The use of location-based services in maintaining electrical and other networks in developing countries
Barry Dwolatzky
Rex van Olst, Modiri Seate
University of the Witwatersrand
PO Box 452, Wits, 2050 South Africa
Abstract:
In South Africa and other developing countries there is a major drive to expand
infrastructure. Over the past 10 years millions of South African households in both rural
and urban areas have been provided with electricity, water and telephone services. Once
new networks have been installed the challenge is to maintain them . Maintenance
personnel typically have a lower level of experience and skill than their counterparts in
Western Europe and the USA. This paper describes research into the application of
Location-based Services [LBS] technology to support work teams responsible for
maintaining network-based utilities in developing countries. By providing work teams
with mobile hand-held computing devices linked via a communication network to a
central geospatially-based data server, information about the network can be provided as
required. In addition the proposed system compensates for the work team's lack of
familiarity with computers by providing a context aware human-computer interface. This
limits the amount of data input required from the operator. The focus of the paper is on
the maintenance of electrical distribution networks, but the principles explored are
applicable to telecommunications and water networks in under-developed areas.
Intorduction
In 2002 most African countries came together to form a new political and economic bloc
called the “African Union”, or AU. The economic and developmental aspirations of the
AU are encapsulated in a strategic plan called “NEPAD” (New Economic Plan for
Africa’s Development). One of the key aspects of NEPAD is infrastructural development.
Bridging the infrastructure gap in Africa has been identified as an important element of
promoting regional integration on the continent [NEPAD, 2002]. This strategy envisages
massive investments in the construction of new electrical, water and telecommunication
networks.
Infrastructural growth has also been a key feature of the development of South Africa
since the early 1990’s. More than 2 million households in both urban and rural areas have
been supplied with grid electricity and piped water over the past 10 years. Fixed-line and
cellular telecommunications networks are being rapidly rolled-out. The impressive rate of
growth of network-based utilities in South Africa has, however, brought with it many
challenges. It is these same challenges that many African and other developing countries
are bound to face in the years ahead.
This paper deals with one of these challenges – namely the task of operating and
maintaining hundreds of thousands of kilometers of new network infrastructure.
Network Maintenance - The Challenge
Maintenance personnel in developing countries typically have a lower level of experience
and skill than their counterparts in Western Europe and the USA. In bridging this skills
gap, modern information and communication technologies has the potential to make a
significant contribution. One such technology relates to spatial information systems
(SIS).
In the developed world, as SIS technology matures, it is increasingly being applied to a
variety of new tasks within utilities, including planned maintenance, the real-time
location of faults on the network, and the dispatch of maintenance vehicles to rectify
those faults. In relying on SIS technology to perform these tasks, managers are
discovering an ever-widening range of other applications for which the technology is
suitable.
In developing countries SIS technology has the potential to empower the mobile
workforce. The appropriate use of computer applications based on geospatial information
will improve the ability of inexperienced and relatively unskilled field personnel,
allowing them to reduce costs, improve productivity and accuracy, and be more
responsive to customers and clients [Johnson, 1998]. According to Scott Johnson, there
are three primary ways of improving productivity of a workforce. These are i) through
the development of new technologies; ii) through increased capital expenditure; and iii)
through education and training. All of these are pertinent in Southern Africa and to the
theme of this paper. However although the development of technology is a key to
productivity improvement, the technology is worthless unless it is actually used. Whilst
great improvements in productivity will be unlikely unless workers have the level of
education and skill needed to handle the new (advanced) technologies. The theme of this
paper is to ensure “ease-of-use” of the technologies proposed.
The application of SIS technology, whether in the developed or developing world, is
however pointing the way to a need for enterprise wide access to spatial data embedded
in the corporate database. The implication of the demand for user access to spatially
related data (asset maps, geocoded networks, field workprints and orders, dispatch, and
topographical maps etc) requires that the corporate relational data model includes two
simple additional attributes, namely "x" and "y" map co-ordinates, for any outside plant,
personnel and customers [Lancaster, 1996].
Almost all utilities have to face the challenge of capturing and maintaining field asset
records, which are required in an "as-built" format to supply accurate information to work
teams in the field. With geospatial information content now more easily available it is
possible to capture, maintain and access field asset data with the assistance of personal
digital assistants (PDAs) and wireless communications technology, thus enhancing the
productivity of field operational work-crews. The dramatic growth in business demand
for mobile computing is a direct result of the natural synergy between PDAs, wireless
technology, and data-driven workstyles [Intel, 2002]. Multiple studies of this synergy
confirm productivity gains of between 15 and 25% per week when the mobile workforce
is equipped with mobile PDAs and wireless access. The Gartner Group, in one of its
studies, found that the amount of time wasted by the average worker on paper-related
tasks, regardless of their industry, was 30% of each day !
To deal with the key challenge of network data collection our University is carrying out
research focused on developing appropriate business processes to achieve more
productive data capture. This research involves the measurement of existing data
capturing productivity within South Africa’s telecommunications company, Telkom, and
the national power utility, Eskom. Best practice, worst practice and something in between
are to be measured as a "current status" baseline. The "quantifiable increase in
productivity" will be measured by applying the proposed business process and
technology to a pilot site and then assessing productivity gains over the baseline. In a
similar way data accuracy improvements will be quantified. These measurements will be
conducted in an “over-the-shoulder” fashion with Telkom’s and Eskom’s own personnel
to minimise duplication and to ensure that the measurements are not “skewed” by
introducing alien processes through the utilisation of only non-Telkom or Eskom field
personnel for the data capture implementation.
