Electric Utility

GIS software has been empowering the electric utility industry for decades. It provides a robust framework for asset and workforce management as well as tools for planning and analysis. Today, the landscape is filled with desktop solutions and softwares, and also a host of online GIS solutions.

A network-based GIS is a solution to both achieving real-time data access and creating an intelligent ecosystem that can simulate grid dynamics in the sector of Electricity Distribution. The power industry must have to keep track of the electrical facilities (poles, circuits, power lines and transformers) involved in the distribution of energy, to the end-users. With the aid of GIS, a variety of information can be better organised on a computer system linking the database to an output map.

Data acquisition

Data acquisition begins with the measurement of physical phenomenon. The implementation of Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) will improve the accuracy in location. There are two types of GIS data involved which includes: spatial and non-spatial data.

The spatial data used for the research study include the following;

Base Map : The base map consists of roads, buildings and facilities digitised from a High-Resolution photogrammetric Image data

GPS Data : GPS Collection points on the available Non-spatial data (from power distribution department)

The non-spatial data includes the following information acquired from the GIS Survey;

Consumer Details : Meter Account Number, Address of the consumer, the Line Transmission Pole/Pillar to which a consumer is connected

Electrical Network Details : Line diagrams(SLDs) with cable sizes, lengths, distribution substation (DSS) transformers, parameters of the equipment, pillars, poles, low voltage networks, etc

Asset Details : The details about transformers and other related facilities

GIS Capabilities

Data Cleansing & Validation : Examines a Utility Network to identify critical data quality and identify gaps in data to ensure that data is capable of integration with other enterprise system

Utility Asset Management Solution : Input data gap analysis, database design & configuration, Network generation, QA/QC, Final publishing

Digitization : Building a complete geospatially connected network through digitization

Migration : Geometric Network to utility Network, Cross Platform Migration

Advanced analysis, Design & System Integration :

  • Network Planning & Designing
  • OMS, ADMS & MDMS Integration
  • Design & Estimation of Electric Network- Load Flow Analysis ,Short Circuit Analysis etc
  • Integration with other ERP systems such as Customer redressal portals, Billing Systems etc

Digital transformation of Electrical networks performs a comprehensive study across all aspects of Electrical Network Design, conversion of existing data, adding new changes and to feed the network to every distribution management system in any format.

Benefits

  • Complete control of the Electric distribution system can be centralised in control rooms. Any uninformed field activity will be notified through the alert system.
  • Uninterrupted power supply can be ensured to the critical consumers like hospitals where full-time power distribution is of utmost importance.
  • The successful execution of the project could reduce the number of casualties that occurred during maintenance.
  • Power theft inspection, Load flow analysis, power interruption planning, design analysis...etc can also be possible
  • Outage Management : The Public Outage map solution helps to inform customers about the electric system's status by region so that consumers can be prepared accordingly.
  • Impact Analysis : The impact of an incident or natural catastrophe to electric facilities within the incident area can be identified by using Impact Analysis. This can be used as a planning tool to analyze and understand potential outages, safety concerns, and restoration cost prior to an impending incident or disaster.
  • Field Inspection : Field inspections are facilitated to a great extent using GIS tools.
  • Technical Auditing : GIS technology is a reliable software system to keep track of asset information and consumer data. Visualisation of the feeders and the transformers are made on GIS platform and with the help of this, addressing inherent issues such as improper tagging and ineffective billing of consumers can be solved. This would help in monitoring the assets and improving the value and accuracy of field data, while ensuring efficient and reliable energy auditing. With improvements in energy audits and network planning, GIS helps to maintain the systems in a more transparent and efficient manner.