Load Management in the GIS Brett R. Beaver Advantica Stoner P.O. Box 86 1170 Harrisburg Pike Carlisle PA 17013-0086 Abstract Load management is gaining new attention due to changes in the natural gas industry. Mergers, acquisitions, and deregulation of the retail market have increased the utility’s focus on customer service. This paper addresses the industry’s current load approval processes, changes in the industry that will affect these processes, and how spatial data can help facilitate the needs of the utility in the changing market. Background The natural gas industry uses spatial technology in a variety of ways to manage their networks. Utilities track responses to service requests and leaks, plan and track maintenance activities, perform cathodic protection, and perform emergency response operations, just to name a few. One key area where the gas industry is focusing tremendous attention is load management. This is due to the deregulation of the retail marketplace and the growing consolidation of the utility industry. What is Load Management Load management involves two main goals: (1) managing the customers currently on the system, and (2) extending service to new customers. An alternative way to define load management is to refer to it as “pipeline capacity” management. For example, new customers can be targeted in areas that contain unused capacity. Likewise, customer service and safety could be jeopardized in areas that are over-allocated or that have very little capacity. Trying to maximize a pipeline’s capacity by adding new customers versus alleviating areas of over-commitment or low pipeline capacity is a struggle that the industry faces everyday. One common example of this struggle is highlighted when utilities need to determine the size of a main to install in the ground. For example, a utility may install an 8-inch pipe to service new customers, hoping that they will utilize that pipe to its full capacity. A year or two later, the planning engineer does not want to look back on that construction job and realize that a 6-inch pipe would have worked better. Rather, the engineer would like to see the pipeline used to its fullest capacity. The key is to maximize the capacity of the pipe at the lowest possible size with out jeopardizing system reliability. Once a pipe has reached capacity, no additional customers can be maintained at the current level of reliability. But what if the utility’s marketer, unaware that the pipeline is at capacity, signs up a few more customers? The new customers could come on and probably be served temporarily, but any slight change in the way a customer uses the gas (such as a gas dryer turning on, or a small change in outside temperature) could cause the pipeline pressure to plummet. If that happens, the utility is forced to deal with customer complaints and send crews to relight pilot lights. In addition, the failure to provide gas to all the customers may be reported in the local newspaper. Added operational expense combined with bad publicity is never a good thing. An example like the one above demonstrates how important it is to effectively manage the load on your system. The utility that can judiciously balance customer service and safety with maximizing pipeline capacity will be taking a giant step towards successful load management. Where are the Problems? Load management has always been an issue for the gas industry. The main concepts and goals mentioned in the previous section have not changed. What has changed is the technology available and the makeup of the industry. Many times, utilities do not realize that problems exist with their methods until something goes wrong or they see something better than what they already have. In an effort to avoid the former and take advantage of the latter, we must first take a look at several common problems that exist in many utilities. Load management in most utilities will be spread across three or more departments, each working toward specific department goals. For example, the operations department is tasked with running the natural gas system on a daily basis. Their main goal is shortterm; to make sure every customer receives the gas they need on a daily basis. Planning departments, however, are responsible for preparing the system to operate in the long term. They need to design new facilities or replace existing facilities to ensure that the operations department has the infrastructure needed to safely and reliably serve all customers. Meanwhile, the marketing department wants to grow the network by signing up new customers or expanding service to existing customers. All three departments play a major role in load management, and each one relies heavily on the others to execute that role effectively. The marketing department needs to know where the utility’s pipeline is over-committed or where extra capacity exists. The last thing a marketer wants to do is to spend time trying to sign up new customers in areas where there is no capacity in the line. Since the planning department has the ultimate say on signing up new accounts, customers located in areas with limited pipeline capacity will probably not gain approval. On the other hand, the planning department needs to know what areas the marketers are targeting. Marketing departments typically have demographic/census data that clearly states what parts of the city are growing or where future expansion projects are going to occur. Marketers will target these areas for their sales effort. If system planners had the same data, they would be better prepared for growth to occur in those areas and upgrade the infrastructure accordingly. In many utilities, the data mentioned above is readily available to anyone that wishes to access the information. The problem is that different users and departments maintain different pieces of the information. The planning department will typically determine pipeline capacities and infrastructure needs through hydraulic modeling. The hydraulic model is contained in a software package that the planning department thoroughly understands, but that is often confusing and frustrating for most marketers to access. The marketers may be looking for one small piece of information, but to find it they have to sort through a significant amount of additional data in the model that they do not need. Likewise, the marketing department typically has their own software applications and data storage that is unfamiliar to most system planners. Planners have access to the data, but similar to the marketers, they have trouble locating the information they need. As a result, the departments pass most information by paper or word of mouth—a process that can be slow, cumbersome, and unreliable. For most new commercial or industrial loads, the marketer must seek approval from system planning before the customer is hooked up for service. The approval simply states that the pipeline capacity is available or can become available to service that new load, but the approval process can be slow and frustrating to complete. To highlight how difficult it is to share information, a normal process may occur as described in the following paragraphs. A marketer receives a call from a new chemical factory that needs new energy service. The marketer visits the factory, meets with the factory manager, and sums the potential load for the customer. The marketer then phones the planning department to verify that the system capacity is available. Unfortunately, the system planner is not available, so the marketer must tell the factory manager that approval will take a few days—essentially leaving a potential customer with no indication whether the utility can provide the service. Upon returning to the office, the marketer fills out a paper form for the load approval and routes it to the planning department. The planner locates the factory in the hydraulic model and determines if the new service can be served. At this point, the planner can approve or reject the new service. If the planner rejects the load, the marketer will be frustrated at the wasted time and effort in chasing the new account. If the planner accepts the load, the planner will next fill out an approval form and any supplemental information that is needed, which is then routed back to the marketer. The whole process has already taken several days from the time the marketer visited the site until the time the form reappears on the marketer’s desk. At this point, the marketer returns to the factory with the good news. However, upon arrival, the factory manager informs the marketer that a representative of the local oil company stopped by and offered to sign up the factory on the spot. The factory grew tired of waiting to hear back from the gas supplier, and therefore the utility lost the customer and its revenue. To further compound the issue, the marketer never informed the system planner that the factory rejected the service. System planners cannot afford to over-allocate the capacity of the pipeline, and therefore must assume the factory is coming on line until informed otherwise. Therefore, the planning department continues to believe that the factory load is real. As a result, when additional new load approvals near the chemical factory are submitted, there is an increased chance the approval will be denied. The amount of revenue lost by the utility could significantly increase due to the loss of other potential customers. This is a simple but common example of what occurs at some utilities. The islands of data, compounded with the complexity of multiple departments working toward different goals, create a process that, in many cases, is ineffective. Now the question is asked, “How can the process be improved?” How can Spatial Data Help In an effort to streamline many of the processes involved in load management, many utilities are turning to their current investments in GIS. Today, the GIS at most utilities is mature and easily accessible by all departments. It is a common application that is easy to use and contains a majority of the company’s asset information. So why not start by using what data is there? The GIS already contains information that can be used by both marketers and system planners. Available data includes current infrastructure type and location, current customer locations, and building footprints that will show potential available customers. With this data, marketers will know what the saturation level is in any section of the city, as well as the infrastructure that is available. Another feature of the GIS is the ability to grow the data warehouse. This is where the real potential exists to enhance the load management process. Combining planning data (such as pipeline capacities, pressures, and flows) with marketing data (such as projected growth and target areas) can result in a significant enhancement to both departments in their efforts to manage the system. By publishing “engineering” results in the GIS, marketers will be able to visually locate areas of available capacity and areas of potential risk. System planners, on the other hand, will have a better idea on where the city is growing and what areas the marketers are targeting. With this in mind, let’s go back to the earlier example of the chemical factory. Before the marketer ever approached the factory, the marketer could have first used the GIS to determine (1) are there facilities in place, (2) what kind of facilities are in place, and (3) is there capacity in the pipeline for the service. With this data in hand, the marketer would already have a good indication of whether or not system planning would approve the customer. Their expectations are already set before they proceed. In addition, if the marketer recorded the factory’s final service decision in the GIS, the system planner would know the status of the account. The planner could look up the potential client and see the marketer’s comments, such as “Service denied, 09/23/01”. This information would not only aid the system planner in keeping the hydraulic model up to date, but may also help any new marketers from pursuing the client in the near future. By placing this supplemental data in the GIS, utilities can take a significant step toward eliminating the problems mentioned previously. With a common application and data format, the communication between the departments that perform the various processes of load management will be greatly enhanced. The islands of data will shrink, and processes that were once paper will be replaced. The Industry is Changing To say the industry is changing is no great revelation. Utilities are constantly purchasing other utilities or merging together to form larger companies with greater customer bases. Deregulation of the retail market is already here for many utilities, and on the horizon for others. With all of these changes, the focus on customer service and satisfaction has been significantly increased. With mergers and acquisitions, there are always questions on how to consolidate and save money. Utilities that had all their departments and activities centralized to one area are now finding themselves spread out over multiple buildings, cities, and states. Processes that were designed for internal use now must be adapted for external players. Nothing has the possibility of emphasizing this fact like deregulation. Deregulation of the retail market has the potential and in some cases the reality of changing the way utilities operate. Deregulation adds another variable to the equation with external marketers, who do not know your system or are physically located in your building, but who are trying to sign up new customers. Data and processes must be flexible and accessible. Processes will have to change in utilities, and for most that means leveraging the existing technology and information in order to make better and quicker decisions. | ||
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