Equinox Software Design Corporation

30th Anniversary

Scalable, flexible, powerful.

CROW is an enterprise-class software solution designed to enforce higher standards in outage coordination, scheduling, logging, switching, reliability analysis and work safety, while reducing operating costs and streamlining business processes. CROW is meant for generation, transmission and distribution utilities, reliability coordinators, balancing authorities, independent system operators, power pools and cooperatives.

CROW is for:

  • Generation
  • Transmission
  • Distribution
  • Cooperatives
  • Balancing
  • Independent System Operators
  • Reliability Coordinators

Make weighted decisions with less effort and more confidence.

CROW is designed with flexibility in mind.

An administrator or a grid operator can quickly move around to oversee large volumes of data. They can also make fine adjustments to display precisely what is necessary for a task, required by a policy, or a current system status.

CROW is meant for a wide range of professionals: outage coordinators, power grid dispatchers, power line technicians, protection, control and safety engineers, control centre staff and corporate management. The CROW production workflow helps them to communicate effortlessly, making decisions quicker and with more confidence.

Stay in control with complex data flows.

CROW improves data quality by standardizing the lookup values and validation rules. A manager or an operator work more efficiently with the CROW intelligent data input form templates. A user friendly clutter-free user interface offers a compact and easy to read data display, keyword search and a contextual navigation.

A centralized database enables quick searches for accessing the data, while a hierarchal system of roles and permissions makes it secure, reliable and easier to manage. A scalable application architecture allows manipulation of a dataset of any size up to several thousand records at a time. Cross-platform automated notifications make sure of continuous and secure exchange of system messages and alerts between all designated members of a workgroup, whether they are in a control room or on a remote site.

Complete control of outages and event logs, wherever you work.

CROW delivers a responsive, cross‑platform web application and a powerful standards‑based API, giving operators full control of outage scheduling, logging, switching, permitting, reporting, and notifications from any modern device. Whether you’re in the control room, out in the field, or integrating CROW with other systems, the same configurable workflows and business rules are available at your fingertips.

  • Control Room
  • Field/Office Access
  • Mobile Access
  • API Integration

Management that reaches every line in your network.

The CROW web application provides a modern, powerful and responsive interface that runs in any current web browser across the enterprise, from control‑room workstations to office and field laptops, tablets and smart phones, without plug‑ins or special installs. It delivers configurable workflows and business rules while adapting seamlessly to the screen and environment you are working in.

The CROW API is a dedicated, standards‑based web services interface for system‑to‑system integration, including EMS/SCADA, other CROW instances, reporting platforms and data‑exchange applications. It offers secure, flexible data access so CROW can fit into existing architectures and support complex grid‑operations workflows.

CROW offers limitless workflow possibilities.

CROW comes preconfigured with a set of carefully tailored functional components. Each of them can be configured and customized to fit precisely into the business model of your company.

CROW essentials:

  • Outage scheduling and coordination
  • Electronic logging
  • Switching orders
  • Change requests
  • Work permits and safety
  • Report builder
  • Reliability analysis
  • Role permissions

Discover CROW essentials:

Outage scheduling and coordination

The comprehensive Outage Scheduling component helps a user to carefully plan and schedule outages while coordinating multiple approvals and notifications, including features to help manage the issuance and return of permits and clearances. Even though forced outages are not planned, the Outage Scheduling module can help coordinate the outage with notifications and structured switching orders.

Electronic logging

The Electronic Logging component is used for the recording and management of logged events, which can cover a wide range of recordable information. It is based on a configurable and customizable framework, which permits the creation of new types of logged data in addition to those that come preconfigured. Integrated with the most powerful of its features, CROW’s Electronic Logging module is one of the most comprehensive logging solutions available.

Switching orders

The Switching Orders component allows users easily create a switching sequence that can be associated with a planned or a forced outage in order to improve work safety.

Change requests

When security rules prevent certain users from making changes to the outage request (for example when it's been approved), the Change Requests component allows those users to request changes. Authorized users can review the clearly highlighted changes and decide if the requested changes are acceptable. If approved, the requested changes are applied to the original outage request.

Work permits and safety

The Permits component allows users to request the permits and clearances required to safely perform the work related to an outage. The requester may be validated against a database of authorized users and the permit may follow its own approval and issuance workflow. Permits may also be cross-referenced with switching orders.

Report builder

The Report Builder component offers a variety of integrated settings and filters to prepare comprehensive reports on outages or logged events. A report can be printed, exported or sent to workgroup members by email or as a notification attachment. The report settings and filters can be saved and re-used to build future reports and can even be scheduled for regular automatic preparation and delivery.

Reliability analysis

The Reliability Analysis component provides protection analysis and statistical coding for forced outages on the electric system. This function is fully integrated with forced outage logging, and provides protection-zone based follow-up for forced outages. It also provides the source data for system reliability reporting.

Role permissions

The Role Permissions component assigns a specified set of responsibilities, access levels and code-of-conduct accordance to each member of a workgroup quickly and effectively. Role definitions can also inherit the properties of other roles, allowing for the ease in set-up of a hierarchy of privileges.

Keep your enterprise in touch with important outages and events.

The embedded CROW notification system integrates deeply with all components and modules and makes sure that every relevant stakeholder is kept informed instantly.

CROW offers:

  • Universal data exchange
  • Stakeholder communication
  • System notifications

CROW is designed for easy and secure data exchange.

As there are often systems that CROW needs to both source data from, as well as feed data to, the CROW Web Services API is utilized in these scenarios and is well suited to the task. An open API architecture allows CROW to integrate with third party systems easily and effectively. Typical uses are for system-to-system access, such as CROW to CROW connections, equipment and inventory sources, HR, EMS/SCADA or reporting applications.

CROW notifications are always at your service.

The CROW integrated notification service can automatically send instant messages privately and securely to a single person, within a dedicated workgroup or a system-wide. Role Permissions help to direct notifications to their recipients. The notifications in the CROW Mobile client allow an operator or a field technician to always be in touch with recent additions and updates.

CROW means trust and reliability.

For over 25 years, CROW has helped more than 1,000 organizations, including small to large electric utilities, reliability coordinators, independent system operators, power pools, cooperatives, and their associated member utilities with the important task of coordinating outages and logging grid events.

Find out how CROW can help your organization.

With its relative ease of use, rich functionality and impressive extendibility, CROW shows a much deeper potential for your outage management and logging needs than it may seem at first. Contact us today and learn how the CROW software family will fit perfectly into your operation's needs. Our consultants would be happy to assist you in your CROW evaluation, helping to find the best solution for your business needs.

Contact us today