Implementation of a company wide GIS system
(SIG-GD) GIS for Electric Distribution Management
Nowadays the following applications are developed and implemented
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Security and System Administration.
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Use of more than one UTM zone.
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Urban and Rural Cartography functions
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Urban and Rural data conversion
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Geodetic Milestones.
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Low and High Voltage Network Cadastre
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Data Conversion for Low and High Voltage Network
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Meter reading lists
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Substation Planning
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Feeder Planning
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Outage Management System
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Work Order Management
Interruption Analysis (Regulatory Commission Compliance)
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Feeder reconfiguration
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SCADA Integration
The following applications are currently being tested by end users:
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Low voltage electric network design
- Electrical and mechanical calculations
- Works with versions
- Manages design workflow
- Works with 24h load curve
SIG-LT . GIS for Transmission Lines
SIG-LT (GIS for Transmission Lines) covers the areas of cadastre and maintenance of transmission
lines. It controls components such as structures, line spans, types of cables, shock absorbers,
insulators, as well as design and control of electric constants. The system communicates with the
mainframe to get information about equipment and to update information.
The system provides links with images of the structures, insulators and construction documents.
This inventory will be the basis for the maintenance system, controlling historic, and tree
pruning and inspection control.
Telecomm (Fiber Optics)
GIS for Data Communication thru Fiber Optics creates, maintain and analyze data about optic
equipment. It provides strategy maps, construction routing based on information provided by the
electric network location.
System implementation
The implementation of a company wide system that involves new technologies that change
business processes has to be carefully planned. This planning has to start well ahead and
consider mainly the following aspects.
Human resources
One of the most important success factors in this kind of implementation resides in human
resources, and mainly in the end user. If the end user is not properly trained and motivated, the
project may fail, in spite of the software, technical support, last generation hardware, etc. One
big danger of this kind of implementation is the possibility of rumors of the sort: .people are
going to be replaced by computers. or .downsizing is coming. or .the system is so easy to use
that they will be able to substitute experienced people by novices .. Also management can have
some misconceptions like .GIS is going to solve all of our problems. or .one day after
implementation, we will be able to reduce the headcount . or . we will not need specialists
anymore, now that the system, is going to perform all functions .. These .visions of the future.
create a lot of resistance in the people involved and they may start to create difficulties.
In order to avoid these problems, the following measures were taken:
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"Culture" change
Since the beginning, a good relationship with the end users was cultivated. Several
Seminars were conducted to inform the users about the system in the works. The
Seminars covered the following areas:
-What is GIS
- Benefits
- Scope of the Project
- Importance of good data / consequences of wrong information
- Current status of development / implementation
- Debate
It is also important to continue with this kind of training even after the system is running,
because there is always some personnel turnover
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Training
The first area to receive the system had extensive training, mainly because some people
were accustomed to use only mainframe terminals, with no familiarity with a windowing
system, mouse, etc.
Approximately 6 months before implementation a class on Maxicad (a Brazilian CAD
system) was held, so those users could start preparing the land base to receive the electric
network data. Each Regional Center from Copel trained 2 people that acted as
.multipliers.. Training in the use of the application covered:
- Introduction to GIS
- Introduction to SIG-GD . support, security, navigation, plotting, etc.
- Cartography (Land base) functions
- Electric Network functions
