Data Conversion - Still The Biggest Challenge

Background
In 1984, North York Hydro prepared a report that recommended a project be established to develop an information system and database containing the information and records needed for the planning, design, construction, maintenance and operation of the electrical distribution system. As part of the plan, North York Hydro began an investigation of automating the existing, predominately manual, map and record system. The plan identified the following systems:

A SCADA system called EDICS (Electrical Distribution Information and Control System)
An AM/FM/GIS system called ARIES (Automated Records and Information Engineering System).

In 1985, a feasibility study was approved to determine the cost, institutional requirements and technical feasibility of implementing ARIES at North York Hydro. The results of the study found that the ARIES project was feasible and would provide widespread and significant benefit to the customers of North York Hydro and improve the productivity and effectiveness of the organization.

The project was delayed until 1990 due to resource shortages. At that time, an ARIES project scope for the phased implementation was approved and the ARIES Implementation Plan Phase 1 was developed by the ARIES project team. This phase defined as the pilot/prototype phase was used to develop “core” functionality for an automated working environment (ie. engineering design and document management) within a small geographic pilot area.

Aries Vision
ARIES was envisioned to be an integrated system that will provide for the automation of mapping and facility records information to support the Engineering and other related corporate processes. It will capture and record information for all North York Hydro facilities through the planning, design, construction and ongoing maintenance cycles. The ARIES database and software to support this entire facility life cycle requires the following four distinct functional components that must be clearly integrated.

AM/FM/GIS - traditional AM/FM database to support the design, mapping, record keeping and maintenance of the electrical distribution system.
Applications - functionalities required to create data and analyse the electrical performance of the distribution system and plan the necessary expansion, upgrades and modifications to the system.
Technical Document Management (TDM) - A common storage and access medium for the retrieval, display, edit and review of engineering maps, records and other documents.
CAD - will support the automation of the numerous drafting, requirements, in addition to mapping, that are necessary to support the entire engineering process.

In addition, ARIES will serve as an integrating environment for other systems which may store data relevant to its central fhnctions or may benefit from data stored primarily in the ARIES database.