Regional Utilities Firm Better Supports Outage Management Operations with Help from UDC and AspenTech
Project Highlights:
- Multi-service utility owned by City of Gainesville
- 5th largest municipal electric utility in Florida
- Electric, natural gas, water, wastewater, and telecommunication
- Serves around 103,000 customers in Gainesville, FL and surrounding areas
Recognized as one of Florida’s most comprehensive utility service providers, Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) needed to upgrade its software to support its outage management operations and better serve its customers. Working with UDC’s Grid Modernization team, GRU upgraded from AspenTech OSI Maven software to AspenTech OSI Leitmotif – the latest AspenTech OSI GIS extractor software.
The upgrade uses Leitmotif’s enhanced model build capabilities to support AspenTech OSI’s operational distribution system model. Leitmotif was also configured to support AspenTech OSI’s Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) using the utility’s GIS data, which was recently migrated from an existing geometric network to the ArcGIS Utility Network model.
The upgrade project, a collaborative effort among GRU’s GIS and Operations departments, AspenTech OSI, and UDC, configured the software to suit the organization’s operating requirements. The project consisted of a data engineering workshop to map GRU’s ArcGIS Utility Network schema mapper to AspenTech OSI’s Electra schema, implementation of software conversion scripts, Leitmotif configuration and model imports, and testing of the newly upgraded software.
“UDC was the missing link to enable Utility Network in AspenTech OSI Electra. This task was done in the time promised and within an agreed-upon budget. UDC is a very professional group of SMEs with superb work ethics. We will certainly use them again.”
Darko Kovac, Systems Control / Operations Manager, GRU
AspenTech OSI Leitmotif Upgrade Goals
This upgrade supported the organization’s goal of positioning Esri’s Network Management as the source GIS for all AspenTech OSI Electra applications. It was essential to leverage the capabilities of the utility’s migrated GIS data. Tapping into the ArcGIS Utility Network data allows GRU to incorporate its newly modeled substation features into the ADMS network model. These features were not present in the geometric network model and were added during the GIS migration to help support more comprehensive outage management and regulatory reporting.
Another important goal for GRU was to complete this upgrade prior to the start of hurricane season to ensure continued support for its Outage Management System (OMS) using the latest Esri GIS model.
Upgrading the Software
UDC employed a systematic and iterative approach to upgrading GRU from Maven to Leitmotif, leveraging the automation tools available from AspenTech OSI. UDC transferred the data using a secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) and requested a virtual private network (VPN) connection to perform the upgrade. This ensured a safer software implementation and a quicker project turnaround.
Task One: UDC conducted a data engineering workshop to map the ArcGIS Utility Network schema to AspenTech OSI’s Electra schema. GRU’s advanced Distribution Management System (DMS) applications were reviewed to help identify additional source data.
Task Two: Using scripts provided by AspenTech OSI, UDC ran and reviewed the conversion scripts, resolving any errors with each successive script.
Task Three: Through an iterative process, UDC configured the Leitmotif software and extracted the GIS source data (from the geodatabase and ArcGIS Utility Network Portal using a REST API connection). The extraction results were reviewed, and Intermediate Data Format (IDF) files were imported using Maestro, an AspenTech OSI product that consumes the IDF files and builds the ADMS network model. Finally, the team resolved any errors and established the database connection to GRU’s ArcGIS Utility Network environment for testing.
UDC also extracted and imported the new ArcGIS Utility Network substation features into GRU’s current model to make them part of the ADMS network. GRU’s ADMS network model in the geometric network only included feeder networks, meaning that all the networks started from feeder breakers and were traced to downstream features. Without the specific feature information, default values were applied to the hierarchies for substations, areas, and regions.
The new ArcGIS Utility Network substation features, which include internal assets such as transformers, breakers, busbars, transfer buses, and transfer breakers, were placed upstream of the feeder networks. Mapping the features in this way changed the starting point of the ADMS network model from the feeder breaker to the substation transformer while also including the substation networks and circuits in the trace. Using the newly available information about the features, UDC configured the hierarchy data for the new substations, areas, and regions.
Task Four: UDC provided remote support following site acceptance testing (SAT) for configuration adjustments.
“Working with UDC on our AspenTech software upgrade following our Utility Network migration was important due to our short timeline, as we wanted to be live with outage management enhancements before the start of storm season. We were able to work through the migration, overcome the hurdles that such a project encompasses, and complete on time before the first storm event for the season. With regular weekly scheduled meetings and pop up meetings when necessary, the project communication was exceptional between all stake holders. Careful attention to security constraints and access regulations were needed to be able to move this project to completion without concerns. This attention to detail led to a quicker project turn around and safer implementation.”
Richard Gunton, Technical System Analyst, GRU
Leitmotif Upgrade Components
UDC configured the Leitmotif software over a seven-iteration process. This iterative approach helped refine the software configuration with each iteration, allowing data issues to be identified and fixed before moving on to the next phase. GRU had the opportunity to review the configuration progress at each checkpoint, which empowered the organization to play an active role in defining the software capabilities to meet its operational goals.
The Gainesville Regional Utilities project included:
- Creating an AspenTech OSI Leitmotif environment at UDC for the Leitmotif configuration
- Reviewing GRU’s ArcGIS Utility Network GIS
- Migrating the Maven configuration to Leitmotif
- Incorporating new Network Management substation features
- Performing a JSON export from GDB/Reviewing GRU’s Utility Network Portal using Leitmotif
- Evaluating extraction via Leitmotif and the model build process using Maestro
- Testing AspenTech OSI Electra OMS to ensure support for full OMS functionality
- Providing remote support
Upgrading to and configuring the latest GIS extractor product from AspenTech OSI allows GRU to support its outage management operations and ADMS with its enhanced Network Management data as the source GIS.
Learn more about UDC’s ADMS implementation services.