How will the Utility Network Affect You?

Editor's Notes

1. The new Esri Utility Network was released into beta earlier this year. SSP has worked with many utility customers to extensively test the new network including data migration, creating circuits & systems, editing data, and utility tracing. Join SSP and IREA to review how the testing has gone, what works well, and what needs improvement in the new Utility Network. We will also cover key aspects of the new network that will affect your utility so you can be prepared for your move to the UN!
2. Intermountain REA is an Electric Coop serving central Colorado.
3. IREA is situated between Denver and Colorado Spring along Colorado’s front range. We serve west to the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains and east to the agricultural plains. The service area is a diversity from urban, 1000 customers per square mile to rural, 1 customer per square mile.
4. Of course, I have to mention a couple stats about IREA. We have over 9700 miles of distribution and transmission lines. We have over 151 thousand meters with 2.3 billion kilowatt hours per year and 560 megawatts spinning through those meters. <CLICK> IREA has 225 employees serving our 4 operating districts. If you do the math, that results in a ratio of 670 customers to each employee. That makes IREA one of the leanest operating electric coops. We’ll talk about why I mention that in a couple slides.
5. IREA has been using GIS for 10 years. Prior to that we used different CAD based systems. The GIS department is positioned in the Engineering Division of the company. In GIS there are 6 staff members including myself. In Engineering, there are another 25 Design staff members that use GIS daily. Across the company we have 136 employees using ArcGIS Online or Collector in the field. In addition, we have 31 contractors using AGOL maps, from design to construction, and for locates. Our web map services have quickly become critical to our daily operations.
6. At IREA, GIS has become a central system of record that feeds information to all the other major business systems. As with any GIS system, we use many tools from Esri and partners. The major components of IREA’s GIS include Esri’s Desktop, Enterprise, and ArcGIS Online. We also use Schneider Electric’s ArcFM desktop and Designer. <CLICK> Other major systems at IREA include our CIS, Harris Cayenta. This includes Payroll, ERP and work management system. The OMS we us is ABB with Siena Tech and we are currently in RFP for and AMI / MDMS system. All of the major systems rely on key information from our GIS system.
7. So, what were our drivers for the Utility Network Jumpstart? Well, it really comes down to management’s desire to leverage technology to improve business operations at IREA. They have mandated that we keep critical systems updated. The other thing that management is interested in is new or changing technologies that can provide better business tools for efficiencies and accuracy. <CLICK> Remember that customer to employee ratio I mentioned earlier? Management is proud of how efficient IREA operates. After all, that helps reduce costs for our consumers. If we are going to maintain that lean profile while the system continues to grow we will need to rely on technology for greater efficiency. That’s why we want to learn about the newer GIS technologies.
8. But why learn about those technologies now? Why not wait for others to test and experiment? Well, that comes down to timing. <CLICK> IREA has many initiatives in progress right now. All of these initiatives involve GIS from Idea to implementation. How do we balance all of that?
9. We balance that with a good vision, strong understanding of what is to come, and then performing thorough planning. This is what we hoped to gain from the Jumpstart. I am a firm believer in learning as much as possible before making a commitment. We wanted to learn why there was a new Utility Network, what was truly the difference, and what benefits we should see. The model diagrams and blog posts that SSP have published show a very simplified diagram compared to our current data models. We wanted to learn how our data would migrate to the more concise Utility Network. We also wanted to plan for changes. What would data conversion look like? How will our integrations be affected? All things we keep in the back of our minds as we work on all the initiatives. In addition to gaining this critical education, we also wanted to provide our input to Esri regarding the Utility Network. Most of all, we just needed to calm our growing anxieties, particularly mine.
10. The migration of IREA data to the new Utility Network isn’t as complicated as I thought it would be. Hopefully you have seen the model diagrams that SSP has presented in their blogs, a portion of that pictured here <Click> The Domain is meant to define the type of utility. Each domain can have multiple Tiers such as voltage levels. Each tier can be further divided into Subnetworks. This is where we would define each circuit on the system. All of the point feature classes that are part of your network now will move to one feature class, Device. These would be the node features of your current geometric network. Similarly, all your line feature classes, edge features of the current geometric network, will move to the line feature class. <Click> I want to add a couple things to the diagram, Asset Group and Asset Type. Each feature class under the domain can have an Asset Group and Type. <Click> If you have a point feature such as a transformer unit, that will be stored in the Device feature class under the and asset group for transformers. To further break that down, the type of transformer, such as Overhead or Underground, will be stored in the asset type. <Click> The new concept to the Utility Network is network associations. Connectivity association means a feature can be connected to the network at a specific location but doesn’t have to be physically located at that location. For instance, we no longer have to draw a short edge feature to offset a fuse at a tap location. Containment associations would represent items like Transformer banks or switchgear cabinets that contain multiple devices at one location. For IREA, this means we don’t necessarily have to model the buss bar between switches and fuses in a cabinet. We could eliminate 32 thousand buss features which would be a good performance boost.
11. There were some challenges we had during our jumpstart program. I wouldn’t call any of these challenges show stoppers, just items for us to be aware of. There were three main product challenges that we noted. ArcGIS Pro does require significant resources which did affect performance at times. That considered, jumpstart was running remote desktops to Amazon web machines. Some of those performance issues could have been related to general internet connectivity. One other concern we had was that there didn’t seem to be a good way to integrate true phase awareness into the Utility network. This still has to be handled with attributes and rules. This makes sense though since Gas , Water and Telecom don’t have the notion of phase in their networks. The utility network is general enough to accommodate all utility types. A third challenge we saw with the Utility Network was the fact that associated connectivity isn’t visualized. You can see the connectivity in a data tree panel but we found that when trying to debug a connectivity issue, it was a little difficult without a visual reference. <Click> On the data side of things, IREA does have a couple gaps. We don’t have any of our transmission modeled in the GIS. We also don’t have consistent data regarding the voltages in our secondary network. While IREA is very active with ArcGIS Online, we don’t have Portal and will need to get that implemented. Again, nothing here prevents IREA from migrating to the Utility Network.
12. One large benefit that we received from the Jumpstart program was the amount of idea generation that occurred. This new model easily supports future potential. One of the initiatives that is on the horizon for IREA is an ADMS. The utility network provides full system modeling from Transmission through Secondary without difficult configuration. I even thought of modeling fault coordination zones using subnetworks. Not something we could’ve done easily before. The Utility Network will help the GIS become a valuable commodity for an ADMS implementation. As we move toward AMI and ADMS, IREA’s fiber network will be utilized much more. We could model that with another domain network. We could also enhance our substation modeling. Currently we only show basic connectivity, just enough to model SCADA devices.
13. The Utility Network can be used out of the box but it will be much easier for us to rely on partners. The first partnership to rely on is Esri. After all, they are listening. They want to hear from utilities. Remember there is more to this change than just the new network. There is ArcGIS Pro, Portal, feature services. Get engaged with Esri. Your account reps, your training reps, and the user groups. There are a lot of resources available to help with this new technology. The other partnerships that you will want are with third party developers and implementers. Conversion is one step where utilities should seek help. It won’t be overly difficult but it isn’t table to table mapping either. Partners can provide best practices as to the modeling and conversion. Utilities should also rely on partners to add value to the UN with things like automated geoprocessing tasks. For example toolsets that include automation for all the different tracing operation that are commonly performed.
14. One of the most important things about the Utility Network Jumpstart program is the ability to provide feedback to Esri. Remember, it is beta. IREA reported 21 issues to SSP who forwarded those issues on the Esri, including those listed on the Challenges slide earlier. Within a few days, SSP forwarded Esri’s responses over to us. Since then, we have spoken with the development team directly and they have set up other meetings with us to discuss our jumpstart experience further. Esri really does want hear from utilities.
15. I want to encourage every utility to go through the Utility Network Jumpstart. While I know not all utilities will, the more that participate, the better for all utilities. SSP clearly has experience with the Utility Network. They have the most published content on the subject. There is a lot you can learn from them. IREA is a mid size electric coop utility. The feedback we provided to Esri is not the same feedback that a larger or smaller electric utility would provide and certainly not the same feed back a water or gas utility would provide. It is important to provide as much varied feedback as possible to achieve the best product.
16. To achieve that best product, Esri needs your feedback. Not just to avoid any show stoppers in the first full release but also to enhance future releases. This change is not just the Utility Network but encompasses multiple technology changes to GIS. While it looks like a lot tackle, Esri has provided a recommended path. Make sure you are on the 10.2.1 release, that your up to date on the latest UTUP patches, that you have set up your organization in Portal, and that you have taken the time to learn ArcGIS Pro. The Utility Network Jumpstart includes an orientation to ArcGIS Pro if you have not completed that yet. Everything you do today, you will do differently tomorrow. But that is a good thing. You will be leveraging faster hardware in many form factors. You will be utilizing more efficient technologies as you transition your GIS from a data repository and to a data dissemination tool. View and interact with any data, any time, any where, on any device. That is the direction the GIS industry is headed. I encourage all of your to get involved. At this point, I am going to turn things back over to Corey with SSP for a detailed demo.
17. Take questions and wrap it up.