Meeting business goals: Adaptation of enterprise geospatial technology and upgrade justification
Terry L. Smith
Manager Resource Management Project
MidAmerican Energy Company
1630 Lower Muscatine Road
Iowa City, Iowa 52240
Telephone: (319) 341-4466, Fax: (319) 341-4490
Email: tlsmith@midamerican.com
John W. Hardin
Technical Manager
Intergraph Utilities & Communications
241 Disk Drive
Madison, Alabama 35758
Telephone: (256) 730-8457, Fax: (256) 730-8109
Email: jwhardin@ingr.com
Steve W. Williams
Executive Account Manager
Logica, 11 Blakeridge Place
Mt. Zion, Illinois 62549
Telephone: (217) 864-6054, Fax: (217) 864-2635
Email: williamsst@logica.com
Abstract
The Delivery Services Project at MidAmerican Energy Company (MidAmerican) provides a
case study for examining the business drivers that define technology upgrades to enterprise
systems. MidAmerican’s legacy enterprise delivery services system consisted of an extensive inhouse
work management system, a custom GIS system, and a custom dispatch system. By
embracing a new solution that integrates the next generation of software applications,
MidAmerican has established work processes that will improve safety, increase productivity,
enhance customer service, establish management tools, and eliminate proprietary software. The
new delivery services applications implemented at MidAmerican have improved each of the
components of its enterprise system; but the greatest benefits will come from tighter integration
between these components and having a more process driven solution. MidAmerican's tightly
integrated solution enables comprehensive constraint based scheduling, mobile computing, and a
reporting environment for the entire enterprise.
Company background
MidAmerican Energy Company (MidAmerican) is the largest utility in Iowa and is strategically
located in the middle of several major markets in the Midwest. MidAmerican provides service to
more than 673,000 electric customers and 652,000 natural gas customers in a 10,600 square-mile
area from Sioux Falls, South Dakota to the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois. The largest
communities served by MidAmerican are Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Sioux City, Waterloo,
Iowa City and Council Bluffs, Iowa; the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois; and Sioux Falls,
South Dakota.
MidAmerican meets the needs of its electric customers with more than 4,400 megawatts of
generating capability: 76 percent fueled by coal, 23 percent by nuclear and 1 percent by natural
gas and oil. Production costs at its coal-fired generation stations are lower than regional and
national averages. The company has majority ownership in four of the five jointly owned coalfired
generating stations in Iowa.
Figure 1 – MidAmerican’s Service Territory
