Migration: The Gateway to Company-Wide GIS for REMU

Introduction – Why Migration?
System obsolescence can be a powerful motivating factor for utility companies. Engineering departments that have come to rely on the powerful design capabilities of GIS technology may find themselves bogged down in backlogged workorders created by a system than can no longer handle the workload. CIS and other information and data dependant departments are finding their analysis outmoded. Information technology strengthens the utility organization in many ways – efficiency, cost effectiveness, accurate analysis, timely customer service – it can be crippling to discover that the very tool that you rely on so heavily may be letting you down. REMU looked at this situation very closely and determined that system migration was a critical business decision.

ln addition to internal workflow issues, deregulation in the Netherlands is producing very real business pressures onutility companies. REMU, inparticular, recognized that certain strategic advantages could be gained in the new, unregulated marketplace if the utility was able to utilize the power data housed in its GIS. Increasing competition for customers being the overriding factor, REMU knew that enhanced customer service would be a key to conquering some of the uncertainties of the future.

Deregulation Process in the Netherlands
First, it’s important that there is an understanding of the Dutch energy situation. Energy production, main grid, transport/distribution and customer services are traditionally local activities. For more than 100 years, the large energy companies in the Netherlands have been owned, and often operated, by the local governmental authority; municipalities and provinces. There were approximately 180 of these companies; some large and horizontally and vertically integrated, most small. The government’s involvement was restricted to legislative affairs, agreeing on the production planning for the main grid within the local operation, and setting the prices for the customer and the industry. The main grid operator (the local entity) had responsibility for energy exchanges with other European countries.