Amidst growing PHMSA regulation and evolving technology, gas utilities are being called to modernize and improve business processes to meet safety and compliance goals. Going through this process will inevitably cause organizations to experience change on many levels.
“Change is hard,” admits Jillian Durbin of The Energy Cooperative, “but sometimes, we need to acknowledge that it’s necessary, and that it can be good.”
Jill notes that as a company, The Energy Cooperative is motivated to transform while serving 65,500 members. Entering their 85th year of service, The Energy Cooperative is a unique and progressive electric, natural gas and propane member owned utility headquartered in Newark, Ohio. In fact, it was the first cooperative of its kind in the area. Unlike their investor-owned counterparts, revenue is reinvested and allocated to their members. Guided by democratic member control and dedicated to their community, the cooperative is highly focused on innovation and responding to changing member needs.
As the GIS Supervisor for The Energy Cooperative, Jill has experienced digital transformation firsthand and, with support of team members and leadership, has assisted to successfully manage change for the utility. Shortly after her joining the utility in 2010, a goal was set to bring the cooperative’s electric and gas distribution data into the same format from MicroStation, paper and CAD over to Esri ArcGIS and ArcGIS Online. Within a few years, mobile crews were able to use iPads in their trucks to spatially support work in the field. In 2016, the utility built an ArcFM connectivity model and began to digitally support over 150 inquiries per day to their ‘Call Before You Dig’ service. “We went from manual paper review to an electronic means of actively solving problems seemingly overnight,” recalls Jill.
The Energy Cooperative’s Crew Leader Scott Bowman and GIS Specialist Brett Korsok survey work area
Most recently, The Energy Cooperative implemented UDC’s GIS-based gas compliance solution that automates much of the planning and scheduling processes of compliance management and provides digital mobile collection, monitoring and compliance reporting capabilities within a single enterprise application.
“Supporting 7-8 audits per year, we were looking for a software solution that would help us with tracking,” says The Energy Cooperative Compliance Engineer Chris Storts. Responding to feedback from PUC auditors, the utility had been searching for an electronic collection and reporting means for their compliance programs.
“We knew that being able to use iPads in the field would bring clarity to collection,” says Chris, “as well as, ensure information will be kept on file. There’s less chance of electronic data getting lost or damaged than with paper files. Going digital better supports a complete and permanent record for the life of the pipeline.”
Building compliance on top of GIS was an important step for The Energy Cooperative. They desired to capitalize on their investments thus far and wanted an application that would do more than just change spreadsheets into electronic forms. The cooperative wanted to improve current workflow to comply with efficiency and consistency standards. For the utility, moving to Compliance Manager was not just about automating compliance, it was about updating to the most automated compliance technology.
UDC’s Compliance Manager has enabled The Energy Cooperative to automate how work needs to be done going forward. Digital collection not only improves quality of survey and inspection data, but it also helps ensure all required data is provided for leak scenarios encountered in the field. This is accomplished through the use of validation logic applied to inspection form fields. GPS integration with the application further enhances quality while GIS integration allows upcoming maintenance work to be generated in Compliance Manager based on GIS inspection dates and up-to-date Regulation criteria.
Service Technician Ryan Blodgett performs inspections at a regulator station
Compliance Manager will be used at The Energy Cooperative by Chris and his entire compliance team – The team; gas managers, supervisors, dispatchers, and field crews, work to complete leak surveys, critical valve inspections and leak rechecks. The utility plans to also include cathodic protection surveys in the future. Chris and Jill are working closely with their teams to facilitate change and compliance automation.
They agree, “We are a mix of young management and experienced boots on the ground which is a great combination for our utility. When it comes to change, our team can see the value in moving to digital. Throughout the company, we are motivated to do away with paper.” Both Chris and Jill point to the importance of having their leaders on board with going digital and say that leadership has been instrumental in moving things forward at the cooperative.
The Energy Cooperative has found that the key to helping team members to adopt change is to give them the right tools to make their job easier from the very start. You can then allow them to take ownership of and embrace program changes at their pace. The compliance team is actively using Compliance Manager for Leak Survey in the field. They are preparing for full production this spring (2021) when crews return to walking the lines as winter ends. Additional compliance programs will be put into production with a gradual rollout approach.
Crew Leader Scott Bowman performs a walking survey
As work progresses, Chris and Jill will be able to monitor and track compliance status and verify work completion using the built-in monitoring and reporting dashboards of the solution. “We knew we needed a better way than paper for our auditors…compliance is a difficult paper trail to sort through.” The cooperative is looking forward to being able to apply their new reporting methods and have a complete compliance picture to share at this time next year (spring 2022).
Preliminary review of reporting functionality has drawn positive feedback from auditors. They noted that not too many utilities have anything similar.
One remark by a Regulator included, “Compliance Manager covers all the bases from an auditor’s perspective.”
An affirming statement for The Energy Cooperative regarding their ability to successfully approach change and its benefits. Certainly, “Change can be good.”