high-value grid problem
Discover
Configure
Integrate
Demonstrate
Measure
Recommend
Good starting use cases are typically:
High value
Clearly bounded
Measurable
Supported by accessible data
Important to operational stakeholders
Capable of being expanded after the initial PoV
Tell us about a grid reliability, restoration, asset risk or operational decision challenge. We can help assess whether it is a strong candidate for an Aperture Proof of Value.