The Geospatial Utility—More Than Just Assets
The early utility view of GIS technology was that of a facilitating tool to allow individual
departments or business units to meet their operations and maintenance mandates more cost
effectively. There was no enterprise focus, only silos of mostly incompatible technology, using
independent data sources, often with conflicting information about similar entities.
Transition to the Enterprise View
Implementation of the AM/FM/GIS technology model noted above proved to be very expensive and
generally yielded marginal benefits. The maintenance of multiple platforms, multiple application
software and multiple (often conflicting) databases gave cause to review this approach and look for
solutions with a broader, more cost effective corporate focus. Utilities started to look at the possibility
of an “Enterprise GIS (EGIS)” strategy that would facilitate a single platform solution, a single
corporate facility model, a common land model and a comprehensive suite of GIS applications that
address the full spectrum of corporate requirements.
Studies confirmed that the EGIS concept has considerable merit but to be effective requires very close
attention to business drivers, stakeholder requirements and data standards. Data is by far the most
expensive component of any GIS implementation. Implementing a corporate GIS solution that
facilitates the sharing of common data across different business units significantly reduces costs,
removes data inconsistency and conflict, and leads to the development of more positive business
cases. It also provides the opportunity to move beyond the niche application of AM/FM/GIS
technology, focused primarily on asset operations and management, to a much broader enterprise
view that utilizes GIS technology as a core business tool to deliver a broad spectrum of geospatial
applications and analyses to all stakeholders in the “geospatial utility.”
The Geospatial Utility
The geospatial utility is evolving partly in response to growing government and public pressure to
consider many more parameters in the design, construction, operation and maintenance of facilities.
This is complicated by the need to be more competitive in the new deregulated utility world. The
geospatial information technology (GIT) requirements of today’s utility businesses can no longer be
adequately served by facility models alone. Broad-based enterprise systems supported by
comprehensive applications and query tools, a feature-rich facility and land model and interfaces to
non-spatial legacy databases are needed to address new business challenges. Challenges such as
demonstrating due diligence regarding the environmental impact of daily utility operations cannot be
met by simple 2-D facility and land parcel models.
Figure 2. High-level data context diagram showing planned integration needs at BC Hydro as part of their EGIS project implementation.
The geospatial utility is also evolving due to the need to re-engineer many traditional utility
procedures in order to meet new business challenges. This includes the move towards the process management paradigm which requires the application of consistent standards and processes across the corporation in order to work effectively.
GIT is an essential component of the geospatial utility. The balance of this paper will look at how BC
Hydro, a major North American electric utility, is applying GIT through its Enterprise GIS initiative
to become a “geospatial utility.” Although these examples come from an electric utility, they are also
relevant to gas, water, and waste water utilities.
