Case Study
Organization
Benton Public Utility District
Location
Washington, United States
Industry
Electric/Fiber-optic utility
A Real-Time Network
Picture
When it’s time to respond to a customer, Benton Public Utility
District operators and field crews must rely on sound data. Using “We have been able
ArcGIS® from Esri, the utility can place the latest network maps and to lower the duration
information in the hands of everyone on staff. This means faster of customer outages,
response to outages and other customer requests. Meanwhile, improve crew response
the utility is reducing labor costs and eliminating the expense of time, and reduce labor
printing paper maps. and overtime costs by
$240,000.”
What Did They Do? Chris Folta
Benton Public Utility District obtained a real-time picture of its electric and Manager of Applications
and Integration
fiber-optic network by implementing ArcGIS from Esri. Everyone on staff now
Benton Public Utility District
has a map view of customers and assets along with access to pertinent data
such as maintenance history, aerial photographs, and GPS coordinates.
Esri helped the utility integrate ArcGIS with other systems including
SCADA; the off-site, after-hours call center; customer information; light and
transformer asset data; financial and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC) accounting; time and labor; and work order information.
Do I Need This?
For utility and communication companies, ArcGIS provides a common
platform to access business data, manage assets, update network information,
integrate work orders, find customer information, and prepare reports.
For more information, visit esri.com/electric
or esri.com/telecom.
Need More Details?
Benton Public Utility District has been able to shorten the duration of
customer outages and improve crew response time. The utility has also
reduced labor and overtime costs that were a result of inaccurate information
in the legacy paper maps.
Now, instead of looking for physical copies of maps and work orders, staff
members can use ArcGIS tools to find the information they need. Field
crews go out each day with an updated facility map that includes customer
information, usage history, and work orders.
Data is kept in sync and up-to-date. ArcGIS supports database version
management so multiple users can work simultaneously. This means that one
person in the field can update asset or customer data while another person
in the office analyzes the information.
Customers are easy to identify. ArcGIS enables network tracing, which
improves outage response. In the field, workers are able to trace the network
to see, for example, which customers would be out of power if they opened
a switch.
Paper maps are a thing of the past. Since ArcGIS maps are available via
mobile or desktop devices, the utility saves time and resources.
Network maps are updated quickly. Before upgrading to ArcGIS, the utility
averaged a five-week turnaround time for information updates to the map.
Now, the average is three days.
A real-time display in ArcGIS shows a single customer outage, reports that the customer called the
after-hours call center, and notes that the utility has assigned a crew to the incident.
For more information, visit esri.com/electric
or esri.com/telecom.
Copyright © 2011 Esri. All rights reserved. Esri, the Esri globe logo, ArcGIS, 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 may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective trademark owners.
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