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Energy Business
Bill Meehan
Bill Meehan
Expert Member
Top Contributor
·Posted in Energy Business
Mon, Aug 28
Esri

Decarbonization Requires New Thinking About the Grid

As the world moves towards decarbonization, the spotlight is increasingly on grid capacity and management. Meeting this challenge demands that grid operators adopt cutting-edge technologies and processes. Embracing innovative solutions is crucial.

 

Bill Meehan: I had the opportunity to talk with Len Jewell, an experienced operational systems integrator for electric utilities. We explored his insights on the obstacles confronting electric transmission operators and owners during our discussionDuring our discussion, we explored his insights on the obstacles confronting electric transmission operators and owners.

Tell us a little bit about yourself. 

Len Jewell: I am an electrical and environmental engineer with extensive experience in SCADA (System Control and Data Acquisition) system consulting. My career began at Dakota Electric Association, where I focused on SCADA projects and communication systems. While there, I was assigned to migrate their legacy Geographic Information System (GIS) to Esri technology, sparking my interest and involvement in the GIS field.

At Dakota Electric Association, we successfully replaced the old GIS and outage management system with Schneider Electric’s ArcFm, a significant achievement that I played a key role in bringing together. In 2012, I joined Velocity, a GIS consulting firm, which POWER Engineers later acquired. Since then, I have continued my journey in the GIS domain with POWER Engineers.

I have a couple of decades of experience in distribution and transmission. I have led numerous projects, from implementing design software to vegetation management and transmission construction maintenance at San Diego Gas and Electric’s to a five-year project implementing Esri technology for Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).

Most recently, I’ve been exploring Esri’s ArcGIS Utility Network (UN) to help utilities implement this exciting new way of modeling networks in GIS. Today I am heavily engaged with a major electric transmission operator and their journey rolling out the UN. This project allowed me to understand the UN’s business value for electric transmission fully.

 

Bill Meehan: What’s the first word that comes to mind when you hear the term GIS?

Len Jewell: The immediate association with GIS is “data.” It revolves around data, vital information requiring thorough quality checks to ensure its reliability for others. With the UN, we have access to new, innovative tools that aid analysis, enabling us to provide more accurate and enhanced information.

 

Bill Meehan: The US Department of Energy implies that transmission capability must double by 2030 and maybe triple by 2050. How will utilities accomplish that?

Len Jewell: This undertaking is undoubtedly a massive challenge. The entire transmission siting process is burdensome, but at Power Engineers, we possess an extensive array of tools that aid in siting, offering visualization of line of sight and routing. This facilitates political influence and public feedback through forums and environmental studies. Constructing new transmission lines presents a political challenge, but I believe it could work in favor of transmission utilities. As they are currently lagging in managing their data, the urgency and political pressure may create an opportunity to streamline the obstacle of land acquisition, siting, reporting, and construction.

 

Bill Meehan: Are transmission companies worried?

Len Jewell: I don’t know. Some of them see the writing on the wall. There will be a lot of political pressure to speed things up. Then change can happen. I’d be worried about getting the material. Circuit Breakers are on at least an 18-month backlog. Manufacturing is just not there. It needs to increase.

Last year at the Esri UC, there was a lot of talk about heavy-duty utility trucks. Many operations have over 500 trucks. What happens when they need to convert to electric trucks? Just to serve their own trucks will require a new substation. What about the rest of the vehicles? The entire transportation and building decarbonization impacts transmission in a big way.

 

Bill Meehan: What is GIS’s role in the massive expansion of the grid?

Len Jewell: I see many roles. These come to mind:

  • Grid visualization

  •  Line siting and routing

  • 3D for substations – they have largely been left behind – integration of CAD and BIM will help to reduce costs

  • Standardization

  • Better modeling

  • Drastic improvement in inspection and maintenance

  • Vegetation management

  • One-line diagram integration with geographic representation

GIS facilitates asset management. More and more transmission utilities will adopt GIS. They will implement the digital twin for modeling bulk supply substations in 3D. 3D will make it easier for them to extend and model new equipment. They will know exactly what’s at the site in the correct orientation. So I think GIS is going to play a huge role.

And now GIS is rapidly embracing imagery. LIDAR data capturing is growing exponentially at transmission companies.

 

Bill Meehan: What about drones?

Len Jewell: It’s the only way to do the inspections. Helicopters are just too expensive and too limited.

 

Bill Meehan: Your company has embraced the ArcGIS Utility Network (UN). What’s your take on the business value?

Len Jewell: Operators see the value of the UN to help with the intensive documentation requirements of the various NERC (North American Reliability Corporation) standards, particularly the onerous data requirements of the various FAC (Facilities Design, Connections, and Maintenance) standards.

For example, NERC FAC-008 involves documenting every piece of equipment in the transmission network. This includes the ratings and the most limiting factors. There are tens of thousands of pieces of equipment to track and determine their condition and status. The problem has been that transmission operators have a lot of different systems that are pretty disparate. Often these systems don’t talk to each other. Some operators have many homegrown systems stitched together with customizations that are difficult to maintain and limit their ability to upgrade their various software systems. Operators have to pull all this information together into a quality report. So they have to be accurate and resolve any conflicts. GIS and the UN will be invaluable in helping transmission companies with these regulatory requirements.

The UN allows us to:

  • Better configure the data for greater flexibility

  • Model diagrams

  • Deal with mesh networks easily

  • Provide tracing flexibility

  • 3D visualization

  • Ease of engagement with web services

 

Bill Meehan: What would you like to tell Esri about improvements in the UN for transmission?

Len Jewell: I’d make these points:

  • Make it easier to create a dynamic system diagram – grid companies live and die by these.

  • Hold transmission-specific data model sessions.

  • Simplify the transmission data model – too much distribution stuff in the current model.

  • Incorporate more telecommunications within the transmission data model.

  • Provide templates for bulk substation models.

 

Bill Meehan: Do you have any final advice for the GIS electric transmission community?

Len Jewell: Sure, here are some of my thoughts:

  • Leverage GIS more 

  • You must go to the UN

  • Focus on higher data quality

  • Use GIS to pull your disparate systems together

  • Visualize

  • Leverage imagery

  • Consolidate the disparate data sets that exist all over the place

Finally, embrace change. Transmission work hasn’t changed much over the years. Now is the time to change!

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