SpatialNews Press Release
PEPCO Implements ArcGIS to Provide Powerful
Outage Management
www.esri.com
Redlands, California-ESRI is pleased to announce the use of ESRI geographic
information system (GIS) software for outage management at Potomac Electric Power
Company (PEPCO).
The impetus behind GIS implementation was overcoming the challenges of harsh
weather conditions, exemplified by the winter of 1999, when a catastrophic ice storm
blanketed the Washington, D.C., area with snow, ice, and freezing temperatures shutting
down roads and infrastructure.
PEPCO services approximately 720,000 customers in Washington, D.C., and in
surrounding Maryland suburbs. As a result of a 1999 ice storm where some PEPCO
customers were without power for five days, outage management-restoring power and
locating failed portions of the electric grid-became an overriding concern to the utility
company.
The ice storm triggered a review of a number of processes at PEPCO including the
use of computer-aided design (CAD) and GIS and the need for a more robust IT
infrastructure capable of handling the great amount of change that PEPCO and its electric
utility neighbors in the mid-Atlantic area were undergoing.
"PEPCO is an example of how organizations can leverage geography and geographic
thinking to integrate, analyze, and visualize information throughout its operations," says
Jeff Douglass, utility account manager, ESRI. "PEPCO can better serve its customers in
outage management, customer service, facilities management, and more. Automating
how it utilizes information spurs faster and more efficient operations and better response
to emergencies such as downed service. This is especially important in the increasingly
competitive market of deregulation."
"This acquisition and the creation of an advanced GIS solution first and foremost
meets our outage management needs and helps us better serve customers when weather
takes its toll and downs services," says Akhlesh Kaushiva, P.E., manager of information
technology (IT) projects. "ESRI's technology, extensive user community, and business
relationships provide an array of resources for us now and into the future. This helps us
with our number-one priority to provide the best customer service possible."
Under the leadership of Kaushiva, PEPCO began an aggressive campaign that
included the three following projects:
Migrate from CAD-based drawings to a GIS.
Initiate an outage management solution.
Provide a mobile dispatch service for the field crews.
PEPCO chose ESRI software for the GIS platform. The initial scope of work for the
migration of CAD drawings to a GIS was to first focus on the primary feeder plats. The
remaining secondary plats will be migrated from CAD in a second phase. The GIS is
built on ArcInfo 8.1, ArcSDE, and Oracle 8i. The PEPCO GIS project team, which
consists of members from various departments including operations, planning, field
services, and customer services, is working diligently to migrate the corporate CAD data
to GIS data.
Part of the key to success for the project is well-trained GIS people, much front-end
work, and effective data modeling. ESRI partner InfoTech Enterprises, based in
Alexandria, Virginia, participated in the development of the data model and is migrating
the data from CAD to GIS. Another ESRI partner, the Louis Berger Group, developed
quality control (QC) programs to facilitate the migration process.
PEPCO is integrating ESRI GIS solutions with the outage management system from
Configured Energy Systems, Inc. (CES), and a mobile solution from Axiom Inc. This
GIS implementation will give PEPCO additional capabilities to respond to future outages,
weather related or otherwise.
About ESRI
For more than 30 years, ESRI has been the leading developer of GIS software with more
than 300,000 clients worldwide. ESRI also provides consulting, implementation, and
technical support services. In addition to its headquarters in California, ESRI has regional
offices throughout the United States, international distributors in more than 90 countries,
and more than 1,300 business partners. ESRI's goal is to provide users with
comprehensive tools to help them quickly and efficiently manage and use geographic
information to make a real difference in the world around them. ESRI can be found on
the Web at www.esri.com.
About PEPCO
PEPCO is an investor-owned company that delivers electricity to more than 700,000
customers in Washington, D.C., and the Maryland suburbs. Through its family of
subsidiaries, PEPCO also operates in the competitive arena of telecommunications and
energy products and services in the mid-Atlantic region. For more information visit the
company's Web site at www.pepco.com.
ESRI, the ESRI globe logo, GIS by ESRI, ArcSDE, ArcInfo, ArcGIS, www.esri.com, and @esri.com are
trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European
Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks
or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.
Search GeoCommunity for Related Stories
Search The Web (Google) for Related Stories
Return to Today's News Index
Mar 14, 2002
Jun 26, 2002
|
