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Utility Vegetation Management & GIS
Designing A Mobile Geospatial application to streamline field collection & recordkeeping
Joshua DeWees – Spoon River Electric Cooperative
Agenda
I. BackgroundII. Case Study: Spoon
River ElectricIII. Design ProcessIV. Results
Background
Distribution Electric Systems
Consists of substations, poles, wires, overcurrent protection, and meters
Vegetation can cause faults Faults
Blinking lights Outages Voltage anomalies Customer dissatisfaction Regulatory issues
Vegetation Impacts on Distribution Lines
Direct contact
Overhanging branches
Underbrush that prevents access
Utility Vegetation Management (VM)
Expensive Necessary Planning Strategy Detailed Records
Case StudySPOON RIVER ELECTRIC
Spoon River Electric Cooperative
Three electric cooperatives 15 Employees 5,200 Miles of distribution line GPS and ESRI GIS based planning
and record keeping Linear referencing and route event
tables
What’s the Problem?
Planning and documentation takes a lot of time
Manual transcription process
Errors between field notes and database
Lag time between field work and database
Difficult to teach others to update
What’s the Solution?
Utilize good design principles to create a mobile application to:
Improve efficiency over current manual process
Allows edits in the field for real-time updates
Work on easy to use mobile platforms already used personally and professionally at the cooperatives
Consider existing COTS solutions
Create a long term record keeping system
Designed to improve VM for a broader audience than Spoon River
Spoon River Electric: Current Processes
Planning process Collect GPS points Make handwritten notes Transcribe all written notes into
the GIS database Print maps for the crews
Record keeping process Collect GPS record of work
completed Handwritten daily work record Transcribe the work notes into
the GIS Calculate work footage
completed
Field Sheet
Database Structure
((Access+Truck+Chipper+Mower+Manual+Herbicide+Steepness )x Spans) x Canopy
Field Map
Design Process
Design Process
Mobile Platforms
COTS
Cooperative Surveys
CEO Surveys
Assess high level view of VM
Consider budgets related to VM
Obtain permission to survey VM manager
VM Manager Survey
Assess time/effort spent on managing vegetation
Gain feedback on operational perspective for VM Methods, Technology, Planning, Communication, Other Needs
VM Workload
Please rate your agreement with this statement: Vegetation management activities are an important part of my work.
# Answer
Response %
6 Strongly Disagree
1 7%
7 Disagree
0 0%
8 Neither Agree nor Disagree
0 0%
9 Agree
4 29%
10 Strongly Agree
9 64%
Total 14 100%
What percentage of your annual budget is designated for vegetation management?
# Answer
Response %
1 No regular budget amount
1 7%
2 1-2%
2 14% 3 3-5%
7 50%
4 Greater than 5%
2 14%
5 Other (please explain)
2 14%
Total 14 100%
# Answer Min Value Max Value Average Value
Standard Deviation Responses
1 Percent Time 2.00 60.00 24.86 21.29 7
What percentage of your day is spent on vegetation management activities?
Current VM Practices
What technologies are used to track vegetation management activities? Choose all that apply
# Answer
Response %
1 Pen and paper
8 89%
2 GPS
4 44% 3 GIS
5 56% 4 CAD
0 0%
5 Other (Please describe)
1 11%
How are vegetation management records kept?
# Answer
Response % 1 Hard copy
1 11% 2 Database
2 22% 3 Spreadsheet
5 56% 4 Paper maps
5 56% 5 GIS maps
3 33%
6 Other (please explain)
1 11%
How do you communicate work assignments to vegetation management crews?
# Answer
Response % 1 Maps
8 89%
2 Job orders/tickets
9 100%
3 Mobile Device
0 0% 4 GIS
0 0%
5 Other (please explain)
0 0%
Current VM Practices
How are vegetation management activities verified?
# Answer
Response %
1 Physical complete post-run
8 89%
2 Physical post spot-checks
2 22%
3 Contractor affidavit/work records
1 11%
4 Employee work records
2 22%
5 Other (please explain)
0 0%
Who performs vegetation management activities?
# Answer
Response %
1 Full time personnel
2 22%
2
Contracted Vegetation Management personnel
1 11%
3
A combination of contracted and full time personnel
6 67%
Total 9 100%
# Answer
Response %
1 Systematic Physical inspection/evaluation
7 78%
2 Timed rotation of vegetation activities
7 78%
3 Employee reported trouble areas
7 78%
4 Member reported trouble areas
6 67%
5 Other (please explain)
0 0%
Which planning activities are used to determine where vegetation management is required? Choose all that apply.
VM Manager Needs
Summary of Responses:
Better organization
Electronic maps
Enhanced record keeping
Web based application that could be used by all employees
Timed VM rotation followed annually
If you were to envision a completely new system for improving vegetation management in your organization, how would you like it to work?
Paper Prototype
Create a paper prototype to identify a user friendly form for data entry
Evaluate this with current Spoon River employees
Paper Prototype Final
Results
Lessons Learned
Illinois cooperatives Vegetation management is important Still using paper Similar budgets Part-time management Similar work strategies Not using any special apps for VM
Challenges Customizing user interface Adding linear referencing to a feature service layer
References:
1. “Utility Vegetation Management Final Report”; CN Utility Consulting, LLC; March 2004 2. “Beyond Status Quo”; Rick Johnstone; Vistas (a trade publication); http://www.ivmpartners.org/pubs/beyond_statusquo.pdf; accessed 11/09/2014 3. “The Economic Impacts of Deferring Electric Utility Tree Maintenance”; D. Mark Browning; Environmental Consultants, Inc.; April 1997 4. “Integrated Vegetation Management on an Electric Transmission Right-of-way in Pennsylvania, U. S.”; Richard H. Yahner and Russell J. Hutnick; Journal of Arboriculture; September 20045. “UAA Best Management Practices Funding”, Lynn Grayson ; http://www.utilityarborist.org/research/resources/fundingWP.pdf; accessed 11/09/2014
6. “Reliability Based Vegetation Management Through Intelligent System Monitoring”; B. Don Russell, Carl L. Benner, and Jeffrey Wischkaemper; Project T-27 Tele-seminar, 10/16/2007, accessed 11/09/2014