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Implementation of a company wide GIS system

Geraldo Cezar Correa, Jose Carlos Kojicowski, Antonio Carlos Gomide
Companhia Paranaense de Energia (COPEL)
R. Jose Izidoro Biazeto, 158 . Bloco B . Mossungue
Zip 81200-240 . Curitiba . PR - Brazil
E-mail: geraldo@copel.com
Phone: (55) (41) 331-4515
Fax (55) (041) 331-4557


The company (COPEL)
Copel is a vertically integrated electric utility company with 19 power plants (3,306 MW installed capacity), 6,352 km of transmission lines, 145,500 km of distribution lines and more than 2,800,000 customers. For distribution administrative purposes, the Company is divided in 19 areas, each one with personnel to keep the electric network cadaster updated. Copel has integrated information systems to support the main business functions. As an example, if a customer calls in for a new service, the clerk can immediately determine if this connection to the electric distribution network is possible, in terms of transformer load, voltage drop, etc, considering this new estimated load.

The GIS project
In 1995 Copel started the development and implementation of a GIS in order to improve the business processes, boost productivity and improve customer service.

The Guidelines
Considering the risks of this enterprise wide implementation, the following guidelines were established:
  • Utilization of the existing electric distribution network data. Since 1974 Copel is capturing and maintaining a database with information about the electric network (with UTM coordinates). Evidently this represents .an enormous investment and had to be leveraged.
  • The new system would be client . server.
  • RISC Server
    Unix would power the RISC systems because of robustness and reliability . some of the systems were expected to run 24 hours, 7 days a week.
  • Commercial RDBMS
    Reliable, robust, with all the tools to manage backup and recovery
  • 4GL / RAD tools / SQL standard / .C. language extension
  • AM/FM / GIS functions
  • Integration of raster and vector in the same system
  • The system would work with a continuous database.
The Software solution
Through a RFP, Copel bought the hardware (3 Unix workstations) and software licenses to start development
  • Software Vision,
  • Oracle RDBMS
Candidate applications
Several business areas were considered to start the Project and the Electric Distribution Network was chosen, mainly because of:
  • Big quantity of paper maps (around 30.000) to be maintained.
  • Biggest number of people involved.
  • This area already had a .culture. with handling UTM coordinates.
  • The paper maps already had coordinates . data conversion was expected to be easier than with other business areas.
(SIG-GD) GIS for Electric Distribution Management
Nowadays the following applications are developed and implemented
  • Security and System Administration.
  • Use of more than one UTM zone.
  • Urban and Rural Cartography functions
  • Urban and Rural data conversion
  • Geodetic Milestones.
  • Low and High Voltage Network Cadastre
  • Data Conversion for Low and High Voltage Network
  • Meter reading lists
  • Substation Planning
  • Feeder Planning
  • Outage Management System
  • Work Order Management Interruption Analysis (Regulatory Commission Compliance)
  • Feeder reconfiguration
  • SCADA Integration
The following applications are currently being tested by end users:
  • 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:
  • "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
  • 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
Infrastructure
Even with trained and motivated users, no system will be well accepted if the response time is poor, or if for some reason the system stops and there is no one to answer questions or phone calls from the end users. At COPEL the following steps were taken to assure that the IT infrastructure was adequate:
  • Hardware
    The Unix servers were bought with scalability in mind. As the number of users grew, so did the capacity of the servers (in terms of number of processors, available RAM, disk space). The final aim is to have the smallest possible number of Unix servers, in order to reduce the costs of support and maintenance (Oracle, Unix, etc).
  • Technical support
    The main concern regarding support is Unix (Sun Solaris), Oracle and the GIS software. A team was assembled to provide technical support on that software.
Data conversion
Data conversion is a high cost and time-consuming activity. This is a critical phase because it is expensive and takes a big part of the whole project. In order to reduce cost, normally people try to use existing data, but one must have common sense to assess if data should be captured again. This decision is highly dependent on the quality of existing data.

The Land Base
Back in 1993, the State of Parana created a Commission (Camara Tecnica de Cartografia e Geoprocessamento do Parana) which is coordinated by Copel. This Commission is in charge of obtaining, contracting and distributing digital land base together with several Government Agencies. From 1995 on, there was standardization on the layers to be used by all participants. This kind of Technical Cooperation resulted in substantial cost reduction for Copel.

The Electric Network
In 1974 COPEL started the implementation of a mainframe-based system to manage the electric distribution network. This system, back in 1974, started to capture the UTM coordinates of network elements.

Since then COPEL is creating this database with information about the electric distribution network. Today this system controls more than 95% of the electric distribution network at Copel and is used by Project, Maintenance, Planning, Operations and Customer Service. This database is being migrated to the GIS system. Due to a high degree of integration between applications, the mainframe database is being maintained in sync with the GIS database. As a matter of fact, the main problem was not to convert data from one format and architecture to another, but to maintain data in sync and the mainframe applications running perfectly. IT and Distribution staff are handling all of the conversion workload in house.

UTM zones

The problem
The UTM system (Universal Transverse Mercator) divides the globe in 60 equal parts. In order to know the location of a point using UTM coordinates, it is necessary to know the zone number. Curve lines delimit the zones, so it is impossible to align correctly side by side two maps that are located in different zones. Zones are identified either by a sequential number or by its central meridian. Parana State spreads thru two zones: 21, with central meridian -57o and 22 with central meridian -51o. This creates a situation in which the coordinates of say, a pole, can be the same for the city of Foz do Iguaçu as for the city of Paranagua. The map bellow shows the point where the border of those zones occurs, in Parana State.



Computer systems that work with UTM coordinates normally use one of its greatest advantages . it.s very easy to calculate distances. As the unit is meter and it.s a Cartesian system, one can easily detect that the distance between point (600.000,7.500.000) and point (700.000/7.500.000) is 100 km. But how about if the points are in different zones? There are two alternatives:
  • Transform both point to geographic coordinates (lat, long) and perform a more intricate calculation.
  • Transform one of the coordinates to geographic (lat, long) and then transform again, considering the zone of the other point. By now we have both coordinates in the same zone and the calculation can be performed. It is important to know that this solution may bring a lot of precision errors if the point to be converted is far from its original UTM zone.
UTM coordinates create some difficulties to draw one electric network that crosses the limits of those zones. As an example, let.s take two points near this border - coordinates of the first point are 778200/7333000 and are referred to zone 21. Coordinates of the second point are 170109/7332739 and are referred to zone 22. Distance between those points is 2155 meters, but if they were represented in the same drawing, the distance would be hundreds of kilometers.

The Solution
As explained above, there is no solution to draw with acceptable precision two objects that are in different coordinate systems or in different zones. Only if they are in the same coordinate system (and in the same zone). So the solution is a simple one: all the coordinates must be converted to the same coordinate system (and same zone) before drawing or making any calculation. But, as there are feeders that cross those borders, the solution must allow the option for the user to choose either one of the coordinate systems. To confirm the saying .each solution brings several problems., this one follows the rule: the GIS software must have coordinate conversion functions to facilitate the implementation of user functions.

In our case, Vision has coordinate conversion functions that eased the implementation. All objects are stored in zone 22 coordinates and when the user wants to access data (draw, perform calculations) he has the option to choose what the coordinate system representation should be. Our system executes one specific command and, from this moment on, all data will be shown in the coordinate system and zone chosen.

Current status of implementation
The map bellow shows the current status of data conversion and system implementation of the GIS system at Copel.



Data in the table bellow refers to the situation of the Electric Distribution Network in November/2000 :

  Copel Total Converted Percent
Poles 1,522,012 1,069,102 70%
Transformers 276,348 237,398 86%
Feeders 1,344 1,191 89%
Customers 2,817,863 2,267,677 80%

What's next?
The following applications are in final stage of development: Field Data Collection (pen computer), Physical Assets Control and access to the GIS data thru the company Intranet.

In the near future, COPEL intends to develop: Construction Inspection (pen computer), Protection Planning and Feeder reconfiguration simulation. One big concern nowadays is regarding migration of this application to a client / server architecture. Copel is still studying the alternatives.

Conclusion
System deployment and data conversion started in 1997 and will end in 2001. From a total of 19 areas, 11 are completed.. The data conversion will finish in July 2001. Regarding the electric network, all of the conversion work is being performed in house. The main reason for this is to reduce costs and improve security. Besides, all the network maintenance work must go on, regardless of the system (mainframe or GIS) being used.

We can say that the implementation of this system started many years ago, with the users understanding the importance of good data maintenance and the advantages of a GIS system. This understanding helps to guarantee that in coming years the electric network data will continue to be reliable and used by a growing number of people throughout the Company. The concern with good and reliable record keeping is normally overlooked, but should be as important as the data conversion.

People that work with our GIS are now more motivated and the data quality and productivity improved remarkably. The land base and electric network data in GIS is a reality at Copel. The success in implementation and data conversion at Copel is the result of a carefully planned and implemented project.

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