PowerDB Pro Test Data Management Software can help with your compliance to NERC PRC-005-2.
When the time comes for your NERC audit, will you be prepared to produce the evidence that confirms your maintenance and testing plan? PowerDB’s asset organization, test forms, and reporting capabilities can provide the information you need, when you need it.
Organizing all your critical assets is made simple when using the tools provided by PowerDB. Add new apparatus into the database using our “entry wizard” and you instantly create the locations and designations that identify your equipment.
PowerDB’s test form library includes forms for a wide variety of equipment types from relays to batteries, transformers and many more. The test forms provide a user interface for both data entry and reporting, helping to provide consistency in your test and maintenance procedures. And customizing forms or creating new ones can be done in-house even with the most basic installation. PowerDB’s forms also have the built-in capability of communicating with many different test instruments, enabling automated data entry. This can speed up your data handling and eliminate many of the errors associated with manual keyboard entry.
It doesn’t matter if you have multiple locations feeding data into the system. Each user can work remotely, then connect to a “master” database to upload all information into one file. This is key to keeping all your test data up-to-date and available for everyone at a moment’s notice.
PowerDB also contains a maintenance scheduler, which you configure, that will let you enter default maintenance periods for any asset. This can be customized for particular assets, if desired, based on your own assessment of its condition. Use this feature not only to keep up with critical maintenance, but plan for upcoming outages and resource requirements.
Compliance report needed? No problem. A simple summary report shows each asset and its location, including the previous two test dates, the defined maintenance period and next scheduled test date in an easy to read format.
A compliance scheduler option is available that allows directly viewing a list of all assets that fall under NERC compliance requirements. The compliance ‘view’ includes a calendar lined up with the asset list to show each asset’s current compliance status. The calendar can be adjusted to any date in the past or future to show status at any desired time. The asset list can be filtered by category or subcategory, location, status, equipment ID, and in many other ways so that you can find one particular asset or a group of assets. Assets coming due can be located easily and selected for inclusion in a job or work order. The compliance option allows categories and subcategories to be set up and assigned to assets on either an individual asset-by-asset basis or to groups of assets.
With features like this, PowerDB will provide you with a cost-effective solution for not only complying with NERC and other regulatory requirements, but also managing all your maintenance and testing data.
PowerDB Pro is typically provided with relational databases that are designed using the Microsoft Access format. This allows great flexibility when used on laptop PC’s that need to operate in remote, stand-alone situations.
MS Access databases are an industry standard, having been used extensively in applications of all types for many years. PowerDB has used this type of database with great success, and users of PowerDB have utilized the standard database for collecting many years worth of test data and maintenance records.
The Access format does have some limitations, though, which are well known by software and IT personnel. This includes a functional limit in the size that the database can grow to. Access databases can also become corrupted for various reasons and can require TLC in regard to regular maintenance, including table validation and compacting.
PowerDB is also compatible with SQL Server. SQL Server is a relational database type that is a higher-end client/server database. SQL databases are not subject to the same size limitations as Access databases, and can provide greater stability.
Upgrading PowerDB to SQL Server requires a user to already have SQL licenses and software on their network servers. Please contact PowerDB support for more information.
