It is projected to cut
power outage time by 20%. It means more efficient operation for the
entire Utilities Department. It took four years to complete, and relied
heavily upon UNA students to map the system. It's the Geographic Information
System, now in place at your Utilities Department.
"It's a customer's
power goes out, he or she calls the Electricity Department, and a
red phone appears on a map on our computer screen," said Chester
Richey, GIS Administrator. "Our maps show the customer's location,
the substations, the power lines, and the location of our crews in
the area. We're able to zoom in to determine the source of the problem,
and then dispatch a crew to make a repair."
Because each Utility
vehicle is equipped with a tracking device, system operators know
which crew can be most quickly dispatched. "In the case of a
major outage, we're also able to determine where to begin work to
restore power, so that the most number of customers are served quickly,"
Richey said.
Before this system was
implemented, dispatchers had to sift through maps to try to determine
the possible cause of an outage, and then sift through other papers
to determine where crews were located, in order to dispatch the crew
closest to the problem area. "Three teams of UNA geography students
with backpack-mounted GIS systems went throughout the system and pinpointed
the location of every Electricity Department facility," said
Richard Morrissey, Electricity Department Manager. "They mapped
the precise location of 45,000 customers, 60,000 utility poles and
30,000 transformers, a job that took more than three years."
"An important part
of keeping this system accurate is keeping a current phone number
in our system," said Morrissey. "We encourage our customers
to please keep us posted when a phone number changes, so we can continue
to respond as quickly as possible."
The system tracks all
Utility Department customers at this point, but can be adapted to
other City Departments as well. "For example, the fire department
could use the system to map the location of fire hydrants," said
Morrissey. "When you're in the business of serving the public,
the more information, the more effective you will be. The new GIS
system is a great tool, one that very few cities have; we feel like
we've taken a major step into the twenty-first century and will be
able to continue to be responsive to our customers."
Water,
water everywhere... and not a clue where the lines really are.
For many water/wastewater utilities, the absence of accurate
mapping data has made locating and managing existing underground
utility lines pure guesswork.
But that
won't be a problem any longer for a progressive utility in northwest
Alabama. Florence Utilities (Florence, Ala.) recently
completed the implementation of a comprehensive ESRI-based AM/FM/GIS
with the help of UAI (Utility Automation Integrators) in Huntsville,
Ala.
The new
system contains data on facilities serving more than 95,000 total
meters: 43,000 electric, 23,000 water, 15,000 wastewater
and 16,000 gas. The Florence Utilities system is believed to
be one of
the first in the country encompassing all utility departments
in a common, system-wide GIS.
With his
customers demanding better service and faster response to interruptions,
General Manager Jack Hilliard said the utilities
department
asked the Florence City Council to invest in geospatial technology
that would improve the flow of information across departmental
lines and improve overall operational efficiency.
While
that was a great plan, it took no small amount of effort to bring
it to fruition. Hilliard said the company had to start
from
scratch and build a GIS from the ground up-or down as the
case might be.
"
This entire process began in 1998 with a GPS field inventory of our
system," he said. "Every piece of utility plant from power
poles to water mains to gas lines was accurately placed in our GIS." Students
from the geography department of the University of North
Alabama in Florence helped collect field data.
The resulting
electronic map displays customer information along with vital facility
information, such as the size
and location
of water mains and service lines as well as pumping stations,
sewer lines and other facilities. The utility's complete
electric and
gas
networks are also modeled electronically from substation
to meter.
"
With the click of a mouse, our personnel can instantly see who we
are serving and how we are serving them," Hilliard
said.
With its
new geospatial solution in place, Florence Utilities now can manage
daily operations more efficiently,
respond
faster to
customer inquiries and address service interruptions
or problems much more
rapidly.
"
It truly addresses every facet of daily workflows," Hilliard
said. "Our front-line employees have finger-tip access to the
information they need to make informed decisions and answer questions.
Managers can more efficiently assign resources to work orders and
regular maintenance schedules, and city council members can log on
and access information any time of the day or night."
System
engineer Ben Crane said the utility's AS400 customer information
system is now seamlessly integrated
so customer
service reps,
dispatchers and other employees can work within
the GIS while accessing both
mapping and billing data simultaneously. Integration
of Florence Utilities' interactive voice response
(IVR) system
added
even more functionality to the GIS.
"
Not only does the IVR automatically route incoming customer trouble
calls and display them on the map for the dispatcher," Crane
said, "but it could also automatically generate outbound messages
to selected customers."
For example, the water department can identify
any number of customers along a particular line
and automatically
generate calls to inform
them of planned work, water quality issues or
any other information that needs to be disseminated.
Web-enhancing
modules expand the scope of information access past traditional "licensed" workstations by giving employees
the ability to log on to the system via a standard Web browser and
access applications from any PC or laptop with secure network access.
"
I can literally be across the country at a conference and log on
to this system to view current outages, work order schedules, crew
assignments or other information," Hilliard said. "Pre-defined
and ad hoc reports can be generated regularly or upon a moment's
notice. I have never had the kind of day-to-day managerial tools
that this system provides."
And when
it comes time to sit down and analyze system performance or plan
for future growth,
engineering technician Larry
Grace said the analytical tools brought
to the table
are invaluable.
"
We're simply not guessing any longer," Grace said. "We
now know in the office and in the field exactly how our customers
are connected. This allows us, along with our field personnel, to
make better and more informed decisions on how to best serve our
customers."
Because
Florence Utilities serves the entire Lauderdale County area, the
ability
to
visualize the entire
service area on
a seamless, system-wide
map was a key factor in the decision
to use UAI's technology built on the
ESRI
ArcGIS
platform.
"
ESRI's base ArcGIS technology gave us a firm foundation on which
to build our complete system," Hilliard said. "It was important
that we be able to visualize the entire county, but also see clearly
where city boundaries lie."
As a municipal utility department
serving rural areas of the county,
Hilliard
said Florence
also deals
with multiple
regulatory
agencies,
such as the Tennessee Valley Authority
and the Rural Utilities Service.
With the entire
utility
digitized,
questions about
regulatory compliance
are no longer a nightmare.
"
I don't think there is an end to where this technology can take us," said
Hilliard. "The potential that integrating GIS with global positioning
systems, automatic vehicle location and automatic meter reading holds
is staggering."
Hilliard said one day very soon
he fully expects to sit in his
office
and watch
in real-time
as utility crews
move across
the
system installing
or repairing water facilities,
power lines, gas mains and other
equipment.
Wireless
communication with
crews
will
be as easy
as sending an e-mail.
Dispatchers will be notified of
trouble and have
crews dispatched before the customer
can even pick up the
phone.
"
We're tickled to death with what GIS is doing for us today and excited
about what the future is going to bring," Hilliard said.
