2027 Event Agenda

When a field crew member can confirm a job and pull asset history without leaving the truck cab, a digital transformation has moved beyond rollout and into real adoption. Dominion Energy reached that point, but not on the first try.

Dominion Energy’s Enterprise Work and Asset Management transformation was designed to modernize how crews, dispatchers, and supervisors manage field work. Early on, the system missed the mark. Dispatchers had to move across multiple screens to manage a single job, and crews were asked to follow steps that did not match how work actually gets done in the field. That was more than a usability issue. It slowed emergent work response, increased the risk of missed or misrouted assignments, and limited the reliability value the platform should have delivered during outage response and restoration.

Dominion corrected course by treating usability as an operational requirement. Dispatcher workflows were redesigned so work could be coordinated in one place instead of several, reducing delay when speed mattered most. Crew workflows were simplified to match how people actually move through work in the field, making the system easier to use under real operating conditions. Field as-builts were also easier to complete, improving asset record accuracy at the source and strengthening the data used for outage analysis, switching, and restoration planning. Audible alerts were added for newly assigned and unassigned emergent work, helping close the gap between a field event and crew action. Just as important, each user group was prepared for its role so the system could be used more consistently in day-to-day operations and outage events.

The results showed up where utilities feel them. Crews spent less time fighting the tool and more time restoring service. Audible alerting helped emergent work reach the right crew faster and reduced truck rolls lost to miscommunication or missed assignments. The result was shorter restoration timelines, better crew utilization, and stronger outage response performance, with direct relevance to CAIDI, SAIDI, and ETR. Better real-time awareness of field activity also improved Dominion Energy’s customer communication during active work. Over time, more accurate field as-builts strengthened asset record integrity, supporting better outage prediction, more accurate switching instructions, and fewer restoration errors.

Attendees will hear a practical lesson many utilities face in major field system programs: if the workflow does not fit the work, the value does not show up in the field. Dominion Energy’s experience shows how to identify that problem early and correct it through dispatcher workflow redesign, simpler field execution, targeted alerting, and role-based readiness. The lesson applies broadly to utilities trying to improve adoption, field execution, and outage response without changing platforms.