AM/FMAlabama Power CompanyDistribution Technology Services

Sequence of Presentation• Facility Mapping – Renato

• Pole Inspections• UAV

• Automated mapping - Ron– CarryMap to Geospatial PDF - Feeder (sectionalizing) maps

About Us

Renato Salvaleon Ron Crenshaw

Future retirement trip - ride the FME Space X to Jupiter and back

Ron’s claim to fame – FME Rock Band

Second largest operating company of Southern Company

Investor-owned, tax paying utility

Close to 7000 employees

1.4 million customers Serves 84 counties of

Alabama’s 100 counties

Alabama Power Company

AM/FM

Forerunner to GIS for Utilities

Facility Management

Pole Inspections

- Seven year cycle of pole inspections.- SDE – MDB extracted for vendor – poles only- Division determines priority poles either by 2000 feet square grid or by feeder

Pre-Inspection Workflow Improvements

Previous workflow• - Five workspaces

running for all feeders – takes a few days

- Feeder & grid prioritization communicated by email

Challenges- Secondary poles and

underground network are not part of the electric dataset

- Reduce the number of workspaces

Single Workspace

- User prompted, list based parameter to run scheduled feeders

- Custom transformers are foundational – data cleanup, basemap, data validation – for reuse

- Quicker turnaround

Future enhancement• A portal map with the option

to pick priority feeders and grids

• Use this web map to read directly from Portal to FME

• Considerations for OneDrive and deprecation of MDB

Facility Management

UAS Operations

R&TM8% PR

1%Land4%

Transmission66%

Eco-nomic Dev.1%

Genera-tion9%

Distri-bution

3%E&CS

5%Linc2%

Breakdown of 261 UAS Flights

Number of Flights (April 2015 – to date)

Economic Dev.PR

LincDistribution

LandE&CSR&TM

GenerationTransmission

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 40058

1017

2530

4552

373

Number of Flights

As more UAVs fly, data is falling

out of the sky

How do we tame this data?

Inspection Viewers

UAV/SD card

UAS Operator

GIS Analyst/Back

Office

End User

UAV/SD card

UAS Operator/End User

Most Workflow

s

PotentialFutureWorkflo

w

UAS Missions- Storm Operations- Field Inspection &

Verifications- Mapping 2D- Mapping 3D- Analyses – volume,

danger tree, etc.Data Workflow

s

Data Challenges for Current83 missions – four types500+ flights3,500 picturesMISB videosPost processed data from CR Photogrammetry

UAV/SD card

UAS Operator

GIS Analyst/

Back Office

End User

jpg, video, gps log, other

sensorPilot merge

photo/video to GPS

logCRPS softwar

eMap/3D

report

OUTPUTExcel SpreadsheetFile geodatabasePortal feature layers

Automated Mapping: PDF Maps for Field Users

• CarryMap Application to view data• Can only upload map tiles one at a time• Take very long period of time to create

maps• Multiple mxds to maintain to create maps• End product well-received by our users

(Field Personnel, management, etc..)

Mobile Map Product

Multiple Processes for one product

• Python• FME (Multiple “sub” Scripts)

• Takes approx. 6-8 hours to process in total

• ArcGIS • Other processes/scripts• Ran by multiple individuals• No sync among start times

of processes. Some scripts were prerequisites to others.

• 90% of required data from same data source!

Customer/ Metering Data

Transformer and Protective Devices

Power Delivery Asset Data (Devices, Poles, Background

data, etc..) ArcMap/Map Document

There Has To Be A Better Way Of Doing This!

The Alternative!

New Transformers Used In Process

JsonFeature Reader

https://data.medicare.gov/Hospital-Compare/Hospital-General-Information/xubh-q36u

Google Geocoder

ArcGIS Opendata

Endless possibilities

• Merged all processes into one

• Saved processing time• Clean, Efficient • Reliable• Add additional data

BENEFITS!

Automated Mapping: PDF Maps for Switching Maps

We have a mapping problem

GoalsUsers prefer to use paper map

Retire and replace CAD/Oracle legacy app

Use GIS SDE to produce maps

Automated and repeatable for all feedersMaps need to be created nightly with refresh on updates

Automated Mapping WorkspaceSelect Feeder or Batch Run

Build the map’s elements and white space

FeederMap Maker

Custom Transformer for Basemap layers

Data Clean Up/Network prep

Spatial data pattern-

ID and Sequence

Validate Space in congestion areas

and check topology;

Assign Actions:move, trim, extend, scale, rotate

Do Actions: Move - Point to

Line Spacer (done)

Trim, extend, scale, rotate

Re-ID and Re-sequence; Iterate till pass the goal

Map Automation

AI/MAPublisher completes the

PDF

White space management – move, scale, trim, extend, rotate devices along the line

Formatting and map creation

White Space Management

Data Prep

Point on Line Spacer

PythonCaller was used to run a script that will move point

along a line, using trigonometry

User parameters

End of PresentationRon Crenshaw RCRENSHA@SOUTHERNCO.COM

Renato Salvaleonrsalvale@southernco.com

Alabama Power CompanyDistribution Technology Solutions