The Geospatial Utility—More Than Just Assets

The Geospatial Utility—More Than Just Assets

Marv Everett
BC Hydro,6911 Southpoint Drive (E05),
Burnaby,BC,Canada V3N 4X8
Phone: 604 528-2078
E-mail: marv.everett@bchydro.bc.ca
Web site: www.bchydro.com

Dan Bowditch Westech Information Systems Inc,1500
401 West Georgia Street,Vancouver,BC,Canada V6B 5A1
Phone: 604 663-3344
E-mail: dan.bowditch@westechinfosys.com
Web site:www.westechinfosys.com

Abstract

Geospatial Information Technology (GIT) can help utility personnel carry out such diverse processes as distribution design and construction, service restoration and transmission corridor management. The power of GIT lies in much more than just knowing everything about a utility's assets and where they are located. It can provide enabling tools and support for all levels of staff in many utility processes, resulting in more efficient design, construction, operations and maintenance, as well as in improved customer satisfaction. Examples are taken from the BC Hydro3 Enterprise GIS (EGIS) project implementation including the co-development of some business applications through vendor partnerships.

Traditional Utility GIS

Typically, more than 80% of a utility’s assets are geospatial in nature. That is to say, 80% of a utility’s assets, asset information and work activities are related to locations on the earth (points on the map) and points in space above the earth’s surface. Poles, transmission towers, kiosks, valves, substations, switching stations, pipes and wires in the ground, wires overhead and their attendant data and records either occupy or reference geospatial locations. The early application of AM/FM/GIS technology in utilities was to help operate and maintain their geospatially distributed assets efficiently and cost effectively. The primary focus was on “whereness awareness” using unintelligent digital mapping to record asset locations. Later developments included basic modeling of real world networks for analysis and planning plus a database to store and retrieve asset attributes. Some limited integration with other legacy systems also took place.

Figure 1. Traditional mapping of a typical utility AM/FM implementation.

Early utility GIS implementations were typically limited to single departments or business units. It was not unusual for different departments within the same utility to implement separate GIS systems on different GIS platforms. In addition, other parts of utilities often hired consultants to develop map related information to serve their specific needs. Often these data were received in hard copy only, even though the consultant developed their deliverables using digital mapping or GIS technology.

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. Electrical Distribution

BC Hydro was one of the early adopters of GIT with the integration of their Work Management System (WMS) to their AM/FM/GIS system in the early 1990’s. The “Distribution Construction Design System (DCDS)” allowed service planners to extract a work area from the GIS database, update a screen print in the field, then prepare a design using the GIS. When the design was completed, compatible units were passed automatically to the WMS for estimating, material ordering and work order tracking. DCDS automatically produced a variety of drawings (permit, construction, plant alteration, etc.) and the GIS database was automatically updated when the line department confirmed that the job was complete in the WMS. This enabled BC Hydro to vastly improve its maps and asset records during the 1990’s without additional drafting resources. Previously, many map types and record updates were simply either not being done and/or they were not consistent throughout the province.

Figure 3. Enabling of the distribution job flow process using BC Hydro’s geospatial Distribution Analysis and Design application.

During the year 2000, as part of BC Hydro’s Enterprise GIS initiative, their original mainframe AM/FM/GIS system was migrated to a new GIS platform and DCDS was redeveloped into the new Distribution Analysis and Design (DAD) application. DAD is used in much the same way as DCDS was except that it has an easier user interface and provides significantly more functionality for the service planners.

DAD can support work being done a job at a time (WMS related and by far the majority of activity) by service planners as well as work that is done a map at a time by drafters for updating records as a result of maintenance or other processes. In addition, utility customers and property developers benefit from reduced cycle times for service installations.

While DAD is a custom application for BC Hydro, much of its functionality has been incorporated into a new vendor product. It is currently being marketed to electric and gas distribution utilities under the name Design Manager^TM.

Service Restoration

In the new deregulated utilities world, retention of customers is critical to business success. This can’t be done without reliable service and prompt restoration after an outage or interruption. Difficult to justify on financial payback alone, Outage Management Systems (OMS) are a critical tool for any “geospatial utility” concerned about customer satisfaction and retention. BC Hydro was an early adopter of OMS in 1999.

Figure 4. The service restoration process at BC Hydro enabled by their OMS.

Not only are service restoration crews dispatched more effectively and the lights put back on faster than ever before, the customer is now much better informed as to what is going on and when their service will be restored. Surveys have indicated that customers are more concerned about being given an expected restoration time by the utility than they are with actually having the lights back on. The integration of an OMS with other Call Centre technologies vastly improves the knowledge base for the Call Centre agent so that they can provide information to customers with confidence.

Figure 5. A screen shot from BC Hydro’s geospatial OMS.

The OMS is enabled by the geospatial linking of customer locations with the circuit they are served from. The network model, derived from the Enterprise GIS, is then used to predict the probable cause of the outage allowing efficient direction of repair crews. Dispatch is managed through use of a Mobile Data System (MDS) linked from the OMS to PCs in crew vehicles.

The utility’s Customer Care (CCS) and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems also play an important role in minimizing the direct involvement of Call Centre agents. Customers calling in are recognized by their phone number and, if the outage is already registered in the OMS, are given an IVR message as to status of the outage and an expected restoration time. Only a small percentage of the calls require the intervention of a Call Centre agent. As services are restored, the system will soon be able to automatically call back selected customers to confirm that their service has been restored.

Transmission and Generation

To date, the application of GIT has occurred almost exclusively in the customer service and distribution areas of utilities. This is due primarily to the traditional view that distribution and customer service are the corporate revenue sources. Therefore, efficiencies and savings facilitated by the introduction of GIT in these areas would go straight to the bottom line. The new business paradigm looks at the transmission components of electric and gas utilities as separate operating units with their own costs and income (i.e., their own bottom lines). In fact, many utilities are splitting into separate “discos,” “transcos,” and (in the case of electric utilities), “gencos.” The new business model makes it easier for these entities to identify areas of inefficiency and/or process deficiencies where GIT can provide solutions. And, possibly more to the point, how investments in GIS technology and requisite support data can be cost justified. Also, as noted above, new government regulations, environmental concerns and public pressure are other significant drivers that are causing utilities to expand their utilization of GIT into non-traditional areas of application. These include a broad spectrum of applications related to corridor management, reservoir area management, property and property rights management, and facility management. Examples of how BC Hydro is addressing some of these issues are presented below.

PowerGrid and Enterprise Landbase

The BC Hydro Enterprise GIS (EGIS) project is comprised of three primary components: 1) the DAD suite of distribution related applications discussed above; 2) the PowerGrid suite of applications developed for corridor management, reservoir area management, related land management, and facility management, and; 3) the development of a comprehensive topographic and cadastre Enterprise Landbase (ELB) to support all EGIS applications.

In order to expand from the traditional distribution (DAD) view of GIT to the PowerGrid view it is necessary to recognize some significant and fundamental differences. The distribution facility model is a complex 2-D network model of poles, transformers, switches, wires, etc. The landbase requires a relatively simple 2-D parcel base that is used primarily for navigation purposes. The DAD applications are based primarily on complex network analyses with little in the way of spatial analysis. Conversely, the PowerGrid facility model is a rather simple 3-D network model of transmission towers, conductors and substations. However, PowerGrid utilizes a very complex landbase (ELB) comprised of 3-D topographic, cadastre and thematic data. PowerGrid applications are very spatial in nature with limited requirements for network analysis. The drivers behind this development are presented below.

Corridor Management

For the purposes of this paper, the management of corridors includes those activities dealing specifically with the facilities, those activities dealing with the physical corridor, and those activities dealing with adjacent entities. In the case of electric transmission corridors:

Management of the facilities includes the inspection and maintenance of the transmission towers and their components (insulators, high tension conductors, brackets, clamps, spacers, splices, navigation markers, etc.)
Management of the corridor includes vegetation maintenance, access maintenance (roads, bridges, culverts, gates, helipads, access agreements, etc.), environmental protection (riparian areas, animal habitat, heritage areas, etc.), compatible use (tree farms, golf courses, equestrian trails, parking lots, etc.), and property rights and encroachments (buildings, swimming pools, tennis courts, roads, etc.).
Management of adjacent entities includes protection of downstream riparian areas (potable water, irrigation water, fisheries, etc.), protection of adjacent habitat and environmentally sensitive areas, and protection of adjacent properties (buildings, cultivated land, timber, etc.).

The objective of all utility corridor management is to meet business goals safely and cost effectively while fully addressing regulatory, contractual and public concerns. The number of issues involved and their inter-relationships with other factors has become extremely complex and it is no longer possible to fully achieve the corridor management objective by traditional methods.

The utility assets per se are a relatively small part of the puzzle. The solution is a very comprehensive “real world” 3-D spatial model and sophisticated tools to help analyze and manage these complex entity relationships. PowerGrid provides a suite of applications that address all of the issues noted above and allows BC Hydro to compile and maintain detailed corridor maps and facility inventories. Although some analyses and benefits can be achieved with two-dimensional facility and land data, significantly more benefits can be realized from a comprehensive 3-D data model. The EGIS ELB data model is comprised of approximately 3,000 real world objects and features. Less than 10% of these database objects represent BC Hydro assets. Approximately 90% of the features have nothing to do with BC Hydro assets per se but have a great deal to do with determining how it operates and maintain its facilities.

Vegetation management is a significant component of most utility corridor management. Vegetation knows nothing about budgets or austerity measures and continues to grow during both high profit and low profit periods. The process of maintaining vegetation has the potential for negative impacts on fisheries, community water and animal habitat. Inadequately maintained vegetation can cause costly outages from flashovers, can cause forest fires and can expose both employees and the public to significant safety risk and possibly death. Increased focus on the “bottom line” requires all managers to reduce costs without increasing risk – a difficult balancing act. BC Hydro has developed a prescriptive vegetation management system that considers the various business, environmental and safety parameters and facilitates the development of systematic work plans. Tools that analyze conductor to ground clearances, establish buffer zones around riparian areas and analyze other spatial relationships are an integral part of the process.

With electricity trade providing an increasing share of revenues for many utilities, transmission line optimization, more efficient and effective maintenance of corridors and timely management of rightof- way related issues are instrumental in keeping the electric system available and capable of operating at peak loads. GIT is important part of making this happen.

Figure 6. BC Hydro’s PowerGrid Data Architecture.

Until recently this 3-D data was only available on a few high-end photogrammetric workstations. PowerGrid will make it available to many more users via BC Hydro’s enterprise GIS. Ongoing EGIS development will also provide a field laptop solution.

Reservoir Area and Downstream Area Management

BC Hydro is a major producer of hydroelectric energy and operates a total of 40 dams and 30 generating stations. Many of BC Hydro reservoirs are used for recreation and PowerGrid provides applications for managing campgrounds, picnic areas, boat launch facilities, hiking trails and inflowing rivers and streams. Future applications may include broader watershed analysis for reservoir inflow calculations, debris management and slope stability analysis. As part of the dam safety program and emergency preparedness planning BC Hydro is required to analyze the impacts of high reservoir outflows due to severe weather conditions or dam breaches. PowerGrid applications are planned that will correlate properties with the flood extents of different outflow scenarios and provide lists of critical buildings (schools, hospitals, emergency services, etc.) and landowners to be contacted or evacuated if such an event should occur.

Figure 7. Geospatial management of encroachments along a BC Hydro transmission right-of-way.

Encroachments along more than 12,000 kilometres of high voltage right-of-way can become a serious safety problem if not well managed. Applications can search the database to identify potential encroachments in 2-D or 3-D, taking conductor swing and ‘worst case’ clearances into consideration.

Truly More Than Just Assets

This paper has discussed a number of different applications of GIT in the three primary business categories of an electric utility – distribution, transmission and generation. Although the examples are specific to electric utilities they can easily apply to gas, water and wastewater and many other utilities and corporations that operate facilities within corridors, including railways and highways.

Inspections and maintenance are a daily fact of life in all infrastructure-based organizations. Historically, utilities have been all about assets and their locations. However, new business paradigms combined with increased regulatory and public concerns no longer allow utilities to manage just assets. It is incumbent upon the 21st century utility to also manage the entities that its assets (and the operation of its assets) impact upon.

New challenges require new solutions and GIT is an essential component of the new toolkit. Niche application of GIS technology is far too narrow and costly a solution. The applications and examples presented above show that assets are a small part of the overall challenge. An enterprise approach is essential to providing the requisite application breadth and data richness. GIT is the vehicle, a geospatial utility is the objective. It truly is about more than just assets.