Field is hooked....Cannot live without it!!
Introduction
UtiliCorp Networks Canada is an investor-owned electric utility in Canada with over 90,000
kilometers of transmission and distribution lines in two different service areas. An Alberta
service area of 220,000 square kilometer with Distribution facilities only and a BC service
area of 25,000 square kilometer with both Transmission and Distribution facilities. The
AM/FM System models UtiliCorps’ entire electrical network, in both graphical and pure data
representations, with true connectivity. It links installed distribution and transmission
facilities (185,000 transformers, 900,000 conductor segments and over 1 million poles,
among others), to actual geographical and customer information, within this integrated
model. Our AM/FM model contains over 30Gb of electronic corporate information.
In our ongoing pursuit of increased operating efficiency, our investigations confirmed that
there was a fundamental set of work-steps in all field maintenance operations, which could
be elegantly supported by an appropriately-configured viewer / red-liner application, in the
hands of our field staff at their worksites. As with all industries performing field operation,
inspection and maintenance routines, we were spending far too much time and money on
repeatedly translating basic sets of information across a variety of media (paper to paper,
paper to digital to paper). Delivery of our enhanced viewer / red-liner application significantly
leveraged UtiliCorps’ existing investment in it’s AM/FM model, since this relatively small
development effort resulted in the delivery the whole AM/FM model and the value of it’s
embedded information, to several hundred field staff and centralized Dispatchers.
The viewer / red-liner implementation provides an economical solution to our need for
enterprise-wide access to the master AM/FM model, in both connected and disconnected
viewing modes. Almost all departments of the company are making increased use of the
master AM/FM model for business analysis and decision-support. The Mobile AM/FM viewer
has greatly enhanced corporate-wide access to our model, at minimal cost.
As we explain, this delivery of corporate information and workflow support in an electronic
format, has had a tremendous positive impact, in terms of reductions in many areas, such
as cycle times, printing, plotting, data translation, and facility checking.
We chose a commercially available Viewer / Red-liner application from Intergraph called
FRAMME Field View. This product was enhanced and customized to support a set of
specific business workflow requirements for UtiliCorps’ Network Operations field staff. Then
interfaced with a GPS unit and a Sierra Wireless modem.
The enhanced viewer now provides easy to use functionality, directly into the hands of field
staff at job sites remote from the master model. Our delivery includes powerful search tools,
display controls, intelligent redline features and specific customized work tasks. Allowing the
field staff and contractors to directly input data for Pole inspections, new service layouts,
ground testing, line patrol, outage statistics, and capital retirements directly into other
corporate system. Our approach results in all users working directly within the same master
model, with identical views and comprehension of the represented facilities.
