GIS Helps Improve Gas Utility Operations

Geospatial information system (GIS) technology is a shared network model and detailed asset repository that plays a major role in helping utilities create systems that meet the growing and changing needs of customers. Instead of viewing company information in a one-level perspective of data points and symbol numbers, GIS allows energy companies to view information in advanced geographical maps, providing a more holistic and graphical view of infrastructure and assets.

If utilized as an enterprise system, GIS technology can support and improve all levels of operations, including asset management, planning and analysis, field and design mobility, and operational awareness.

Because it can support all levels of operations, GIS is often viewed as the backbone of an energy company’s asset database by utilizing advanced sensing, communication and control technologies to distribute energy more effectively, economically and securely. Gas and electric utilities around the world are converting from older data systems such as CAD or homegrown information systems to GIS in order to gain significant cost reduction through simplified planning, analysis and improved operational response times. In other cases, energy companies that long ago implemented GIS technology are looking to update their systems to more advanced GIS solutions to guide future initiatives.

One such company, Northwest Natural (NW Natural) builds, maintains and operates the local natural gas distribution system for customers in Oregon and southwest Washington. NW Natural had been using a highly customized CAD system since 1983. Based on the ESRI ArcGIS® platform, the industry leader in geospatial technology, the gas company began creating custom programs for data management, asset management and planning to handle day-to-day processes. Although the company could be viewed as a pioneer in utilizing technology to improve its operations, the system became more difficult to maintain after decades of custom programming.

During the past decade, the gas company has experienced impressive growth, exceeding the national average for local distribution companies. But with the company’s rapid growth and limited IT support, NW Natural needed to begin thinking about updating their in-house developed applications for an advanced, industry-standard GIS solution that could work more efficiently and require less IT support.

“Although we valued our customized GIS system and its benefits to our utility, it got to the point where our IT support was using 90% of their time maintaining all of our custom-built programs and tool sets,” said David Blan, GIS supervisor at NW Natural.

In order to make better use of its data models and improve the efficiency of its IT staff, NW Natural wanted an updated system that deployed more “out-of-the-box configurations” and industry standard programming environments. NW Natural contracted with provider Telvent to implement its ArcFM™ Enterprise GIS solution. ArcFM is based on ESRI’s ArcGIS technology and is specifically designed for energy companies, enabling improved modeling, design and infrastructure management. It also allowed NW Natural to move toward a standard data model and application and away from the homegrown model it had relied on previously.

With an updated GIS system in place, NW Natural is able to continue to improve operational efficiencies and plan for future software integrations, such as GIS-based design tools for more accurate construction and engineering projects.