There is a greater urgency for hydroelectric companies to manage their inventory and distribution system assets more efficiently. In addition, municipalities are exerting pressure on their local electric utilities to operate more openly within the municipal framework.
GIS Solution for Sarnia Hydro
Recognizing the benefits of a common technology for managing their electrical assets, Sarnia Hydro, with the assistance of J.D. Barnes Limited, started implementing an enterprise-wide Auto-mated Mapping/Facilities Management (AM/FM) GIS solution.
Bordering Port Huron, Michigan, the City of Sarnia is in the heart of Ontarios Petrochemical Industry. Sarnia Hydro, with more than 30,000 customers, has embraced ESRI Canadas ArcFM as a means to manage their business more efficiently. This is enabling Sarnia Hydro to work towards becoming a regional service bureau for geographic information management.
Their vision includes enabling distributed and web-based GIS, and ensuring that their residential and commercial customers have access to the most accurate information about their hydro usage and the condition of their system.
Sarnia Hydros implementation is structured in 4 phases, each of which includes another layer of integrated technology and a defined set of custom applications. The completion of phase one has seen Sarnia Hydro implement multiple ArcFM editing seats including custom placement routines, an operational rulebase and pilot data created by J.D. Barnes.
"Sarnia Hydro's approach of fully integrating AM/FM/GIS technology into their daily operations is enabling them to use and better manage their assets while at the same time, responding to customer needs," says Harold Miller, Utilities Industry Manager, ESRI Canada, Ontario Region. "This is facilitating seamless access to all corporate systems, including SCADA and customer information systems."
A Best-In-Class Approach
Momentum for ESRI Canadas solutions for utilities continues to grow. Just recently, Nova Scotia Power Inc. (NSPI) selected ESRI Canada to provide it with an integrated, industry-leading technology solution. The project, estimated to be worth $11 million, will see the implementation of geographic information systems (GIS); an outage management system (OMS) and computer aided scheduling and dispatch (CDS) technology.
"Our agreement with Nova Scotia Power Inc. extends beyond a simple implementation of technologies and services," says Alex Miller, President, ESRI Canada. "This project is an essential component in ESRI Canadas overall strategy to be the dominant GIS provider in the utility market across Canada."
As part of the project, ESRI Canada is teaming up with Minneapolis, Minnesota-based CES International and Utility Partners (UP) from Tampa, Florida, to deliver technologies and services that dramatically improve asset management, outage management and scheduling customer appointments.
"We took a best-in-class approach," says John Fraser, planning specialist, Nova Scotia Power Inc. "After a significant evaluation process, we are confident that the technology from CES, Utility Partners, and ESRI will meet our corporate needs and increase our ability to provide optimum service to our customers."
The first phase of the contract will focus primarily on outage management incorporating the Centricity operations resource management suite from CES International. Centricity will tie customer premise data and incoming calls regarding power outages into a real-time, electric network model based on ArcInfo 8. With this information, Nova Scotia Power operations centre personnel and dispatchers will have a comprehensive view of power outages in a graphical format. Armed with up-to-date outage information at their fingertips, they can then dispatch and manage fieldwork crews conducting outage repairs in the safest and fastest way.
"The primary driver of the GIS is to facilitate the use of our Outage Management System," says David McKay, GIS project lead, Nova Scotia Power Inc. "To do that, we have to migrate our connectivity model into the GIS database. We will then link our customers to the connectivity model. GIS will give us tremendous analysis and mapping capabilities that will increase our network efficiency and service reliability."
An additional component of phase one will see Utility Partners implement MobileUP and a customer appointment-setting (CAS) system. MobileUP, a computer-aided dispatching system, is a tool for scheduling and dispatching customer service orders, inspections and trouble/outage work types to the field. MobileUPs versatile modules will allow NSPI planners to efficiently allocate work to the available field resources. The CAS system is a table-driven application that enables NSPI customer service representatives to set appointments with customers based upon the resource availability and defined parameters.
The combination of MobileUP and CAS will provide NSPI with the necessary tools to continue to optimize its work force efficiencies while providing quality customer services. Nova Scotia Powers business rules will define and drive the parameters used in both MobileUP and CAS for managing field activities. These parameters can be re-configured dynamically to support their business goals and objectives providing the flexibility needed to operate in today's utility market.
Improving Day-to-Day Operations
Sarnia Hydro is already demonstrating how enterprise technologies like ArcFM can improve the day-to-day operations for utilities and ultimately better position them in a competitive market. This project has also enabled ESRI Canada to solidify a method of implementing AM/FM/GIS solutions to facilitate rapid integration and ease of use.
J.D. Barnes is working in partnership with ESRI Canada to develop a standard electrical model based on ArcFM. The model, primarily designed for Ontario's hydroelectric utilities, is based on input from industry, engineering and operations staff. It also takes into account J.D. Barnes' extensive experience with records conversion, and ESRI Canada's software expertise.
A work in progress, this standard will be adaptable to all utilities, providing a full and intuitive connectivity model to allow for network analysis, implemented and representative business rules, and enable a consistent and simple interface for maintaining and viewing asset information. ET