GIS Replacement Project

Challenges, Lessons Learned and Potential Benefits Jennifer Rolph Manager, GIS

November 3, 2011

Agenda

• Background

• Business Goals

• Implementation

• Change Management

• Challenges

• Bright Spots

• Next Steps

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Why?

•Life Cycle Replacement

•To improve mapping and record keeping

•To provide foundation for future implementation of Smart Grid, Outage Management (OMS) and Distribution Management (DMS) technologies

•Increase in system reliability and improve productivity, customer service and safety

•Improve the accuracy of our data

•Provide the ability to perform better analysis and planning

•Single source of reference

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Business Goals

“EPCOR is implementing an industry standard, electrically connected GIS with a comprehensive asset schema, and an integrated suite of GIS and engineering applications. An electrically connected model will expand the capabilities of the GIS so that in addition to modeling geo-spatial and physical connectivity, it will model the physical flow of electricity between electrical elements”

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Implementation - from CAD to GIS

• Implemented GE Smallworld Electric Office and Fieldsmart specifically to support EPCOR future Smart Grid initiatives • Full end-to-end electric network connected model,

including Secondary to customer

• Platform for future Smart Grid applications include AMI integration, OMS/DMS deployment

• Integration with Field Automation

• Use Oracle Spatial to power enterprise apps & reporting

• Adhere to COTS principals

Architecture Mobile Crew ToolsDesktop Tools

MapFrame

FSV

GIS Power

Oracle Spatial

Sync Manager

Electric

Associated

Files

GE Energy

Electric Office

DesignerSynergee

Circuits / Consumption & Peak Data

GE Secondary

Analysis &

Optimization

Orthophotos

EPCOR

EDTI

Reference

Maps

IVARAElectric and Workflow

Data Objects Designs

STARS

Site Location & Characteristics

Site Avg Monthly Consumption

Site Peak Demand (monthly peak - last 12 months)

Address

Data

Survey

Monument

Data

Engineering Tools

- PolyWater Cable Pulling

- PLS CAD/Lite

- SAG10

- MicroStation CAD

Compatible Units

Electric Office GIS

GE Energy’s Smallworld:

GeoSpatial Server

Spatial Object Managers

FME

OMS/DMS

Future

Flat Files

- Customer Drawings

- Crossing

- URW

- Profile

- Pole Sheets

- JHA

- Cable Pull Analysis

- Pole Structure Analysis

- Survey Coordinates

- Developer Plans

- City Plans

- Service Request

- Schematics

- Photos

- Survey Mon. Data Sheets

- MS Excel / Word

- Orthophotos

- PDF

- Redlines

- Tree Trim

SCADA

Reporting

Tool

Work Order Status

Circuit Peak Load (monthly peak - last 12 months)Associated

Files

Landbase/

Electric/

Tree Trim

MapFrame

FFM

Landbase/

Electric /

Tree Trim

Inspections

Management

Asset Status

CofE /

GeoEdmonton

Landbase

Work Requests

DMS

Audit

Cadastrals

Redlines/

Inspections/

Tree Trim

Shop Inspections

Inspections

Foreign

Util.

Reference

Maps

Redlines/

Inspections/

Tree Trim

Alberta

Surveyors

Work

Requests

Trimble

OfficeSurvey

CSV

Thematic

Mapping

(MapInfo/

Vertical Mapper)

Tree Trim /

Inspection

Template

Tree

Trim

Advantex

Trouble Calls

Common

Data

Redlines

(Applied by Designer)

Landbase

Project Stats

• 75 EPCOR resources and 20 person years logged to the project

• 300 people trained (including field and office staff) between December 2010 and March 2011.

• Performed hundreds of thousands of data corrections to Aerial and Underground Conductors and Transformers, Ductline and Switches

Field

• Provide the ability to query for assets and view their attributes

• Identify facility locations • Gathering utility information on rights of way, circuits, lines

and owners • Provide ability to “red-line” in the field • Provide electrical circuit tracing capabilities in a mobile tool

(outage planning, notification etc) • Provide precursor for an Outage Management System which

will identify outage locations and help develop system restoration plans.

• Circuit plans, schematics, customer drawings available in pdf format.

The Approach to Change Management

Analyze

Change

Needs

Design the

Game Plan

Execute the

Game Plan

Sustain the

Momentum

Launch the

Project Team

Deliver

Business

Results

Leadership

Engagement

Communication

Learning

Measurement

Sustainability

Transformation Objective —

the “Why”

Transformation Methodology —

the “What”

Transformation Levers —

the “How”

Challenges

• Data • RAMTeCH – offshore resources performing data migration tasks (CAD

Schematic to electrically connected GIS = more than connecting lines) • Internal worlds • Many manual or text based products • Business User Adoption – difference between new and longer term

employees • Training Engineering Techs how to record electrically connected data • Business Process Re-engineering • Timelines • Business Drain • Newer technology, internal IT support issues (Oracle vs. VMDS) • System Integration – work management system, field tool, billing,

GeoEdmonton

Lessons Learned

• Do not underestimate the power of (or the need for) formal change management and communication.

• Change Management does not equal communication – it is much more. • Business Analyst is a critical resource on project and vendor side (how to

vs. should do, best practices) • Data – know the scope of your work ahead of time, start early. Do this

first. • People want to be told EXACTLY what to do and how to do it. • We didn’t know what we didn’t know.

Bright Spots • We have primary electrical network connectivity! • We have taken the first step in the right direction although there is much more

work ahead. • Single source of record (manhole, design, as-builts etc)* • Field tool has been widely accepted. Intuitive, easy to learn. • Field has many more capabilities to perform electrical tracing in the field (ie; from

a transformer to your house) • Field inspections and integration with asset management program • Moved from a simplistic representation of our electrical model to a sophisticated

spatially modelled system. • Good foundation to move forward to OMS/DMS. • Team work • Use Cases – still in use – testing, training, reference • We believe in the ‘WHY’ • We believe we chose the best product • Still learning • We know what questions to ask (we know more about what we don’t know)

Next Steps

• Focus on user adoption. • Divide and conquer – partnered with business units. • Continual business process alignment and checking. • Update asset attributes using collect from field (eg:

switch manufacturer, fuse size etc) • Auto generate inspection routine based on queries in

EO and plot results on FieldSmart specific to each inspector.

• More As-Built information collected from field • Multiple inspection templates for individual asset types • Continue to build out secondary , mesh network,

transmission network, substation internals and improve the quality of our data.

THANK YOU.

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