Outage management system helps keep the lights on in east texas
Keith Staples
Manager of Information Systems
Sam Houston Electric Cooperative, Inc.
Shane A. Gebert
Project Manager M.J. Harden Associates
Abstract
This presentation will focus on all aspects of successfully setting up an outage
management system. This will include planning, data collection/conversion, quality
control and customization.
The planning aspect will focus designing an appropriate model to store the data and how
the legacy and GPS collected data would fit into the model. The data
collection/conversion aspect will summarize what procedures were put in place to insert
data into the model. The quality control aspect will describe the different steps that were
put in place to create data that was as accurate as possible. Finally the customization
aspect will point out all of the changes that needed to occur, whether it’s the OMS
software or the model itself, for a successful completion of this project.
Along with showing all the successful parts of our project, problems will be pointed out.
This will include incorrect planning, software incapabilities, unforeseen pitfalls and user
errors. This presentation will give the audience invaluable knowledge of what steps
worked and what steps didn’t work
Company Backgrounds
Sam Houston Electric Cooperative (SHECO) ranks as one of the largest of the 67 electric
cooperatives in Texas. They now maintain more than 5,780 miles of line and serve over
48,000 members. Headquartered in Livingston, their area encompasses 10 counties in
East Texas. Sam Houston Electric Cooperative, Inc. was founded in Polk County on
August 27, 1938 and received its state charter on May 16, 1939.
M. J. Harden Associates (MJH) is a geographic information technology firm providing
solutions for geospatial data management and analysis. Located in Kansas City,
Missouri, M. J. Harden Associates provides GIS solutions for many clients located
throughout the country. MJH was founded in 1956 and began pioneering the use of
photogrammetry. In the mid-80s, services expanded into GIS and IT and later grew into
geospatial software and internet development.
Project History
In an attempt to be more efficient in responding to electrical outages, SHECO decided to
implement an Outage Management System(OMS). This system would pinpoint the
problem using customer locations that have an outage. The locations are derived from
customers calling in during an electrical outage. The phone number is matched against a
customer service database that is related to a location on a map. Once the OMS specifies
where the problem exists, dispatch crews are sent to the location of the problem. To
arrive at this solution, an accurate GIS database of their electrical system needed to be
created.
Creating an outage management system
Planning Phase
At the beginning of this job, SHECO had all of their existing GIS data in ArcFM 7
coverage format. The first thing to do was find a geodatabase model that met their needs
and then convert the legacy data they had to this new geodatabase model. A software
developing and consulting company stepped in and provided the necessary services to get
this off the ground. After an appropriate model was designed, we were ready to
implement a conversion plan to create a GIS database the accurately represented
SHECO’s electrical system. The diagram below shows the approved conversion plan.
The ArcFM 7 data is migrated into the ArcFM 8 geodatabase using customized
conversion software. From here the data is exported out to shapefiles so the survey crews
can load the data into the field data collection units. The data is then brought out into the
field where it verified. This is also the point at which missing data is collected. The
missing data is collected to their own shapefiles. After a feeder is completed in the field,
the data is processed in the office. Once the data was approved by SHECO, it was sent to
MJH where it would be put through more quality control checks and eventually inserted
back into the database.
