Arrowhead Electric Cooperative Lutsen, MN

ESRI Mid-West Utility User Group March 30-31, 2006

Joe Buttweiler GIS & Staking Coordinator

Agenda

About History of GIS Current GIS Uses Future GIS Plans

About Arrowhead - Location

AECI Service territory includes Cook county as well as small parts of Lake county in Northeastern Minnesota

About Arrowhead A truly rural cooperative 90% of Cook county is owned by Federal,

State or Local governments Approximately 4050 consumers Of which:

• 45% Residential • 10% Commercial • 45% Seasonal

Full time residents of cook county own less than half of all privately owned land

About Arrowhead

Topography & Climate Lots of Rock Peak Demand in

Winter Air conditioners

are rare except in commercial buildings.

The newly constructed summit chalet at Lutsen Mountains is only accessible Via Gondola, Snowmobile or Snowcat During the winter months.

Before GIS

Hand drawn paper maps Benefits: Inexpensive to produce

Drawbacks: Difficult to update Only served as a paper map Considered, “fairly useless” by many

GIS was considered but never implemented

The GIS Initiation July 4, 1999 Major Straight line wind storm

100+ mph winds throughout the BWCAW & parts of the Gunflint Trail corridor.

Power poles broken throughout region.

The GIS Initiation The re-building process involved line crews from many

regional cooperatives. Paper map books could be used as a basic reference only.

Using GIS

GIS was built and underutilized Lack of basic technology training

GIS value realized Lack of dedicated resources Time Knowledge

Dependent upon vendor Vendor provided annual updates

Revising the Strategy

Allocate Resources Hire Employees

Immediate GIS needs GIS & Technology Plan Development Cooperative Goals & Objectives

Immediate Needs GIS Updates Basic Maps

Map Books ArcReader Files PDF Map Books

GIS & Technology Planning Re-Create GIS Data

Errors on Staking Sheets Old Datamodel

GPS System Inventory Identified a need to update total plant value Provide base for spatially accurate data

Using Trimble GeoXT w/ Beacon ADELINE Staking Software for Inventory Collection

What are we collecting? Entire OH Distribution System Entire URD Distribution System

• Exception: URD Cable only when known route.

GIS & Technology Planning

GPS System Inventory Creating new personal Geodatabase from field data. Asset Identification with Random Numbers

Poles URD Boxes

Project Timeline 50-100 locations per day of work 2-3 Year project time frame for initial inventory

GIS Integration

Billing System Proprietary System Difficult to work with ODBC Driver allows direct data manipulation in

MS Access, Excel etc…. • Lack of key field in billing system makes data query’s and

use extremely difficult and time consuming

GIS Integration

Outage Management Implementing an in-house system Input Outage Data Track Outage Progress Provide more timely information to members and

member service representatives Links Directly to GIS for visual representations

• ArcGIS-ArcInfo • ArcReader

GIS Integration

Outage Management-Work in Progress Call and Restoration Data – Stored in GIS SAIFI SAIDI CAIDI Consumer Outage Hours Average Outage Per Consumer

Customer Service Representative Enters Phone or Account Number. Name, Service Location etc…populated automatically Operations personnel can update records to provide more information to customer service representatives and members

Outage Management

Outage Management

Records entered in Outage Database automatically appear In GIS via linked tables and Relationship classes. Manual change in GIS required to clear outage from map

Rights of Ways

Rights of Ways 7 Year Aggressive clearing schedule Track Progress Annotate field issues to increase member

satisfaction

Staking/New Services In office: Provide member with more information

Distance Estimates More accurate cost estimates

Staking/New Services ADELINE Benefits

No need for compass, string No need to re-write/enter data Data Verification Seamless integration with GIS data

Field Device GIS

Inventory Summary Retirement Summary Eventually develop job

costs • (Labor, Material, Misc)

Automated Staking

Automated Staking

Easements Trimble GPS ArcPad v.6 V.7 in 2006

ArcMap measures distance and bearing Add text to map

Increased field efficiency 2-3x

Office efficiency increases

GIS Uses

AMR (Hunt-Turtle System) Working to display

outages in GIS automatically

Meters related to AMR history table

Will integrate into OMS eventually

Power Flow Modeling Geometric Network

Display flow direction Model device status

changes Outage counts

Other Uses

Line patrol tracking Meter testing zone creation and tracking Transmission line patrol assistance during

outage tracking Storm recovery tracking Track bear damaged poles Joint use attachment tracking Work plan drawing areas on website

Planning

Visually display growth of new services ArcReader documents: Sectionalizing Diagram Contingency Study Circuit Diagrams (Existing & Proposed)

SCADA & GIS

AECI investigating SCADA Complete, Shared, Partial, Device Integration Communication Infrastructure GRE’s 700 MHz Radio Wild Blue Satellite Internet Current VHF Radio Leased Telephone Lines (Dial-up, Frame Relay) Poor Cell Phone Coverage

SCADA & GIS SCADA ties to GIS Visualize potential power theft locations*

Needs billing integration Can be accomplished at various levels Accuracy dependent on load patterns

Receive immediate outage event information Display device status (Substation and Feeder)

Load Management/SCADA & GIS Display automatic voltage reductions Residential load management Emergency load sheds

*Source: http://www.gisdevelopment.net/application/utility/power/utilityp0015pf.htm

Mobile Workforce Management

Planned Implementation in 2006 Beginning Steps ArcReader

• Geodatabase to contain Billing Data, Distribution System, Landbase

Work Order/Service Order Updates • Send/Receive work orders

GIS • Poll billing system for updates each night

Wireless communications from Headquarters only

Mobile Workforce Management

Future Additions AVL Communications Changes Dependent upon SCADA plans Coverage from anywhere is potential with a

700MHz radio (line of sight considerations) Substation or Other “Hot Spots” via Wild Blue

Summary Allocated Resources Devised Plan GPS System Inventory (Base for future)

Current/Interim Uses Even basic uses provide quantifiable time and cost

savings for other coop. employees. Future Projects SCADA Integration Mobile Workforce Management (MWM) Communications Medium Other…..?

Questions?

Joe Buttweiler Arrowhead Electric Cooperative

(218) 663-7239 jbuttweiler@aecimn.com