geoconnection.com

Smart Grids: building on firm foundations

Spatial data systems, including Geographic

Information Systems (GIS), have been used successfully in utility companies, government agencies, and many other industries for more than three decades. Systems based on spatial technology have had a positive impact in a wide variety of business processes ranging from marketing to environmental management to land management and many others.

Spatial systems bring geography into play within the business processes of a company or organisation while enabling data to be visualised more effectively.

Utilities specifically have made strong use of spatial data systems in managing assets and mapping facilities. Originally termed “Automated Mapping and Facilities Management,” they have been used since the early 1980s to help maintain corporate asset records, manage assets, and support outage management and service restoration efforts.

Despite ongoing investments by utilities,

GIS solutions are not incorporated into the mainstream IT environment of the business. Instead, GIS is more commonly leveraged by borrowing data from other corporate systems to provide a geographic visualisation. However, the technology is not typically regarded

as a core technology on which corporate business processes are based. GIS is more frequently referred to as a “feature”, and not a “foundation” of the business.

Smart grid, however, has changed this perception. In this new era, GIS and spatial databases take on new and important significance. As a result, GIS is moving from its traditional role of a visualisation engine and map producer to a key foundational technology required for smart grid solutions.

Sharper focus, firmer foundation

Why have spatial information systems become so critical in the success of smart grid solutions in utilities? There are several reasons:

• The focus on distribution assets – Electric utilities have focused their attention for the past few decades on the management of transmission and substation assets. These assets fit nicely into the hierarchical storage approach used by enterprise asset management systems (EAM), which have been effectively used for such assets. The focus on smart grid, however, pushes a utility’s attention to its distribution energy delivery network (electricity, gas, water, fiber optic networks, etc.).

These assets do not fit well into the traditional hierarchical format of EAM systems because simple switching or valve operations redefine the delivery network. Traditional EAM systems cannot easily manage the network topology, as the network changes in the manner that only GIS software can model. As a result, the focus on distribution assets has pushed utilities to better leverage the topological functionality contained in GIS.

©2011 geoconnection.com. Original Article