Project Highlights:
- Ameren
- 12,000+ circuit km transmission
- 2.4M electric customers
- 900k+ natural gas customers
- 166k km² service area
The transformation of Ameren’s electricity transmission GIS to ArcGIS Utility Network created opportunities for further improvements, including migrating the company’s ‘Transmission GIS Viewer,’ an application for managing operations and ongoing construction projects, from ArcGIS Web AppBuilder to ArcGIS Experience Builder.
Experience Builder is Esri’s configurable application framework for developing interactive web applications. It enables data, maps, applications and configurable user interface components (widgets) to work together within a single environment, providing users with enhanced visualisation and greater insight into network information.
Leveraging the newly implemented Utility Network as the primary data source for the GIS viewer would provide teams access to a more complete and accurate representation of the electricity transmission network, supporting improved operational awareness and decision-making.
This project aligned Ameren’s legacy GIS viewer application with the capabilities and architecture of ArcGIS Experience Builder and Utility Network and included the redevelopment and enhancement of transmission-specific functionality.
Rebuilding Outage Management Functionality
To recreate the existing viewer within Experience Builder, UDC redesigned Ameren’s Web AppBuilder templates, reconfigured and redeveloped the legacy widgets and carried out comprehensive testing to ensure the application continued to support day-to-day operational requirements.
Most of the existing functionality was recreated using Experience Builder’s standard widgets. However, three bespoke widgets used to support outage management and operational analysis were redeveloped specifically for the new platform:
- Lightning Search
- Weather Radar
- Planned Outage
Lightning Search
The Lightning Search widget retrieves information from a satellite-based lightning database and displays lightning strikes occurring near Ameren’s transmission network.
This capability supports the System Protection team by helping identify potential fault locations. Users can filter results over selected time periods to analyse historical lightning activity, identify trends and patterns and improve the accuracy of operational assessments and fault investigations.
Weather Radar
UDC reconfigured the Weather Radar widget to better support the operational requirements of Ameren’s Operations team. Enhancements included an animated looping radar display and automatic data refreshes, ensuring that the latest weather information is continuously available within the operations centre.
The widget also enables the Operations team to monitor recent lightning activity, helping to identify potential network faults and outages. By integrating with a satellite-based lightning database, lightning strike information is automatically updated every ten minutes, providing timely situational awareness to support operational decision-making.
Planned Outage
Ameren’s legacy Planned Outage widget was previously managed through a tabular application. Following the migration to Experience Builder, planned outages can now be visualised directly on the map, providing a significant improvement for the Operations team.
The spatial view enables users to plan and coordinate maintenance and construction activities more effectively while quickly identifying customers affected by planned outages. By presenting outage information within the context of the wider transmission network, the application improves operational awareness and supports more informed decision-making.
Making the Move
Ameren’s decision to migrate its Transmission GIS Viewer to Experience Builder was driven by the platform’s long-term support, flexibility and range of configurable, out-of-the-box widgets designed to work with Utility Network, including the Utility Network Trace widget.
By upgrading the viewer alongside its Utility Network transformation programme, rather than waiting until Web AppBuilder reached end of support, Ameren reduced the effort required for future application modernisation and was able to begin using the advanced capabilities of the Utility Network immediately following implementation.
Developer vs. Portal
Having decided when to migrate, Ameren next evaluated whether to implement the Developer Edition or the Portal Edition of Experience Builder.
One of the principal advantages of the Developer Edition was its flexibility to incorporate new functionality as part of future Esri software releases. However, this approach would have required greater ongoing development and maintenance.
Following its evaluation, Ameren selected the Portal Edition, recognising the benefits of simplified application management, improved accessibility, flexible application configuration and a more straightforward approach to maintaining and updating individual applications.
Experience Builder Upgrade Components:
The upgrade programme included:
- Developing a new Electricity GIS Transmission Viewer using Experience Builder
- Reviewing legacy functionality to confirm business requirements
- Integrating Utility Network capabilities into the viewer
- Redeveloping and enhancing existing widgets
- Updating integrations with legacy business systems
This project was completed during the first phase of Ameren’s digital modernisation programme. The next phase will extend the Utility Network and Experience Builder implementation by incorporating additional network information, including internal substation assets.
The overall programme has established a foundation for wider adoption across the organisation. Following the successful implementation within the Electricity Transmission organisation, Ameren’s Electricity Distribution and Natural Gas organisations have begun their own ArcGIS Utility Network transformation programmes.