I ask this question whenever I give a speech or hold a webinar. “What’s the first word you think of when hearing the term GIS?” Sometimes, a smart aleck electrical engineer will come back at me with this answer. “Gas insulated switchgear.” No, not that. Today, the most common answer is “Maps!” Sure, but that’s not all. Far from it. The use of GIS has changed—a lot.
What is a GIS?
Esri’s ArcGIS is the world’s most powerful and popular mapping and spatial analysis software. When people think of paper tissues, they think Kleenex, frozen juice on a stick, Popsicles, adhesive bandages, Band Aids, regardless of the brand. When people think of GIS, they think of Esri’s ArcGIS.
The demands on the power industry are huge today. Utilities must change. GIS helps utilities rethink the old ways to enable transformation. Electric companies see GIS as a system that reaches out to nearly everyone in the company.
Those who follow me know I use tools to help folks remember concepts. I use words that begin with the same letter. So here are three things that GIS does really well at power companies. And they all begin with the letter A.
- Access
- Awareness
- Analytics
Access
Access is the process of serving up all the wonderful data stored in the GIS on any device, anytime and anywhere. So that when someone sees a broken pole, a streetlight out or sparking wire, they update that information on their phone, tablet, smartwatch, or whatever new-fangled device comes out. Then, almost at the exact same time, that information appears in the GIS, for everyone in the company to access from their device. Take a picture, write a note, record a video – and link it to the map for all to see.
Awareness
When I worked for a power company, it was my job to make sure people were not kept in the dark—literally. When people were out of power, we figured out why: A snowstorm drizzled ice onto power lines, or someone had crashed into a utility pole, or a squirrel climbed onto the lines not knowing that its tail could act as a very nice conductor. Yet when people called the power company, the customer service representatives often kept callers in the dark—figuratively and literally. The reason was, and often still is, because the industry can’t always answer the question, when will my lights be back on? Why is that? Is it because the utilities themselves don’t have enough information? Nope. Lots of people have lots of information. But not everyone in the power company has complete awareness of what’s going on in real time. GIS provides universal awareness using mobile devices, social media feeds, integration with control systems, and real-time dashboards that communicate directly to and with people in the know or who need to know.
Analytics
Analytics raises the value of GIS up a notch. Now, utilities can gain insight into the data they are accessing and the awareness they are gaining. Remember the old paper maps? I do. Watch the CoServ video case study to see how this Texas utility had used paper map books. Then, it migrated to an Enterprise GIS. What a difference. Read how Tohono O’odham Utility Authority transformed its utility by migrating from old, inconsistent paper maps and spreadsheets to a modern GIS.
During major power failures, our team would commandeer a conference room and stick all the printed maps on the wall, or if the outages spread out further, we would lay the maps on the floor and tape them all together to get a better feel for what’s going on. Now, GIS provides utilities with the tools to make fast decisions, like where their clusters of outages in areas subject to flooding, downed trees, wildfires, or landslides. GIS is not just about maps. It’s about making fast decisions. How about taking demographic information and overlaying where people are most or least likely to buy electric vehicles? Then, discover where the network will be overloaded or where to invest based on social equity. That insight would be tough to determine while lying on the floor on top of taped-together paper maps. So, the last of the three A’s, analytics, is about gaining insight to make critical planning, operational, and investment decisions.
GIS Has Changed.
My associate at Esri, Brian, developed this nice summary of how GIS has grown up. The move to web services allows enhanced access to various devices and websites. Web maps and dashboards provide immediate awareness of what’s happening within the utility. Combining data from various corporate systems provides the analytics for rapid and accurate decision-making.
So why GIS?
It helps utilities think differently. To do what? Lower costs, improve reliability, and keep employees and customers safe. How? By using location to challenge the old ways of doing business. After all, electric utilities have been around since 1889 when Thomas Edison pulled the switch at Pearl Street Station in New York City. To learn more about how GIS provides access, awareness, and analytics for electric utilities, visit our website here.