Implementation of Esri Utility Network GIS For Water Gas and Electric

Creating a data-driven GIS for water, gas and electricity

Overview

Our customer, a utility services provider in the United States, is in the business of transmitting, distributing, and supplying water, natural gas, and electricity to 800,000 residents across the US and Canada. As one of the fastest evolving sectors, the utility industry is constantly looking for new ways to improve and upgrade its infrastructure.

The Challenge

Our customer was consolidating spatial information and asset management into a new integrated, cloud-based environment across all its local North American utilities. By leveraging the next-generation Esri ArcGIS Utility Network and SAP EAM platforms, the customer was looking to modernize their enterprise grid and transform customer service programs. The new GIS was expected to streamline network operations, reduce costs, improve safety, and enable increasingly demanding integrity and compliance programs.

The customer’s existing GIS platform had the potential to address current business problems and unlock transformational capabilities across its electric, gas, and water commodities. However, there were several challenges:

Inconsistency

Multiple legacy GIS technologies, capabilities, and processes
Disparate data sources
Nomenclature and conventions

Lack of standards, policies, and resources

Data quality standards
Application and architecture
Adequate technical resources

Inefficient processes

Manual processes
Analog processes
Data redundancy

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DEFINE

Consulting

Bring a deeper understanding of utility workflows, knowledge of the utility systems landscape, and expertise in implementation.

Bring a robust, structured framework that delivers a faster and better migration process.

Leverage deep experience as a preferred consulting partner in defining the Esri UN implementation journey.

DESIGN

Common data model development

Implement a standardized Esri UN data model, one for each commodity—electricity, gas, and water/wastewater.

Data conversion and migration

Convert and migrate existing GIS data from all operating companies to target data models. Migration includes existing *.mxd’s, web maps, and applications to the target enterprise GIS platform.

Assess and address gaps in data.

DEVELOP AND DEPLOY

Standard product deployment and configuration

Deploy and configure Esri ArcGIS Enterprise and ArcGIS Pro in an enterprise cloud infrastructure.

Custom application development

Develop applications specific to customer requirements.

SUSTAIN

Maintenance and support

Provide support and maintenance post go-live for the hosted GIS solution for a five-year period.

Governance support

Provide a collection of documents, templates and best practices to the customer’s geospatial leadership to establish the enterprise GIS for all operating companies.

User Training

Enable knowledge transfer to promote the sustained usage of the products/platforms.

Advanced Implementation

Implement integration interfaces to the advanced applications listed below:

Develop data integration interfaces for the customer’s existing consumer applications: Mobile GIS viewer, Synergi (gas) and CYME (electric) exports, and Graphical Work Design (GSI Distribution Design Studio).
Configure Esri Leak Survey out-of-the-box solutions for gas that integrate Leak Survey Manager, Leak Survey Collector, and Leak Survey Compliance Dashboard.
Configure Esri Relight out-of-the-box solution for gas, integrated with Collector for ArcGIS.
Support outage notification capabilities that allow tracing and visualization/exporting a list of customers with gas or water/wastewater outage using standard Esri out-of-box functionality.
Support gas prospect analysis related to marketing efforts via the development of a geoprocessing tool/model using standard out-of-the-box Esri functionality.
Support GIS data needs for Call Before You Dig (Dig Safe, 811) processes.
Configure native Esri apps such as Navigator, Collector for ArcGIS, and Survey123 to support crew navigation, data collection, and inspection efforts.
Configure Esri’s out-of-the-box Damage Assessment solution.
Publish ETL interfaces to support ADMS data extract for electric data using an industry-standard common information model (CIM).

A single data model for each commodity (electric, gas, water/wastewater) across all operating companies now streamlines the customer’s operating architecture.
- Reliable and complete connectivity model
- Standardized business processes and data quality standards
- Improved reliability and outage response
- Increased data access and awareness, enabling analytics to support more advanced applications
- Standardized reporting and best practice implementation across all operating companies
- Relieved burden of staffing constraints that hinder smaller operating companies from maintaining existing solutions

GIS platform currency: Enhanced user experience through added functionality, reliability, and performance improvement.
Alignment: A common data model increased mutual assistance efficiency and interface.
Reusability and operational effectiveness.
Governance: Standardized business processes enhanced the ongoing governance framework, identified line-of-defense stakeholders, established ongoing cadence review, and clearly defined evidence parameters.
Metrics and monitoring: Allowed key performance indicators to drive continuous performance gains to the customer.
Convergence: Alignment of core GIS technologies, business processes, and data models enabled economies-of-scale efficiency.
Data currency: Improved data quality and currency enabled advanced analytics that lead to operational advancements.
Decision support for asset management: Better understanding of company assets enabled more informed decision-making and planning to target capital expenditures for network enhancements and improvements.

The Cyient Advantage

Cyient offers an end-to-end system implementation of Esri UN with experience across gas, water, and electric commodities. We work with utilities across the globe, leveraging our depth of talent in the Esri suite. Cyient maximizes out-of-the-box solutions and facilitates deployment on cloud enabling the advanced use of technology. As a result, we help strike the right balance between custom and out-of-the-box tools to avoid increasing costs. Our deep experience makes Cyient the preferred partner for your Esri UN implementation journey.

Creating a Data-Driven GIS for Water, Gas, and Electric Utilities