Project Highlights:
- CORE Electric Cooperative
- Headquartered in Sedalia, CO
- Serves over 400,000 residents
- 5,000 sq.mi. service area along Colorado’s Front Range
- Largest electric cooperative in Colorado
CORE, amid the expansion of its electric distribution infrastructure, is considering a future business model that sources generation from the open market to support its membership growth. This decision would lead to the cooperative developing and managing transmission assets to connect its distribution network to the new generation sources. To support its ambitions, CORE is implementing and modernizing operational and business systems to enable streamlined management of its expanding service networks.
Upgrade to NIMS
CORE’s legacy GIS needed to be upgraded to keep pace with the organization’s transformation. A 64-bit platform, such as ArcGIS Utility Network, Esri’s next-generation Network Information Management System (NIMS), would integrate more effectively with enterprise systems, including the planned advanced distribution management system (ADMS). CORE also sought a highly detailed NIMS data model to support enhanced management of distribution and transmission networks, operations, and outage response.
“We are proud to be one of the first mid-sized utility companies to unify Transmission and Distribution in a single ArcGIS Utility Network that incorporates both spatialized units and equipment assemblies. This achievement represents the realization of our goal for a “high-fidelity” transformation and positions the CORE GIS as a leading platform, prepared for the evolving demands of modern utilities. We deeply appreciate UDC’s partnership and knowledge, which were vital to our accomplishment.”
Duane Holt, GIS Manager, CORE
Enabling the Digital Twin
Preparing for its GIS data migration, CORE evaluated the Essentials and the Electric Utility Network out-of-the-box data models. They chose to go beyond the models’ base configuration by incorporating fully spatialized units and assemblies into individual network devices. This means that the position, orientation, and interactive relationships of the electrical components were modeled in sufficient detail to enable the creation of a digital twin.
For CORE, in addition to poles, vaults, and transformers, ‘units’ include components such as capacitors, switches, and regulators. A standardized digital diagram was created for each feature type and imported using custom tools. These tools spatially linked all structures within the new NIMS, ensuring traceability from generation to service, which is key to improved outage management and asset maintenance.
Finally, the project scope expanded to combine electric transmission and distribution in a single NIMS model.
Accommodation for Future Acquisitions
Combining CORE’s distribution and transmission services within the NIMS leverages the cooperative’s existing operational support model and avoids costly rework to accommodate future transmission acquisitions. The digital twin’s data fidelity and spatialized network detail will enable a high level of technical capability for the cooperative, especially when integrated with the OMS and the impending ADMS implementation. CORE is on track to support its members and their growing needs with a modern approach that enables alternative generation sources, greater reliability, and future innovations.
“We achieved incredible granularity across asset types, connectivity rules, and terminals, and executed substantial configuration on the UN, which will in turn help fast-track the full realization of a digital twin for CORE.”
Dax Wolfinger, VP UN Transformation UDC
Project Team and Scope
UDC worked with members from across GIS, IT, and Engineering teams at CORE to ensure alignment of future requirements and evolving needs.
The CORE project unified five network tiers of electric generation, transmission, substation, sub-transmission express, and distribution into a single network. UDC’s scope included the following:
- Assess workflows & data to build requirements
- Upgrade to new ArcGIS Enterprise & Pro releases
- Conduct data modeling workshops
- Perform data cleanup w/UDC auto-migration tools
- Configure symbology, map documents, network diagrams, containers, filter displays, & editing templates in ArcGIS Pro
- Implement & extend Esri attribute rules
- Build tools to align & snap electric lines to spatialized units
- Associate 95% of structures using UDC tools
- Develop JSON to support OMS integration
- Develop test plans & scripts
- Migrate electric data to the NIMS
- Conduct knowledge transfer & future support