Towards the Integration of Geospatial Information & Technology into an OSS Environment

Competition and deregulation continue to churn the utility environment worldwide. Business headlines regarding mergers and acquisitions, rate changes and the ability to purchase bulk power over the Web have become commonplace in the electric utility industryover the past 18 to 24 months. With the recent announcement that Thames Water, plc, the world’s third largest water company, will purchase E’town Corp, a water utility in the eastern U.S. for $948 million, increased competition is even unsettling the usually quiet water utility industry.

In the face of this ever-increasing competitive environment, the role of an effective, reliable, large-scale operations support system (OSS) for the enterprise has never been more important, it’s worth recalling that most systems currently in place developed piece-by- piece, over time. These efforts often took place in fits and starts – instead of as the coherent, well-designed and integrated systems we have available today.

The Initial Push Towards AM/FM/GIS Technologies
Quite often the impetus to implementing automated mapping (AM), facilities management (FM) or geographic information system (GIS) technology at a utility focused on the creation and maintenance of engineering drawings, maps and associated records. In effect the organization’s large collection of paper maps, work orders, asset information and job logs were being scanned, digitized or by other means converted into an AM/FM/GIS digital database. A more efficient workflow and lower record maintenance costs were the emphases of these early systems. They also were commonly CAD-centric in their orientation.

At many installations decision-makers rapidly became aware that this automated, computer-based record keeping was just part of the AM/FM/GIS value proposition. The real value in a GIS system is not in the engineering maps and records area, it's in all the other applications throughout the enterprise which could employ geospatial information as part of their own activities.