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“HAL ... What Have You Been Doing ... HAL?”
The Geospatial Odyssey of two utilities from Detroit
John A. Middlestead
Manager, Distribution Drafting & MARS Technical Services
Michigan Consolidated Gas, 3200 Hobson, Detroit, Michigan 48201
The Geospatial Odyssey of two utilities from Detroit
John A. Middlestead
Manager, Distribution Drafting & MARS Technical Services
Michigan Consolidated Gas, 3200 Hobson, Detroit, Michigan 48201
In 1968, one year before man was to first set foot on the Moon, Stanley Kubrick’s movie 2001: A Space Odyssey was released. The movie focused on the past, present and future of mankind. The past was the famous ape introduction and the monolith, which was used as a symbol of what man, from an evolutionist’ point of view, could and would accomplish. Fast forwarding to 2001 and the present, a crew is assigned to a mission to Jupiter. We are introduced to the HAL 9000 on-board super computer that is chocked full of artificial intelligence. HAL during the journey reads the lips of two of the crew and proceeds to “take over operations for the sake of the mission”. Dave Bowman, one of the remaining crew soon identifies HAL as a threat to his life and all others who have not fallen as victims to HAL’s takeover, decommissions HAL. The interpretation of the rest of the movie and the ending with the future Star Child is up to all those who wish to do so. Many people to this day are still confused about all the symbols injected into the story.
The title of this paper “HAL … What Have You Been Doing … HAL?” provides a link to the movie as well as the theme of GITA’s Conference XXIV, A Geospatial Odyssey. Computer technology has evolved since 1969. All of us who used the technology in 1969 can attest to the fact that the days of the punch card, with the exception of the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election, have been replaced with some truly remarkable automated tools. The main focus of this paper is to provide a framework by which the reader can gain an understanding of two utilities respective geospatial journeys – one electric and one gas. The hardware, software, conversion, maintenance and applications used at the start of these projects show how far the industry has come. This is not just a historical perspective but a paper of the present and the future.
The two neighboring utilities from Detroit, DTE Energy and MCN Energy Group, are close to completing a merger and with it has created opportunities to learn from one another while establishing synergistic benefits for our combined customers, employees and shareholders. Note: the actual merger, at the time of this paper, was not complete. While this may be true, most mergers have the challenges of different corporate cultures, strategies, systems to be kept or scraped, problems to be solved, etc. AM/FM/GIS’s are no different. The emotions involved in deciding which system prevails between two different ones are enormous and should not be underestimated. In the middle section of this paper this will be expounded. Later in the paper you will find an exploration into future applications as Detroit Edison and MichCon take a geospatial journey, now together as one.
The Past
From the start of their geospatial journey in 1969 of a Service Request to a Pilot that began in 1975, Detroit Edison’s GenIsyS (formally known as the Automated Mapping System or AMS) has gone through four migrations to today’s HAL – like technology. MichCon’s geospatial journey to MARS (Mapping & Automated Recordkeeping System) started in 1984 and has provided two major migrations in technology. Much was learned by MichCon when using Detroit Edison as a model to build from. In fact, MichCon acquired its’ initial digital landbase for the Detroit Service Area (Southeast Michigan) from Detroit Edison.
Reviewing the history of these two AM/FM/GIS pioneers and their projects from both the electric and gas business sides is summarized below.
 Profile Parent Company: DTE EnergyElectric Utility: Detroit Edison Headquarters: Detroit, Michigan Customers: 2,100,000 (2000) |
 Profile Parent Company: MCN Energy Group Gas Utility: Michigan Consolidated Gas Headquarters: Detroit, Michigan Customers: 1,200,000 (2000) |
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| Year | Detroit Edison | Michcon |
| Automated Mapping System (AMS) Current Name: GenIsyS |
Mapping & Automated Recordkeeping System (MARS) |
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| 1969 | Service Request Number M4-9021 initiated by Administrative and Technical Systems | |
| 1971 | Work begins for the two-man study team looking at a facilities information and grid index system. | |
| 1972 | Facilities Information and Grid Index System (FIGS) Study Report, Project Number 4791 released. | |
| 1975 | Pilot begins with Bruce and Shelby Townships, Macomb Division. Project name established: AMS | |
| 1976–78 | Conversion of the remainder of Macomb Division | |
| 1977 | Comprehensive study performed looking at an information systems solutions for the Company. Automated mapping ranks eighth and is deferred. | |
| 1978 | Simultaneous conversion effort of Oakland, Wayne-Monroe and Ann Arbor Divisions begins. | |
| 1980 | Migration from Data General to Intergraph’s DEC PDP 11/70 begins.
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MichCon conducts second study, the Gas Facilities System looking at distribution, transmission and storage gas facilities. Benchmarking done at Detroit Edison for automated mapping. Recommendations deferred due to significant resources required and corporate earnings issues. |
| 1982 | Migration to PDP11/70 completed. Conversion of Detroit begins. | Third study focuses on smaller scale database for distribution gas facilities. A small team is started but support is weak. |
| 1984 | Detroit conversion completed. | In 1983 a team is established to viability to develop a gas facilities system (GFS) using automated mapping and / or facilities database. Extensive time interviewing and learning from Detroit Edison. Study completed and recommendations approved for an AM/FM System by senior management in 1984. |
| 1985 | Detroit Edison - Alex Dow Award received (L. Cosgrove) | System selection made. Approval received to standardize on an Intergraph hardware / software platform. |
| Year | Detroit Edison | Michcon |
| Automated Mapping System (AMS) Current Name: GenIsyS |
Mapping & Automated Recordkeeping System (MARS) | |
| 1986-88 | Thumb Division conversion effort approved and completed. | Team designs system. Prototype’s 1 square mile of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Timeshares with service bureau’s VAX and leases workstations using 9.6 kb modem. Later increased to 56 kb. Start acquiring digital land base and orthophotography products from Detroit Edison’s subsidiary, Syndeco. |
| 1989 | Migration of data from PDP 11/70 to VAX/VMS
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Completion of 36 square mile Pilot (Ann Arbor Township). Acquisition of own Intergraph system including a VAX/VMS 6310. |
| 1990 | Intergraph FRAMME 1.0 design and implementation. Pittsfield Township conversion completed. | |
| 1991 | Intergraph FRAMME Pilot begins
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Detroit Project - Ypsilanti Township completed. Milford Township started. New conversion database rake-off system started. Grand Rapids Project - landbase project started – 4 townships. |
| 1992 | Approval given to move to FRAMME / UNIX
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Grand Rapids Project – Facility conversion starts on 4 townships (Walker, Wyoming, Grand Rapids, Paris) |
| 1993 | 1993 Macomb Division is successfully migrated to GenIsyS and tested for several months. AM/FM International Excellence Award received. | Grand Rapids Project – 7 additional townships flown. |
| 1994 | Five remaining divisions migrated on schedule: Ann Arbor, Oakland, Wayne- Monroe, Thumb, and Detroit. | Grand Rapids Project Land (11 Townships completed). |
| 1995 |
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| Year | Detroit Edison | Michcon |
| Automated Mapping System (AMS) Current Name: GenIsyS |
Mapping & Automated Recordkeeping System (MARS) | |
| 1995 |
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| 1996 | Mapping & Service Planning move from Clix to NT Desktops. | MichCon starts migration from VAX / VMS to Windows NT and FRAMME NT. First major system at MichCon using NT. |
| 1997 |
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Completed NT migration. |
| 1998 |
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| 1999 |
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| 2000 |
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The Present
The announcement on October 5, 1999 that DTE Energy would be acquiring MCN Energy Group brought with it the realization that two separate cultures would be merging and with it different work practices, systems, labor union locals, methodologies, processes, etc. One significant benefit with this merger is the fact that both companies have their roots in Detroit and their respective headquarters reside almost down the street from one another. In fact many of the executives have known each other for many years. Early in the process, a “Big Five” accounting firm was brought in to assist in the gathering of synergistic benefits that could benefit the new company. Brainstorming occurred whereby team leaders started a list of opportunities in major process / functional areas of each company. A selection process was done and Activity Teams established. The Activity / Opportunity Teams developed and analyzed what true improvements could strategically and / or financially provide shareholder value. In some cases, an opportunity would provide an enabling technology foundation, in others major savings in resources i.e. people, dollars, facilities.
One such team was the Mapping Activity Team. Each company selected a co-lead and additional participants including union representation. The Team went through a standardized methodology that was used to insure common logic, data gathering and alternative evaluation. From the study came an agreement as to the which alternative provided the best return and was then reviewed by the Executive Team. A summary of the recommendations is provided in the next section.
The Future
Detroit Edison michcon The transition teams from DTE and MCN identified numerous opportunities and synergies that could be gained from the systems and data assets that each has. From an AM/FM/GIS standpoint a common ground is the geography served by the companies. Both utilize a common AM/FM/GIS system platform, which is an automatic advantage over a merger with two different system vendors. During our team meetings came several short and long term opportunities which follow.
Short Term Opportunity 1 – Common Landbase & Address Intelligence
An overlap of approximately 1,100 square miles and 700,000 customers exist between the companies. An obvious short- term opportunity is to merge the landbase for the 700,000 customers in the 1,100 square mile geographic area. What was found is that since the land base at both companies has a common 2,000’ x 3,000’ grid based on Michigan’s State Plane Coordinate System NAD 27 that the acquisition and maintenance of land products and model could be accomplished for both companies under one process.
While MichCon has a very accurate, custom built address intelligence built into MARS, Detroit Edison uses a third party, with enhanced TIGER data, as a backdrop to assist their clients. The combined company will incorporate the MARS addressing scheme for the common area and each company will maintain their own addressing method in noncommon geography.
What was also found was that each company had warped in new landbase e.g. subdivisions, and model differences were obvious when we compared to two. In order to be consistent MichCon’s landbase will be used; however, all future updates will be done once and used for both gas and electric facilities.
Utilizing the MichCon landbase, which has all building shapes and addresses, will also provide geospatial coordinates whereby the Outage Management Application can utilize a transformer – to – customer matching scheme.
Short Term Opportunity 2 – Move to FRAMME 4.0 and Visual Basic
Both Detroit Edison and especially MichCon have had difficulty obtaining resources to do all the application development work since specialized / proprietary languages are used. By going to Visual Basic (VB) the combined company expects to see considerable improvements in productivity and availability of VB programmers. Two separate rule bases will be utilized, one electric and one gas, at least in the near future.
Longer Term Plans and Opportunities
The following opportunities are a list of applications and data / data maintenance opportunities that the combined company will have over each being independent.
- Complete the North Central Michigan (MichCon territory) Conversion Project
- Complete Detroit Phase 2 Residential Gas Services Project
- Incorporate WMS (Detroit Edison) construction drawing routines for gas main and services. Decision on which WMS to be used in the future is pending.
- Implement Detroit Edison interfaces for end products to gas clients.
- Implement a landbase acquisition team that would bring “visualization” tools to gas and electric clients.
- Combine GenIsyS / MARS updates / maintenance under one organization (pending negotiated agreement with unions).
- Implement “redline” updates from the field via pen-based, laptop, PDA or mobile data terminals. Dock and upload to AM/FM/GIS.
- Continue to expand use of “proposed state” facilities and land whereby everyone in the corporate-wide can see planned land modifications (e.g. urban renewal, subdivisions) and facility designs for both gas and electric.
- Continue (Detroit Edison) and start (MichCon) incorporating GenIsyS / MARS system data using the Web for Economic Development, internal studies and searches, and external e-commerce opportunities.
- Continue to develop applications for use by both electric and gas clients in conjunction with new technology and uses for DTE energy products.
- Continue to develop gas code related applications. For example, Cathodic Protection, Main Renewal Analysis, Network/Load Analysis, Outage Analysis (gas) and Leak Survey.
Conclusion
Many “killer applications” await since the two companies will be able to combine their “intellectual property” to develop even better, and more cost effective corporate-wide applications in the future. Indeed, there is a bright future with new merged company. AM/FM/GIS has a significant role across the new enterprise integrating with various ERP modules. Detroit Edison has developed many, sometimes cutting edge, applications to assist the end client. MichCon has some things to be proud of as well in their efforts to get gas facilities information accessible to its numerous clients. The synergies will provide numerous geospatial journey benefits to our customers, employees and shareholders for years to come.
Reference
Cosgrove, Larry, 1995 “What is GenIsyS?