As a participant in Esri’s Utility Network Beta Test program, UDC worked directly with Esri on product development and was an early recipient of the Utility Network Management Specialty certification. Since then, we have received numerous awards and specialties for supporting our clients throughout their Utility Network transformations, leading to collaborations with Esri for various utility assignments across the industry.
“From an operational perspective, UDC is at the forefront of implementing Jack’s vision for embodying the power of information systems for utilities across the Enterprise.”
Remi Myers – Product Manager for the ArcGIS Utility Network, Esri
Our Utility Network assignments have spanned strategic planning, technology proofs-of-concept, road-mapping, data assessments, and migration activities with multiple gas, electric, and water utilities. Our clients featured below include AVANGRID, Dominion Energy, and Avista.
UDC first collaborated with AVANGRID’s United Illuminating team to stand up the utility’s Esri GIS platform. Today, UDC is providing services to support gas GIS implementation initiatives for AVANGRID companies Southern Connecticut Gas (SCG) and Berkshire Gas Company (BGC). Our support is empowering the utility to transform to Esri’s Advanced Network Management platform at its own pace, working towards its long-term goal of aligning its gas and electric companies under one GIS technology.
GIS Implementation and Conversion at AVANGRID
To implement a distribution-level GIS for AVANGRID companies SCG and BGC, UDC leveraged the utility’s existing investments in infrastructure as well as Esri ArcGIS and Schneider Electric ArcFM software through a two-track initiative – data conversion and application development. In the process of creating the GIS, UDC simultaneously digitized and converted the gas data, mapped the legacy sources to the Utility Network model, and developed integrations and web and mobile applications. UDC additionally replaced the utility’s manual processes with automation solutions as well as extended Esri out-of-the-box functionalities. These efforts helped to streamline workflows, enhance user experience, and support the utility’s compliance management processes.
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UDC has collaborated with Dominion Energy in recent years on multiple GIS initiatives in addition to providing project management and consulting services for construction mobility use cases. UDC has been actively engaged in the utility’s initiatives to fully migrate several of its subsidiaries from Smallworld to Esri technology. Our support has spanned all phases of the transformation lifecycle, from planning to build and deployment activities for full data migration.
These efforts are helping to support Dominion’s company vision of standardizing all gas operating companies on the Esri platform and leveraging its GIS more effectively.
Planning GIS Transformation for Ohio and West Virginia
Dominion Energy concluded the design phase of a multi-phase initiative to fully migrate its gas distribution and transmission data from Smallworld to Esri’s Advanced Network Management platform for its subsidiaries, Dominion Energy Ohio (DEO) and Dominion Energy West Virginia (DEWV). In support of this goal, UDC provided extensive documentation for the design and implementation of GIS on the new platform and built out comprehensive designs for a GIS implementation project. UDC additionally configured and installed Esri core software associated with the initiative. We are actively supporting build and deployment activities for the full data migration.
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Evaluating Migration Readiness for Virginia and North Carolina
UDC is helping Dominion Energy evaluate its migration readiness and determine the level of effort required to move its electric distribution data to Esri’s Advanced Network Management platform for its subsidiaries, Dominion Energy Virginia (DEV) and Dominion Energy North Carolina (DENC). To assess their readiness, UDC is conducting a robust data assessment, leveraging its HEIDE migration tool along with other automation tools to analyze the source data and standardize the process of mapping, migrating, and configuring the electric data during conversion and migration.
Following the assessment, UDC will enable the environment, providing the utilities an opportunity to experiment with their migrated data using the advanced network capabilities of the platform.
Avista’s Journey to the Utility Network
In the first step of Avista’s Esri Advanced Network Management transformation, UDC’s HEIDE tool was used to fully auto-migrate Avista’s gas transmission and distribution data from the current geometric network model to the Utility Network model for its entire territory. HEIDE is also being leveraged to support a parallel Utility Network system until the utility is ready to use the migrated system for editing.
“The UDC team has been a great partner for Avista on this first leg of our multi-year journey toward the Utility Network. The team has been flexible in their approach, listening to Avista’s needs and using their expertise to respond with creative solutions. UDC helped Avista navigate the complexities of both the data model and the applications. UDC has been an advocate for making enhancements that will not only benefit Avista but also other customers on their journeys to the UN.”
Michal Littrel – Manager, Engineering Technical Services Avista