Fast-Track Electric Utility Inventory- A Case Study

Introduction
As part of their AM/FM/GIS implementation project, Allegheny Power directed the work of a GeoResearch Inc. to perform electric distribution system field inventory and mapping services along 24,500 circuit miles in a 12,000 square mile service area. Over 500,000 distribution utility poles needed to be mapped in a 13-month period, representing one of the largest and fastest GPS/GIS field inventory and data collection efforts ever undertaken by an electric utility. The project required the rapid staffing and effective management of over 40 field data collectors - a challenging task.

This paper will discuss the management and planning issues involved in completing such a large-scale, fast-track field data collection project on schedule. Project planning considerations, recruiting & training, management of a large field staff, field data post processing issues, and QA procedures will be addressed.

The Electric Distribution mapping was part of an initiative at Allegheny Power to build a geo-spatial inventory model of their electrical facilities for their AM/FM system. This initiative also includes paper-to-vector conversion and attribution of other Division’s data. Once the database is complete, Allegheny Power will have a connectivity model of their network for load analysis, design, and outage management processes.

The following statistics of this project are provided:
Allegheny Power’s System:

-23,000 distribution circuit miles
-520,000 distribution poles
13 month deadline
95%- 100’?40attribute accuracy
3-5 meter positional accuracy
GeoResearch
5 field offices
-35 data collectors at one time (58 total collected poles)
5 supervisors
-8 GIS/data processors

Our field methodology was simple enough, we would walk to each pole once, starting from the substations and follow each circuit outward until it ended its electrical flow. We would carry a GPS receiver integrated with a personal computer running a DOS software which allowed the collection of the required attributes, and tagged the attributes to the latitude and longitude of each pole.