GridWatch: Planned Outage Management & Switching Plans
How GetPost Labs would build the network controller's outage workflow: access requests read and switching plans and safety documents drafted by AI agents, notice periods and clashes checked by rules, and every plan checked and approved by your controller. The AI never operates the network.
Executive Summary
The Problem: Every planned outage starts with a request for access to the network. Someone has to prepare the isolations, the switching plan and the safety documents, arrange the outage with customers and other authorities, and have it all checked before the crew arrives. The information sits in the access request, the network model, past switching plans and email, so each plan is assembled by hand.
The Solution: GridWatch gives the reading of access requests and the first draft of the switching plan and safety documents to AI agents, working from past plans and the network model. Customer notice periods, life-support customers, clashes with other outages and document completeness are fixed rules in software. The network controller checks and approves every plan, and authorised people carry out every switch — never the AI.
The Outcome: Controllers check drafted plans instead of writing each one from scratch, customers get their notice on time, and every outage keeps its request, plan, approval and restoration on one record.
The Challenge
Understanding the problem space
"Prepare planned and unplanned isolations, switching instructions, work requests, switching plans and safety documentation to enable safe network access."
— A duty listed in a current Australian network control specialist job ad (SEEK, September 2026)
Current electricity network control-room ads describe the same work: prepare isolations, switching instructions and safety documentation, coordinate requests for access to the network, arrange outages with other authorities and customers, and respond to faults and emergencies.
A switching plan is careful, repetitive writing that depends on information held elsewhere — the network model, the last plan for that feeder, the crew's work request, the customers who will lose supply. When it is assembled by hand across systems and email, planned work queues behind the few people qualified to write and check it.
Source: 4 electricity network control-room job ads in Australia on SEEK, September 2026 (dispatch and non-electricity roles in the search results excluded). Employers not named.
The Solution
What GetPost Labs would build
Core Capabilities
Where the Time Comes Back
Checking, not writing from scratch
The controller stops writing each plan from a blank page and starts checking what the agent has drafted:
Switching Plans
Find the last plan for that part of the network, copy it, adjust each step by hand and re-check it against the diagram.
The agent has drafted the plan from past plans and the network model. The controller checks every step and approves or corrects it.
Customer Notices
Pull the affected customer list, check the notice period and life-support register by hand, then send letters and texts.
Rules check the notice period and flag life-support customers, and the affected customers are notified from the approved plan.
Outage Clashes
Check the outage calendar and email other authorities to see whether planned work overlaps.
A rule flags any clash with other planned outages before the plan reaches the controller.
BPMN Workflow
The business process modelled
Planned Outage: Request to Restored
User Journey
A Planned Outage, Request to Restored
Scenario: A regional electricity distributor. A field crew needs a planned outage to replace a pole-top transformer on a rural feeder next week.
Submits a network access request for the transformer replacement, with the work request number and preferred date
Reads the request, finds the last plans for that feeder, and drafts the switching sequence and isolation points from the network model
Drafts the access permit and safety documents to the business's template, listing the isolation and earthing points from the draft plan
Checks the customer notice period can be met, flags two life-support customers on the feeder, finds no clash with other planned outages and confirms every required document is attached
Checks every step against the network diagram, corrects one isolation point, and approves the plan. Customers are notified from the approved plan
Authorised operators carry out the switching as directed by the controller; the crew replaces the transformer under the permit
Directs the restoration switching, confirms supply is back and closes the outage. Request, plan, approval and switching log kept on one record
Outcome: The transformer is replaced in a planned outage with every plan, check and approval on one record. The agent drafted; the controller checked, approved and ran the network.
Interactive Prototype
Functional dashboard demonstrating the concept
Network Status
Real-time monitoring
© 2026 GETPOST Labs. Full Stack Engineering Solutions.
Functional prototype. Click on cells and entries to see interactions.
System Context
Where GridWatch fits in the ecosystem
Have a Similar Problem?
This is the kind of workflow automation GetPost Labs builds. If your organisation has similar challenges, we'd love to discuss how a custom solution might help.