Spiders and flies and economic development
Deregulation of the electric utility industry
The electric utility industry is the last major regulated monopoly in America. In recent years,
airlines, banking, natural gas, and telecommunications have all undergone deregulation.
No one is certain how quickly deregulation will occur, but many states and electric utilities are
preparing for the challenges and opportunities certain to evolve in a competitive arena. The
electric utility industry and its stakeholders are now examining ways to bring the benefits of
competition to all industrial and commercial customers. Residential customers also want to
benefit from competition as well.
Because of the competitive environment that is occurring, the once shared technology forum that
has been common to the electric utilities may disappear. The sharing of how one utility maps
its electric line assets may be limited to the vendor doing more research and development in
order to share ideas and sell software.
Since the competition is gearing up, so will the need for better ways to map the utility service
areas and beyond. Knowing where your competitors' customers are may require mapping to
strategically plot their locations. If Detroit Edison has a customer on the east coast, it maybe
advantageous to know the mapping of the other utilities assets connecting to that business. This
may help for reporting purposes in the case of a power outage by that customer. Also, it can be
useful to target market that customer's suppliers or other customers in that region.
New technology ideas for the future
Detroit Edison's Site Selection Service Database is employing new ways to utilize the World
Wide Web and AM/FM/GIS technology. Intergraph's GeoMedia Web Map helps economic
development professionals lure more businesses to southeast Michigan. With all site information
on the Internet, it is an easy task for a future customer to find that right location. Some of the
new technology that Edison's Site Selection database is employing are: (1) Photobubble
technology, (2) Public Record Data, and (3) Video Clips, showing helicopter views of the
Detroit Metropolitan area.
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Photobubble Technolon
Photobubble technology is a relatively new innovation which employs photographs that can be
viewed in a 360 degree fashion. Photobubble technology is an interactive, spherical image
offering users a complete field of view, from earth to sky, floor to ceiling, horizon to horizon. It
is created from two opposing photographs captured by a fisheye lens. It is linked to traditional
photographs and renderings, enhanced with audio or other types of files, or incorporated into
other development environments.
- Public Record Data
Public Record Data is information that is associated with a property. It has the historical
property owners, deed transfers, legal description of the property, taxes, and purchase prices of
that particular parcel. It is data that can be accessed off the Intemet and easily incorporated into
the GeoMedia Web Map application. This information can be used for target marketing with the
Site Selection Database to find new owners of a building or parcel of land (i.e., new utility
customer).
- Video Clips
Detroit Edison's Economic Development Team is taking advantage of using video or movie
viewers online. We are including video clips showing certain properties in the Detroit
Metropolitan area. Showing a helicopter view of a particular area that is ripe for development
may lure potential businesses to locate in that area.
Currently, we have clients in Germany and Japan who use this system to search for locations in
the Detroit Edison Service area. The GeoMedia software has been designed to allow the
Economic Development Team to track the sites that these clients are viewing.
Summary
The DTE Energy's Site Selection Service contains detailed information about properties in
southeastern Michigan. The service, at http://www.dtesites.com, went on-line April 30, 1997.
