Data…The New Life Line for the Field!
Pat W. Drinnan
Supervisor, Mapping & Facility Records Aquila Networks Canada
700, 801 – 7th Avenue S.W. Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2P-3P7
Office: (403) 514-4136, FAX: (403) 514-4411
E-Mail: pat.drinnan@aquila.com
Abstract
This presentation will provide an overview of Aquilas’ mobile solutions. The paper will
explain how our lineman has simple easy access to data, as well as tools to utilize this data
back in the field. The lineman defines their own needs and run simple VB reporting
applications live against our corporate Oracle databases. With new Service level
agreements for municipalities this is paramount as we are penalized financially if we do not
meet these service levels. Street Light repairs must be done within 10 working days. Street
Light reports allow the lineman to manage this work. The lineman have functionality to
display the results of Maintenance reports in his field mapping software. This eliminates
manually locating the required maintenance work. Outage reports now pinpoint where
actual problems are allowing the lineman to focus on resolving the problems. Many other
reports are available providing the lineman valuable information to track or perform his
work. Automated reports save the lineman hundreds of hours, eliminating multiple old
manual systems that each different office or lineman had used. Having accurate, consistent
data available immediately allows us to work more efficiently and effectively. This use of
mobile Data Collection, direct corporate system entry and automated User defined reporting
has resulted in very significant reductions in cost.
Introduction
Aquila Networks Canada is an investor-owned electric utility in Canada with over 100,000
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 Aquilas’ 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.
The key to any successful software / hardware implementation is having end-user
acceptance. This means field staff willingly use the system and actually look for ways to use
these tools even more extensively. Aquila Networks Canada has not only succeeded in
meeting our intended outcome but has gone far beyond our greatest expectations. The
Field Staff have developed a sense of ownership in both the software tools and more
importantly the data. They now help drive enhancements in the software.
With the implementation of Aquilas’ mobile technology the paybacks promised in the
original business case are now finally starting to be realized. This has drastically improved
the image of our AMFM system. Everyone from Senior Management down now speak in
glowing terms of its value and accomplishments. Overnight it has gone from a system that
was a deep dark money pit to one of three mission critical enterprise systems that the
corporation cannot operate without. The field staff now, utilize this mobile technology as
their only source of facility information and have come to trust it completely. If the field staff
come across errors they willingly send in corrections and these corrections are completed
immediately for them to see and use. This has created a great deal of faith and ownership
in the data by the field staff.
Aquilas’ mobile technology is now being used as a full Distribution Asset Management
System. This is a fully integrated electronic solution that has had a tremendous positive
impact, in terms of reductions in many areas, such as cycle times, printing, plotting, data
translation, and facility checking. The field staff can record all information required against
the actual Distribution facilities right at the source in the field to manage each piece of plant
through its’ entire life cycle including the retirement of the facility.
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 Aquilas’ Network Operations field staff. To
leverage Aquilas’ investment in technology even further we interfaced a GPS unit to not only
our Field View map but to the Dispatch department near real time via CDPD through a
Sierra Wireless modem.
The Mobile technology 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.
Changing Business Environment
- Staff Reductions
In Aquilas’ ongoing bid to stay competitive we have made the business decision to close all
of our Service Point offices to the public and many of them altogether. In addition to these
closures came some ‘right sizing’ that drastically reduced our staff compliment leaving
virtual no administrative help for our lineman. We had to leverage mobile technology giving
the field full access to all data, if we were going to continue to operate successfully and
survive.
- Customer Expectations
In this new business environment customers insist on new or improved levels of service.
Now with deregulation if a company does not meet the customer’s expectation, the
customer can chose to use another electric service provider and you lose their business.
This has put a whole new perspective onto customer service. Electric Utilities are now being
a far greater emphasis on customer retention and service.
Municipalities have taken their expectations even one step further. They have negotiated
service levels into their new Franchise Agreements. These Franchise Agreement include
financial penalties when specific service levels are not met. Again, this has forced Electric
Utilities to be a far greater emphasis on achieving these service levels. Not only to avoid the
financial penalties but just as important to keep the Municipalities happy and wanting to
continue to do business with the Electric Utility. The field staff must be able to quickly and
easily show the maintenance work required such as Street Light repairs. To manage their
work effectively and document when the work is completed. This gives Aquila the records of
when we have or have not met these service level agreements. Allowing us to show the
Municipalities the exact level of service they are receiving and actually pay the penalties
when the service levels are not met.
- Centralized Maintenance
Another major shift is the way in which Aquila is handling the Maintenance functions for all
our Distribution facilities. This Maintenance work has been centralized into an Asset
Management department within the head office. This has given the Maintenance Planners
an overall view of all maintenance activities within the corporation. In the past Aquila would
have had one person from each of the 58 service points, all put together their requests for
maintenance dollars for the next year. These would seldom have any concrete facts or
evidence supporting the need for these maintenance dollars other then the word of the field
person submitting the request. These maintenance requests would be sent in to the five
regional Senior Engineers. These five regional Senior Engineers were given a budget of
maintenance dollars for the next year. Based on these budget dollars the regional Senior
Engineer would evaluate the requests and make a decision on each request to approve or
not. This method would evenly split the budgeted dollars not only between the 5 regions but
generally between the 58 service Points as well. Although, this process on the surface
seemed as fair and equitable as possible. It could not possibly ensure that the limited
maintenance budget dollars each year are spent in the areas that required them the most or
where the distribution facilities are in the worst condition. Today, we have three
Maintenance Planners that manage all of our maintenance budget dollars for the year. They
receive information from all of our 200 Customer Service Linemen in the field on
maintenance work required, this gives them visibility to the entire service territory not just a
region. This is not the only criterion for determining what work should proceed. They also,
have outage statistics and momentary trips for each of our 450 circuits. Our limited
maintenance budget dollars are put towards the 15 worst performing feeders each year.
This not only ensures constant improvement in our system and more importantly our
customer services. It means our limited budget dollars are spent where they are most
required.
Data Life Line
- Field Data Capture
a. First the lineman brings all of the facilities on the map for his current location by using
one simple keystroke he presses Shift F4. This “Locate GPS” function uses the GPS unit in
his vehicle, recording his GPS location and centering the map around the actual location of
his truck in our mobile mapping system called Field View. Then the Lineman identifies any
and all work required along a feeder utilizing the detailed “Line Patrol” function in Field View.
The “Line Patrol” function is a very simple and easy to use function for the lineman. It has
pull down menus and virtual all input is point and click. The lineman not only records the
action required to maintain this feature, he gives us a priority using an established criteria
and the resources required (equipment, man hours and access) to do this maintenance
work. We have also provided a comment field for any information that is not conveyed but
the pull down menu selections or the point and click choices.
An example of how the Lineman uses the ‘Line Patrol’ functionality is in managing the new
Service Levels we have with each municipality. He uses the ‘Line Patrol’ function to record
and manage this work. He enters the light out date and what is wrong with the light. Then
uses a report to address these problems and make the necessary fixes. Finally, he records
the light on date when he has actually made the repairs. This then serves as our permanent
record of service and is reported on demand or at the end of each month for the
municipality. If the lineman has not met the Service levels this trigger the process of
crediting the Municipality for two months free power on their next bill, based on the billing for
that particular light.
At any time throughout the workday the lineman can then send this information into the
corporate system. He does this by logging onto the network either in the Service Point office
or at his home via modem. Once logged onto our Wide Area Network he simply pushes a
button in Field View called “Send Packet to Sever”. The packet is sent to the server into a
folder called Incoming and then there is an automated routine that runs every two hours that
updates the database with no other human involvement or intervention. Thus, within two
hours the data that the lineman has recorded will be entered into our corporate oracle
database and available for everyone in the enterprise to review or use.
b.) The Lineman is also responsible for entering every power outage on our electric
distribution system both planned and unplanned. Again, with the simple “Locate GPS”
function the lineman presses the Shift F4 keys and centers the map on the location of his
truck. He then captures Aquilas’ DOSS (Distribution Outage Statistics) using a function
called “DOSS”. The lineman presses the F6 key and the dialogue box appears it lets him
record the ‘Time Off’ and ‘Time On’ by simply editing the present time, which is displayed in
both of those fields. He then chooses the ‘Cause ‘ and ‘Component Failed’ from pull down
menus. Finally, he traces the circuit starting from the failed feature or device. This ensures
very complete and accurate information on kilometers of line affected, the number of
customers affected and the RCM circuit the outage is a part of.
Again, at any time throughout the workday the lineman can then send this information into
the corporate system. He does this by logging onto the network either in the Service Point
office or at his home via modem. Once logged onto our Wide Area Network he simply
pushes a button in Field View called “Send Packet to Sever”. The packet is sent to the
server into a folder called Incoming and then there is an automated routine that runs every
two hours that updates the database with no other human involvement or intervention.
Thus, within two hours the data that the lineman has recorded will be entered into our
corporate oracle database and available for everyone in the enterprise to review or use.
The lineman now gladly does this for three basic reasons. First his admin help is gone there
is no one else to this task and it is very simple and easy to record the outage information.
Second it is very useful information when a customer is complaining about their service
reliability or wants information about reliability for a specific area. Finally and probably most
important is that our limited budget dollars each year are primarily being spent on our ‘15
Worst Performing Feeders’. These outage statistics are used to determine the ‘15 Worst
Performing Feeders’. Thus, if he has no statistics, his area will not qualify for the budget
dollars even if his feeder was actually one of the ’15 Worst Performing Feeders’.
- Corporate Data Access
As everyone knows data is of no real value unless you can get quick and easy access to
this data. We needed to be able to have Enterprise wide access to all this “Field Captured
Data”. To accomplish this we built a series of simple very easy to use VB applications that
can be used anywhere on our corporate WAN. These VB applications allow the user to pick
and filter the information they want to see by simply pointing and clicking on the appropriate
radio buttons. They then receive an electronic report in the form of an Excel spreadsheet.
This Excel report can then be even manipulated, sorted or filtered further to satisfy the
users needs or requirements. Many different departments within Aquila, from Network
Services, Maintenance, Planning, Engineering, Call Center, Dispatch, Communications and
Senior Management, use these reports. They are also, provided to our outside contractors
when the maintenance work is to be completed by these contractors.
- Utilizing the Data
- Aquilas’ three Maintenance Planners then produce reports for the entire service area
use the simple VB application for reporting ‘Liner Patrol’. The Maintenance Planners then
sort these reports by feeder and analysis the information including the priorities and
requirements that the Lineman has suggested. The Maintenance Planner then determines
what work will proceed on the ’15 Worst Performing Feeders’ along with any critical work
that is required on any of the remaining 435 feeders. Estimates are prepared using the
lineman’s information and orders approved and released to dispatch along with the excel
spreadsheet outlining the work to be under taken.
- The Lineman patrols the Streetlights on a regular basis, recording any Streetlights that
are not on and if possible why the light is out. When he has completed a town the Lineman
advises Dispatch that the town is complete. The next morning the Dispatcher will produce
the ‘Line Patrol’ report for Streetlights for that particular town. He will then prioritize the
Streetlight repairs along with all other work in that area, ensuring that the work is completed
within our Service Level Agreement for that town. He then dispatches that work to a lineman
along with the Excel spreadsheet that shows which Streetlights need to be repaired and
what is wrong with each light. The Lineman then uses the excel spreadsheet to gather the
material he will need. The excel spreadsheet will also be used within Field View to show the
lineman where these lights are located.
- Aquila built a function in Field View to help the lineman manage the work being sent out
to him via Dispatch on the various Excel spreadsheet reports. Once the Excel spreadsheet
is on the Lineman’s hard drive he then uses a function in Field View called “Hi-light
Repairs”. This asks the Lineman to select a spreadsheet anywhere on his hard drive. He
must also specify a column and row to start the search from and a hi-light option. The Field
View will compare the feature IPID (unique identifier) on the spreadsheet with features in his
area once it finds a match it goes to the next feature. Once it has found all the features that
require work it will hi-light these features in his current view. At a glance the Lineman can
now plan all his work in the area saving a great deal of time and effort. Previously he would
have had to locate these problems one at a time not really seeing the overall work required
for his area, unless he plotted these one at a time by hand. He can then either refer to the
spreadsheet or query the feature in Field View for the repair details. Once he has completed
the work he indicates this in Field View against the actual feature. This then tells the
Maintenance group, electronically, that the work is completed. As well as updating our
corporate record in a timely and accurate manner.
- Distribution Outage Statistics are an invaluable resource for the lineman. Again, a
simple VB application is available and can be run as long the user is logged onto Aquilas’
wide area network. They can choose from many types of reports by customer, by feeder or
within an entire service point, then specify a time period for the report and run. Within
seconds they have an Excel spreadsheet report with all the information that they selected. If
a customer has called complaining about an outage again within seconds a report can be
produced verifying the outage, time off, time on, the cause and the component that failed.
Most customers are very impressed with this kind of service and the detailed information. By
running a Service Point report the lineman can easily and simply look for repeat outage
locations or patterns. As well, users can request from Head Office a thematic maps showing
all outages for a specific time period on a particular feeder.
Achievement
This complete ‘Life Cycle’ Data Management has contributed immensely in making Aquilas’
Field View application “World Class” and one of the premier field applications in North
America. We continue to host visits and provide demonstrations to other interested Utilities.
Recently on one of these visits from another Electric Utility they went on a ride along with
one of our Lineman during a typical day. One of the questions that these visitors asked of
our lineman was if you could only have one tool what would it be. The Lineman’s answer
came back very quickly and firmly. “It would definitely be Field View”. All our field staff has
taken a real sense of pride, enthusiasm and ownership in Aquilas’ Field View application.
The 200 Lineman and 100 contractors now to a man, feel that this tool is theirs and will tell
you that it’s Data…. is their new life line!!
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