Office Power in the GIS on a Laptop

Background
BHE is an investor-owned electric utility located in the central/eastern part of Maine serving approx. 104,000 customers in a 5400 square miles service territory. Operationally, we are divided into four geographic divisions.

BHE started a GIS project in 1993 with a feasibility study followed by a pilot in 1994 to verify the feasibility study results and to determine the data collection strategy we were going to use.

BHE did not have paper maps, so we had to collect all of the data in the field. We did this by using laptops with an application we co-developed with Blue Marble Geographics of Gardiner, Maine.

We completed our field data collection in October 1998. We are now in the data maintenance mode that ensures the electrical connectivity remains in our electrical model.

Introduction
Prior to 1993, BHE had very little experience in GIS. All we had were one-line diagrams, fuse plans, and the Delorme Atlas. BHE planners did their design work from field notes and then completed the design work freehand on paper. Also, a job estimate was required, which was done on our mainframe computer. In addition, some of the larger jobs were designed in AutoCAD.

As we completed data collection at each Division, we provided the planners there with GIS workstations with Smallworld GIS and training in a design application for them to do all their design work in. We thought we had provided them with a tool that would increase their productivity as well as keep our database maintained. The best-laid plans involving workers during implementation can go wrong. Instead, this caused additional work for our planners. They had GIS workstations for doing their design work. Yet, some were not proficient and comfortable with entering the design work. Approximately 50% of the planners had computer experience and were eager to work with GIS and the other 50% had no computer experience and they were reluctant to work with a computer.

At the time when a planner went to meet a customer who needed a line constructed, he would have to take field notes and then go back to the office and enter a construction plan into GIS. Of course, our planners were not very happy about this. They thought it was easier and quicker to do it manually on paper.

Management was concerned about how we were going to maintain our very expensive database. BHE’s solution was to provide our planners with laptops, so that they could take them into the field and complete their design work, thus eliminating the duplicate work of taking field notes and then entering them into GIS.