For those that have made the investment, this is good news. For those that have not, this is bad news since they may find themselves farther behind than they expected. Come and listen to examples of the potential benefits on the production side.

Introduction

The electric utility industry continues to undergo significant change in all corners of the world. Nearly all of these changes put pressures on electric utility companies to improve their business. Electric utilities are reorganizing to streamline the business, attempting to react more quickly, become more efficient, accomplish more with less, and generally operate more like a competitive business and less like a regulated utility.

Investments in information systems, if managed carefully, can provide relief from many of the pressures that electric utility companies are facing. Some of the systems that have the highest potential for providing real performance gains for electric utilities are systems that address issues and provide functionality for the operations activities within the company. Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Outage Management Systems (OMS), and Work Management Systems (WMS) are some of the systems that can have the largest impact.

In this paper, we will explore many of the ways that the functionality of - and information within the GIS can provide benefits for an electric utility. We will explore this from the perspective of the GIS on its own merits, as well as integrated with other corporate information systems. Potential Improvement Made Available by GIS

There are many topics that can be discussed pertaining to the potential improvements brought about by implementation of a GIS into an electric utility organization. The list that will be included in this discussion is as follows:

Job Design
Job Engineering and Estimating
Approval Process
Integration with Work Management
Integration with Customer Information
Integration with Outage Management
Integration with Planning & Engineering
Field Information
Web Based Connection
Outage Visualization
Underground Utility Protection
Job/Work Routing
Vegetation Management
National Weather Service Updates
Lightning Strike Data and Information
Meter Read Route Management
Corporate Building and Land Management
Vehicle Location Tracking

Obviously additional items can be thought of. However, we will focus on items that are the most common and achievable, and that are known to provide some of the highest benefits.

Each of these topics will be discussed from at least one perspective of how GIS can provide benefit to the organization. It should be obvious to the reader that additional possibilities exist and should be considered and prioritized based on a cost / benefit type analysis within each particular implementation.

Job Design

When an electric utility makes changes of any significance based on either a customer request, or some internal requirement, a graphic representation of the desired adjustments is almost always prepared. This graphic representation, along with the intelligent considerations of the designer or engineer on what should be done, can be considered the job design. The actual physical implementation of the job design by the field service work force generally represents what was intended by the job design, with the exception of minor field adjustments due to physical constraints (material unavailability, major rock in pole location, etc.)

When the job is complete, the information from the job design, along with notes on the minor field adjustments is used to update the corporate maps, records, and information systems.

The potential for significant efficiency and performance gains exist if the job design is performed within the GIS environment. Assuming it is, the job design remains in a pre-posted (or proposed activity) state until the job is complete, and the field changes are applied. At that time the job can be moved or promoted to production, and the corporate maps and information systems reflect the most recent adjustments to the system.

In utilities where this type of process has been successfully implemented, effort required by the mapping group after jobs are completed has been reduced to simply confirming the designer or engineer has followed the appropriate standards and graphic representations. Most GIS solutions can assist in the conformance to standards, etc. by automated checks and rules implementations while the job designer is preparing the job initially

Significant performance and efficiency gains exist when a GIS functions in the described manor at a utility. In most cases, resources otherwise required for map and information system maintenance can be made available for other activities in the company. These savings are sometimes limited by the political environment, or labor agreements. However, these limitations will be further challenged as the competitive nature of the industry increases.

Job Engineering and Estimating

As a job design is performed, the designer makes choices based on field considerations, material issues, etc. that will impact the material components and construction standards required. The opportunity exists for the GIS to improve the process and efficiencies from two separate perspectives at this point.

First, the GIS in conjunction with a utility design solution, can include functionality to verify and validate the designers’ choices by performing engineering calculations from both an electrical nature as well as a physical nature. This type of validation can drive the designs to the minimum cost configurations which can add up to significant cost savings. This validation can also serve to assure conformance to safety standards and job workability implications.

Second, while the job is being designed, the designer is most likely making some type of listing of the construction standards and materials used. The GIS, within itself, or in conjunction with a work estimating solution, can include the ability to calculate a total cost for materials and labor associated with the particular job design, and even provide the ability for multiple designs for cost or other comparisons. If connection to the material management system exists at this point, the designer can even be cautioned when selecting materials that are currently not in stock.

Approval Process

Jobs prepared in a GIS can be reviewed on-line removing the requirement for moving a paper package throughout the utility organization. Depending on the numbers of remote offices and work centers involved, this can reduce days or in some cases more than a week from the time it takes a job to flow through the system.

Integration with Work Management

When a GIS is integrated with work management, there are many possibilities for using the power of the information sets working together. First, the work management system most likely has information pertaining to the job number, job title, accounting, location, etc. This information can be shared instead of re-entered if the systems are interfaced around a single data field key such as job number.

The GIS and work management can also be interfaced so that the progression of the job through many of the steps or status in the process, are automatically completed. For example, typical work management systems maintain the fact that a job is in the design stage (status = design). When the designer has completed the design in the GIS, the GIS can update the status of the job in the work management system to “approval”.

Typically, the next time the systems would interact would be through the “record as-built changes”, “final post”, or “completion” stages of the job. This type of integration between the systems can significantly improve the ability to understand where jobs are in the process and where the bottlenecks are in the process, with very little manual updating required by the end users.

Integration with Customer Information

Utilities need to have an understanding of the location of customers. This is helpful from the perspective of understanding the customer connection relative to the electrical facilities and network, as well as from the general organizational boundaries within the company.

Integration between GIS and CIS can be accomplished through direct connection by virtue of a database primary key that connects a service point in the GIS to one or more accounts in CIS. However, if the electric utility does not maintain the service point detail in the GIS, but instead stops at the transformer level, this connection can be made between the CIS and the transformer database. The connection of CIS to GIS is then achieved through the intermediate transformer database.

In either case, the goal is to understand and be able to communicate at the database level to outage management and engineering planning, what transformer, primary conductor, protective devices, and ultimately substation circuit breaker can affect an account in CIS.

Maintaining this type of information is critical to the proper operation of the outage management systems, and necessary for proper load calculations in the engineering and planning systems. By capturing this information in the GIS during the job design process, and sharing it with the other systems through interfaces at the database level, the electric utility can have a single point of entry solution. This can greatly reduce the cost of trying to maintain these relationships in multiple systems across multiple departments, and prevent attempts at trying to sort out which system has the most accurate and up-to-date representation.

Another benefit of interfacing GIS and CIS is the ability for maps or screen representations to be symbolized based on the most current information in CIS without manual intervention. For instance, symbols for medical or political critical customers can appear on the GIS and be managed automatically.

Integration with Outage Management

This interface is most likely the most significant benefit that can be achieved under the present regulatory or political operating environments for electric utilities in most areas of the world. Electric utilities are under significant pressure pertaining to the way interruptions of service are handled.

Outage management solutions, while non-trivial, can manage the receiving of calls (in conjunction with interactive voice response), provide tremendous assistance in pinpointing the expected problems, assist with the management of the multiple occurrences throughout the service territory, and maintain information for evaluation and historical analysis after the fact. However, outage management systems can only be effective if the model they operate from is correct and up-to-date. By depending on the GIS for the network model, the utility can have the single point of entry and maintenance of the network model. Since in the GIS the model is maintained during job design, and recognized as production data upon completion of the job, the GIS should have the most up-to-date network model of the circuitry when operating in its normal state.

Integration with Planning and Engineering

Planning and engineering systems require a circuit network model to operate just as outage management systems do. However, planning and engineering systems do not have the same mission critical sense of urgency around them since much of the time the studies are focused on expected load growth up to 5 years into the future. The nature of the interface is very similar to that of the interface between GIS and outage management.

The benefit of an interface of this type is once again the potential reduction in resources required to maintain two separate models, as well as the operational benefits of no disagreements between departmental groups within the electric utility about which model has the truth.

Field Information

The workforce in the field has traditionally been provided paper maps for use in the field. However, those map sets are most often out of date, even though attempts have been made to provide updates. With GIS, the production of new copies of mapping data and information is much less cumbersome and more cost effective. For instance, CDs can be produced, copied, and distributed at a lower cost than large paper map sets. Alternatively, laptop PCs could be updated with map updates through docking stations. These methods of getting mapping data and information to the field assume the field representatives are outfitted with some type of hardware for viewing the digital data.

With the bandwidth improvements in wireless technology, as well as the increasing availability and decreasing cost, field service individuals will have the option of being connected to the corporate information systems in the future. Companies like Autodesk and others are making great strides in that technology. Once that becomes the norm, utilities will be able to capture even more savings from the available GIS data.

Web Based Connection

There is a geographic component involved in nearly everything that goes on at an electric utility. In the past, access to the geographic information was limited to a specified number of seats, or a particular type of training required to gain access. With access from any machine that has web browser capabilities, and much more intuitive browser type interfaces, essentially anyone in the organization with browser capabilities can tap into the information in the GIS, and take advantage of the investment in the data.

This phenomenon has a major impact on the potential for benefit from the GIS. Now any decision process a utility is involved in can easily be supported and improved by the geographic component. Utility workers have visualized in their minds or depended on mapping groups to gain that benefit in the past.

In addition, the web tools available can access data from the GIS, or virtually any other data source inside or outside the company. What this means is that data from different sources can be brought together to improve the understanding.

One example would be to show customers in various symbols based on electric load, together with existing substations to better understand the location of load centers and potential locations for new substations. Another is to show the location of jobs relative to the location of work crew home addresses for better utilization of the work force. Some additional examples will be covered later in this paper.

Outage Visualization

Outage visualization is an example of significant operational benefit that can be gained through the web-based access. One of the most difficult factors of managing a major interruption of service at an electric utility pertains to the distribution of information throughout the company for various purposes. Management needs information pertaining to location for purposes of crew management, outside assistance coordination, messaging to media, and various other issues. By providing a browser based view of the outage, the work force can get the up-to-date information it needs when it needs it without interrupting other individuals from the process of making restorations. This frees up more people to participate in the restoration process with minimal interruption.

Even if the outage management solution in use at the company has the information represented in the right way, the number of access points are generally limited or the additional individuals called upon to assist during a major occurrence do not have the training to operate the system.

Also, many utilities are using custom built solutions that only provide the outage information in a tabular format. Mixing the results of the tabular information together with the geography from the GIS can have a significant impact on improving the usability and understanding of the information. An electric utility could view the location of the circuit segment affected by an outage and could potentially add the location of the work crews if the trucks were equip with GPS sensors and communication devices.

Underground Utility Protection

With many types of utility infrastructure underground, the potential of striking some type of utility facility when digging is a real concern. Most states require electric utilities to participate in sharing of the location of their underground facilities so that anyone planning to dig can know if there is an issue.

Sharing information pertaining to the underground facilities can be a cumbersome, time consuming, and costly activity. A GIS can provide significant benefit by simplifying the process of identifying underground locations to a query on database tables. The GIS can also provide the information that the utility shares in digital format.

Many of the organizations that manage this activity across North America have also adopted GIS to assist their operation. Merging the data from the various sources, while not trivial, is simplified when the utilities can provide data from GIS.

Finally, the cost associated with investigating each dig location to confirm if there is a potential problem, can be greatly reduced by automating the process utilizing the GIS. The GIS can be made to automatically pinpoint the location of the planned dig (by address or other means), and after adding some buffer distance for margin of error, perform a query for underground features. If the query does not find underground features, the planned dig area can be considered safe and a reply can be automatically provided.

Job/Work Routing

All utilities manage hundreds of meter orders such as turn-ons and turn-offs when clients are moving into and out of houses or apartments, or re-reads on bill inquiries. Every utility in the world is faced with the issue of printing these meter orders, and then having the service personnel sort the orders to minimize travel time. Once in the field, the old and new meter readings as well as potentially other data from the customer site is recorded usually by hand on the paper forms.

Using the GIS, it is possible to geo-route the orders for the shortest travel time. The orders could then be loaded onto a field device along with the forms that will be required to be completed in the field. Once in the field, when the service person gathers information and completes the order, the information could be entered into the field device, and then fed back to the corporate databases when the field device is plugged into it’s cradle at the end of the day.

Vegetation Management

A major factor that confuses the vegetation management activities at a utility pertains to understanding the real tree conditions in any given area, relative to contractor bids for the area. When an electric utility has a comprehensive GIS, the potential exists to add information about the tree conditions to the GIS database. This would allow for queries pertaining to a geographic area to determine the tree condition issues.

Also, with the increasing availability of satellite photography of increasingly improved quality and clarity, a raster image of the satellite photography could be viewed together with GIS data to quickly validate at least the general presence of trees and greatly assist in the contractor bid evaluation process.

Viewing of the facility information together with the satellite photography could also be valuable for pinpointing areas of potential tree problems while investigating momentary or sustained outage issues.

Web based connection to the GIS data could provide even simpler access for viewing the corporate GIS data together with available satellite photography.

Another possibility for improvement would be to provide the facility and satellite data together on a field based machine along with the data forms or time sheets that the contractors would use. The contractors could provide feedback through redline notes on the map along with the completed forms or time sheets.

Meter Read Route Management

Assuming integration with CIS, an electric utility can very simply view the meter read route geographically, and make decisions on re-routing or insertion of new accounts within the routes.

Once again, web based connection to the GIS and CIS would provide browser-based access requiring no special desktop software and little or potentially no user training.

Lightning Strike Data and Information

Very current and up-to-date data (as well as historical data) is commercially available pertaining to lightning strike activity. Electric utility infrastructure is obviously sensitive to lightning activity and a geographic representation of that data relative to the electric utility infrastructure could lead the utility to a faster restoration of an outage caused by lightning, or a more cost effective solution to prevention of future outages.

Corporate Building and Land Management

All utilities have investments in land and building facilities. Typically those buildings are mapped on a separately drawn map base. With the GIS, management of the land and buildings could be performed more efficiently by mapping them on the GIS database and not having to deal with additional background base map data. This could also potentially bring about better decisions pertaining to land and building management when viewed together with the rest of the facilities owned by the company.

Vehicle Location Tracking

By outfitting the service vehicles with GPS and communication devices, the locations of service vehicles could be viewed on the GIS together with the utility facilities. This could provide valuable information for dispatchers and operations center individuals when determining what vehicles to assign jobs or service calls to. This information could help to reduce the amount of radio traffic at the utility.

Endless Possibilities

Implementation of a GIS is a significant undertaking for a utility. As more and more utilities complete the initial process, the industry is just beginning to recognize the full potential of the benefits that are available. The possibilities are endless, and if the foundation has been laid carefully, the incremental additional investment for each new function is minor and sometimes simply a matter of training and query development.

For those that are on the road to implementing a solution, the benefits are just around the corner. Those who have not begun, or are stalled, take heart, the web-based tools are providing some fast track approaches to get at many of the benefits. In either case, rest assured that this list is only a snapshot of some of the possibilities as GIS technology takes its’ place as one of the necessary components of the information system solutions for the utility industry.
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